Dreams WITHIN Dreams
“Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream?”
- Edgar Allan Poe
The dry autumn air blew a crisp wind through the trees. The lines of maple trees around me whispered as I walked down the path. They drew their last few breaths through the forest; the cold times were coming. Everything would die, for the cold spares no living thing in its grasp.
Another gust of wind hit the rolling hills behind me. The essence was almost bitter-sweet as it blew through the grass. It rolled through it like a massive green, brown wave forever bound to one state, frozen in time.
Light was bouncing from the sky in a million directions touching the dying leaves. As the light touched the vegetation, they began to wither and die in front of me. The world was letting go off its last stretch of life and colors.
As I was standing there, fall became spring. The air was filled with the tender scent of wet dew and the newly budding flowers. All the dying trees sprouted new leaves and fruit. I looked down at my feet and felt the moist dew dripping from the grass.
I sat on the soil and vegetation and stared at the sky. It looked like it was made out of millions of delicate water droplets. Soon I was hypnotized as I sat on the grass and took in my surrounding carefully. Closing my eyes, I breathed in the air and listening to the sound of the wind hitting the grass.
I opened my eyes and they wandered to the sky. It appeared to be cracking. The clouds were filled with hairline fractures stretching around the blue atmosphere. A loud boom echoed through the forest and everything came crashing down. Pieces of jagged sky hit the ground and shattered into a million pieces. I stumbled and watched as all of reality collapsed around me.
I stood up from the couch breathing heavily. Lately my fantasies have seemed like reality. I couldn’t even tell them apart anymore.
I got up and started to slowly get my day started. Carefully I made my breakfast and leisurely ate my toast. Eventually I started to wash my face and did my hair.
I got the hair iron and stared at the reflection through the mirror. My face looked tired and run-down with the puffy bags underneath my eyes.
As I stared at my reflection, my face vanished from the glass and a stairway appeared. Confused, I lightly brushed my fingers on the cold surface and felt myself falling down.
It was cold and musty. I had trouble breathing in the close wooden panels around me.
I looked up and saw nothing, for the darkness was everywhere. I hit the wood panels around me trying to escape. Was this my reality? Or was this yet another dream within a dream?
Soon I felt myself being pushed into a thick mist. It seemed to be never ending as I ran through it. What was happening to me? Was I losing my mind? Yes, I was, but to what extent?
After wandering the misty area, I found a small door underneath my feet. Would this bring me back to reality? I didn’t know for sure, so I opened the door and fell down into the dark hole through the door.
My body twisted and turned as I fell deeper and deeper into the everlasting hole of darkness, descending fast into the shadows.
All of a sudden I just stopped midair in the middle of the darkness. I wasn’t floating or even on solid ground. I was frozen in time.
I couldn’t tell how long had passed, for there was no sun or light whatsoever.
How long until I was in my next dream? Would I be forever confined to dreams within dreams? Had my whole life been a fantasy? In the darkness I waited for the answers I would never receive.
