The Dream Stones [PIC2016]

Demon. It had to be. The thought echoed through his mind.

As slowly as his consciousness had tried to return, once again it was slipping away leaving him with the same images wandering unattached in his mind.

His body felt like it was on fire. As the scream welled up in his throat he glimpsed a nurse pushing the plunger on a syringe and the world gave way to sleep.

He felt himself straining against some unseen force determined to hold him captive. His arms felt as if they would break from the effort. And the effort overwhelmed him.

Light. Just light. Then, slowly, shapes began to appear. Fuzzy, strange, unrecognizable shapes. Nothing was familiar. Even the way he saw through his own eyes seemed foreign. He tried to speak but the tube in his throat had other ideas. His eyelids slowly closed as though he was watching a garage door lowering into its resting position.

He hated these times, when his mind was left on its own to do as it pleased. The images haunted him, would not leave him alone. They forced him to look at them.

Demon! His body twitched in reflex to his desire to flee. There was nowhere to run. The demon was within him. He invited it in... not willingly, but still, it had been his words that conjured the demon and gave it cause to seek him out. It started when he transcribed the tablet. That had to be it. Other people on the team had talked about some strange dreams, but they were fine. Just a bit freaked out by how real they seemed to be. He dismissed their tales as the result of too many scary movies in their youth mixed with the ancient castle site they were excavating. Now he wasn't so sure it was all a dream.

He could still see the tablets in his mind. He had only read the one, and that led him to his present condition. He was wary of even looking at the others. If just reading a tablet could land him in a spot like this, what might happen if he continued with the others? Would it be the end of him or would he find a way to free himself from this torture?

He remember first turning the tablets over and seeing the symbols so clearly cut into it's mirror like surface. He had to take the chance. It might be his ony way out of the mess he had gotten himself in to.

“The demon is neither friend nor foe. He only makes the journey possible. Your actions, and yours alone, decide if he remains neutral.”

What the hell did that mean? What journey? Where am I? His brain scrambled to make sense of it all. Again, he looked at the polished surface of the tablet in his mind's eye.

“To touch the stones is nothing. It is the dream that follows that shows what might have been. Dream with the stones in hand, and you live the dream as life itself.”

The stones? There had been two round, colored stones in the crypt. One a brilliant blue, the other a bright purple. They were not like any gem stones any of the team had ever seen before. Each of them commented how smoothly polished the stones were as they were passed around for inspection.

That was why his team reported such intense dreams. And he had fallen asleep with the stones in his hand! The tablets were right. He was living the dream as if it were real. And it was killing him.

The shattered dolls that peered at him from under his sister's bed. She would rearrange them every day to scare him again every night. The time he nearly drown on the camping trip. Once resuscitated the first thing he saw was trees from his prone position on the forest floor. The statue, behind which his team would find the entrance to the crypt where the stones were laid to rest as if they had lost a life of their own. The web in the porthole. The only feature that offered a glimpse of freedom on the ship was obviously a trap for any who tried to pass through it. Who knew a web portal could be so dangerous?

In his mind he pictured himself turning over the third tablet. If there was an answer, it was going to be here for this was the final tablet the team had found.

“Your dream is real, as real as your dream. Death within the dream is death without. To wake from within the dream is to awaken anew.”

Thats it! I just have to make myself wake up in the dream! The next time I feel myself waking I must focus my efforts on waking my dream self, not my real self. That is the only way I will get out of this. I can do this. I don't have to keep living nightmares and dodging death.

Slowly, once again, his eyes started to open. Rambling thoughts began to coalesce into a cohesive plan. Now was the time to free himself. And as his eyes came in to focus, there was the nurse pushing the plunger down. “Sleep for you. You need your strength...”

a reply to: Vroomfondel

I love it. Nice. Where are the photos?

originally posted by: Quantum12
a reply to: Vroomfondel

I love it. Nice. Where are the photos?

I made reference to them but didnt paste them in. And thank you.

a reply to: Vroomfondel

I liked it! Hope he gets out...sounds terrible!

originally posted by: AboveBoard
a reply to: Vroomfondel

I liked it! Hope he gets out...sounds terrible!

Thank you very much. :-)

(I hope he gets out too)

a reply to: Vroomfondel

Hey Vroomfondel,

That was really good.
I used to fall asleep holding a crystal...maybe I won't do that anymore, lol.

S&F
jacy

originally posted by: jacygirl
a reply to: Vroomfondel

Hey Vroomfondel,

That was really good.
I used to fall asleep holding a crystal...maybe I won't do that anymore, lol.

S&F
jacy

Hi Hi,

Thank you very much. :-)

I used to have a giant marble when I was young that I imagined had magical powers. I used to put it on the headboard of my bed at night. Ont night it magically rolled off and smacked me on the forehead. It was not magical...

a reply to: Vroomfondel
I enjoyed reading that one. I have actually enjoyed all the stories I have read today in this contest. Great job!
Good luck!

a reply to: Vroomfondel

Another one that leaves me waiting for more!

That was fantastic!

a reply to: TNMockingbird
a reply to: natalia

Thank you both so much. It is appreciated.

a reply to: Vroomfondel

I love how many completely unique stories have come from the same four images. That was great, really well written.

S&F

a reply to: beansidhe

I know, its neat to see the different interpretations.

And thank you so much for the kind words. :-)

a reply to: Vroomfondel

I agree. Put out 4 photos and everyone has a cool unique story.

a reply to: Vroomfondel

Well done! Just like the pizza sauce commercial; I wonder how many other poor decisions I have made!
S/F

a reply to: Vroomfondel That was excellent, I felt like I was going in and out of the dream state. Very good job describing the waking and dream states blending together.

a reply to: peppycat
a reply to: grayeagle

Thank you both! It is truly appreciated.