It’s been a while! I think going
back to work quashed the time I was able to spend in the morning writing my
dreams out. I was discussing disturbing dreams vs nightmares with my friends
lately and what distinguishes the two, for me, is when my friends from the waking
world get involved. For example, I had a dream where someone got dragged into a
room by an inhumanly long, bandaged arm, then the door closed and blood exploded
through the keyhole and under the door, and that wasn’t overly disturbing for
me to witness, but the dream I’m about to write concerns the wiping out of the
human race and witnessing the subtle, chronic destruction of a number of my friends.
I was walking along Eldad hill in Plymouth, or rather I was
hurrying. I was aware that a contagion had been placed somewhere along North
Road West and was seeping out, ready to explode. At the crossing leading to
Wyndham square I saw the Incredible Hulk laying on his back on the ground, upper
body on the pavement, lower body in the road and arms spread weakly out at his
sides. I went to him but it was obvious he would be dead soon. I reassured him
that he fought bravely and that he was the best Avenger and soon he passed, his
skin paling once he did.
Upon his death, whatever was on North Road West finally
detonated and a stampede of animals bolted across the road, breaking down the
wooden doors and seeking refuge in the Plymouth College prep school. The sky
had changed now as well: streaks and accents of purple now mottled into the sky,
much as red does on a sunrise or sunset. The purple was localised over a small
patch, presumably where the contagion was, but I knew immediately it would spread.
I followed the animals into the walled grounds, but it was
no longer the prep school, it was a great landscape of rocks, trees, and a path
which led down a grassy hill to a shore where waves swelled and crashed, and
the horizon spread uninterrupted by other landmasses. I felt like it was
relatively safe there but reckoned that the contagion was spreading in the air
so went back to my house on Winston avenue.
The dream then cut to me being awoken at 3am by a phone
call. I was worried a friend of mine was suffering from the
contagion and answered, but as I did a message reading “connection not available”
came up on screen. The call timer was ticking along however, so the call was
happening, but from an impossible number. I put the phone down. Unsure what to
think or feel I went outside and checked the road to see if I could see anyone
in need of help. I had no idea what damage the contagion would cause, or over
what timescale so I was on high alert. As I walked down the road and away from
the house, a shadowy, silhouetted figure rushed out from the top of the road
and ran into my house. I detected its movement as soon as it appeared, shouted
it to stop and chased it back to the house, desperate to bar its entry. I
arrived at the house a fraction later than the figure and reached out, in vain,
to grab it as it bustled through the door and disappeared up the stairs. Was it
in my room? The bathroom? My housemate's room? Had it gone and hidden in the loft? Had
it gone to kill Kiki (my pet cockatiel)? These were all questions that were buzzing in my head and
I had no easy way of answering them.
An indeterminate amount of time then passed and the three
following passages may have happened in any order after any amount of time.
I was sitting in my bedroom and my housemate poked his head round
the door, he was looking restless and unwell and was shifting around
uncomfortably. He looked into Kiki’s cage and stated that he couldn’t see her.
I looked in the cage but she was obviously sitting on her top perch by her food
dish. I said that there were some vegetables pegged up by that perch, which may
have been obscuring his view but I felt like that was a weak excuse.
My housemate then said he was suffering from something called ‘speciesosis
(species-osis)’ where he confused animals as others, and simply couldn’t see
some animals. I was very worried for him.
In another scene the same housemate and I were in a hotel somewhere,
potentially in Cornwall. We wanted to go somewhere but didn’t know how to get
there and were weighing up the options. He wanted to drive but I was cautious
that he, and I, and everyone else, were being driven subtly insane by the
contagion. I dissuaded him from taking the road as he was unsafe to drive and
everyone else out there would be unsafe as well. We considered asking some of
the other people in the hotel bar but ruled that they were insane as well and
couldn’t be trusted. In the end we found a map in a nearby pamphlet holder and
plotted a course that way. We went by foot and were vigilant for any “crazies”
that tried to attack us.
I had been going regularly to the walled garden to see the
animals and admire the scenery. There was a crow that I had befriended which
would fly from its tree at the end of the path to my hand when I got to the
bottom of the hill. Sometimes there would be multiple crows, sometimes it was
just the one. But the crow would always come to my hand each time I went there.
One day, as I got to the bottom of the hill the crow didn’t come. I walked
along the path, puzzled by this development. I looked through the row of trees on
my left and into the field beyond but it was empty. Not a crow to be seen.
There was nothing in the field to my right either. As I got to the end of the path,
by the tree that the crow would usually perch in, a tall woman, taller than 6ft and dressed in long, flowing black clothes came around the corner. I was under the impression
that the crow had become this lady, but was still the crow, so I held out my hand
as I would for the crow to perch on. The lady approached my hands and kissed my
fingers, as the crow would have pecked at food I had in my hand.
(On reflection of this passage and the ‘species-osis’ that my housemate suffered from, it’s quite likely I too had developed that condition and lost the ability to distinguish between crows and people. This means that I
would have perceived a crow as a potential mate which has impact in the final
scene of the dream)
Next, a number of people from choir were at a party, as were two other stallholders from Mt Edgcumbe. The venue was a large mansion, similar to the
wedding venue I played at in December. The morning after I had no memory of the party except seeing a
long black coat on the ground, asking if it belonged to someone, and their denying it. One of the stallholders had taken a number of photographs throughout the night including me, a friend of mine, and someone else dressed up and decorated as living statues stood by a
fireplace. Other photos showed choir members collapsed on the floor. I hadn’t
been drinking so the only explanation could have been amnesia caused by the
contagion. From this point I starting regularly taking pictures throughout the
days to chronicle what I did as I didn’t remember it after a while. It seemed
that my affliction from the contagion was amnesia. Which I considered fairly
light, considering other people had been driven crazy, to the point of taking
their own lives, others had physically atrophied and died that way. Others were
killed by insane people and others had simply vanished.
No matter what order the previous scenes happened in, the
following was the final scene of the dream.
I was back in my bedroom. The sky
was now purple. The contagion had spread worldwide. There was a woman in my
bed, I don’t know who they were but I was familiar with them in the dream and got the impression that we were a couple. We were watching a news broadcast on
television saying that “the aliens were taking to the ocean”. They then showed
footage of odd, grey, hybrid forms taking to the ocean. Some resembled oarfish,
others were humanoid with webbed hands and feet. Others resembled merfolk, with
the upper half of a person and the bottom half of a fish, or perhaps a shark. One
creature was the size and shape of a whale. All of these creatures were
swimming away from a shoreline and disappearing into the depths. The news
reporter said that the human population was estimated between 5 people and 4000
people. I switched off the news, looked at the woman in my bed and reassured
her that we’d won. I then went over to a clutch of black eggs and cradled one
of them in my arms, holding it like it was my own child.
That was the end of the dream.
*** Commentary! ***
This was a harrowing dream to recall, and I woke up feeling
distressed. I am fascinated by these sorts of dreams that cover such a
threatening event and over such a detailed timeframe, however, witnessing the
end of the world and the mental dissolution of my friends and myself was
certainly harrowing. On reflection of the dream I get the impression that the
contagion acted by altering the DNA of either humans or every lifeform on Earth.
I feel like people whose DNA was only altered got off lightly, other humans had
their DNA simply destroyed, case in point, the Hulk. The Hulk’s DNA had already
altered by gamma radiation, so the DNA altering property of the contagion might
simply have destroyed his DNA beyond repair, leading to his death.
The purple colour of the contagion might suggest it was a
kind of UV radiation but that was never proved in the dream.
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