Not Just a Dream

I was bored one day and had to kill a few hours

I awake with a sharp pain in my side. I scream as I touch it to see what had happened. Where am I? How did I get here? How did this knife get into my body? I look around the forest, I hear the crackling of leaves, but I see no one. Should I be scared, or just confused? I hear the sound again. I glance over my right shoulder and see a shrouded figure. I blink in disbelief that another person would be in this wooded epiphany. As I open my eyes, the figure has turned into an immaculate looking woman wearing a white dress and veil covering her face. Is she real? Is this just an illusion of my dreams? I cannot be certain of anything by this point. In the presence of such beauty, I somehow feel fear. I get up with feeling nothing less than excruciating pain in my side, and stumble before I get to my feet. I walk towards the woman with hopes of finding out where I was or what had happened. She did not speak, but gestured for me to follow her. In hope of finding answers I did what she had told me to. I removed the knife from my body and covered the wound with cloth from my shirt, and pressed on. She led me to an opening in the wood, with fire surrounding us in all directions. Where had she led me? What seemed like they would be answers only led to more questions. I try to see through the flames and realize the closer I get to them, the colder I get. Isn’t fire supposed to be warm? Am I even on Earth anymore? As these thoughts and questions fill my head, I move closer and closer to the fire.  I feel colder and colder. I manage to see through the flames for just a split second. I see nothing but vast emptiness. I turn to see the woman in white looking at me. I see something in her eyes. Is it pain I see? Or is it joy? I cannot tell for the life of me what she felt. She put her hand on my shoulder and the flames parted. She leads me through them and we walk along a path of ash and bone. There is not a star in the black sky. I see nothing around us. I ask her, “Where are we going? Where are we? What had happened? Who are you?” she did not answer. She just kept walking. The pain in my side felt worse and worse as we walked on. Something in my mind told me to turn back and run. I couldn’t do that. I had to find out what was going on. I pressed on following the Temptress into an abandoned house. She disappears as I approach the door. I open the door to find a small room with nothing but a sink with a dripping faucet, and a single chair in the corner. I went for the water fore it had felt like days since I had had a drink. Has it been days? How long has it been? I sip on the water for what feels like hours and glance up at the mirror over the sink. Startled, I see the shrouded figure I had seen before standing behind me. I look back in fear to find no one. I look once again in the mirror and see only my reflection. I see a window on the opposite wall from the chair. I peer out of it and see the woman standing in an open valley. I look for a door so that I can get out and be with her. I do not find one. I jump through the window. The glass shattered and I land outside. Why did I want to be with her so bad? Is it because I want to hold her? Is it because her beauty is worth more than what I can give? All of these questions went through my head as I got to my feet. The place where the knife once was had healed. I removed the blood stained cloth and walk toward the woman. The closer I get, the more I get the feeling that I should turn away and run back. She reaches her hand out and I go to grab it, to hold it, to pull her close. I grab her hand and feel the pain in my side once again. I jump back from the sudden shock of excruciating pain and hold my side. She laughs, but not like a laugh I had expected. It was a laugh of malevolence, like she knew it would happen and did it on purpose. I look up in disbelief with tear-filled eyes. She is smiling and looking at my wound. I start to run. Was I really blinded that much by her beauty?  Where the hell am I? I run faster and faster. I look back and see her getting closer and closer behind me. There is no way I can outrun her. I stop, and turn to her. “Who are you? Why are you doing this? What have you done to me?” She does not answer my cries. I fall into a pit of blackness and cold. I am in a pool of water. Is it water? I see a dim light one hundred yards away. I swim toward it and find myself in the presence of the shrouded figure I had seen two times before. I approach him, screaming the questions I had asked before. With no answer, and no emotion he takes out a knife. To the left, I see the woman strapped to a table, surrounded with candles and skulls. Is he sacrificing her? She is crying, but why? Her dress was no longer white. It was red with blood and her hair now covered her face where the veil once was. With little hesitation I run up the shore and pick her up and run into the night with the man doing no more than staring at us as we disappear. I see the light from a house up ahead; I stop running, and walk toward it. I knock on the door, and with no answer, I go on inside. I lay her on a bed and attempt to re-collect my thoughts. As I sit in a chair, I fall into a deep slumber. For what seemed like just minutes later, I hear a voice. I awaken to find her standing in front of me. She kept laughing that laugh, and repeating the same thing, “ You will never leave. You will never make it out of here alive. You will never leave. You will never make it out of here alive.” I jump up in fear and run toward the door. I open the door to run out to find the man again.  “Deus misereatur nostri et benedicat nobis, et Abi in Malem Crucem,” he repeated. He took the knife in his hand, and stabbed me. A sharp pain, and then a warm, peaceful, light.

            “Sweetheart, wake up,” I hear. “You are having a nightmare, none of it is real.” I open my eyes and see my love. I immediately feel where the man had stabbed me, but feel nothing. I feel my side where I had found a knife before, and found nothing. I get out of bed, and kiss my darling. I go into the bathroom to recollect my thoughts. What a realistic dream I had. Maybe it wasn’t a dream. I put all thoughts aside and washed the sweat off my face. As I look in the mirror I see a shrouded figure that makes my heart race. Maybe it wasn’t a dream…