Visions in the Dark

I can remember only little parts of two dreams I had last night.

In the first on I am in my apartment and for some reason I have a pet alligator. It is still a wild and dangerous creature and I have to be careful where I walk in my own house. I have two cats and constantly fear that the alligator will eat them. On morning I wake up and find the alligator surrounded by bloodstains on the carpet and walls. I fear that is has eaten my cats but I look around and see one of them under a table near my bed. I don't know where the other cat is. With the amount of blood on the floor and walls it looks like something bigger then a cat was killed though. The alligator sleeps contently, in the middle of the floor, like most creatures do after eating a huge meal.

In the second dream I am visiting a friend in another country. Most of the dream is blurry until the end when I have to go to the airport to catch my flight. My friend and her family and friends are having a good time around a campfire and I do not want to disturb them so I quickly and quietly take off alone and catch a bus to the airport, which is 30 minutes away. The airport is small and there is no security checkpoint the the boarding pass desk is just a fold-out table by a collapsable wall. There are only two flights leaving the airport.

I go to reach for my passport, and while I find it, I realize that I have left my suitcase at my friend's place. I am kind of panicking because my boarding pass is in the suitcase. I call and leave several messages on my friend's cell phone asking if she or a family member could drive my bag to the airport because there are no more buses going back in that direction. I look at the clock and see that it is 5:30 pm and my flight does not leave until 9:30 pm so I know I have time. I sit in the waiting area for over an hour and their is no sign of my friend or my suitcase. I call again and leave another message and wait for another hour and still nothing.

I am very upset and panicking for a bit but then I realize that I have my passport, my identification and my money so I can just buy another ticket, even if it is inconvenient. The thought of just returning to my friend's place to get my bag myself never enters my mind. After I have bought a new ticket several waiter's arrive pushing a cart of delicious smelling food and place it on a long narrow table covered in a white table cloth. For some reason I think I am not allowed to have any food and I wander around and watch the other passengers and airport staff eat.

I meet a little boy who is wearing a fox hat and seems to be by himself. He eyes the food while clutching his little napsack but is too shy to go get any. I grab a plate and fill it with candies and sugary pastries and take it over to him and share. He doesn't say anything but seems really happy. His favourite treat seems to be a pasty that has a sweet lemony filling on one side and a spicy filling on the other.

I can not remember any more of this dream.

I cannot remember the beginning of the dream but at some point I am with several random dream characters by a large silty pond, deep in a thick tropical jungle. Because the jungle is so thick on either side of the pond, the only way across is through the water. I cannot remember why now, but I knew in the dream that it was imperative that I get to the other side. All of the DCs except for one get into the water and start swimming or playing around, but none make an effort to cross. I know I have to do it, but I am hesitant. I cannot immediately place my fear but then I notice something floating in the middle of the pond. At first it appears to be a large peice of wood or something, but it suddenly blinks and I realize it is an alligator or crocodile. I stand on my tiptoes to try and get a better look at the reptile and I can see that it is an absolute giant. It appears to be 20 to 25 feet long, though my measurement is possibly incorrect since the bulk of the beast is beneath the water and it is likely much bigger than it appears. I feel very afraid and do not enter the water. The DCs in the water seem oblivious to the presence of the creature and continue to happily splash around the pond.

I suddenly find myself in waist deep water, but I am kneeling so that water is up to my neck. I stare frozen in fear at the the giant grey alligator and it looks right back at me. The eyes of the creature feel very menacing as it stares at me and ignores the DCs that are swimming and splashing around him. It suddenly disappears underneath the surface of the water and I panic because I cannot see through the thick silt and fear that it might be coming for me, so I dash back towards the shore. I cannot get out of the water for some reason but there is a neatly stacked pile of red brinks just beneath the surface at the water and stand on it to get as far out of the pond as I can. When I stand on the brick pile, the water only comes up to my ankles and I fear secure enough that the giant alligator cannot reach me without me first seeing him approatch. I am still terrified of it though and make no move to enter the water again.

The lone DC that did not get into the water tries to coax me to cross with her. She is a teenager with brown hair pulled back into a pony-tail and looks like someone I used to know in waking life whom everyone called 'Bean'. Like the other DCs, she cannot see the alligator and does not understand why I do not want to get into the water. I am sure that at any moment one of the DCs who are already in the water are going to be eaten by the huge gator who is quietly laying in wait near the bottom. After some time Bean somehow convinces me to get back into the water and says that we will cross together. She is swimming beside me and I am trying to make large strokes with my arms with as little disturbance to the water's surface as possible.

Bean and I are about half way when I scrape my right leg up against somethine hard and bumpy under the water. I stick my face in through the thick silt I can make out the outline of the giant alligator floating directly below me. If I reached out my arms down below me, I could have easily touched the gigantic creature's back. My entire body stiffens in absolute terror and I begin to panic. At that very same moment Bean decides she's had enough of swimming on her own and jumps on my back and wraps her arms around my neck in an almost-chokehold. I am immediately forced under the water by her weight and my body's refusal to move because of the terror I am feeling. My fear frozen body slams into the back of the alligator and the mind numbing terror I felt is difficult to describe. I was sure that the gator would turn and snap both Bean and I up in one gulp when it felt the pressure of us on it's back, especially when my body's function suddenly returned and I used the beast's back for leverage and struggled violently to not only surface for air, but to wrench Bean off my back. When I surfaced I kicked and splashed and screamed at Bean to "Let go of me! LET GO OF ME!!!"

I was certain that the alligator would definately be attracted to my paniced spashing on the surface, but the creature did not make any move, though I could still feel it below me. Bean got upset with me because she could not understand why I had gotten upset over her jumping on my back without my conset and starting swimming back to shore with great indignation. Many of the other DCs turned to watch the commotion I was making and I was very frustrated that none of them knew about the giant alligator floating just below me. The dream gets fuzzy but the last thing I remember is making a mad dash for the otherside of the pond, and though I was still terrified that my kicking and splashing would attract the gator's attention, I could not swim calmly because I was still panicking.


Woke up ina cold sweat, had chills the rest of the night and could not get back to sleep.

Generally, in nature, if a gator is even slightly disturbed it will turn and attack anything that touches it. The fact that it wasn't "acting normally," like I expected it to, is possibly one of the main reasons why I was so scared thoughout this nightmare.

Image courtesy of Marathon Books.