Dreams Remembered

Chapter Four: Snakes and Darkness

Chapter Four: Snakes and Darkness

*********************************************************************

Specific Dream Characteristics

Kinesthetic control.

Changing environment.

*********************************************************************

            I dove off the diving board into the deep 13-foot deep end of my high school’s swimming pool. Slicing into the water I felt a wonderful sense of bliss, escaping the heat of the summer afternoon. Happy. The best and singular term for describing my carefree, content, and calm self. Nothing felt better that sinking down into the cool, clear, and blue water.

            As I swam down to the bottom of the pool I noticed a void of any other person in the water. I reached the bottom and touched, pausing to absorb the sensation of pressure crushing my ears. I sat down on the bottom, eyes closed and relaxing. Almost out of breath I pushed off and began my ascent.

            Something was wrong. The surface that was mere feet away earlier now appeared to be miles away. Concerned, I began to swim earnestly for the top. It was very, very far away from me. Kick, pull, kick, pull. I was relying on my training from being on the swim team to get myself to the top. I was nearing my goal when the walls of the pool disintegrated. It broke into smaller and smaller digital squares. It revealed a dark, black vacuum of space where the walls once existed.

            No longer concerned with survival, I stopped, utterly unable to comprehend what I had just seen. I was still fairly deep down and felt suspended in the water. I had no need for air, only to stare at the new world around me. Light poured down into the water, into the deep black void that surrounded me. It was as black as a moonless, cloudy night. Then I saw them.

            Snakes. Hundreds upon thousands of snakes. They swam at me out of the blackness from every direction. Hordes of little shiny black snakes all speeding in my direction. They flashed brilliantly white fangs that seemed to glow. And their eyes. Their eyes were a hollow yellow that seemed to look into my soul. Looking through my petrified eyes into my innermost being. As fear sent chills through my body I felt another surge of pain telling me to get air. But I looked into the eyes of the snakes and they seemed to be whispering to me; “You have no escape.”

            I thrashed around in the water trying to reach the surface. Searing pain wracked my entire body through and through. I had no hope of ever accomplishing my goal. I was no nearer to the surface than when I had begun as the snakes came and swarmed around me, cutting off all motion. They wrapped themselves around me and slid in a clockwise motion around my body. Then they began to slowly bite me. One, by one, by one. I felt myself slipping into a soft, dark, inky blackness. I had no more thoughts concerning me and no pain, only peace. Simplistic peace. Slipping into the dark. Nothing. Darker still. Nothing. Black. Nothing. Dead.

                Awake.