2. The Dream

"...let it be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Forever and ever, amen." We all know dreams are absurd, right? One minute I was in school, the next I'm in a church, worshipping the Lord. I mean, of all things I could dream about, why that one? How could I possibly dream about the Lord while I'm in this hole? It didn't make any sense. But then again, this is hell...what did I expect?

As soon as we said "amen", the prayer ceased. Time stopped for everyone in the building, except for I. "What the hell?", I said in disbelief. I surveyed the whole congregation, trying to figure out why everyone freezed. One-by-one, I conducted my research, and az I was about to leave, I heard a voice. "help!... help me, please!". I was startled, and that made me feel a bit uneasy. I dismissed the cry for help, thinking my mind might be playing tricks on me.

"Please don't leave me here", the voice shouted once more. Ok, now I'm getting paranoid. "Who could it be?", I wondered. I paid double the attention to try and figure out where the voice was coming from. After a couple of minutes, I finally got to where the sound came from, and this was a relief, for it meant I wasn't losing my mind. I always try to pin point a peculiar sound, so that I know where it's from, and safely conclude that I'm not going crazy.

Anyways, back to the sound. I traced it back to the preachers pulpit. Remember, everyone else was still frozen in time. Except for me and the owner of the strange voice. I slowly opened the pulpit shelf, and what came out was the strangest thing to ever happen to me. The voice was coming from...from me. As strange as this sounds, it's true. My theory is that he's a manifestation of my subconscious mind.

"Who are you?", I asked cautiously. I wasn't ready for the response, and I wish I knew that this was only a dream. He did not answer my question, just handed me a piece of paper and a pen. He told me to focus and think deeply about the pen and paper. "Let your mind direct your hand, close your eyes. Be one with the pen and paper." He kept asking me questions, enquiring about whether I'm focused or not. As soon as he felt my focused energy, he started taking in a weird tongue. A language I had never heard before.

That's not the strangest thing tho. What's strange is what happened to me as he was speaking in tongues - my hand kept moving, and writing down what he said, word for word. Since this was a dream, I didn't notice anything strange then: all seemed normal to me. The mind can surely play tricks on a person. *snap, "Open your eyes", he said to me. I came out of the trance the moment I heard his fingers snapping, and as I opened my eyes, he was gone. The pen and paper vanished too.

I tried searching for them, wanting to know what exactly was I writing in my trance state. As I panicked, looking for two pieces of stationery that were in two of my hands, the congregation regained consciousness and the flow of time went back to normal. I wanted to tell someone what happened while they were frozen in time, but then I remembered what my 'friend'. said; "Don't trust anyone in your dreams". This, for me, was a paradox. Why? Because, if it's true that I shouldn't trust anyone in my dreams, then why should I trust HIM? I was in a dilemma.

I stepped out of the church building for some fresh air, while the congregation continued as if nothing happened. Well, for them, in their own perspective, nothing happened. Outside, I tried to uncover the mystery behind what just happened, but for whatever reason, I fell asleep in my own dream. This gave rise to "a dream within a dream".

The second dream was straight up weird. I doubt it could mean anything. Oh, how wrong was I. Remember the fellow who gave me a pen and paper, my subconscious? Well, he was back, and this time his messages were more cryptic than ever. It was very abstract. Had something to do with a ball, a door, death and an eye. These things didn't make any sense whatsoever.

It was the same procedure as in the first dream: pen, paper, focus. I did this for about 5 dreams within a dream. Each level was vivid and absurd than the one before. Nonetheless, I continued to do what my subconscious asked of me.

In the sixth and final dream, it was almost impossible for me to utilise my mind. I became 'brain dead'. Those were way too many dreams to handle. I did what was asked of me regardless. This dream was the one which made the least sense. It went as follows:

I went into a room, and suddenly everything was white. Nothing but white. No furniture, no windows, nothing! It was creepy, but at least it wasn't all black. As soon as I had that thought, the room became all black. This was weird, how did I do that? For some reason, I started thinking about a zebra, and all of a sudden, the room became striped like a zebra.

That was the last straw! I tried to go back whence I came, but there was a problem tho - The door had magically disappeared. Or maybe the black and white stripes placed it in camouflage. "This is thine mind - do unto it and thou wish", a loud voice with said to me. I looked all over, but I couldn't see where it came from. That's when it hit me: "I'm dreaming", I said to myself.

The voice told me that the room was my mind. This would explain why everything I thought about came to be. Within 30 minutes, I had grasped the full potential of my mental prowess. I felt like a god inside my own head. I could fly, lift super heavy objects, create fire, ANYTHING! This was when I understood the power of the mind. I then kept exercising the power of my mind.

"You are ready, my child", the same voice said. "Ready for what", I asked. "At least show yourself. How will I know I'm not going crazy?" Right after I said that, a huge light was shining in front of me. It approached ever so slowly. As I extended my hand to look at the face of this mysterious man, I woke up. I tried desperately to go back to the dream, but that didn't happen.

"I gotta tell Julian about this", I thought to myself. I got out of bed, and right when I try to go out, I noticed that my room had been painted white, and I drew everything from my dream on my walls. I went running towards Julian's room. "Jules! Jules!". He opened his door, and without thinking twice, I grabbed his hand and we headed to my room.

"You have to see this", I said.

"Slow down, what could it possibly be?"

"No time to chat. You'll have to see this yourself"

"What the hell!", he said in shock as we entered my room.