Dream

I had a dream.

I don't remember when it happened—yesterday? A week before? For all I know, it could have been tomorrow! I don't think I'm making much sense right now, but these days, what does make sense, right?

My brain feels like mush right now.

In the dream, I was in that dark place again, where I fought the jaguar after "drinking" its heart. But no, this place felt different—darker, even emptier... deeper? I don't know how to describe it, but I do know one word that describes how I felt there, and that word is...

Lost.

.

.

.

For a long time, I just stood there, motionless, until after an unknown eternity, I finally took a step, and then another, and another. For another eternity, I walked forward, and everything around me stayed the same empty void—until it didn't.

Crunch. Crunch.

Snow. The ground was now snow, and suddenly, I was walking in a pine forest with snow falling from the sky.

The forest before me was the same as always, with tall pines lined up, their branches heavy with snow. The white ground crunched beneath my feet, each step familiar. The air was cold and crisp as light clouds of mist rose from my breath with every exhale.

I quickly realized where I was—this was familiar. This was the place where I died. But now, it was eerily quiet, with only the sound of my steps for company. Looking down, I noticed I wasn't in my body anymore; I was wearing the leather boots from my time in the army, and if I remembered correctly, if I walked a little farther...

Whoosh!

The river. That strange river that made me fall. It was just as I remembered—violent and ferocious, yet methodical in the way it swept through, dividing the world in two. It stood there, proud, and I could swear it had a mind of its own with the way it shimmered.

For the first time since arriving there, I decided to turn around and go back the way I came. But when I turned...

Clack.

I was now stepping on a floor of stone bricks, and looking around, I could tell I was inside a fort. Even though it had been years since I'd last seen one of those, I couldn't forget that architecture—those identical dark stones. This was an imperial fort.

Brrrru! BOOM!

The snow had stopped, and now a raging storm consumed the dark sky.

It was at this moment that I sensed something was wrong. A dreadful feeling overtook me in an instant. My heart tightened, and all the air left my lungs. Like that time with the snake, every cell in my body screamed for help.

'RUN, RUN, RUN, RUN, RUN, RUN, RUN!'

Only this time, the feeling was a thousand times more desperate.

I began to run for my life, thunder and lightning crashing into the fort's walls around me. I felt it—something had started to chase me. No, something had always been chasing me; I just hadn't felt it until now. And it was closing in, unaffected by my speed or detours. It was toying with me.

As I sprinted through the wide stone corridors, I could hear screams echoing from the walls. I couldn't make out the words, but I understood the terror in their voices.

'Help! Somebody help me!'

'I don't want to die here!'

'Save me!'

Those were their cries—before the thunder came and swallowed every sound.

BOOOOOOOM!

And I ran and ran, but no corridor is infinite. Eventually, I reached a wall, and I could feel IT right behind me. Moments before it reached me, I turned to face what had destroyed the fort, expecting to see some kind of monster.

But all I saw was…

M̴͖͙̯̯̝̈́͗̍̑Y̷̡̼̼̼̓̀Ṣ̶̆͆̈É̷̹̓L̴̻͓̹̹̩̎̎͋̃͝F̸͓̞́

.

.

.