Visions in the Dark

I am in a city I do not recognize. I live there and I am going to high school still, but I do not have a family and I live in a communal bording house for kids and young adults with no place else to go. I am at school and the teacher gives us a big assignment to do were we have to submit a thesis on something (but I cannot remember what now) but a lot of the young teens in my class are lazy and uninterested and do not bother to do the work. One of the stipulations of the assignment is that it must be hand written on lined paper, and not printed out from a computer.

It takes me only one night to get my assignment done but as the due date approatches I notice that my only friends in my school has barely done hers at all and I offer to help her with it. The little bit she has done is on the computer and I start ccopying what she has written on lined paper until I get to were her assignment ends and I give it back to her. I tell her I cannot finish writing it out until she finishes her assignment. My friend becomes angry and bullies me to finish the assignment for her and eventually I cave in and agree because she is my only friend and I do not want to lose her, because then I would be truly alone.

I am walking outside the next day. It is saturday and there is no school. I am feeling angry and resentful about always doing my work on time and the teacher's not caring since they don't care that the other students barely ever do their work. I pass a resturant that is in a large shopping plaza and on the inside are all my fellow classmates and my teachers and they are all eating great food. There is slices of roast beef covered in melted cheese; racks of juicy ribs; all kinds of potato side dishes, like mashed, boiled and spiced, and scalloped; and all sorts of vegetables and desserts.

I assume this is a school thing that I didn't know about but when I go into the resturant I am told that they are really sorry but there is no food left because they didn't know they would need an extra place for me. I went over to my teacher and asked why I wasn't told about this and why there was no food for me, and my teacher responded that they had asked my one friend to tell me and it wasn't their fault if she had neglected to do so. I do not create a scene even though on the inside I feel like exploding. I quietly and calmly walk back to the bording house, take my friends assignment that I was doing for her, and rip it up and throw the peices all over her room.

I look in the fridge and there is nothing I can make a meal with, just a carton of milk and some apples. I head back to he shopping center to my food for myself because I have a little bit of money. People I pass on the street say that some dinosaurs have escaped from the zoo and are headed our way, but even though I know dinosaurs are real in my dream world, I don't care because I am too miserable.

In the grocery store my goal is to buy ground beef for tacos, because tacos are my favourite food and I think it will cheer me up a little, but I am tempted to buy many other things that I can just barely afford, including cartons of cigarettes, which are laying in a basket near the check out line and are on sale. I am so tempted my some things that I start contemplating trying to steal things, but I know it is wrong and before my thoughts become actions I can hear people screaming outside. When I look out the window I can see a huge Tyrannasaurus Rex stomping around the parking lot and attacking cars and eating people. I leave the grocery store and head into the shopping mall without buying anything at all because people are panicking and running into the grocery store to get away from the dinosaur and it is complete chaos.

People in the mall are also panicking, which others are calmly walking around. I am not scared for some reason, though I feel very tired and slightly annoyed. Vendors in stores start putting up hand written sale signs on a lot of their goods, hoping people will buy items on sale in their panic. I think this is stupid and keep walking through the mall.

I find a little girl crying in the center of the plaza and she says she can't find her mother. I ask where she last saw her mother and the little girl responds that her mother went to get some lunch and told her daughter to stay put. I ask the little girl if she knows what food stall in the food court her mother went to and the little girl says she does know which one and what it looks like, but does not know how to get there. I offer to take her and we push past panicking people who are flooding into the mall trying to escape the rampaging T-Rex but I do not tell the little girl what is going on outside. She is more interested in finding her mother anyway.

We pass many interesting stores, including a shoe store with high heel boots made in Africa, an all natural scented candle store, and an interactive information booth on nature and geography around the world. The little girl and I find the food court and she points out the fast food place her mother went to. It is an Italian food place but the sign says Siesta Teisto, or something like that, which sounds Spanish to me. The little girl thanks me and runs into the store and when I go inside to see if she has found her mother, absolutely no one is there, not even the cooks or cashiers.

I head back to towards the main plaza in the mall but can get there because there are so many people who have come from outside seeking shelter. I climb some stairs up to the second floor that leads to a fancy resturant or gym just as the T-Rex smashes through a ground floor window and starts rampaging through the mall. Lots of people are either crushed to death in the stampeed or are eaten, though I cannot remember much more from this dream.

I am in some sort of alternate universe where technologies are mainly the same but humans live in feudal societies and tame and ride dragons rather than drive cars. I am secretly a princess of a lost dynasty and the last of my family's bloodline. I have long black hair, pale skin and blood red eyes, which are traits of my royal family's genetics, though most people do not realize this. I have been rasied as a commoner by an adoptive family in a place called Moon City but civil war breaks out and we are forced to flee.

My adoptive mother, brothers and I go to the main city of the continent to stay with some family and friends. Politics is tumoltuous in this city and it is ruled by an authoritorian leader who controls every aspect of the citizen's lives. Every night there is a curfew at sunset and people caught outside after it is implemented are arrested or killed by the security force loyal to the iron fisted leader. It is not as bad as it sounds though and as long as people obey the rules and don't openly oppose the leader then they can live their lives otherwise normally.

The house we go to is at the end of an alley and only has three bedrooms for almost 10 people to stay in. I get stuck sharing a bed with my brothers and one of my friends. All of the older people are up all night talking about the war in Moon City and I cannot sleep because I am in a strange place and the talk of the older folk worries me so. In the morning my mother, grandmother and aunts go shopping and I wander the neighbourhood to orient myself with my new home. I find a vast, white sand beach and happily dig my bare feet in the sand and dip my toes in the cool water. In the distance I see a handsome young man watching me enjoy the beach. He is sitting on a large black and purple dragon and gazes on me with a withering smile. I do notice him but I pretend not to and ignore him.

Afterwards I am walking along a marketplace and find a used bookstore. I spend a long time browsing the books and I am so happy and content that I kind of get carried away and forget about the time. I finally buy a book and start reading it on the way home. I am walking slowly and so intrigued with my book that I do not notice the sun beginning to set and the streets becoming empty. I finally snap out of my reverie when I am at the far end of the alleyway where my grandma's house is and though I am kind of scared I know that I do not have very far to go. I begin walking briskly but I do not notice the four or five patrol officers appear behind me riding thier massive green and black dragons.

One of them yells at me and when I turn around they all jump off their dragons and force my back up against a wall. They begin shoving me and demanding to see identification and when I produce my passport they throw it on the ground and begin harassing me for not being a native citizen. They ignore my fearful protests and two of them grab me, turn me around so that my back is facing them and pin me to the wall. Another of the guards starts frisking me roughly and inappropriately by putting his hand under my skirt and rubbing between my legs. I try to scream but one of the guards covers my mouth with a gloved hand and they all start laughing and cajolling me as the assault continues.

Suddenly a voice shouts down the alleyway and the offending guards snap to attention and let me go. The young man who had been watching me on the beach approaches, riding his mighty purple and black dragon, and demands to know if the soldiers have anything better to do than harass young girls. One of the soldiers starts to stammer and answer but the young muscular man shouts at them that this kind of thing is not what his father is paying them for and he screams at them to beat it, which they do with much haste.

He gets off his dragon, picks up my passport from the ground and asks me if I am all right. I kind of glare at him with anger and indignation. How the hell does he think I feel after being sexually assaulted? The young man can see they I am distraught, laughs at himself and conceeds that it was a stupid question. He introduces as Mordred and tells me that he is the son of the man who rules this city. He looks over my passport and then seems to inspect me withis sharp and intense gaze before handing my id back. He asks me a few questions about why I left Moon City and I answer as I can.

He offers to escort me home but I am suspicious and worried that he will take advantage of me too. I am able to tell him that my grandmother's place is just down the street and we walks with me there, his dragon following closely behind. The young man gives me a cell phone and tells me that I can call him on it at any time if anyone else gives me trouble while I am in his city. After he sees be home and bids me goodnight I watch him ride his dragon away through one of the few windows in the house.

I do not tell my family what happened and the next day I stick very close to my mom and aunts as they travel to a large multi-storey mall for some shopping. I don't know why but it soon seems that I am there by myself and wander past the shops slowly and with much disinterest. I come across a food gallery of sorts but the dream distorts somewhat and while I can see the kind of food being served, I cannot read the menus and names of the food stores for some reason. Near one store that looks like a Taco Bell, I find a glass display case with many little ancient egyptian crafts and I spend some time admiring a little statue of a seated goddess Sekhmet.

A voice suddenly announces over the intercome that sunset will happen in about an hour and everyone is advised to go home. I am on the second floor of the mall and head towards an elevator, trying to avoid the man people scrambling around as if in a panic. I come across one elevator and there is a stroller nearby with a baby in it, but no adults in sight. I don't know what to do so I just get on the elevator but I am confused by the buttons on it. There are many buttons but none are labelled or clear and I cannot tell which button to press to go down. I make a guess and push one but instead of going to another floor the elevator starts moving along a track from one side of the mall to another.

I get out on the otherside in frustration and come across another adandoned baby in a stroller. People are running around ignore it so I do to. I am starting to panic because I don't know how I am going to get to the main floor to exit the mall before sunset, let alone make it all the way home before it gets dark completely. I try another elevator (and pass many more abadoned babies in strollers - I think I counted five in total this time) and luckily I find one where there is a woman with two children waiting to get on. I am hoping that the woman will know how to use it and slip in first, but she pushes her children in and then allows the door to close, apparently content to adandon her childred as well.

I am panicking and don't know what to do because the elevator is not moving and I don't know how to open the door electronically. I pull the doors apart physically but watch in horror as the two children slip between the space from the elevator to the floor and fall down the shaft. Suddenly the elevator starts moving and goes down to the main floor. When I get out of it I find the woman from upstairs holding one of her children as if nothing had happened.

It is almost dark outside and I am approaching the front doors of the mall when an army of masked soldiers in blue riot gear pushes their way in. The leader of the group points to me and says "There she is - that's the princess." The other soldiers pull out their guns and start shooting in my direction. I run as fast as I can and through a door into a dark room. I pull out the cell phone that Mordred gave me and call the number that is on speed dial. When I hear his voice I break down and start crying and tell him that people are trying to kill me. He tells me to stay where I am and that he will be there soon.

I don't know why the soldiers in blue do not located me, but I can hear them searching through the mall and shooting any straggler shoppers they find, since it is now dark outside. I am very scared and can only hope that my adoptive family made it home a long time ago. I am also confused as to how these soldiers know that a I secretly a princess.

A vent opens on the otherside of the dark room I am in and Mordred appears and tells me to follow him. Down the shaft and into the basement we go and we get on a service elevator that goes down deep underneath the mall and to a long forgotten underground street. His dragon is there and we get on and follow the tunnel to where it comes back above ground on the other side of the city. Along the way Mordred tells me that his father's spies have figured out that I am the long lost princess and has ordered my exection because he does not want anything to threaten his hold of power over this part of the land.

I cannot remember the end of the dream but I think Mordred and I run away together and away from the city.


(A lot of Dragon Booster influences in this dream.)

I cannot remember the first part of the dream but there is an image of being near a water front and my dream character Kalima walking with a group of people (her servants, as she is a princess disguised as a commoner) past a dock where people are fishing off of and swimming around. Kalima and her group crest a sand dune and come across some of Aku's robots about to attack the people at the beach. Kalima's group starts to try and fight the robots but are not doing well when Samurai Jack appears and deftly defeats the attacking machines.

Jack is then invited by members of Kalima's group to join them for dinner and they go to a building that looks like a palace on the outside but looks like a mall on the inside. Kalima walks behind the group and lingers in an area that has books and sofas and children's toys for a momemt. Jack comes back to find her and they follow the group into a room decorated in the traditional Japanese style with three bamboo tables that are easily assembled on the spot. Jack sits down with the men at the middle table while Kalima and the women sit down at the table to the left. The table on the right, which is close to the entrance of the room, has no one seated at it so the food can be placed upon it.

Jack and Kalima catch each other's eyes several times but each looks away shyly. There are presents in one corner of the room as it is one of the servant's birthday. There is a part where the far wall opens to reveal a grocery store or warehouse or something but other than that I cannot remember any more of this dream.

I dreamed I was at Westmount Mall in the Music World store. They have been having a liquidation sale because the store is closing. I am browsing the few shelves that have anything on them, but most of the stuff is crap. There were three cds that were sold individually, but were made by the same band and consisted of the themes body, mind and soul. All of the cd's had white backgrounds, neon pink writing and flowing spiral designs on the cover. The first cd was called "Physical" and was made up about songs dealing with the body. The second cd was called "Mental" and dealt with songs about the mind and perception. The last cd was called "Spirit" and were songs about the soul or something. I cannot remember the name of the band, but since the cds were on sale, and all three were still available, I picked them up with the intention of buying them.

In the dvd section there were many blue boxs with pink and white writing on them. I cannot remember what movie or television series it was, but I figured that it must suck since no one was buting them, even at 80% off. I saw a dvd for a few episodes of Neo (Genesis?) Evangelion and though I have never seen the series and know nothing about it, I decided I wanted to buy it because it was less than ten dollars. When I picked up the dvd someone across the store yelled that the store was closing and we had to get out. I cannot remember the very end of the dream, but I think I ended up leaving without paying for anything and it was cool because no one cared.

The dream starts off in a warehouse of some sort. There are hundreds of people seated at desks working away at drawings and animations and the such. I am sitting at the very back and making little doodles because I am not happy and I do not want to be there. Some of the other animators are gloating and flaunting their talents and everyone is giving them praise. I start making drawings that are not a part of the criteria and get in trouble for it.

There was also some animator guy who stood up and made a big anouncement that he was leaving animation and becoming a wrestler or something, but I cannot remember exactly.

I leave the giant warehouse-animation room and go outside. I am in a farmer's field that is all dried up and devoid of any crops. I can see cars and trucks passing by on a distant roadway. There are a few small aircraft flying overhead. I gaze up at the aircraft and suddenly the dream changes and I am in the cockpit of a fighter jet. I am supposed to bring the aircraft in for a landing, but the small airport is suspended on the side of a large building or cliff and the runway consists of only a helicopter landing pad. Fortunately the fighter jet has hover capabilities and i am able to put it down on the narrow landing pad.

I get out of the aircraft and suddenly I am floating high above looking down on everything. There is a group of people looking at the fighter jet and an older man who is very rich and powerful who is gloating about his prestige and his ownership of the airport. Suddenly the dream is back in the bare field, but it is no longer bare. There are miles of grape vines, but all of the plants are dying. I can hear the voice of the rich old man but I cannot see him. He is still going on about how great it is to be him and it is really annoying me.

I then walk back to the giant warehouse-animation building, but when I go back insode it is different. The inside is now a giant mall (like the West Edmonton Mall) and everything is coloured in an autumn colour scheme. I walk for a bit until I am in the center of some sort of multicultural celebration. I see my friend Rebecca and I run to catch up with her.

We get some food and sit down to eat and talk. She tells me that she she is scared and does not want me to leave and I say that I am not going anywhere. Rebecca has a sad look on her face, then suddenly she stands up and runs away, dissapearing into the large crowd. I try to follow but I cannot push my way past the huge gathering of people and have to go back. I am really upset that Rebecca ran away from me. I go into an East Indian food display and think about buying some delicacies, but I am sure that I do not have enough money for it. I find a credit card in my pocket and just pay with that. I am sort of creeped out because the two men who run the display will not stop staring at me.

Suddenly the dream changes again to the inside of an Oriental food store. Everything is dull and grey. There is an old Chinese man at the counter sorting CD-RW disks. His wife comes in through a heavy metallic back door and starts screaming at him for something. I go through the back door and find that it not only leads outside, but is at the top of a tall building (where as the front door is at groud level). The heavy metal door locks behind me and I cannot go back.

Major Motoko Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell is standing at the edge of the rooftop and jumps off. The scene is the same as the jump down from the opening sequence from the Stand Alone Complex anime series. I dissapear from the dream at this point and everything is viewed in third person.

Major Kusanagi lands on a low roof top in a back alley. In the alleyway below there is a black truck and three suspicious looking men loading cardboard boxes into the back of the truck. The boxes are sealed but heavy and the men are trying to load them quickly. The Major draws her gun and yells at them to stop, but the men draw their own weapons and open fire. Two of the men engage the Major in gun play while the last man quickly throws the rest of the boxes into the truck. One box falls out of the truck and bursts open, scattering VHS video tapes and CD disks all over the alleyway. The three men jump into the van and speed off.

The Major is trying to figure out what is on the disks when some investigators show up (though none are other characters from the GITS show or movie - they appear to be random creations of my subconscious). Major Kusanagi leaves them to clean up the mess and figure out what the disks and tapes are and runs off in the direction that the truck went. She runs out of the alley and into a beach front shopping strip. There are thousands of people and hundreds of vehicles on the road and on the beach, making it impossible to find the truck.

There is a bus sitting at a terminal on the other side of the road, seemingly abandoned. The Major gets onto the bus and it starts to move under its own power and without a driver. There are other people on the bus but they stare out of the windows and will not respond to anyone trying to get their attention. The bus travels down the road for a bit and makes two left turns around the block. It stops in front of the Oriental food store. When she gets off the bus, the Major can see the three men from the alleyway talking to the old Chinese man through the window. There is one of the sealed cardboard boxes on the counter.

The four men pick up the box and exit through the heavy metal back door. Kusanagi follows and finds herself back on the roof top in which she started, with none of the men in sight.


The dream becomes too fuzzy for me to remember any more, but it ended soon after anyway.

The dream takes place in some sort of two-story shopping center. The walls and floors, stairs, railings and benchs were all carved out of white marble. The upper floors had ritzy expensive stores, while the lower floors had cheaper, generic stores.

At the beginning there was some young man skateboarding on the lower floor of the mall. I don't reall his name but he looked like Link from Zelda: Ocarina of Time, but dressed in modern clothing. His boarding escapades led him into the basement of the mall where he ended up in some sort of electrical/janitorial room. I cannot remember now what he did there, but I do remember that he ran into some Canadian television stars that I recognize but cannot recall the names of at this time.

Eventually the young man returned to the first floor of the mall and as he was trying to grind on some stairs, the lower level of the mall started to flood very rapidly. People in the mall were panicking and screaming and many of them were washed away by the rushing water, but the young man managed to get up to the second floor and to saftey.

The young man's skateboard disappeared and the mall suddenly changed. There were suddenly no people and though it still looked like a mall, the window displays and stores were now more like a museum. The lights went out and the only illumination came through the skylights in the roof. The water on the first floor disappeared. Three people appeared and ran into the skateboarder. The group of three was led by a black woman who had psychic powers and could detect magic in items. The other two people were a young white woman and a middle aged black man.

I cannot remember the purpose now, but the four characters had to explore the place and find some magical items. They could not leave the shopping center/museum until they had done so. The dream gets a bit fuzzy, but as the four explored and found the magic items (several magic rocks or peices of jewelry) the brighter the building became, as if finding an item had turned the electricity back on.

When they had found all of the items, the group of people found a stairs leading the the first floor and into a room that was very much like a standard museum display. They became excited and went in and found a door from which they could exit the shopping center/museum. The dream ends as soon as they get outside into the sunlight.

I was in some sort of strip mall that I do not know in waking life, walking around with a former co-worker of mine named Samir. We were window shopping and discussing something but I cannot remember what now. Some things happened that I cannot recall but somehow Samir and I ended up running into Samir's brother.

The three of us walked and talked some more and eventually Samir and his brother disappeared and I found myself in a parking lot of a strip mall that is close to my home in waking life. The sun was setting and there were no cars in the parking lot. As I walked across the parking lot I found myself surrounded by a large group of women dressed in heavy black robes (burkas?) and they walked in pace with me and in complete silence.

When I got to the sidewalk that leads to my street, they group of women dissapeared, and then I woke up.