Image by Dave Senecal
Story by Peggy Mintun
She woke with the knowledge of a different place, and felt as though she had traveled from the far reaches of time from a point where such concepts have no meaning. As she lay motionless, she began to doubt her voyage, even though the memory of it had felt so real just a moment before. She was aware of a chill that resonated from her soul, and felt the loss of something she had once held dear, even though she could not fathom what she was now missing. There was so much to recall, profound thoughts to process, yet she felt all the knowledge that she had gained on her journey begin to slowly trickle away until it all seemed like an ordinary dream. A dream that was so significant upon waking, only to dissolve into nothingness over the course of a second. Suddenly a realization dawned on her. She knew from the evidence in her hand that one reality had in fact merged with another.
She could not remember how or why she was able to disconnect from what she knew as the center of her existence. Somehow she felt her spirit free itself and begin to float around in the blackness within her body before it funneled out and into some other world that was at once adjoining the one she knew and as remote as a far off universe. Her travels were quick and she reached her destination within what she knew was a millisecond. If she were in control, she could have stretched it into eternities lined up side-by-side that contained worlds of her creation with an infinite combination of possibilities to explore.
With its mesmerizing and chaotic cycling of shapes and colors, her destination hypnotized and detained her. Some hues were familiar to her, but then others were odd and exotic. She never realized there could be so many appended spectrums of color. The shapes that floated around her were an amalgamation of recognizable symbols from familiar cultures and mysterious, new structures.
The ground beneath felt solid, but she knew there was truly no foundation under her feet, nor any horizon or firmament. This state of existence was like nothing she had ever experienced. A sudden movement to what she knew as her left attracted her attention and reminded her of something reminiscent of her past, but just out of her grasp like a distant, almost forgotten memory. The world around her shifted and changed to mimic the elements within her thoughts, even the ones that were formerly just beyond her conscious awareness. In a moment the woods where she played as a child surrounded her. The familiar hills and valleys, the overgrown woods, the flowing creeks with fallen tree bridges, and moss-covered forest floor went as far as she could see. But unlike her memories there was a lack of sound, those of the chirping birds and rustling wild life, that was so overwhelming it felt like a vacuous, sucking emptiness. The deficiency of these familiar sounds caused her to feel a void that filled her with intense dread. The skies beyond the tree line darkened, and lightening sparked in the distance illuminating the sky, but again, without the accompanying thunder it reminded her that these surrounding were surrealistic.
Bubbling water in the false creek attracted her attention away from the disturbing soundlessness. Bright blue light broke the surface and a being unlike anything she had ever seen in her life floated toward the edge of the water. The sense of sound returned to her, but only of the vibration that resonated from the surfacing creature. Arachnid-like appendages pushed out of the water and onto the mock landmass before her. Her usual reaction would be one of fear, but the shock of the creature, with its many blue and purplish eyes, vine-like appendages, and glittering jewels held her with its hypnotic gaze.
The entity continued to communicate with her using a series of vibrations she somehow managed to comprehend. She had no need to speak in a manner in which she was accustomed to. In this realm there was no need for what she knew as language. As it spoke to her, a series of ambient noises reached her being. These reverberations somehow became visualizations that drifted into the air that surrounded her in a line of colorful, vertical etchings that looked somehow recognizable.
Instinctively she knew it was an ancient being that confronted her. It whispered to her knowledge of uncharted lands, innovative philosophies, and solutions to mysteries that continue to baffle the earthly experts. The overwhelming influx of information was too much for her to endure, and she began to falter. Although she was in essence only a spirit form in this realm, she felt as though she had lost her physical footing and began to fall forward into the creature. Somehow her hands had returned to her and she grasped a vine on the immortal to prevent her fall. The fleshy tentacle tore from the being and caused a wail of pain to emanate from it that was deafening. The flesh crystallized and turned an angry, glowing pink in her hand as she continued her fall to the forest floor. Her right hand hit hard on what she thought was only fabricated thorny vines, but they immediately drew blood.
The pain caused her to spin out of the reality and the forest that surrounded her melted into angry reds and magentas, with only a distant cry now heard from the ancient one who had retreated into the vast emptiness. Her spirit was drawn back into the physical realm with a speed that was more like a nanosecond, without even time for a thought as to what was happening to her. She hit the surface of her being with a bounce and seemed to lose consciousness as she rejoined her sleeping physical vessel.
Although she knew she felt the evidence in her hands, when she looked down she realized they were only phantom feelings that resonated from such a strong experience. She grabbed her journal and desperately tried to recall the gifts of knowledge the ancient one has bestowed upon her, but realized after a moment that she could only formulate fragments of the information that seemed like inane and disjointed thoughts.
From then on she was haunted by the fragmented information that would return to her throughout her days. On occasion, when the mysteries of the world were solved, uncharted territories were discovered, and innovative philosophies were created, all the new information was like déjà vu to her. These were the things that the ancient one implanted in her subconscious, and it seemed like its only purpose was to drive her into madness.
