Visions in the Dark

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.

Many people are gathered on the beach when a challenge is presented to see who can swim all the way around the cove. The starting point is the beach and the finish line is the docks. All of the swimmers stop for a rest at the sand bar and some of them try to dive down to an old boat that has sunk in the deepest part of the cove. No one can seem to hold there breath long enough, though. The challenge to swim to the docks is all but forgotten as everyone is more interested in reaching the small shipwreck.

When it is my turn I am successful in reaching the sunken boat. It looks like a small wooden fishing boat and it is laying upside down in the sand. I see a small gap between the cove bottom and boat that I can slip through. I do not have any scuba gear or a flashlight but I want to get underneath the boat. The sunken boat settles into the sand as I go underneath and I become trapped just as I am starting to run out of air.

I almost panic, but quickly find that I can lift the boat through the water if I kick my legs hard enough. I push the boat up onto the sand bar for everyone to see, but the other swimmers get angry at me for disturbing a shipwreck. I am not really fazed by their attitudes because I am just happy that I did not drown. The dream ends there.

It starts off behind a three story house with faded yellow bricks. I do not know if the house was in a town or in the country but the backyard was fairly large and had trees all around the perimeter, though there were no trees or shrubs on the actual yard. It was autumn and the entire backyard was covered in leaves of various orange hues.


At the beginning I stepped out of the backdoor of the house (I do no recall anything about the inside) and I saw two middle-aged women frantically stuffing leaves into black garbage bags. There were three black garbage bags lined up on the edge of the small wooden porch (just to my right) and almost at the same time I saw them, the women saw me and froze in place and stared at me with shocked looks on their faces. One of the women (with dirty blond hair) kind of speed walked over to me and asked what I wanted in a nervous manner while the other woman (with dark brown hair) continued with the frantic leaf stuffing. I gestured to the house and said I was here to stay a few nights. Apparently the place was a bed and breakfast inn or something. The blond woman seemed disoriented for a moment than apologized and showed me to a room.

I returned to the backyard as the sun was setting and found the women were still frantically putting leaves into garbage bags, but were also burning some in a firepit in the middle of the large yard. I went over to them and asked why did they not just burn all the leaves and though the brunette responded, I cannot recall exactly what she said. Something about it taking to long or something? It was then that I noticed there was something burning at the bottom of the pit that was not wood or leaves but I did not say anything. In the morning I went into the backyard and the women and garbage bags were gone. I went over to the firepit and tried to see what was at the bottom now that the fire was out. I could see the charred remains of what looked like a human torso and head. I was not scared, just a bit disgusted and I went back into the house.

When the two women returned, I asked them about the body in the firepit and the blond woman broke down and started crying while the brunette woman paced nervously around the room. They admitted to murdering a man who had checked in a few days before but they swore it was in self defense. The brunette woman said they burned the head and torso in the fire and dumped the arms and legs in various leaf filled garbage bags around the area. The two women seemed scared and genuinely felt guilty so I told them to gather the clothes they were wearing during the murder and to gather some bleach. We dunked the clothes in the bleach then burned them when they dried. I asked the women to find a bucket and when they returned we shovelled the ashes from the fire pit into the bucket. Then we dumped the ashes from a moving vehicle along a desolate road somewhere in a deep forest.

When we returned to the bed and breakfast inn, there was a police crusier in the driveway and the two women began to panic. I told them to calm down because the police do not know anything and are probably just going to question them about any previous guests they have had. We went inside and were questioned by the police officer about the missing man, but he seemed convinced that we did not know anything so he left. After he was gone, the women asked me to follow them out to the firepit. I cannot remember exactly what they did now but somehow the fire pit turned into a large well with a ladder leading down. The women said I could escape through here and I said goodbye and climbed down into the darkness.

It did not take very long for the ladder to lead out into an bright open area. At first I thought it led outside but then I realised it was some sort of dungeon that was just very well lit. The only way I can describe it is as a battle area in a first person shooter videogame like Quake or Halo or something. Anyway, it was very maze like and everything was made of sienna coloured bricks. Half of the area was underwater. When I first came out of the well hole there were three small flying black ship things that opened fire at me. I ducked under something and waiting for the ship things to pass. They dissapeared through a hole in a wall high above me. I came out of my hiding spot and looked down and saw some passageways under the water. I dived into the water and tried to reach the them but I was pushed to the other side of the dungeon by a strong current. I pulled myself up onto a ledge and saw some other people attempting to reach the underwater tunnels as well, but they seemed to be having the same problems as I.


The dream gets fuzzy here. There was something to do with a competetion between the other swimmers and I and something about those dark ships coming back but I cannot really remember the rest. I do not recall if I, or anyone else, ever made it out of there.