Visions in the Dark

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.

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.