Beyond Control

08

I'm not a guy who has dreams very often, specifically lucid dreams, but this is one that I'll remember for a long time. I recall waking up in a jail-like bed. Looking around, everything seemed distorted and the walls had a black smoke or void smothering them. 

"What? Where am I?" 

I started to stand up, but I looked at the ground and saw more of the black void and instinctively recoiled backward. Panting from fear, confusion swept over me. Where was I? Why was I here? What was I going to do? 

Looking toward the front of the room, I could faintly make out the bars of a cell door. Was I really in a jail cell? What did I do to be here? Was I the only one here? 

Something caught my attention. A shiny object glistened in the darkness near the handle of the door. I squinted to try to make it out. Was it a key? I swallowed my panic and contemplated whether to try to get it, but it would require stepping onto the floor and reaching my hand into the void. 

No, this wasn't real. I was having some weird nightmare that I saw in a scary movie, right? I haven't done anything to be in jail, and the void was just an effect of the nightmare. This had to be fake. 

I wasn't waking up, though. Why wasn't I waking up? This was fake, right? 

The shiny silver object was still glistening in the void, exhorting me to come and get it. I slowly scooted to the end of the bed and looked at the smoky darkness below me. I took a reassuring breath and slowly rested my feet on the ground. 

It was frigid. The darkness gradually rose from my ankles and filled me with dread. Was I going to make it out of here? 

I tried to step toward the door, but my legs felt fifty times heavier than normal. Dragging my feet, I inched closer to the one thing I knew to do. The void was now up to my knees, progressively filling me with more dread and anxiety as it continued to rise. What would happen if I was swallowed entirely? 

My legs kept getting heavier and heavier, but I still willed myself to keep going. I was about three feet away, but it felt like twenty. I could barely move my lower body, and the temperature was only getting colder by the second. It became hard to feel my legs. 

Almost within arms reach of the silver object, I could now see that it wasn't a key, but some sort of light. I reached out to grab it, but I completely lost the feeling in my legs and fell onto my chest. I tried to get up, but the void clung to my hands, preventing me from doing so. 

No, this couldn't be it. I was so close to reaching the light, the only hope that was in this dreadful cell. There had to be a way out. 

I tried using my ability, but it was like I wasn't on Earth. My connection to the ground was cut somehow. Flexing my hands, I tried and tried again with no success. The void was eating at my extended elbows, as I could do nothing but look down and let my panic take over. 

Was this it? Was I going to die in this dreadful, anxious, depressing, and hopeless room? I looked up to see if the light was still shining, and the one thing that was giving me hope was still there. Trying again to reach it, now with the darkness swallowing my shoulders and up to my neck, my hopelessness won. 

Tears blurred my vision, and there was no way I could wipe them. There was nothing I could do as the void reached my face, completely swallowing me. 

It was like I was falling, but time was in a slowed state and almost felt pointless. The fear was gone, and my mind and body felt ready to give itself up. 

This was it. I closed my eyes and let myself die.

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I woke up screaming and in a wild panic. Panting, I immediately checked where I was and my body to see if the darkness was still engrossing me. Realizing that I was back in my bed, a voice startled me.