Demon Dreamin' DE2020

He felt weightless, burning like he was floating on a sea of flame. As carefully as his consciousness tried to return to him once again he felt it slipping away, leaving him with unattached images wandering through his mind. As a scream welled up in his throat he glimpsed a nurse pushing the plunger on a syringe and the world, what little of it he still clung to, gave way to tortured slumber.

Demons. It had to be. The thought bounced off the walls of his mind and echoed through his body lighting each nerve it hit on fire. In his mind's eye he could see himself straining against some unseen force determined to hold him captive. His arms felt as if they would break from the effort.

His mind raced, searching frantically for a way to escape. The images of the three stone tablets swirled in his mind. He hated these times, when his mind had its own agenda. The images haunted him, forced him to look at them. All three images were etched in his mind yet he only deciphered the first.

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

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 pause to seek him out. What journey had he made? Where was he? His brain scrambled to make sense of it all. He needed answers.

In his mind's eye he gazed at the second tablet.

“The journey made, the dream will follow. Live in the dream as in life itself. You will find your fears.”

What did that mean? He summoned a demon who took him somewhere and now he lives within a dream? Nightmare would be nearer the mark. How is that even possible? His mind screamed questions he had no answers to. If it is all a dream why is the pain so real?

Light. Just light. Then slowly shapes began to appear. Fuzzy, strange, unrecognisable shapes. Nothing was familiar. Even the way he saw through his own eyes seemed foreign. He tried to speak but but nothing save for a pained scratchy groan escaped his lips. Struggling to remain conscious, his eyelids slowly closed as though he was watching a garage door lowering into its resting position.

It was the tablets. It had to be. But how? Were they cursed in some way? He could still picture the tablets. But he grew wary of even looking at them. If just reading a tablet could land him in a spot like this, what might happen if he carefully scrutinised all three? Would it be the end of him or would he find a way to free himself from this torture?

He remembered turning the tablets over and seeing the symbols so clearly cut in their mirror like surface. He had to take the chance. It might be his only way out of the mess he had gotten himself in to. Again, he looked at the polished surface of the tablets in his mind's eye. You will find your fears. Why? Is conquering your fears the way out?

In his mind he read the third tablet. If there was an answer to be found it would be here. There was nowhere else to look.

“A dream within a dream is death without. To wake from within is to awaken anew.”

That's it! He just had to make himself wake up in the dream!

Slowly, once again, his eyes started to open. Rambling thoughts began to coalesce into a cohesive plan. Now was the time to free himself. Light. Unrecognisable shapes began to come in to focus. Now! His mind screamed at him. As he struggled to speak he saw the nurse pushing the plunger down.

“Sleep for you. You need your strength...”

The End

a reply to: Vroomfondel

A true vision of what I would consider hell.

Well written and a read that made me rethink my DNR agreement.

Bravo!

a reply to: Vroomfondel

That really conveyed the sense of helplessness well.

a reply to: Lumenari

Thank you for the kind words.

I kind of thought about that too, the dnr. It made me wonder how much 'self' is really there...

a reply to: SprocketUK

Thank you.

I had an experience recently where someone who meant to help was actually a big part of the problem. It lent itself well to the story.