We talk about fear as a common situation in our lives, but you do not realise what fear is until you are even scared of your own dreams.
All started when I was 12 and my dreams started to be a little bit strange: A dark room with a light in the middle and with a chair in the spotlight. Everything was blurred. This dream was repeated for many weeks but everyday the image got a bit clearer, until I was able to recognise the person that was sitting on the chair: IT WAS ME!! I tried to find a door in the darkness and I finally opened a small window, I went through it as fast as possible. I felt on the ground and the tears started to fall from my eyes. I raised my head and again there was darkroom with a spotlight in the center but this time there was no a chair, instead, there was a piece of paper. It looked old and there was something written with red ink . The paper said:
-Time expires and life goes with it. But here time is only a word.
My heart was beating so fast that I was able to hear it. I looked to my watch where the numbers 24:24 were written. What!! That was completely impossible!! I started to look around, trying to find another door, window or any other thing that could help me escaping from that nightmare but it was so dark that I could not find any, so I started thinking. I came out with a great idea: In case that was a dream, if I fell asleep, I would wake up in the real life. I laid down on the floor and closed my eyes. I started to feel a bit tired but there were many strange noises that were annoying me .I tried to ignore them but it seemed to be impossible. I could heard those noises, either a step or a scratch or even a knock on the walls of the room, it felt closer and closer. I finally got asleep and when I woke up I was in my room. I did not believed it! I went downstairs to tell my parents about my bad dream but when I opened the door I was shocked. My feet stopped and my eyes covered up with tears; the clock on the wall marked 24:24 again. The lights went off and just a spotlight focused again on a paper, but this time another thing was written on it:
-Do not try to escape, once you are in, you cannot get out.
How was that possible? If that was not a dream,what was it then? I did not have time to think about it so I walked through another door that was at the other side of the room. I entered. This room was not dark, on the contrary, it had a lot of light but was empty though. There was only a big 2 drawn on the wall. There was no door or window so I started to look for any hint or paper, like in a escape room and after some time I realised that the number was not written in a continuous line. I got closer and I finally understood, it sketched with words that were repeated all around the number. The words said: “Things are not as they seem to be”. After reading this I started thinking about what its meaning was and an image of my favourite film, where the characters were stuck in a room like the one where I was, came up to my mind. In the film, the main character interpreted those words as a sign that there was a door hidden, so I did what she did:I tried pushing everywhere on the wall and it worked!
Suddenly the wall moved and let me go through it. The next room was completely different. In this one there was a number 3 in the upper part of the door and the room seemed to be dark but as I had a step forward, my path light up. I continued walking until I saw a coffin so I run to see who was inside. When I reached it I saw that there was no one there. In that moment I suddenly started hearing people crying and someone talking really loud, so I turned I saw a big church full of my family and friends. My parents, who were sat in the first line, looked devastated. They were wearing black clothes and they could not stop crying. I understood that we were at someone’s funeral. I turned back again, really slowly so that I could see the dead body. As soon I saw the body I felt on my knees. I was shocked. The dead body was …ME! and between my arms there was a note: “time expires”, it said. I run through another door. I did not want to spend any more time in that room. In the next room, there was a 4 on the wall. I did not have any more strength to continue looking for papers or hints or doors, I suppose I fainted. A strong noise woke me up. I was not in the room number 4 anymore. It looked like a squared lobby, there were four doors, one on each wall. I opened one of them and, again, there were 4 doors, with its corresponding number. On the floor there was a paper: “Endless possibilities, only one way of escaping. Try”. I turned the paper, on the other side, it was shown the way the doors were numbered. Every room had a number, every room had four doors. Every door led to a room, and again, every room had a number, and every room had four doors.
You may be sad for me but do not worry, time does not expire here.
So everytime that you use the word fear, remember me. You probably do not know its meaning yet.
Claudia L.P. 3ºB