My Dreams Do Not Get Better
The car was moving so quickly, and the world sped by, but the clouds seemed so static, so calm. In fact, even as we drove, I noticed the plants did not move. There was a sense of still life that clung to the world, and it seemed as if my companion and I were the only ones left.
That brings us to the point of the companion. I had no clue who he was, nor really what I was doing in the back of this truck, nor did I really care to know. An all too familiar sense of dread and urgency. Flash backs of the desert flooded my mind, and asI was filled with a sense of terror, and screamed by reflex.
“Are you alright, man?” came a voice from inside the cab, and I soon realized that I must have startled my companion. My perception of him seemed blurred, and I could not distinguish his facial features as he turned to check on me. It is not as if the window between the two of us was dirty and skewed his features, it’s more like I could not mentally construct them for some reason, but I was comforted by his voice. “We should be far enough away by now”
There was a pause as he turned to focus on driving, and I pondered for a moment, looking behind us. There was nothing but a long, winding trail and a never ending veil of green. It was placid, serene…but beyond anything, surreal. It struck me that it should not have been as it was. “Away from what?” I inquired above the roar of the engine. My companion was obviously hauling ass.
The car screeched to a halt and spun around, blocking the road, but it appeared to be done on purpose as my friend turned around and inquired in a disturbed voice, “What the hell are you talking about?!”
“Well…I just don’t know…what I’m doing here” I replied calmly, trying not to agitate him. Although I felt comforted by his presence, I could not remember for the life of me who he was or what his tendencies were.
“Oh my God, you’ve gone mad. It’s shock, you have to be in shock. Well don’t worry, we should be safe enough soon, and then I’ll explain.”
“I don’t…understand. I don’t know who you are”
He didn’t reply though, or maybe he didn’t hear me, but rather backed up and returned to his prior path at that rather heinous speed. It continued for a short while, but it was long enough for me to realize discrepancies in the world around me. It was becoming abnormally cold, or maybe it wasn’t as warm as I had believed it to be, and the color green began faded into a lighter green, or maybe a pastel blue, colors were becoming blurred. I did not feel as though I was being carried by the truck itself either, because there was no flaw in its motion. Even though I saw the truck hitting bump after bump, I felt no inconvenience. Everything felt awry.
Then it struck me, the most vile pain in the pit of my stomach, and I curled over, falling to the bed of the truck and wailing in agony. It hurt so bad, gnawed at me, but it wasn’t my body that ached. Something deeper, something much more profound shed tears of blood, and I sweated through it for what seemed like an eternity. The pain faded though, and I heard my companion make one statement.
“There’s no escape…I thought we had…”
I stood to my feet to the horrid realization that the truck, the vehicle that had been carrying us so far was not there, and we were on the ground. Dry, musky leaves and dead herbs crackled beneath our feet. My companion was curled up beside me, bawling like a child. I did not understand what was going on, but I could feel it. I could feel something getting closer, tugging at the innermost of my being.
I looked around, poking at my friend, trying to draw him out of his delirium. A watchful eye was all I could offer in my confused state. I had no clue what was really going on after all. The trees though, they were all a brown gold, like dead corn husks, and swayed now, in some wind I could not feel. I stood to my feet, and the grass itself seemed to rise with me. I knew my friend was still on the ground, but he was hidden by feet of dead foliage held upright by its brittle rigormortis.
Ripples ran through the high-grass at our sides and parallel for what seemed like an eternity, and then it paused. There was silence for a few moments and then rustles amidst the brush. It was formed and cautious, and seemed aware of what it was doing.
Then it all faded away, and the truth of the nightmare began to coalesce before me. The brush began to fade from sight, but it was still there, I was merely granted some obscene sight into the beyond. They were corpses, standing on their own once again, rancid and rotten; desiccated and crackling as they stared ahead. Empty sockets all seemed fixated on me, and decaying mouths echoed a haunting mantra against the empty wind. It pierced my mind and corroded my soul. I wept at the urging of some greater force and fell to my knees.
I looked around for my friend, but he was no longer there.
My perception was no longer mine, and through the eyes of a hawk I saw the world, the expanse of all of existence in this putrid hue of death. And it all fell, all life fell into grains of sand, and the desert consumed me. There I stood, amidst a never-ending host of death, all making their final pleas on judgment day as if I were their judge. I cried, because I knew nothing else to do. I almost wished for death, because I could at least be certain of its result.
I felt him now though, and it was all so familiar. I could see the old houses in the desert, arranged about some unseen axis and the great temple at the end. I could feel the eyes of the temple, and I heard a voice, a voice that broke what was left of my humanity
“I…”
They all wailed, a terrible orchestra of suffering and bloodshed, tears and false love, betrayal and torment. It hurt me, and my ears suffered. I expected to wake up, hoped to wake up, but I did not, the pain continued. Then I looked up.
They were silenced, but I could feel the dry embers of their eyes upon me. There he stood, in flowing robes the hue of this very desert. They wrapped around him like his very own flesh and mingled into the sand of the desert as though it were cut from it. The hooded head tilted to fixate on me, but I could see nothing beneath the bottomless cowl, only hear the shriek that was a voice grate through the air.
“…am finally awoken”