Visions in the Dark

This is the first dream I had on September 25th, 2008


The dream takes place on a fabulously luxious cruise ship, like the Titanic, but more modern. The ship is sailing on a narrow ocean channel that has tall cliffs on either side. I am my dream incarnate Chun-li, a young Chinese woman. I have a young girl with me named Sari (who looks kind of like Sari Sumdak) and in the dream she is my daughter. I have the gift of forsight and know that the cruise ship is going to sink for some reason. I am there to try and prevent the tragedy, I think.

I have to stay on the upper decks of the ship (which also happens to be the upper class section) to avoid running into a previous incarnation of myself who is running around the lower class part of the ship. The rich and the poor are divided on this ship like they were on the Titanic, the poor being restricted to the lower decks. There are always parties going on in the upper class as the vain, rich and influencial show off to, and consort with, each other.

To pass the time Sari is practicing for a French play being put on by the children of the wealthy passengers, so that she is occupied while I look for something (though I cannot remember what now. Something to do with preventing the ship from sinking anyway). As I walk around the ship I note that most of the upper class lounges and dining halls are void of any furniture, or have only a few chairs scattered about. These rooms have massive, enlongated vertical windows with long, flowing translucient sheers. The proportions of the windows were impossible because they were radically larger when seen on the inside of the ship, than from the outside.

The passengers in the upper class all dressed stylishly and expensively. Gold, silks, and jewels were everywhere. I was dressed nice but not as elaborate and I did not have any jewelry. All of the women passengers have skirts but I am wearing pants and for some reason that makes the upper class passengers not want to engage with me, even outright avoid me, which is fine for me because I'm still looking for that something.

The dream skips a bit and it is the next day (or a few days later) and somehow I got Sari off the cruise ship during one of the nights. When I become conscious of this is the dream I am suddenly in the channel underneath the ship and looking up. An Orca swims above me at the same time as the ship passes overhead. This killer whale is the same as any other except that it has a patch of black on its underside on which I can see unique symbols that are glowing white, but I do not know what they mean.

The night of the sinking comes and I am looking for a way out because there are suddenly no doors from the upper class rooms to the outside deck. The only way out is the climb the curtains of the vertically massive windows to a small opening at the top. (The windows on the outside now match the extremely enlongated proportions on the inside.) I struggle for a bit up a curtain and make it outside, though the ship develops a terrible lean as it goes down, and the part of the deck I was trying to reach is half underwater. There are no ropes or cables to climb down so jumping is the only way to the water, but the distance from me to the water is too much and I am too scared. Most of the people in the first class section of the ship are unable to climb the curtains because they are too physically weak or are weighted down by their extravagant outfits and jewelry.

I wait for the ship to sink a little more, so that the distance between me and the water is not so great, before I jump. I feared the water would be ice cold and though it was not for some reason I am paralyzed when I hit the water and sink as slowly as the ship. I am conscious and I do not drown, but I cannot move any part of my body. When I am at the bottom of the ocean channel a large white whale (a sperm whale?) swims over me and when I look up at it I can see the same symbols on the white whale's belly that were on the Orca's, but these symbols are black.

I am on a vast beach of pale yellow sands, under a pale orange sky. There are some dunes in front of me and the eerily calm ocean behind me. On the other side of the dunes is a large flat area where I can see several mounds from which smoke is pouring out. Upon closer inspection of these mounds I find that they are actually holes in the ground that are overflowing with smoldering debris. The burnt materials includes large chunks of wood and scraps of metal or plastic, and partial or complete bodies of dead children. The skin of the dead children was a ghastly gray colour where the flesh remained uncharred and completely black where it was. The uncharred, grey flesh was cracked and peeling, like it was made of leather or something. Their eye sockets were all empty and their tiny mouths agape as if in a perpetual silent scream. I suspect that these smoldering mounds were someone's attempt to cover up some horrific crime and I quickly retreat from there, feeling ill, angry and downright disturbed.

I see a gathering of people in the dirtance and walk towards them. When I am close enough I can see that it is a large group of men, of varying ethnicities, wearing white robes and sitting in four large groups. The groups are arranged in four sqaure patterns and every man is sitting facing due wast. There are several men in black robes walking in slow circles around the large group. I am approached by one of these men and I notice as he gets closer that he is leading a child by the hand. The child looks exactly the same as the dead children in the smoldering mounds - gray, cracked skin, empty eye sockets, etc. except that this child is very much alive. The child's head turns in my direction, lips moving as if to say something, but the man in the black robe interupts and tells me that I am not welcome there, because I am a woman, before continuing on his way with the child in tow.

I see that all of the men in black robes are leading living dead children around, and all of them divert from their circular march around the large group, at least once, to tell me to that I am not welcome there because women are not allowed. I ignore all of them and go where I damn well please. I try to get information about the dead children, and the condition of the living children, but no one will answer me, but neither does anyone try to force me to leave: they just express their disapproval of a woman being there, then go about their way.

The sun begins to set and the large group of men in white robes begin to chant in a monotonous, unfarmiliar language. I skip through the gaps in their group and revel in the fact that I am someplace where I am not welcome, especially because of a trivial social construct such as gender. While I get a few angry or condescending looks, none of the men stop chanting or try to force me out. Since I cannot get any answers from anyone about the children, I eventually wander elsewhere.

The dream starts off in a large grocery store. I am in the frozen food section looking for something and there are several people throughout the store who appear to be shoppers. I look over my should at one point and see a former friend of mine, Cathy, standing in the doorway to the supply room. I am not happy to see her and I am even more annoyed by the smug look she has on her face. Everyone who I thought at first were random shoppers, myself included, turn out to be prisoners who have to "work off their debt" to be free. Cathy is the one who has imprisoned us and forces us to work in the grocery store, and as of yet no one has ever worked off their debt or escaped.

I am stocking in the soup isle and I find a newborn, sleeping baby, wrapped in a white blanket, laying in a sale bin. I sense that she is related to me somehow and I so pick her up. Slave master, psycho control freak (as she is in real life) Cathy comes over to give me trouble because I am not working and I tell her that I have to call my sister-in-law to come and pick up the baby. Cathy tries to take the baby but I become confrontational and Cathy wisely backs down. For the first time in the dream she doesn't have that annoying smirk on her face because she realizes that I am not afraid of her and will do serious damage if she tries to mess with me. Cathy tells me that she can't have children at her store and I have thirty minutes to get rid of the baby. As the slave keeper walks away I yell "or what? You'll fire me?" but she does not know how to respond and disappears into her office. Several of the other prisoners seem happy to see someone stand up to the boss for once, though they meekly continue with their slave labor.

I leave the grocery store and enter into the large shopping center to which it is attached and beeline for a public phone to call my sister-in-law. She says that she and my brother will be there shortly and I tell them to meet me at the mall entrance. I have no intention of returning to the grocery store and plan on using my brother and sister-in-law as my escape route. When they finally arrive, my sister-in-law takes the baby and says that she is happy to have her daughter back and thanks me for taking care of her. I jump into their mini-van and tell my brother to floor it, but he just stares at me blankly and asks me if I have to get back to work. (*facepalm*) I call him an idiot and tell him to drive and when he protests my sister-in-law also gets on his case until finally he drives away from the mall.

I am both excited and apprehensive. I wonder how long it is before Cathy figures out I got away and hope to get as far away as I can before then. My brother drives along a road that follows the ocean. The sky is overcast and grey it is slightly foggy. We drive in silence for a long time before my sister-in-law asks how work was and I tell her about the perpetual slavery that the workers are forced to endure. My brother asks me something, but I forget what now, before suddenly swerving his mini-van off the road and into the ocean. The vehicle goes deep enough to fill halfway with water and get stuck in the sand, but not deep enough to sink and submerge the entire mini-van. My sister-in-law just gazes out the front window, cradling the baby, like nothing has happened. I feel extremely mortified that my brother is a complete moron, but cannot get a reason out of him when I demand to know why he has sabatoged my plan for escape. I know that now the mini-van has been disabled, I will eventually be found and sent back to work at the grocery store prison, and that makes me very frustrated and angry.

This dream starts off in the lobby of a building that seems to be a cross between my old two-storey highschool and some sort of castle or fortress. The layout is similar to how I remember it though some of the hallways have unusual maze-like twists or dead ends. Everything seems to be made of white or grey marble on the inside of the building and white brick and silvery metal on the outside. The entire school/castle sits on the edge of a limestone cliff and overlooks a vast, waveless ocean. The atmosphere outside is perpetually clouded over and foggy.

There are many students and teachers wandering about the halls and everyone is wearing long, flowing gowns and robes that I can only describe as high fantasy fashion (much like Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings). It is the first day of school and I am ascending the main staircase to get to the office on the second floor because I cannot find my schedule and I have no idea where to go (this is something that actually happened to me, but on my first day of college, not highschool). I expect there to be a set of glass doors at the top of the stairs, which would lead to the hall that leads to the office, but instead there is just a large pane of glass which will not budge when I press on it.

To my left there is a metal door (in reality there is an empty space there, which drops down to the first floor) and when I go through it I find myself in the auditorium. I almost become lucid at this point because I know that this is the incorrect layout of my old highschool, but there is a flash of blue light from behind me that distracts me from my thought process. I turn around and see a little girl run right through the glass pane. She has short dark brown hair, a white frilly dress, a dark red cloak or cape, and she looks to be about 4 or 5 years old. Anyway I follow her and find that I too can now walk through the glass pane, but the little girl has disappeared and I can only see random students and teachers wandering around.

I walk down the hall to the office and find that it looks nothing like I remember it. Where the main entrance to the office should be there is a window with no glass and a large ledge. It looks like a concession stand or something. I can see into the office, but there does not appear to be a door to get in or out. There are two men on the other side of the window doing paper work and they both seem out of place. Unlike everyone else in the school who are dressed in flowing robes and are average looking people, the two men in the office are dressed in normal modern clothing and look like trolls or something. One has brown leathery skin and pointy ears and the other has a dark blue scales and large horns sticking out at the top of his head. They both stare and scoff in a condescending manner when I tell them that I have no idea where to go. I kind of "faze out" as the two office workers are finding what I need and I only snap out of my daydream when I notice the papers on the ledge right in front of me. The office workers snicker at me and tell me to hurry along because the bell rang while I was off in la-la-land.

Before I go anywhere ask them about the head of an animal I can see on a wall behind them. I can not recall what kind of animal it was but I am sure it was a buffalo or a bull or something. It had to be a fresh kill because there was blood running down the wall from where it was mounted. The trolls tell me that they just killed the animal that morning and mounted the head because they did not know what else to do with it. I ask them if I can have it because I am interested in cooking the brains and promise to bring them some if they hand it over. They give me the animal head and I gleefully skip off and boil that animal's brain after draining all the blood and collecting it in a glass vial. I am still in the school but I have lost all interest in going to class because I cannot think of anything else except cooking and eating the brains.

I return to the office window some time later and offer some of the meat to the troll-like office workers. I tell them that it tastes just like liver or steak (I can no longer remember exactly which one I said) and they accept what portions I offer but say that I had better have more to share. I do not know what they mean but just then a stern-faced, grey-haired old woman appears and demands that I offer her some as well. Apparently she is the principal and she is there to investigate why I am neglecting my classes in preference to cooking animal brains. I give her half of the meat that I have left and she decides to let me off this time because she likes that taste of the food I offer.

Just then the bell rings, because school is over, and everyone leaves for the day. I hide in a corner and eat my food because I am in no hurry and I think it is strange anyone is trying to leave because there seems to be nothing outside of the school except for the ocean in the back and never-ending fog everywhere else. When I am done eating my brains, I mean, the brains I cooked, I go to the main lobby on the first floor and contemplate going outside into the fog. From behind me there is a flash of blue light and when I turn around I see the little girl in the white dress running down the hall and disappear around a corner. I try to follow but bolts of lightning shoot out of the ground every time I get close and I have to stop or jump out of the way to avoid being hit.

I lose sight of the little girl and find that I have become lost in the maze-like halls. I see a set of metal doors at the end of one hall and when I go through them I end up in a stairwell that is made of red brick (rather than white brick like the rest of the school). There are steps that seem to lead up to the second floor but I am not interested in going there so I try to exit through the large metal door whence I came. Unfortunately the doors have locked behind me and I have no choice but to go up the stairs. When I am at the top I discover that there are actually two doors and one leads into the second floor hall while the other seems to lead outside. I go out the door that leads outside and find myself on a metal fire escape that overlooks a large courtyard - which in turn overlooks the ocean behind the school. The marble floor of the courtyard is broken up and smashed, with some pieces overlapping, layered or on a dangerous slant. There is only one large slab of marble that is flat and it is near the cliff edge.

On the flat piece of marble I can see the little girl and she is standing with three other people. There is a gargoyle-like man, a tall slender woman with wings and a little boy dressed in black. The four of them stare out over the water and continue to do so even as I descend the fire escape as far as I can. The last ten steps are twisted, crushed or broken off and I have to jump onto the smashed and jagged marble below. When I am on the ground I have to navigate the broken pieces of marble like a maze. I hear a loud, raspy yell in the direction of the four people, followed by a gurgling sound and soon after a thick black smoke starts billowing into the cloudy sky. I cannot see what is going on because the layers of broken marble are blocking my view.

When I finally find my way to the flat slab of marble, there is a large bonfire in the center and I can see two arms sticking out of it. The winged woman is still staring out over the ocean and I can now see that her wings are broken and bleeding. The little girl and boy are poking the fire with sticks and I assume that it is the gargoyle like man in the fire because he is no where in sight. I ask the children what they are doing my they ignore me. I walk over to the winged woman and ask what is going on and she glances at me for just a moment then turns back towards ocean. She says that she wants "to go there," but cannot do so because she cannot fly. I look in the direction she is pointing and I see the faint outline of land in the distance. I cannot tell if it is another continent or an island. I try talking to the winged woman again, but she ignores me.

I turn back to the children and see them scrapping meat off the arms in the fire and eating it. I go over and ask them why they are eating the gargoyle man but just then the arms in the fire seem to come to life and pull themselves out. The arms are not much more than charred bones now but they still drag themselves along the ground and try to grab at the feet of the children and I. The little girl does not seem fazed and she just side steps the attack, but the little boy freaks out, runs to the edge of the cliff and throws himself into the ocean. I avoid the skeletal arms and try to go after the boy, but he is much faster than me and lunges over the cliff before I can reach him. The winged woman is completely unaffected by the commotion and continues to stare at the land across the ocean like nothing is happening.

The little girl turns to me and says that all of this is my fault because I am "not supposed to talk about it." She then does something to the skeletal arms (though I cannot remember what) and the attack is stopped. The little girl then picks up the arms and tosses them into some marble debris to her left. She then walks to the edge of the cliff where the little boy went over and just stares down over the cliff. The winged woman suddenly jumps from the edge and begin frantically flapping her broken and bleeding wings in an attempt to fly. She screams as her wings shred and tear apart and she falls into the ocean. As soon as she hits the water she disappears and does not resurface. I was fearful that the little girl would end up in the water too, but she had started laughing when the winged woman fell and continued to do so even as I went over to her. I do not recall anymore as the dream seemed to end there.