She was having that dream again. The one where her ancestors reanimated themselves and she was stuck running up the steps of the Templo Mayor, an Aztec structure in the Tenochtitlan city. It was a marvelous sight, nothing like the brittle ruins they were now. They were daunting rock upon heavy rock reaching up to the sky, as if trying to cradle up to the gods. Not the tallest, but the significance of the said temple was enriched with spiritual motifs of sacrifice. It was their belief to pay tribute, whether it involved animals or their own blood.
She felt the sticky sweat drip down her back as she gasped for air. She was being chased by Mesoamericans clad in dirty rags, bright yellow intricate things hanging from their being, long sticks with a pointed end and guttural sounds shooting out of their mouths as they trailed behind her.
She didn’t know why she was being followed or how the dream initially started. The dream world put her smack-middle of the action, her aching feet slapping onto the hard steps. She never stopped and never seemed to reach her destination, no matter how determined she appeared.
A turn took her dream deeper, the sky shrouding with dark ominous clouds, as if Tlaloc had begun to rise. She encountered a young woman, shoulder brushed against shoulder and saw her bare naked chest in display as she was being dragged towards the top. It was engraved in her mind, her face full of despair, a haunting grim frown that almost yielded her run. It was like she had lost all hope, her eyes downcast, unworthy. But the most astonishing detail was that it was her, in body and flesh—her matted hair, her ugly bloody feet, her moles on her back, and the same trudge of a depleted walk—bound to her native ancestors, hands tied behind her back. She wondered what this could all mean. Was there some hidden value that she was supposed to discover?
She wished she had a way to reach her other self. She was nearing the top as she was down there, gazing up at her unknown fate. Taking in a deep breath, she ran, the sun burning her neck, but not halting. Never halting.
