“What do you mean? I can’t help it if I wake up, and then can’t get back to sleep. So how can I finish the dream?”
“I’m talking about acceptance. Accept the dream, without fear, and see what happens.”
“How can I do that if I can’t get back to sleep? When I wake up I’m terrified, though I don’t really know why.”
He pushed a bottle across the table towards her, containing just a couple of tablets. “Take these tonight. They’ll calm your nerves, and help you to relax. They aren’t sleeping pills. If the dream returns tonight, when you wake, just lie back and relax. Maybe, if you can sleep again, the dream might continue. Once you let the dream finish, it may not return again.”
“What if the dream doesn’t return tonight?”
“Then we’ll continue with the tablets until it does.”
“And what if this doesn’t work? What if the dream doesn’t stop?”
“We’ll deal with these things when, and if, we have to. Let’s take it one step at a time, shall we?”
“I guess that’s logical.” She took the tablets and left the office. At this point, she was ready to try anything, but accepting the dream? She wasn’t sure she could, even if she wanted to. She might think she was ready, but what if her subconscious wasn’t ready? Or maybe the tablets would relax her so much that she wouldn’t even dream at all.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Sarah watched the shimmering mist wind its way towards her through the hallways of the building. The corridors were deserted, for the night staff could monitor everything from their stations, with cameras and buzzers. If someone needed assistance there was a buzzer in every room. Sara was puzzled as to how she could watch the progress of this strange mist until it reached her room. It had to be all in her head.
The strange visitor was undetected as it oozed slowly and silently through the darkness and beneath her room door. It flowed towards her slowly. She felt it touch her face, then her shoulder, like the gentle brush of cold fingers. She woke, and sat up, momentarily frightened. But the tablets were effective and, with the barest twinge of apprehension, she lay down again.
She stretched luxuriously, like a bride awaiting her new groom. Then, lying still, she waited until her eyes adjusted to the pale moonlight that illuminated the room. Then she saw it for the first time outside her dream. Like a hazy shadow at the side of her bed, it hovered in mid-air. She wrinkled her forehead, trying to focus her eyes, to see better, but it remained hazy.
“Sara-Lyn.”
Had someone whispered her name? Or was it just her fertile imagination? And wasn’t she supposed to go back to sleep now?
“Sara-Lyn.” The whisper came again, very faint, like the rustling of a breeze through the grass.
“Who’s there?” Her own voice was hushed.
“Sara-Lyn, I have come for you.”
