Visions in the Dark

I am at a public fair of some kind. I don't know the place but there is a large circular Romanesque building in the center and rides and consession stands surrounding it. The circular building in the center is multistoried and I am on an elevator going down to the ground floor. There I meet someone I knew in public school, J.P, though he looks older. He is lost and trying to find his way somewhere. I help him orient himself and he goes on his way.

I am there for army training and see the group that I am supposed to be in and start following. The group is led by Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire and he is weaving us through thrater seat aisles and pillers around the building and various rides and events outside. After we have completed a circuit we start again but this time jogging. The rest of the group seems fine but one other girl and myself soon start to tire and have difficultly keeping up.

After the second circuit is completed Lieutenant-General Dallaire starts the group running. Halfway through the circuit I am too tired to run anymore and fall behind, losing sight of the group. I am outside of the circular building and near a large inflatable male lion that is coloured black. It is laying down but it's mouth open as if amidst a might roar. I feel disheartened already because of failing to keep up with the group and falling behind but also feel equally small and pathetic next to this mighty lion. I sit down on a folded metal seat nearby and mope.

Sometime after I have caught my breath the Lieutenant-General and the group rounds and corner and approaches me. I stand up and apologize profusely to Dallaire but he only responds by asking if I am ready to go. I do not understand and he says that he "never leaves a man behind." I protest and say that I am not good enough but he responds that I won't know if I give up trying. I am feeling a bit refreshed after my rest and agree to try again. The group starts off again at a jog and as I follow I look over my shoulder at the inflatable lion and see that it has changed colour to a bright and luminous golden. For some reason this gives me confidence to press on.

The group eventually starts to run again and this time I am able to keep up for the whole circuit. The running comes to an end at a clearing on the tarmac outside of the circular building where a small stage with a red curtain backdrop has been set up. Many civilians have gathered around and in the crowd I can see my father. Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire gets up on the stage and starts introducing the runners, giving them little medals and declaring that they have completed the recruitment process and are now officially in the army. Everyone else goes first and I am last.

When it is my turn the Lieutenant-General gives me a metal, says I have completed my training and then adds that I have a special significance in completing this because I persevered in the end and made my father proud. Dallaire notes that I am now in the army at the same age that my father joined the navy and that our proud family militay history will continue. I am confused by all this and though happy to have completed the training I still don't feel that I am good enough to be in the army.

The dream ends there.

I am walking beside tall, handsome elf through a creepy, haunted looking forest at night. My elf companion has long dark brown hair, a smooth narrow face and is wearing dark red velvet clothing. I have pale blond hair and have on a purple Victorian style silk gown, with a black hooded cloak overtop. (The dress looked similar to this, except it was purple.) We are walking down a dirt road through the forest. Because I cannot see very well in the dark, and there is no moon to provide illumination, the elf insists that I stay close to him.

I have a palm sized, metal item that looks like one half of a purple, blue and gold butterfly. There are various indentations on the back that make me think it is a key of some sort. I do not know the reason, but I sense that I am supposed to find the other half.

There is a large gnarled tree in the middle of the road just ahead of us. There is a woman who looks similar to me (only she has golden hair and is wearing a light blue gown and a white cloak) standing under the tree, waving at us to come over. She is lithe and bubbly and seems to give of a dim light that reflects her glowing personality. Behind her I can see a large iron gate that is covered with think tangled vines. I want to move on but my bubbly doppleganger wants to solicalize with the elf and I and will not let us pass until we do so.

She knows the elf and volunteers information about a past relationship the once shared. The handsome elf smiles at her and they both seem enthralled with each other's presence. I am anxious and eager to go to the iron gate; I can feel something drawing me to the darkness beyond. The woman in the blue dress is telling me what attributes of the elf she like's the most. I very vivdly remember her saying, with much longing in her voice "...his hair, his smell... his testicles..."

The elf and the woman fall into each other's arms, onto the grass under the tree and start making out. I take this opportunity to investigate the iron gate. One of the bars has rusted out and I am able to slip through the gap after brushing aside some tangled vines.

Beyond the gate there is a small garden that is illuminated by four lamps in each corner. In the middle of the garden is a double tiered fountain. Other than the soft trickle of water, the garden is eeirily silent. The temperature in the garden drops dramatically and it becomes very cold. On the other side of the garden is two large doors made of wood, set into a dark grey brick wall. I cannot tell if the building is a castle or just another gate. I try to push the doors open but they will not budge. There is an impression where the doors meet, just above the handles, of a butterfly. The butterfly item I have fits into one half of the impression, but the doors remains tightly shut and I know that I have to find the other half of my trinket to proceed.

Walking back to fountain I notice a faint glimmer in the water. It is so cold in the garden now that the water in the fountain is starting to turn to ice. I have to smash it with my fist and plunge my hand into the freezing water but it is completely worth it as I pull out the other half of my butterfly key. When I place the retreived half into the other impression on the door, there is a loud click of a lock opening. The two halfs of the key glow and float out of the impression towards me and right into my hands. The item is now a completely fused together and I cannot seperate the two halves even when I try.

I push open the large wooded doors and walk into what appears to be a large theater or opera hall. There are rows and rows of cushions seats and a stage draped with velvet red curtains. The only light comes from small flickering candles that run the length of the aisles. Unlike the garden, this theater is warm and comfortable. There is a gap between the stage and the seats where a table upon which a small, black, metal chest sits.

The box has a butterfly impression on the front and when I place the key in, the lid on the chest opens by itself. There is nothing inside but images and colours appear on the stage and memories and feelings of mine, some vague and some farmiliar, play out on the stage like a psychedelic, holographic light show. I cannot remember any specific details of what I saw but it was extremely ethereal and wonderful and I was completely entranced and lost in the experience.

When the lights and feelings fade I find myself sitting in one of the front row seats, leaning forward on the table and hugging the small metal chest tightly. I do not want to move because I feel that what just happen will never happen again. I take the butterfly key in my hands and gaze at it intently, gently tracing my fingers around its contours like it is some fragile and vital part of my soul.


This dream is my absolute favourite dream that I have ever had up to this point in my life.

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.