From the Depths of the Unconscious: Dreamscape

Jonathan Garrett

As I lay sleeping in my bed, the deep darkness envelops me like a dark shroud. Frozen tendrils of fire wrap themselves around my body and drag me down into the abyss. Around me I hear sounds that I cannot begin to explain, they are a mixture of horrors and terrors and happiness and celebration. There are brief flashes of light that bombard my vision with images of the vast oceans, the green fields, the majestic mountains, and other things which I am unable to comprehend. Suddenly, the light flashes faster and the voices become louder. It feels as though my body is being torn apart and then…the flashing stops. Silence.

I look up and see before me the once great City of Rust. A dark cloud of smog and pollution hangs heavy over the city now and even wafts down the street in long trails of choking fog. However, the giant factories of this city now stand like silent sentinels; all work in them has long since ceased and their fires have gone cold. I walk the empty streets alone and listen for any sounds of life. At first I hear only the faint dripping of water, then in the distance I hear the people screaming and crying in the narrow alleys where they hide from what little light filters down through the thick clouds.

I go to where they are and they hide their faces from me. They are ragged things covered in dirt and grime, much like the city itself. Soon, The Dark Things come for the people and take them away to some unknown and far away place. A terrible place, where they will never break free from. The Dark Things pay no attention to me and merely go about their business of collecting the huddled masses. The people do not struggle, as if they are resigned to whatever fate they are being led to. The people make no sounds now as they are led away.

A bell rings. It echoes hollowly through the cavernous City of Rust. It continues to ring and I follow it to its source. Darkened store fronts gape at me, their mouths filled with broken glass and faded signs. There is no motion among the city. No wind at all or any living thing. All those who once lived here have been taken away. I walk past bent light poles that reach to the ground, as if stepped upon by some giant. Rows of cars lay empty, as silent as the rest of the city. They are covered in rust and the metal crumbles at the slightest touch. I walk past them and continue through the city.

The road ends at the tallest tower, atop which there is the Temple of Memories. I climb an endless flight of stairs to get there. A row of white columns lead me into the hazy interior. I step inside the Hall and at first I see nothing. The fog begins to swirl about me and shapes being to appear. At first they are too faint to make out, but they soon begin to materialize. I see them clearly now, they are the heads of people I once knew. They float in front of me and all around me. They speak to me. They speak questions for which there are no answers and give me the answers to questions that I dare not utter, or even think about. My vision blurs and my head throbs with some unknown pain. I clap my hands to my ears, shut my eyes, and scream at the floating heads. They shatter like glass and the pieces fall upon the floor like raindrops. There is silence once more in the ancient city.

Then the entire world shatters and I begin to fall. Around me there is not but darkness. I fall for feet, miles, light-years. It seems as if there can be no end. Finally, I exit this dark tunnel and I find myself in a sea of stars. Around me swirl the vast cosmos, extending off into the great Infinite. Nebulae and galaxies the likes of which no man has ever set eyes upon. The very nature of what unfolds before me makes it impossible to put into words and to discover its meaning I would expend a million lifetimes to even scratch the surface.

I breathe in, but there is no air. Suddenly, I’m drowning. I struggle for the breath that is denied me. My vision darkens and the end seems to be rapidly approaching. Then, my hand touches solid ground. I breathe in; there is air. But I almost regret this action, though it saves my life, because the air I breathed in was exceedingly foul and heavy with a noxious stench more putrid than a thousand reeking cess-pools.

I stand up and look around at the landscape I have arrived at. The horror that I see is more horrifying than any man has ever bore witness to. My mind shrieks in terror as I try to keep from passing out. I can almost feel myself going insane because of what I must look upon. Why have I been taken to this place? Why, after seeing the most beautiful and awe-inspiring vision that the cosmos has to offer, must I see this?!

Mountains upon mountains of the rotting dead fill the entire gruesome landscape. Under a blood red sun set against an amber sky, the bodies slowly rot and decay, their skin almost pulsating from the intense heat and humidity. Young and old, men and woman, they are all different and all dead. They stare up at me with sunken eyes, filled with shock, as if they had all died in a single instant and were unable to believe what they had seen.

I close my eyes tightly to block out the sight, but it haunts me even in the dark recesses and I can do nothing about the smell. Oh, the smell. It clings to my skin, my clothes, even to the far corners of my conscious being. It haunts my like some spirit, it taunts my helplessness. I know I must do something to get away, but my senses are so overloaded that I draw nothing but a blank. And what can I do anyway? There are too many bodies around me. Too many. I can’t get away from. There’s nowhere for me to go. Nowhere. Too many.

I open my eyes. An empty plain. There is no sign of the bodies I had seen just seconds ago. I look around me at the featureless expanse. It is a dull grey that matches the sky. Here there is no sun, but light that comes from everywhere and nowhere. Something appears on the horizon, it is far away but coming towards me. I wait for it. The objects take shape. They are the people of the City of Rust, they are bound together by chains and the Dark Things lead them onward. Now they no longer hide their faces and I look at them clearly. After what I have seen un until now I should be shocked at nothing that comes before, but this does even so. Where their faces are, or rather should be, there is nothing but blank flesh. They have no eyes, no noses, no ears, and no mouth; blank faces. The Dark Thing lead them past me and soon they disappear beyond the far horizon.

I hear a faint sound behind me, like the tinkling of broken glass against the ground. I turn. There is a window. It is attached to nothing, merely suspended in space by unknown forces. I walk to it and look through the glass. Beyond the window there is a vast field that stretches from horizon to horizon. It is the place where the children once played, their songs and laughter had filled the air. It is the place where the Seeds of Destiny are now planted. The Seeds sprout and slowly climb upward towards the grey sky. Buds appear on the branches and they soon sprout. They reveal inside each, human hands. A breeze forms and rustles through the branches. The hands wave to me. I wave back and the glass shatters. I awaken.

The End.