Bonds Throughout Time

Amelia - Shadows

A cloud of dust makes its way down my throat, clogging my esophagus. I cover my face as best that I can with my cloth-covered hand, but that doesn't seem to keep me from coughing up or destroying my rib cage, as I attempt to continue breathing painfully.

I'm in some hidden tunnel underground and looking at the many rows of books that seem to be in perfect condition, which is surprising considering their environment. Normally, anything in the open air like this should have long since decayed by now just with age and dampness from the air. The only things stopping me from opening or cleaning these relics are the spiders and their thick webs that they threaten to defend if I try to take a book off the shelves.

And also the fact that I'm stuck dreaming the same dream that I've been having for the past month isn't helping me either.

I continue wandering further into the dark tunnel, re-discovering things that I hadn't noticed in past dreams, which is surprising since I've been looking at the same things every night for a month. The items that surround me fill me with a strange sense of comfort. On the first few nights of recalling the same dream, I thought that I was going crazy, especially when I was continually feeling comforted and homely with items that I had yet to see with my own eyes.

My godfather, and favorite uncle, gifted me with a journal on the day of my college graduation. I graduated at the top of my class with a Bachelor's Degree in both History and Literature, he claims that the journal is a precious family heirloom that 'chooses a family member when they come of age.' My parents scoffed and got into an argument telling my uncle that there was no need to be telling me such ridiculous lies anymore now that I am a mature adult. But what my parents don't realize, and probably never will, is that I love my uncle's ridiculous stories that he tells me. I mean honestly, it's the only reason that I had enough courage to go against my parent's wishes for me in college and went to study in areas that I was interested in.

An oil lamp beside me, hanging on the wall and looking ready to fall off its destroyed hinges, begins flickering and I sigh in disappointment knowing that I was out of time for exploring and discovering for another night. I close my eyes and wait for my alarm clock to ring annoyingly in my ears until I'm awake enough to turn it off.

Instead, a shadow flickers past my closed eyelids, I open my eyes wide. Instantly fear races through me as a new introduction gets added to my dream. But I'm only able to make out a blurred shadow as my surroundings change from dark and damp to too bright and early in the morning for a decent human being to be awake.

A blast of cool air hits my exposed sweating skin, making me gasp in shocked surprise, as I sit up from my comfortable position in bed. Another cold blast of wind rattles through my room and it takes me a second to get my bearings together enough to try and figure out where the cold air is coming from.

My brain, still being jumbled from the sudden intrusion in my dream, slowly forces my body to make its way over to my window. Which happens to be wide open for some reason. And I make sure that it's tightly shut and locked before going back to my bed again. I know that there's no point in trying to fall asleep again because it's not going to happen. It didn't the first night so there's no reason why it should start working for me now, a month later. I reach over to my desk to turn on my lamp grab my sketchbook and pencils and attempt to draw my secret tunnel again.

I've never had any interest in creating my art until I started getting these strange dreams. My sketches have been horrible and farther from the truth than I ever thought that they would be. But as time passes I'm slowly starting to get better with reliving my dreams.

Tonight's drawing is the only one though that matches what I saw in its entirety, at least the most that I saw of the strange shadows. It almost looks like a person the more that I think about it and the closer that I look at the drawing.