Short Story – Dream – Part II

Millions of thoughts crossed my scared mind at that instant, mostly focusing on what the hell is happening and how can I survive. That human figure looks familiar, resembles someone, but whom? It may be ghost of any of my deceased ancestor is visiting me or may be some wandering soul who came back from hell to take some revenge. “How can you be so stupid”, I scolded myself simultaneously consoling,” Don’t worry, an afraid mind can be foolishly illogical”. “This situation needs to be handled, you just can’t bury your head in the sand forever like an ostrich hoping it to get over.” little guy inside my head warned me. I decide to pull myself together and start gathering left over courage to confront the situation.

Swiftly, I took off the blanket to face the terror hanging on the ceiling, a common psychological trait to prove our bravery to our self. But I was expecting a moving fan there, all my hopes shattered when I again saw the same figure staring right into my eyes.

This time I didn’t look away. And suddenly realized, it’s not some ghost or spirit, it was my own reflection I am looking at. I looked around and found the same reflection on each wall. I was relieved and relaxed for a moment that I am not gonna die. But the next moment I am again terrified that what was exactly happening. Where am I, and what happened to my room?

The best scenario explanation is that I am in a dream like Alice in wonderland but this is all look so real. I get off from the bed, the floor was as cold as ice and I can see the same reflection there too. I looked back and found that my bed is also gone.

This is definitely a dream or may be I am hallucinating under the influence of the lethal combination of marijuana and red wine I took last night. “Whatever it is, I need to return back to reality”, my claustrophobia kicked in when I realized that I am confined in a giant glass cube with no possibility to escape.

Over the years, I have learned from Hindi cinema that the most common method of testing whether one is in a dream or not is to give a tight slap right on a face or pinching hard on hand. I choose the latter to break the illusion, “How real it may seem, it’s only a dream. Some lame trick pulled up by the subconscious mind”. Ouchh! An acute pain surged through my hand. The little red patch on my hand proves different opinion about the version of reality. No way out, I start observing my surroundings to find a solution to my crisis.

There was a yellowish hue across the edges concentrating on the corners and fading in the middle. “Help! Somebody help, anybody?” I screamed in vain as fear started creeping in but I can only hear echo of my voice. I tried pushing the glass walls but that attempt also went futile.

“You need to calm down, remember what you always believe in- Every problem has a solution. You just need to look harder”, the little guy inside my head emerged again. I stroked my forehead to tranquilize the anxiety attack and started thinking. Suddenly, it struck to me that the image before me is not mimicking my action, I tried a couple of different maneuvers on different surfaces but they all seem to have independent movement of their own as they have their own mind. Then I realized, all these images are not following general laws of physics. They are neither equidistant nor there are infinite images between two parallel mirrors. I cupped my hand on the glass to look beyond the mirror more clearly.

My eyes widen up in surprise. There are infinite different images swarming in the vast space with no horizon. I sat in one corner looking for support as my whole body started shaking violently. I just saw something I cannot even imagine. There are endless streams of images floating in a space all around me. “What exactly are they?”, all my fear is taken over by the sudden urge of curiosity. I looked down on the floor to acquire more information by concentrating on slow moving images one by one. I saw myself in most of them with many other unrecognizable faces. Tears rolled down my cheeks when I saw my long deceased uncle in one image, next second smile appeared on my face when I saw my very old out of contact friend waving at me. I don’t even remember his name.

It dawned on me, that these are not just any other ordinary images. They are my actually my memories.

To Be Continued…