Julian's Story: Second Part - The Dreamscape

Julian woke up screaming. Or rather, he woke up inhaling sharply a large amount of air that he thought he was screaming. Reality snapped into his eyes like a rubber band stretched too far and then let go before it split in two. He could feel his neck and pillows were wet with sweat. His room was throbbing. Beside him, the green blip-blip light his mobile phone made was the only thing which made sense. He focused his eyes on that for a few seconds.

He thought about his dream. He couldn’t remember much about what he saw, but what he could remember clearly was the feeling he had. It was dark... though not the murky kind of dark. The darkness seemed like wind, moving. He felt as if he were on top of a rocky crag overlooking the ocean, and the darkness which was the wind was ruffling his hair, blowing in his ear, trying in vain to relieve him of his clothes. Julian felt cold, and at once he hugged himself, exhaling into his hands and rubbing his shoulders to keep him warm (what good that would do, Julian didn’t know).

He stood like that for a moment, looking down at his feet, trying to focus on keeping his temperature up. When he was sure he’d be comfortable enough, he thought of moving. He looked up and forward again, but he couldn’t see a thing, try as he might to focus his eyes. He thought he could see an island far away, but he couldn’t be sure what it was. He wasn’t even sure if there was an ocean before him. For all he knew there might just be a wall a few inches in front of him. Testing this, he tried extending his right hand slowly and cautiously to touch whatever it is he thought was in front of him. Arms outstretched, he breathed a sigh of relief that there was indeed nothing in front of him.

Except something suddenly took a hold of his right wrist and tugged him forward off of the edge of the rocky cliff. All at once, he felt the winds suddenly laughing, rushing past his ears, falling down with him, spiralling around him. Julian shut his eyes tight and covered his ears, waiting for the impact of the rocks or the water below. Either way he knew it was going to be painful. As he was falling, the winds were trying to wrench off his wrists from covering his ears. Julian screamed, but was stopped a split second after. Thud. Red. Fade... then... black...

... then white. And white. And warm, warm light...

And amidst the warm whiteness surrounding him, Julian flickered open his eyes. From afar, he could see a faint yellow-gold glow floating in an irregular path towards him. Closing his eyes again, he felt like he couldn’t care less what it was. Everything didn’t make sense. Colours meant nothing. It would change again any second, he thought. Black, red, black again, then white... So why try to insist that there was something yellow-gold in front of him?

He opened his eyes again. The glow was still there. Only, it was in front of his face now, as if looking into his eyes. Julian couldn’t look away. He knew the glow didn’t have a face, much less a body, but he felt like he was being studied. He was surprised he managed to chuckle a bit, when he thought of the will’ o the wisp. He hated those things. It was especially difficult trying to kill them in the video game he liked playing, but he did so anyway, hence the chuckle. His heart felt warm then. And for a moment, he thought he should be thinking of someone. Missing someone even. But he couldn’t recall who it was...

Then the glow did an unusual thing. Well, it was unusual for Julian. It stopped moving and moved back slowly. And then it started to shake, as if shaking off its skin of golden dust. It looked like it was dancing, shedding off its clothes. Julian felt sick. This time he really wanted to look away. He felt as if it were a pain looking at the glow. He felt dirty. He felt he was being defiled. Like looking at the glow went against all his principles, all he believed in, all he stood for. But he couldn’t look away. The glow held his gaze. Then Julian’s eyes widened. His mouth opened slowly, air went in unbidden. Julian wanted it to stop. He tried lifting his hands to cover his mouth but all his muscles were paralyzed. The glow was entering his body through his eyes, his nose, his mouth. He wanted to scream. He wanted to close his eyes and exhale all of the defilement entering him. And just when he couldn’t take any more, just when he thought everything would go back again, his voice was freed.

And then he woke up.