Night of September 18, 2024
I was walking through a mall or a university campus — it's hard to pinpoint what the location was — with two other people on a sunny day. One of the people was my cousin, Shahnza. I was leading them with purpose. We were looking for a specific destination and I had already scoped out a route prior to this. Notably, the route I had found was the most direct one, but also went through areas we were not supposed to be in.
We walked through the busy, public area and through a door that led to a quiet area further into the building. The space was long, narrow hallways with doors lining both sides. It was lit with this peach light coming from the lightbulbs. This was not a public place. When we stepped into the hallway, I quietly told the others that we were in a dream-related place and to be prepared for that.
We quickly and quietly walked through the hallway, passing open doors with people laying down in beds in them, almost like a hospital. The people had blue tissue wrapped around various parts of their bodies and the tissue was often ripped. For the most part, we managed to avoid the staff in the area.
At one point, to avoid being detected, we stepped into a large room that had a person sleeping in it. However, it didn't work and a female staff member caught us. While she was telling us we weren't supposed to be in here, she secretly handed me a blue pen, helping us. We quickly exited the room and I drew mustaches on the three of us to help us blend in to the space better.
Eventually, we exited the peach-lit dream hallway and were in a dark, cavernous space. The space was underground with a body of water. It was sparsely lit by streetlamps. At this point, we were found out and started running to avoid being caught.
We ran through a series of gates and found ourselves at one that was a sort of puzzle. I remembered that I had been here before and done this before — I swear I had dreamt about this place before, but I can't remember that dream —, so I lifted the gate in front of me "past 10", as I remembered. There were numbers on the ceiling that started at 1 and kept going. I frantically yelled at one of the people with me to open the gate on the floor, which they did. We went inside and I yelled for Shahnza to join us, which she did. Once Shahnza was inside, I closed the gates.
We ran away, towards another gate. As we were running, one of the people chasing us caught up to the gates we had closed. I remarked in my head that this went much better than the last time I had done this, which was a much closer call. When we reached the gate we were running towards, a person ran up and opened it for us, allowing us through. This was also someone I recognized as having helped me the last time I was here.
The dream shifted and I hesitate in saying this was a different dream because it feels like the same one somehow. In this dream, I wasn't me. I was an older woman, specifically a mother with a soldier for a son, and a witch. I was still in this dark, cavernous place, but now I was with a bunch of other people, some soldiers. It was wartime and I was here to convince them of something.
I explained the ritual that they could do to help themselves somehow. I gave my son a tote bag with things inside with a sad, but tepid feeling that I was somehow hurting or sacrificing him to do what I needed to. He seemed to share my sadness, a muted disappointment perhaps at being placed in this role. My son didn't want me to do the ritual I was going to do. He knew it was dangerous and had consequences for me in the past.
I lit a candle with my lighter that looks like a pack of cards. My son got up to tell me not to do this. I told him it would be okay. Even as I said that, I was acutely aware that it would be okay for me in a way, but not for him. Something about the shadows stirred. There was an air of anticipation. Something big was about to happen.













