Visions in the Dark

I am in a house I do not recognize and most of the action takes place in the large kitchen, dining room or hallway to the bedrooms. The house sits at the top of a hill amidst a forest whose leaves are ablaze with all the brilliant, fiery colours of autumn. The inside facade of the house consists of very natural colours and materials: wood floors and earth tone colour schemes.

There is going to be a party if sorts tomorrow, maybe a family reunion or something, and I am in the kitchen making dish after dish of salads and casseroles and other side dishes. I think the party is a pot luck because even though I know that other people are going to be bringing food, I have an almost uncontrollable urge to make as much food as possible. I worry that there will now be enough for everyone even though I am not sure how many people are going to be there (though I know it is going to be a lot).

I have guests who have arrived already and they are going to stay the night. There are two men and two women. I am suddenly in the living room talking with one of the men who has a beige polo shirt and who has a bushy brown beard. He is joyful and always smiling and seems very happy to talk to me. We are related in the dream, but I forget how. From just above the knees down to his ankles his pants become transparent and I can see his leg bones. The transparency effect becomes stronger the further down the leg you go and his feet have completely disappeared. I know this is wrong somehow and I sit back with a white marker to blend the white of his bones with his pants and try to colour in his legs to make them look full. For some reason I think that the man will be embarassed about it if other people notice. Suddenly I realize that the bearded man I am talking too is a ghost and that is why his legs are transparent. I am not afraid or anything but I am confused as to why he has come here and not gone to the afterlife and I think I ask him this and his response is that he is glad that family is getting together. He disappears soon afterwards and I think I realized that there were other ghosts around as well or something but I cannot remember if I talked to them or not.

While I am the same person in the dream in mind, my body has suddenly aged significantly and I am now an old lady. Also quite suddenly I am in a foul mood (though not because of the aging) and start throwing plates and cutlery around roughly and pushing the two women guests (one is a blond middle aged woman in a baby blue sweater and the other is younger with brown hair?) around in the kitchen . They are visibly shaken by my sudden mood change and though they say nothing I can tell by the expressions on their face that they wish I would retire for the night so they could finish their work in peace. I stomp out of the kitchen in a huff and scream "Dont touch my fucking cheese casserole or I'll fucking kill you!" as I enter the hallway to my bedroom. For some reason I think they will eat it when I am gone and it only adds to my sudden and inexplainable rage.

I go up to my bedroom and lay down on the bed and though the house has three other people in it downstairs I cannot hear them at all. They have either gone to bed or are tiptoeing around because they think I am trying to sleep, but honestly, to me it feels like they are not there at all. The house feels empty again like it did for a long time before they arrived. The window is open and I can feel the soft night breeze coming in the window and hear the rustling of the leaves on the trees. A few autumn leaves are blown in with the wind and scatter across my bed and my floor but this doesn't bother me and I find that I am no longer so full of rage but feel very lonely. I become confused and start to think all the planning and cooking was not real and I imagined the whole thing. I get up and head downstairs. I cannot find my three guests but there is indeed many plates of food prepared and scattered through the kitchen and in the fridge.

There is a knock at the front door and I open it to see a young black man in grey clothing standing on the path leading to my house. He is smiling and asks me to walk with him for a while. Even though it is the middle of the night and I don't know this man I go with him anyway and we walk through a path that leads to a forest talking, though I cannot remember any of our conversation now, but I am very content to be with this man because I feel like I know him but I cannot articulate how. The sun starts to rise and we go return to my house and stand at the very top of the hill and I am surprised to see a very long line of people outside of my house consisting of thousands of people, most of whom I do not recognize as family or friends. I have trouble believing that all of these people are here for the party and the young man in grey just responds that these are all the people whose lives I have affected or who love me.

I start to realize that something is amiss and suddenly I am back laying in bed, half conscious and vagely aware that I am waking from a deep sleep. Instead of being in my bedroom though I am in a hospital room surrounded by the three people from before who were my guests. It dawns on me that I had died the night before and the walk through the forest with the young man was actually a walk through a replay of my long life with my guardian angel, though I did not realize it at the time. I was able to talk to the ghost of the man with the transpartent legs before because I had been a ghost too.

I reach out and take the hands of the people surrounding me and tell them I love them. I feel so full of love for them and for the whole world that I feel like I am going to burst with joy. Even though I had just died the night before the doctors let me leave the hospital and go back to my house for the pot luck party. There are not thousands of people there but there is a lot and everyone is happy, filled with good food and enjoying life and the company of others.


This is a very unusual dream for me, because it ended positive and there was lots of positive feelings in it, when usually my dreams are dark and depressing and scary. I'm not complaining, I'm just saying...

This is the second dream I had on September 21st, 2009.


I am at Grandma Currie's house though it is somewhat distorted on the inside. It is winter and everything outside is covered in snow at first. Inside the house are my cousins Summer, Bailey, Keelan and Caleb as they appeared about a decade or so ago. Grandma Currie is there, as well as my parents, brother Ryan and Aunt Beth. For some reason Grandma Carelsa is also with Aunt Estelle. My family still owns the 1986 Westfalia (now sold) and it is parked outside.

The inside of grandma's house is distorted and everything is shaded in pale blue colours. At first there is discussion among the adults about where everyone is going to sleep because there are not enough beds. I suggest to dad that I would not mind sleeping in the our 1986 Westfalia camper if he hooked it up to the house to work the heater. The convesation changes and I lose interest and go and see my cousins Sumer and Keelan. They are upset because even though there are two computers in the house, neither one have sufficient internet capabilities for their satisfaction. One doesn't connect at all and the other is extremely slow having only a dial-up connection.

There is a meal being served and my cousin Caleb asks me to get a can of soda pop from the basement for Grandma Carelsa. I go downstairs and in an alcove in the stairwell is a pop machine selling a variety of sodas including a lemon flavored one. There is a small picture of a loonie near the change slot and I assume that this how much currency I need. Because I don't have any money I go back to Caleb and tell him so. He becomes upset and insults my stupidity because family members don't need to pay. I return to the machine and get a lemon soda and take it to my Grandma Carelsa, who is sitting in the distorted living room with Grandma Carelsa. I get the sense that they are watching t.v. yet I cannot see a t.v. in the room which is weird.

Nighttime is approaching the the issue of where everyone is going to sleep arises once again. Again I tell my dad that I wouldn't mind sleeping in the Westfalia if there isn't any room in the house but he tells me to stop being ridiculous. Mattresses and roll-out beds are placed on the floors throughout the house, three specifically in the basement. At first there is some confusion on whether I or my cousin Caleb is going to sleep on one of the matresses while my brother and one of my other cousins take the other two. Instead of discussing it Caleb just lays down on the mattress he wants and goes to sleep, while my brother and other cousin do the same to the last two mattresses. They won't even consider what I think or want and I am then left to sleep on the solid floor because all the other beds in the house are taken.

The dream distorts and on wall of the basement opens up to a hilly forest area in the midst of fall or winter, but there is not snow. The tress are bare of leaves and there are none on the ground. It is cold. At the bottom of a nearby hill my Aunt Estelle's car is parked and because the three mattresses in the basement are occupied, my aunt says that she will get me a sleeping bag from the trunk of her car. The sleeping bag is dark blue and zips up all the way to my head.

I crawl in it to sleep but notice my aunt returning to her car. She doesn't want it parked at the bottom of the hill and wants to move it somewhere else. She starts driving and the sleeping bag I am in gets dragged behind her by the foot end. I cannot see how the sleeping bag is attactched but I am terrified because the zipper is stuck and I cannot get out. My aunt starts driving very fast and circling aroung a very bumpy area of the forest. There are no roads so she is constantly driving over roots sticking out of the ground as well as rocks and sudden inclines or declines. Through my pain and terror I realize the forest we are in is at Lake Whittaker, the trailer park my parents go to every weekend in the summer. (I used to go as well when I was a kid.)

After a long time my aunt exits the forest and finally parks her car at the top of the hill which is somehow outside of my Grandma Currie's house. Aunt Estelle goes inside without noticing me still trapped in the sleeping bag behind her car badly injured. My cries of pain finally rouse my parents but they don't believe me at first what happened when I try to tell them. They become upset and demand I get inside but I cannot because I have two broken legs as well as an assortment of other injuries. Only after examining me do my parents finally believe me, but rather than sympathy they seem upset that they have to go out of their way to deal with me and call and ambulance.


Dream ends there.

I am a young east Indian woman living in an impoverished area with near a beach. I live with my husband, his parents, and another woman whom I call Auntie. My mother-in-law (MIL) and Auntie dote on me because I have no family of my own and I am pregnant. My husband and my father-in-law (FIL) work long hours during the day and are not around very often. In many ways the family is very traditional, but in other ways surprisingly liberal, as they permitted the marriage to my husband even though I was already pregnant with someone else's child. MIL and Auntie are convinced the child will be a boy, FIL remains silent on the issue, and my husband (who is always very kind to me) thinks it will be a girl becuase everyone else thinks it will be a boy. I do not tell my family, but somehow I instinctively or psychically know what the gender of the child is, and it is a girl.

The dream jumps ahead a few months and I have given birth to a girl like I knew I would. Despite wanting a boy, MIL and Auntie are happy to have a new addition to the family. The dreams jumps ahead again (it does this frequently) to when I am pregnant with my second child. I psychically know the child will be a boy but say nothing to the family since I know they are all hoping for a boy anyway. About the time I give birth to my son, FIL retires and it is up to my husband to support all of us by himself. We care very much for each other but we rarely get to spend time along together because of family obligations or one or both of us being too exhausted.

The dreams jumps ahead again. My daughter is now five years old and my son is now two. I am pregnant yet again. I have grown very close to MIL and Auntie but their traditional superstitions have them believing that bad fortune will befall the family soon. Unlike the previous pregnancies I have trouble telling what gender this child will be. I think it is a boy, though every time I close my eyes, put my hands on my belly and concentrate, a horrible sense of coldness and dread overcome me, but not because I sence anything evil, more like I am being engulfed in a vast, endless dark void. I do not tell anyone of these feelings.

Bad fortune does seem to befall the family early in my pregnancy though, as my husband loses his job, Auntie turns to prostituion for money, MIL falls ill and FIL becomes very depressed. FIL will not eat and soon he falls sick and dies. We have very little money from Auntie's street walking to buy food, and thus definately cannot afford to pay for creamation or ceremonial rites, so we have no choice but to leave FIL's body rotting in the streets just outside of our dismal hovel. MIL is soon consumed by a similar dispair that took FIL and we all fear that she will die soon. One night Auntie goes out to work the streets and never returns and all we can do is assume the worst.

When I am eight months pregnant a tall skinny man arrives at the door of our meger lodgings and claims to be my brother (he does look like one of my bros in real life actually). He says that he is worried about me having so many children and thinks that I should stop. My husband and MIL throw him out and warn him never to come back. The next morning there is a basket of fresh white lotus flowers outside of our door, which I am able to sell to street vendors and pedestrians for a few coins each because they are considered good luck by many people. MIL wants me to keep one for myself but I ignore her and sell the last one because I want to be able to afford to feed my newborn when it comes along. Almost immediately a terrible pain erupts in my abdomen and blood starts gushing from my vagina. I somehow make my way home, but it is too late - I have miscarried what would have been my second son. MIL and my husband are very sad and they shun me for awhile, which makes my grief over losing my third child even worse.

The dreams jumps ahead again and our family is experiencing more favourable times. I am close to MIL again, who is no longer sick or depressed, my husband is employed again, our surviving children are healthy and being educated, and I am pregnant again. This one is going to be a girl and I tell my MIL that I am able to predict the gender of the child, but didn't say anything before out of fear of being accused of insanity or witchcraft and being thrown out of the house. To my surprise MIL is very happy at my psychic ability and tries to convince me to use my powers to make money. I refuse because I fear that if I reveal to some expecting couples that they will have a girl rather than a boy, they will then voluntarily abort the female fetus or abandon the baby girl upon birth (which is a very real problem in India actually).


The dream ends there.

I believe this may be a past life dream.

My father, mother, my brother Ryan, and myself are in this dream. We all look as we did approximately 15 years ago. I cannot remember the beginning of the dream but at some point we are in a one room shed-like building. The walls and roof are made of white aluminum and the ground is cold, hard dirt. There is no heat, and we are all dressed in heavy winter clothing. There is one door, no windows, and enough room for a large queen sized bed, a fridge, a cupboard and a small table for eating. My family and I are in this place because there is a snow storm outside and we are essentially trapped until it is over.

The bed has heavy, white arctic blankets on it, and my parents and Ryan spend most of their time underneath the covers trying to keep warm. Because there is no room for me, I am either at the foot of the bed or on the floor, with no blanket of my own. (I am usually on the floor because my brother Ryan literally kicks me off when my parents are asleep). I feel very cold throughout the entire dream, especially when I am on trying to sleep on the floor because a biting wind can be felt coming in from the gap underneath the door.

When the storm ends my parents start showing me where the provisions are. There seems to be too much of everything and the cupboard and fridge are overloaded with foodstuff. My parents then inform me that they and my brother are leaving and I am going to have to take care of myself while they are gone. My father opens the cupboard and shows me many bags of milk and says that they do not need refridgeration because it is so cold anyway that they will not go bad. There is a red box filled with Fruit Loops cereal and my mom says something about getting a discount on them. My parents and brother leave and I am left cold and alone, with no idea where they are going or when they are coming back.

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.

There is a some sort of family gathering in a small house. I think it is my grandma's old house, but I am not sure. There are many people , some I recognize as members of my family, and some that do not resemble any person I know in waking life. There only seems to be three rooms; the kitchen, the living room, and the basement. The kitchen does not have a table or chairs but there is a green sofa against one of the walls. The living room is sparse as well and only has a white loveseat and a large screen television. Needless to say, most of the people in the house were standing as they socialized.

There were some people in the kitchen preparing food and some people standing around with drinks. I was in the kitchen but I was not preparing food or drinks, nor was I socializing. I didn't want to be there and I felt very tired and bored. I sit down on the green sofa, curl up on one end and start to drift off to sleep. I can hear my dad come into the room and everyone starts asking him what's wrong with me, as if they can sense the fact that I don't want to be there. I cannot hear exactly what my dad is saying except that he is going around the room and apologizing to everyone.

I wake up when I feel someone sit on the other end of the sofa. I sit up and see that it is Uncle Doug. He is making rude and offensive jokes about women and everyone in the room (which I notice at this point is all male) laughs along with him. I am disgusted but I cannot think of anything to say. Uncle Doug turns to me, grabs my arm and asks if I am "cool" with the jokes he is telling. I scream at him not touch me and to stuff his misogyny up his ass. He gets embarassed and apologizes and asks if I am offended, and even though I am, for some reason I say no.

Everyone starts to head down stairs and I get up off the green sofa so that it can be carried into the basement. I start washing dishes because I am too pissed off to talk to anyone. Dinner is being served in the basement and everyone is down there, but I refuse to join them because I still feel raw about the incident with Uncle Doug.

I climb up on the kitchen counter and look out the window, but instead of seeing a backyard at groud level, the view is from several storeys up and I am looking down upon what appears to be a train station. There are many people walking around or just standing on the boardwalk as a passenger train very slowly pulls out of the station. Out of the corner of my left eye I see a frieght train appear out of nowhere and slam into the back of the passenger train at a great speed. I watch in horror as the frieght train cars pile up on each other and onto the boardwalk, violently crushing some of the people who had been standing there. I feel helpless because I cannot do anything but neither can I look away, even as people continue to be crushed and mangled by the crashing trains.


Then the vividness of the terror and sheer graphic nature of the train crash woke me up.

Mom, Aunt Jenny, six-year old neice Miranda and I are going up huge, snowy mountain. I think my Dad, brothers and cousin Peter are there but they stay at the foot of the mountain for some reason. There are three plateaus where climbers can stop and rest, or catch a red tram that goes from the foot of the mountain to a chalet at the second plateau. There is a stop at the first plateau where people can take a bathroom break in a facility that has been carved into the mountain side.

My mom and Aunt Jenny go on ahead while I am left with Miranda to walking up the first part of the mountain (which is also the least difficult). At the first plateau we have a quick rest and watch people getting on and off the tram before continuing on our way. Because the mountain becomes dramatically steeper, there are stairs cut into the side of the mountain to assist people who decide to walk up. We are almost at the second plateau when Miranda slips and begins to slide down the mountain side. I throw myself after her and act as a human sled so that she will not be hurt. We slide all the way back down to the first plateau on our butts (well, my butt actually). Miranda thinks it is great fun but I am sore and frustrated.

It is very late in the afternoon and soon it will be dark, so rather than waste our time trying to climb again, we agree to take the tram. We quickly go to the bathroom (we only have two minutes before the tram leaves), get on and ride it up to the second plateau, where Mom and Aunt Jenny awaits us in the chalet. I want to stay there for the night but Mom and Aunt Jenny say that Miranda has school in the morning and they take the tram down the mountain. The entire family leaves and since I no longer have a ride home, I decide to continue climbing the mountain myself.

The next day I am eager to continue on. Since the tram does not go up any further, I have to climb the steep stairs that have been cut into the side of the mountain. The climb to the thrid and final plateau is the longest and hardest, but it doesn't seem so bad because there is a steady line of climbers trudging up the mountain. I see a few people fall or slide off, but since there is nothing I can do to help them, I have to keep going. I reach a peak and grab the slippery ridge just as I lose my footing. I cannot see what's on the other side but I assume it is the final plateau because I can see what appears to be a wooden roof. A hand grabs mine and pulls me over the ridge and I find my self under a small gazebo where an elderly lady with pink coloured eyes is drinking hot cider with two old men. One of the men is completely blind and the other has one eye missing.

Behind the small gazebo there appears to be a small town where many people are walking around. The buildings are just shells (four walls and a roof), with padded floors. There are no windows and no doors so the buildings offer little shelter from the elements, though I suppose they were better than sleeping outside. People can buy, sell and live in these building for as long as they want. I cannot see what or where the source is, but there is a steady and abundant supply of food. The little town sits in the shadow of the summit, and many climbers think it is so great that they forget about reaching the top and stay in the town instead. I have grown tired of the mountain and want to leave. I have lost my desire to reach the top but neither do I want to stay in the town. I buy some skis and start down the other side of the mountain from the plateau town. The view is exhilarating but the decend is long, isolated and dangerous. There is no one attempting the decent but me.


I was only half way down the mountain when the dream suddenly ended and I woke up.

There is a punk or rock band doing an interview while walking through a dense field along a small, shallow creek. I am a camera operator trying to keep up with them as they walk and talk. I follow one of the spiky haired dudes into the creek and try to keep pace without getting my camera wet. As we trudge through the creek it slowly becomes wider and at one point (and quite suddenly) deeper. The band and other camera operators disappear as the sun starts to set and I am left to struggle out of the creek alone.

I see my family's old 1986 Westfalia sitting a distance away, near the edge of a dirt road. Still soaking wet I drop the camera and get into the vehicle, where I find myself with Dad, Mom, and brother Ryan. It is dark now and we seem to drive around aimlessly. I cannot see where we are going. Ryan is doing something to annoy me (but I can't remember what) and I feel angry. We pass small towns or buildings in the dark that are adorned with lots of bright lights and decorations). We are supposed to drop Ryan off somewhere (he is to meet up with his friend James, I think) but he disappears from (or exits) the van before we find the destination.

My parents drive past a few more small, brightly lit towns and then back into the dark country side. They suddenly turn off the van's headlights and drive in the dark. I can still feel (and vaguely see) the backseat that I am sitting on, but otherwise am completely surrounded by darkness. I can no longer see or hear Mom and Dad, but I assume they are still there because I can still feel the vibration of the van moving (though I can no longer hear the vehicle's engine as well).

The darkness surrounding me feels thick and heavy and I feel like I am being suffocated.

The dream starts off with my family and I inside a volcano. The chamber we are in has a marble floor and display cases, against the walls, all around the room. It looks like a museum display for an ancient native culture, and in fact my family are there as a part of a tour group. In the south end of the chamber there is a set of stone stairs that lead up to a fissure, refered to as the "Offering Hole." On every third step of the stairs is a large guardian totem. There are five in total and they have been carved out of black obsidian. Beside the stairs are two native crafted containers that have five peices of gold in them.


The tour group (of about twenty-five people, including my mom, dad, two brothers, sister-in-law, two neices, and I) is led up the volcano and into the chamber. Despite being built inside a volcano, the chamber is not that hot at all. The tour guide warns everybody against touching the gold at the base of the stone stairs, lest the volcano spirit become enraged, and the stone guardians awaken to seek out and destroy the thieves. We are all led up the stone stairs to view the "Offering Hole" and while most of the group is distracted, someone takes that time to steal two peices of the gold. The tour guide is alerted when two of the stone guardians come to life, forcing everyone back down the stairs. The culprits are quickly apprehended and removed from the chamber. The theives were a man who looked like James Bond and a woman who looked like a stereotypical Russian spy/femme fatal. The two stone guardians return to their specific steps when the gold is returned.

When everything has settled down, two young women in the tour group are offered a chance to don native costume and participate in an offering ritual. They are asked to put two long and narrow straps of leather in their mouths. The thin straps seem to be attached to something across the room, but I cannot see to what. The young women have to ascend the stone stairs with the offering of fruit and meat held above their heads, and not let the straps fall out of their mouths. While the rest of the tour group is watching the ritual, I follow the leather straps across the room to see what they are attached too. It turns out that one strap is attached to the gentials of a male statue while the other strap is attached to the genitals of a female statue.

As I am making this weird discovery and the rest of the tour group are watching the ritual, someone else takes that time to steal all five peices of gold and escape the chamber. When all five of the guardians start to move and the crime has been discovered, the tour guide panics and tells everyone to run for their lives. In the confusion of everyone trying to escape the wrath of the volcano spirits, the two women participating in the ritual either fall, or are pushed, into the "Offering Hole."

My family and I escape down the volcano safely, and find an expansive, dark, gothic town. There is some sort of freakish goth parade going on and I ask my dad for the digital camera to take some pictures. As I wander the streets looking for a good shot, I end up losing sight of my family and becoming lost. I wander for a while in the dark and eeiry alleyways and streets and when I start to get cold, I go into a building that looks like a store. It is empty of people, but there is a stage with bright red curtains at the back. On the stage I see my cat Bambi, whom I know must be a ghost (because she died half a year ago) and she appears to be transparent. Regardless, I was happy to see her and took a few pictures with the camera. Despite being transparent and ghost-like on the stage in front of me, Bambi appeared completely solid and lifelike in the photos.

I hear some voices outside and turn away for a moment. When I look back at the stage, Bambi is gone. I go outside and see my family being heckled by some goths. Once back together we find the main road and follow it out of the dark, gothic city. The area outside of the city is snow covered and very unlike the environment around the volcano. I looked back the way we came and I can still see the volcano looming over the goth city. (I feel that I should have become lucid at this point, but I did not.)

I tell my family about seeing Bambi but no one believes me until I showed them the photos that I had taken. Even after seeing the photos they do not seem interested or excited and just want to meet up with the rest of the tour group. The remaining people in the group were now waiting at the base of a snow covered hill. There was some sort of building at the top that we had to get to, but the hill was steep, slippery, and in some areas large boulders and sharp rocks portruded out of the snow.

The younger of my two older brothers asks me for the camera and I reluctantly give it up. The tour group slowly ascends the hill and makes it about half way when the path is blocked by a huge pile of snow. Everyone in the group, including my family, stands around and complains about the cold or the tour in general while I try to dig a path with my hands. No one seems interested in helping me and I have to do it alone. When enough snow has been removed so that we can pass, my brother (who is in possession of the digital camera) runs past everyone else to the top of the hill and smashes the camera against a rock. The camera does not appear to break completely, but I am upset because I think I have lost the picture of my cat Bambi.

I run and try to catch up to my brother but he disappears into the building at the top of the hill. I cannot find him when I go in, though I do find the camera on the floor in one of the rooms. It appears to only have sustained structural damage but I notice something weird when I review the photos: though my cat Bambi appears solid and lifelike in photos, in images taken of my youngest neice (earlier in the tour apparently) she appears ghost-like and transparent while everyone else appears solid.