This story is written by my friend Oroosa Anwar aka AbrinaRaaz
She need likes on her College page to win her writing competition.
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Well this story is just a fictional supernatural story so no need to be a science expert here.
The Fourth Dimension
The toast and milk could hardly slide down my oesophagus as my insides churned at yesterday night's dream. It wasn't the first time I had dreamt ofsomething to distant, yet so close. Over the two years the dreams had started to grow over me and take control of every decision and judgement I faced. Definitely, I couldn't blame my hormones as I was over the dreadful years of teenage but these nagging thoughts were too much. I was brought out of my trance due to steel plate clanking against the wooden floor. My grandmother wasn't a very collected person, but did pretty well when it came to looking after the house and householdincluding me."OROOSA! Where is your mind? Help me with this mess here. When will you start acting like an adult?"Of course, she didn't know about my mental state. Only if she got over her own. Shrugging, I went to carry out the chores of a regular boring holiday- doing the laundry, cleaning the house, doing the dishes and complaining about my extremely adventurous life, note the sarcasm. I was tired at the day’s end when all the work was over so I went to ask granny to join me for a movie, but soon foundout that she was peacefully perched on her bed, snoring till her throat's content. Ultimately, I ended up taking a nap. Falling asleep was pretty easy as my body had given up after the extensive 'workout'. Only if I knew, that staying up was much better. As Idrifted off into a deep sleep, I slipped into lucid dreaming, where I was aware of my surroundings and myself, but was still asleep. Slowly, I felt my chest growing heavy, literally, and it became difficult for me to breathe and my chest got heavier, it almost felt like someone was sitting on me. I tried tostruggle, move and scream but my body was limp, and I denied opening my eyes because this time, I wouldn’t let my brain trick me with scariest form of creature sitting on my chest with a wide evil grin. Sleep paralysis wasn’t something I could control and it ran in the family, I got it from my mother. I knew what I had to do to get out of this subconscious state before my body got vulnerable to external entities. So I stopped struggling and triedto go back to sleep because the more I fight back, the more horrifying and long this condition would become. Eventually, my mind accepted its fate and Idrifted off into a peaceful sleep. The next morning, I tried not to panic while recalling yesterday’s encounter. It wasn’t my first time, but just because ithappened too often didn’t make it less scary. It’s a good thing sleep paralysis isn’t common, or people would be running for their lives, only to find refuge in staying up. But what scared me the most were the doors this peculiarity opened to the human world, which are better off staying shut for our race. This might sound paranormal, but I would subtly call it spiritual. I had spent a lot of time in research on this subject and reached a few conclusions with my ownlittle experience; not that I would like to suffer more, but having a sixth sense has its own fancy perks. A week passed by as I got busy with work and projects. It wasn’t until today I realised from the looks my colleagues gave me that my birthday was a day away. This might sound stupid to kids, but adults have better priorities than celebrating their lives moving a year closer to death. But of course, my dear granny wouldn’t let it pass so easily withoutembarrassing me in front of my friends by narrating my 'baby tales' on my birthday party. Apart from the cringey birthday song, the party went quite well and Ihad a good time socialising with my colleagues outside work. After the celebration ended, I cleaned up the place and hit the bed. Disturbing dreams weren’t my favourite part of sleep, neither was sleepparalysis. I could feel the presence of somebody else in the room as my mind shifted to a subconscious state. Sleep paralysis had already kicked in action but I tried my best to remain still andgo back to sleep, and hopefully succeeded. It was only a moment later that I could hear a loud buzzing sound in my head and my body was vibrating at a moderate frequency. I realised where this was leading and it made me panic; I knew sleep paralysis was a door to astral projection and these were the symptoms but it freaked me out knowing that I was halfway through it. Somehow, I managed to break free of this voodoo and woke up with a jerk.I was panting heavily and my body was running out of sweat, this was the most uncomfortable and horrifying experience I had had after my first encounter with sleep paralysis. Thoughts ran at a high speed through my head and I was too frightened to go back to sleep; of course I hadn’t forgotten the presence of another being in the room and that added fuel to the fire. Taking a deep breath in, I tucked myself safely under the blanket (yes, oldhabits die hard) and tried to get some sleep. After a while, I slipped into la la land. My face pressing against a hard flat surface woke me up, thinking thatthe bed's headboard had fallen on me again. But what puzzled me was the thought of the headboard being too heavy to push off me and that my body extremely light, almost like I was floating. Frustrated,I opened my eyes only to realise that the headboardturned out to be my room’s ceiling and I was actuallyfloating! It was difficult to collect my thoughts as I wondered how I got here and whether this was a dream. Getting no answers, I tried to reach for the floor but all I could do was wiggle like a dying fish. I pressed my palms against the ceiling to push myself back and lo! My hands went right through it! If this wasn’t a dream I’d have probably fainted. But the sad truth was that this wasn’t a dream and I still didn’t faint. I managed to flip myself over and saw my 'real body’ lying peacefully on the bed in deep sleep- I didn’t look bad, must I add. I’d have been a fool to not realise what was going on and came to a conclusion that my stupid brain had finally found a way to separate my astral body from the real body and release it with a weird silver cord fixed to the belly button at both the ends; never had I felt so attached to myself. This room was the exact replica of my own, so was the rest of house which I managed to tour by floating and kicking the air like a ninja. In spite of the house being exactly similar to mine, I could sense an eerie feeling lingering in the atmosphere, and the funny thing was that my grandma was nowhere to be found. To clear my doubts, I flew straight through the shut entrance of the house and was exposed to a pinkish orange sky, a deserted neighbourhood and lots and lots of silence. There wasn’t even a single bird in sight and I couldn’t tell what time of the day it was because the surroundings were gloomy, yet bright without thepresence of a source of light. Miraculously, I had learnt to land my feet on the ground and lift them off too; that was one of my problems solved. The silvercord attached to my naval stretched effortlessly, thefurther I moved. Funky material, I thought. Wondering where to go, I flew upwards to get an aerial view of this place and what I saw startled me. My neighbourhood was the only place on this dimension that looked like the original one, the rest was jungle. Debating with myself, I headed straight towards the jungle, almost like it was inviting me. The further I explored this place, the more it bewildered me. The vegetation was quite different from the type earthlings would expect to see. The huge trees with thick black trunks were covered in purple moss and laden with dried leaves, while freshleaves concealed the ground. Each tree had a large hole at its base with something engraved above what I assumed to be an entrance. The trees were arranged systematically in rows across the distanceand there was no other sign of life in sight. The dense forest didn’t look life-threatening but the ambience carried a gush of warning with it. After walking and floating around for about half an hour I stood in front of a tree which spoke of magnificence in all senses. It was larger than rest of the above-average sized trees with a flashy silver trunk detailed with gems of different colours at the base and millions of golden small leaves decorated the silver branches. There was a grand aura hovering around the majestic tree that made me want to respect and touch it, both at the same time. As I took a step towards the tree, I received a blow on my head from the side that sent me flying towards the nearest black tree. As I hit against it with a thud, my right arm ached like it had been bruised badly but I had no time to check. I quickly raised to my feet and spun around to find my attacker but saw nobody. Scared for my life, I entered the tree with which I collided through the hole between its roots. This incident horrified me so much that I almost thought there’d be no seeing home and grandma again. While stepping inside, I lost balance, fell and waited for me to hit the bottom. But as my fall descended deeper, all I could feel was darkness and emptiness, inside and outside. My life flashed infront of my eyes and I could hear my parents calling my name. I recalled every decision I’ve made in my life and regretted every single one of them, becauseI did everything I wanted but never cared about whatmy parents wished for. Nevertheless, they were happy to see my happiness, but I was a selfish being to only aspire for my desires. I was a disappointment,after all. But they wouldn’t tell me. The wind swept through my hair as I fell deeper in the depths of my despair. After what felt like an eternity, I landed on soft cushions which I assumed was the bottom. I sat up to find myself in a small dimly lit room with shelves and lots of items and toys scattered across the floor. On closely inspecting, I realised that these toys and objects were once mine, these were the ones I had lost withtime and never saw them again. My brown stuffed teddy bear which my dad gifted to me on my fifth birthday, the fancy blue coloured stone that I was sofond of, the other half of the pair of earrings I had lost while exploring the attic; it was all here, each and every thing that I had lost, few of which I couldn’t recognise for I must have been too little to remember. I pondered on how they got here, and if this was the place where lost items were found, could I find other dear things that escaped my reach? The sweet memories that faded with time, the contentment that I replaced with maturity, the innocence that I threw away with childhood, the selflessness that I bargained for selfishness, the sense of forgiveness that I exchanged with ego. I lost everything, and somewhere in between, lost mypeace of mind too, along with my parents. The only thing I found amidst my losses was a pitiful and abandoned version of myself that my loved ones gladly accepted. If only I had been more careful and forgiving. Tears lined my face as I frantically grabbed everything I could to take with me. Suddenly, my silver cord was pulled from where it emerged and all the things I had managed to get hold of fell back to the bottom and in no time I was sucked back into my body. I opened my eyes and sat up when a concerned grandma quickly rushed to my side and took me in her embrace. I hugged her back and recalled the experience. She whispered how scared she was to see me unconscious for a really long time and I could feel the afternoon sunshine hitting my face. When I noticed the bruise on my right arm, I hugged her tighter and promised myself a few things I should’vedone long back. The incident never repeated itself but what it made of me was a miracle in itself.
-Oroosa Anwar
