Lucid
an excerpt

I drifted into a dream space, the same blank canvas that I had recreated time after time. I needed to be in the field. I needed to go to the forest and find Tam. I opened and closed my eyes, concentrating on the field, picturing it in my mind, but each time I opened them the canvas was still blank. Nothing was happening. I tried picturing Tam, picturing the flowers of the field. I tried to feel the breeze that swept over the landscape.
I closed my eyes one more time and then I felt a shift.
But when I opened my eyes I was not in the field at all. I was in my bedroom standing outside my body and looking over it. The room was still and quiet. I could see the light from the street lamp coming in through the window. I felt the warm in and out of my breathe and I felt alert. I stepped up to the bed and looked down over my body. I was sleeping, lying on my back with one arm over my chest and the other at my side.
Suddenly, something grabbed hold of me and ripped me back by the ankles. I grabbed on as hard as I could around the torso of my body, but my grip was not tight enough and I was starting to slip. I tried to hold on by my arm with one hand, but I felt myself slipping more and more. I knew I was not going to be able to maintain my hold much longer, so I started scratching myself with my free hand anywhere I could reach, on my chest, my neck, the side of my face so that I would leave some trace that I was there, so that someone would see what was happening to me. I felt my fingernails sink deep into my flesh and tear across my shoulder, but it seemed to leave no mark. I tried to grab my hair, but my hand slipped and I was pulled away.
I opened my eyes and woke up in the same position that I had just seen myself in. My heart was beating rapidly deep in my chest. I felt paralysed, afraid to move. The dawn was just breaking.

© Aaramë 2007. All rights reserved.