This dream is different somehow than others I have experienced. I am walking on a tangled trail in the woods on a full-mooned night. A memory from a night in my home town pushes its way to the front of my mind. I can hear the far off sound Fourth of July festivities, kids screaming on carnival rides and even the sounds of fire crackers in the distance. The trail narrows and I push aside limbs and prickly vines that are interwoven among the tree branches.
All of a sudden I walk out of the trees and find myself in Gig Harbor. The night is warm and has the magical feel that are reminiscent of most small town festivals. I am walking down the hill, along the rows of small restaurants and people sit outside on patios sipping wine and sharing the latest gossip. I can see the carnival rides at the bottom of the hill in the parking lot that stretches out along the waterfront. The bright lights of the parachute ride cast magical lights on the dark water of the Puget Sound. The small town is teeming with visitors. College kids from the University Of Washington have made their way across the Sound by ferry and people from several adjoining towns have turned out to enjoy the festivities. A local band is playing the latest songs and some high-school kids are hiding behind a shed smoking and drinking a bottle of stolen wine.
One of the voices laughing behind the shed is my own. It’s funny how something that seemed so insignificant can cost you so much. That stolen wine cost me dearly in many ways and as the saying goes
hindsight is 20/20. I would be arrested later that night, for theft, as the grocery store had caught me on camera. As if life wasn’t difficult enough for me that summer. I had made a flying leap from the frying pan into the fire. But that’s a whole other story. One that is best left for another time.
People are milling around the town and meander from booth to booth. I stop to watch one booth in particular. An older lady with beautiful milkchocolate skin is rearranging her hand crocheted afghan and baby blankets that she makes to supplement her pension. I can see the same old twinkle in her eye when a young couple with a baby stopped to admire the beautiful blankets. They went through the stack and the young couple exchanged glances but the seller missed nothing.
“You know, this one has a few flaws and I really shouldn’t be selling it. Would the two of you like to take this one off my hands”? As she spoke she took a lavender and yellow baby blanket and put it into a paper bag .
The young woman shook her head and started to speak but June wouldn’t take no for an answer. “You’d be doing me a favor to take this one. It wasn’t meant to come hereand I just can’t see throwing it away”. While she spoke she put the bag in the woman’s hand and went about rearranging her goods. The woman smiled and took the blanket out of the bag and placed it around her baby.
“It looks just perfect on your beautiful baby Honey. Thank you for taking it off my hands”, Said June The young couple smiled warmly at June and walked off. Seeing Gramma June brings tears to my eyes. It’s just like her to do something like that. She always thought of other people before herself. I can’t help but grieve for her, even in my dream. The week we were to move into the caves I went to her house and she was gone. The little house was empty and June was nowhere to be found. I searched for her for days and there was no trace. She had just vanished out of thin air and it was all I could do to not disappear myself. I was a mess the day we locked the doors to the caves knowing what was coming. Perhaps the people from the other side took her away. If anyone deserved to be spared it would be June.
I am standing across the street from June watching her fold blankets and I notice two men looking at me intently. I figure they must be looking at someone behind me and pay no attention but then they start to cross the street. I back up until I am standing in a flower bed in front of the Harbor Bank.
They didn’t speak, didn’t move but watched me with a piercing gaze. As I met their gaze something changed about them. Their eyes burned with fire and it was then that I noticed membranous wings just visible behind their backs. In their eyes I could something moving. There is a creature made of smoke with overlong arms, stringy hair and sinister eyes that glowed like lighting. I could smell the stench of death coming from the men and a gravelly sounding laugh came from one of them.
They began to walk toward me and I back quickly over the flower bed and into the parking lot of the bank. I can see one of them reaching inside his jacket. His produces a knife with a long, twisted blade. There is a humming sound and I glance up to see several creatures hovering about 30 feet in the air.
My heart is racing and I hope to hell that I wake up soon. Glancing around I look for a way back into the woods but all I see is the festival booths. One of the creatures in the sky comes closer and a hiss escapes its mouth. I stumble backwards and nearly fall but catch myself.
It is then that I notice June walking across the street towards me. She has a shawl around her shoulders and is holding it closed with her hands as I had seen her do a million times before. She smiles and her eyes twinkle as she walks. She stops at the flower bed and her hands fall to her sides as she speaks.
“You have i t within you Ivy. You can call the powers of the light into the darkness”. My fear must have been apparent for she motioned for me to open my backpack. It takes a moment to register what she means but then I take the backpack off. I fish around inside it until I feel the sheath of my knife and take it out of the backpack.
With an eerie laugh one of the men in front takes a step towards me. Then the membranes of its wings began to quiver and it lifts a few feet off the ground before stepping back down to the pavement. Its face is pulled back into a calculated grin and it mocks me as it takes inches forward.
I began to breathe deeply and I feel surprisingly calm as time seems to play in slow motion. I am now in a trancelike state and murmur a few words under my breath- as though accepting what is to come. I drag my eyes to the sky to see a creature hovering not far above me. The veins on the creature’s neck are throbbing and a foul odor carries on the breeze. The nightmare has become reality and I am ready to take it on full force.
One of the men darts forward like a predator about to kill his prey. I am ready for it and dodge out of the way. The blade that the creature holds whistles past my face by mere inches. The bulk of the man shifted him off balance and he falls hard on the blacktop.
The lunge I make surprises not only me but the man who is picking himself up off the ground. With a brutal thrust of my knife I tear into the abdomen and pull downward. I turn on a dime and stand facing the second man. The smell emitted from the wound is so strong I have to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from getting sick. The warm rush of blood in my mouth spurs me on to initiate another attack. Again and again I attack. Stabbing and ripping with my knife as though I have done this all my life. I can’t believe the violent nature that has emerged from me. I am a mad woman slashing and ripping. They are making deep guttural laughing noises in mock of me as they lay dying.
The creature in the air is grinning as it flies high up then turns and comes at me with mind blowing speed. My knife makes contact with a leg but the force of the attack throws me to the ground. I struggle to rise but the pain in my back will not allow me to get up. The pain is so intense I feel I am going to black out.
The demon lands on the blacktop and takes slow, deliberate steps toward me. He is savoring my dilemma and rage is on his face. My eyes are closed for I do not wish to meet the gaze. The eyes of a demon reflect the depths of hell in them and I have no interest in seeing the terror of the place.
I can hear heavy footsteps on blacktop as the creature moves toward me. I anticipate the death blow that will come any moment and my only hope is that it will be over quickly. My back is broken. I can feel nothing from the waist down and all I can do is lay there and wait for the inevitable.
I open my eyes to say goodbye to June and I can see several more have landed in the parking lot. My heart sinks. I plan on slitting my throat with my knife but want to see June one last time. She is standing on the edge
of the parking lot holding her shawl about her and smiling at me. There is fierce determination in her eyes and she is talking.
“Ivy. Listen to June. Remove your locket and y ou will see a tiny line in the middle. Place your thumbnail in the crack and open it. Once it is open you must shine the light on the demons”.
I am confused as to what she is talking about. Is she referring to the necklace that Jen had given me? It’s simply a sphere shaped charm attached to a chain. It has no opening on it- I have looked at it many times before.
“You must trust me. Take the locket and look for the opening. It willopen for you”. I remove the chain from my neck and I hold the locket up to my face. Sure enough, I can see a line, the size of a piece of fine hair. I insert my fingernail in the line and to my surprise it opens.
Inside is a grey stone that is swirling with colors. It looks like one of those mood rings my sister used to have years ago. Looking into the misty depth of the locket I am shocked to see a human figure. “Do it now Ivy!”
The urgency in June’s voice made me look away from the locket for a moment. When I look back at it I can see a legion of people inside. They are the most beautiful beings I have ever seen. The people began to emit light that was so strong t I can no longer see.
Sounds of growling followed by June shouting my name spurs me into action. I hold the sphere in my hand and direct the light in the direction of the creatures. There is instantly a light, as bright as the sun. It floods the area with such intensity that I have to cover my face.
From the light emerges a multitude of beings. They are now standing in the parking lot and there are so many that I cannot count them. The light grows and we are all swallowed up in it.
“Don’t look at the light. Keep your eyes covered and when the warmth is gone close the locket”, shouted June. The light contains a feeling of pure love and extreme warmth is being infused into me. I am experiencing a lifting sensation that gives me an intense feeling of pleasure. The pleasure comes from everywhere and all at once. It resonates inside my entire body and I can feel my broken bones snapping back into place.
I feel as though I am being lifted, high up, and I am weightless. It is almost a sensual feeling and I want to stay here forever. The light is holding me as though it is a living thing and I am being physically embraced by the light.
“You must close the locket Ivy. You must not choose to go into the light now. You are needed here”, said June.
The pleasure of the light is so intense that I don’t care about anything else. All I have ever wanted is to be loved and to be held just like this. I want to stay forever and never to go back to my life. I savor the experience for a few more moments and then let my body fall out of the light. I know what I must do and slowly close the locket.
The beauty of the light fades and the joy of the moment is gone. I hold the locket in my hand and look down at it thoughtfully. The power was in my hands all along and yet I never knew. I can hear a faint voice from inside the sphere. It’s a voice that I once knew a long time ago. The voice belongs to one called Jaden.
“It wasn’t meant for you until now. Your courage had to be tested and your heart selfless before opening the sphere. The light would have killed you had you not been ready”.
I am up by 5 am, dressed and exploring the house. My first intuition is to wait in the bedroom until someone came for me but I was never one to miss out on a chance to explore. I run downstairs in search of something to eat. Someone is already in the kitchen as the smell of bacon wafted through the halls downstairs. I follow the scent and arrived at a large kitchen. It looks ancient and boasts a giant cooking stove, a butcher block island and copper pans neatly hung from the ceiling. Despite its enormous size, the kitchen is a warm and inviting place.
“Good morning”. The voice belonged to a lady who appears to bein her late 60’s. She has grey hair pulled up into a pony tail and the most shocking blue eyes I have ever seen. She smiles at me as she peeked over a stack of dishes she was carrying. When she had set the stack of plates down on the island she came over and extended a hand.
“My name is Pamela but you can call me Pam. Everyone else does,” she said with a wink of her eye. “Can I help you Pam”? I offered. Pam shakes her head no. “Why don’t you sit down in the dining room and tell me about yourself. I’m almost finished here and the others will be around soon enough”.
Pam walks in with a tray full of sumptuous looking food. Despite her request for me to sit and talk to her, I jump up and help her unload the tray. There are tiny buttered scones; berry jam, small sausages, bacon, fried fish and stacks of flapjacks. It looked like she was going to feed an army and the thought of a crowd of people made me feel sick. I wasn’t the type that enjoyed crowds and not really one to win new friends over in a matter of minutes like Lisa used to do.
Despite the anxiety I have of meeting a small army of people, the steaming food smells so delectable that my stomach is rumbling. The sound is something awful and I am afraid she will hear it. Pam smiled but didn’t look up from her work when she heard my stomach. She was much too polite to acknowledge the rude sound my stomach is making. I feel so socially inept and clumsy around new people, even though it seems like I have known Pam forever.
So many things are beyond my control. My dreams of late have taken on a violent nature. I am having visitations from the dead that I cannot stop and the people I am staying with are not what they seem. I suppose my social phobia is the least of my concerns. I wish life could be less chaotic and I could live like a normal, soon-to-be- 20 year old girl. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the one boyfriend who cares about me is some guy who I made up in some crazy dream. If it wasn’t all so pathetic it would be kind of funny.
As luck would have it, only a handful of people showed up for breakfast. There are five people to be exact, including me and Pam. They smile easily and seem to be doing their best to make me feel welcome. Although meeting new people can be stressful, this wasn’t one of those experiences, much to my relief. It feels as though I am in the midst of some grand delusion. I am sitting at a huge table, with normal looking people, somewhere in the middle of the Underworld eating a sumptuous meal. I know something is up, my intuition tells me that this is not what it seems. These people are holding something back from me and I have the feeling that something unexpected is going to happen any second.
I resist a compulsion to run to my room, grab my backpack and get out of this place. As I contemplate my escape, I hear a ripping sound behind me. Startled, I turn in my chair and there is a fat marmalade cat. It is sharpening its claws on the Persian rug with determination. The cat spots me looking at him and saunters over to my chair and begins to rub his face on my pants. Purring erupts from his oversized body and he leaps right up on the table where the food is located.
The marmalade cat sits on his haunches and begins to wash his face. I watch in fascination as the animal licks his paw and rubs it over his face. The grooming keeps up for several minutes and no one says anything. It’s as though it is a natural occurrence to have a cat cleaning itself in the middle of a dining table. When he plopped down on his back to clean his privates I had seen enough and shooed him off the table.
Close at my back, a man appears with a steaming pot of coffee, and fills my cup. It’s then that I decide that it will have to be me that opens up the line of communication. I had come downstairs not just for food but also in hopes of finding out some
information. I decide to start things off with a bang and mention what happened last night.
The silence is awkward and I clear my throat. I figure we had better join forces or I will never make it out of this realm. I have seen some fantastic thing in my life but nothing compared to last night.
“Last night I went to the carnival in my hometown”. Everyone stopped eating and looked at me as though it was the most normal thing to discuss. . Tom even nodded his head for me to go on, his grizzled beard bobbing up and down, much like a circus clown. It almost f
eels like I am on the latest reality TV show or something. I lower my head slightly to conceal a smile. I have the feeling I am going stark raving mad. I am probably having a grand delusion and none of this is real. It’s so quiet that you can hear a pin drop. Lizzie breaks the ice and starts to talk much to my relief.
“We were expecting you Ivy and we are aware of why you are here”. I survey the people for a moment, unable to speak, and can’t help but wonder if they have some violent death in mind for me. It would be so easy to kill me and no one would know. Here, in this wild land, the norm is death. On the other hand maybe they are here to help me. This doesn’t make sense either because I don’t even know why I am here.
I place my hand on the locket that is around my neck. I feel the texture of the smooth gold and roll it around in my fingers. The tiny line in the center is under my index finger and I consider popping the sphere open and making a run from this place. I have a source of great strength that I can tap into, and although I know I must be cautious with this gift, it is mine.
The group of people freeze, with expressions of intense surprise on their faces as I hold the golden sphere. There is unease in the air, and if tension could be cut, a big slice would be sitting on my plate. For an agonizing moment I sit here wondering what to say next. I take a deep breath, then another. What am I so afraid of? Am I dead and in an alternate reality? As if she could read my thoughts, Lizzie spoke up.
“Ivy,” she whispered. “ You are both body and spirit now. Nothing will be the same for you and soon it will be time for you to continue through the Underworld. You cannot remain here but for a short time but while you are here we will help prepare you for what is to come”.
Lizzie is staring me straight in my face. I can’t put my finger on it, but there is something about her, that tells me that she is holding something back. I have always had hidden intuition about people and places, and when they come to me, time stands still. Sometimes they come to me in a rush like distant memories or things long forgotten. My life has always been about secrets and more often than not I am frightened by them.
Underworld (Dark Passage) Page 5
