In Medias Res

I found myself standing near a street in a bleak greyish city. I was next to a random Indian guy, who asked me what he could do in a dream. I asked him, "Why not jump in front of that car and see what happens when you die?"

He gave me a shocked and scared look. Then I said, "Why not try flying?"

"How do you fly?" he asked.

"Like this!" I answered. And I jumped up into the air - and fell back down. I quickly realized that I hadn't let go of gravity. Then I tried again, jumping up, and as I was falling down I started doing breaststrokes in the air. It worked! I was swimming through the air, not very gracefully (flailing limbs), but I was ascending. I was flying upwards, and I could see a greenish-brown mountain from up over the buildings of the grey city. A song was playing in my head as I flew - I forgot the song. I then started worrying about flying too high or too fast, or losing focus because of the song, so I made a turn and landed next to the Indian again.

I asked him what his name was, and a black rectangle flashed on front of my eyes for an instant. Then he cocked his head to the right and said very cheekily, "Nnnno." Then the dream instantly wrapped in black, and I woke.

Since it was a lucid dream, I caught the waking point immediately, and I realized I'd woken; so I decided to try my first DEILD, and didn't open my eyes or move. I felt my eyes and hand twitching, but other than that I tried hard to keep still.

Soon, I began seeing something in the back of my eyelids. Text instructions to DEILD appeared on a blue screen. I waited a bit longer, and the screen progressed into a "lucid-ability gauging" test, as if to test if you were good enough to enter LD, or to get you ready for one. It involved moving black pool balls in a water tank by telekinesis. First, an example run of one ball being moved; then a whole bundle of pool balls (in the triangular shape usually seen when placing pool balls together on a table) was dropped into the tank. I can't remember clearly, but I think I passed the test, as I was able to move on.

After that, I waited a bit longer, and the drill/static hybrid noise I usually hear during hypnagogic hallucinations came. I saw a final text instruction - "Remember not to move or open your eyes" - but I felt myself twitching. Orange epileptic light was flashing in front of and behind my eyes. I remember a voice saying, "It took me one minute of Chinese lightning..." However, I felt my eyes twitching even more.

In the end, I wasn't able to be wrapped into the hallucinations into a dream. Instead, I woke up. I realized I hadn't focused on the black behind my eyelids. I'd been bordering on opening my eyes.

Goddammit. Almost there.