A Waking Nightmare

I dreamed of you last night... I was standing on the edge of a dark, dead forest. It was night time and the pale light of the full moon projected a silhouette of dread in front of me. You appeared, you took me by the hand and you assured me that everything would be okay. You guided me through the brambles and as we walked, the hard ground turned to soft grass, the dead trees blossomed and sunlight filtered in from behind us stopping dead against the invisible wall of darkness in front of us.

Suddenly the scene changed, we were in a small rowing boat during stormy weather and rough seas, something happened; I fell in. I struggled against the wild tide and tried to climb back into the boat, I slipped and started to sink. As I began to sink into the depths below, a hand reached out and grabbed me. It was your hand. You pulled me back to the surface, the sea was calm, the sky was blue.

I woke up, I was stuck in the forest again, barefoot, thorns under every step. I walked on bleeding feet for hours never finding the edge of the forest. After hours of excruciating pain, I gave up and passed out. I found myself in the water again, I drowned for hours and eventually I sank, I lay at the bottom of the sea waiting, drowning, over and over again.

I passed in and out of consciousness for years, I tried to swim back up but the pressure of the sea was too much. I thought of you through all of this, your image made the pain go away for a short while. Boats would pass over from time to time and I hoped that you would be there to save me. But each boat passed over with out slowing down and soon I was unsure as to how much of the sea had been replaced by the salty tears I had cried waiting for you to come back for me and pull me from this nightmare.

You were not there. I did not wake up.