Distorted Chambers In The Realm Of Dreams - Chapter 8

Dwelling Before An Evil Fortress

The sky was a pinkish color as if a storm had been coming. A foggy light kind of afterglow in light hues of pale rose hung overhead. I looked up and then absently back down to the tame landscape that surrounded me. Here and there were shrubs and trees, and other foliage. The trees were dead and blackened, but somehow they seemed as a shelter for the smooth mossy ground below their thick branches. The ground was completely even as a marble floor might have been. The branches never moved with the wind, the charred-black color of them seemed to give off a high gloss of moisture that had clung to the dry bark like large, suspended raindrops until they were absorbed into the bark itself to keep a glossy appearance.

Amid this was a little glass structure, like a greenhouse. I lived there. Inside I had furniture and old lamps and rugs. I'd sit and read and do everyday things. In the open, surrounded by tainted glass and the ever warm atmosphere all around me inside and outside. I went inside to rest. I knew I couldn't be seen but I could see far enough away, through the trees, through the eerie forest-like realm, the dark fortress that lay on its borders. To me, it had always seemed like a fortress. Giving thought to the amount of time I must have been here as I had in some strange way grown accustomed to it and that it was part of the world I inhabited. I knew not of the length of time I was in this realm. It seemed years in this frame but as always, only hours had passed. I was somewhere I had been before but I had no prior recollection. Time was not measured here though.

I sighed. I opened the thick wooden door and went back outside. When inside, the clouds seemed to envelope the small dwelling and all around it. And when looking up, a full moon shown as hazy light that never moved and was best seen in the center of a clearing encircled by trees. As I walked further through the trees I found that the shadowy structure was indeed a fortress. It seemed empty. Abandoned. I heard something from inside. At first an echo and then a loud clanging as if something heavy had fallen from a great height from inside barren walls.

I fled to another side of the fortress and stood upon the balcony of its front structure.
"How. . .did I get here?" I asked myself, and ducked down. I looked around and saw an old garden path that lead to what appeared to be an empty pond, and beyond that, a lone wall as if it was merely built as an obstacle against the wind. At the front there was a dark passageway. I looked up again. The same sky hung overhead. It was night. I looked at the windows of the fortress and peered inside. The windows having a clear glass and framing in sections in modern day style. But the walls of stone were of a long ago era. A time when castles were built. More noises emitted from inside but there was nothing there. No life force of any kind. It was as if the sounds were mute to all else, unknowing to any sense of fear or any outside presence whatsoever.

I sat on a fallen stone that was against the outer wall and must have toppled from the roof, from some past earthquake or strong winds. I felt that within the fortress there was finally nothing evermore to heed. I stood up and shuttered because somehow I remembered that's how gateways were opened and used. When there was no guard. I began to move away and the gravity of the grounds on which I moved, they pulled heavier, so I moved slower. I broke free of the pull when I focused on and connected with the moon, and at a quicker pace I ran back into the forest. I was free of the grip of the fortress grounds. There was something evil there.

I headed back to my hidden abode.

Circa 1996

Because of the vivid imagery of this dream, and how clear and lucid it was, I had written a poem (1998) and a song lyric (2016) dedicated to this one dream.