Author’s Note: These Dream Sequence stories each start with an actual vivid dream I had. After I finish writing the details of each dream, I use Sudowrite artificial intelligence as a collaborator to continue the story in an attempt to connect all of the dream sequences somehow. Each story is a mix of human dreams, artificial intelligence, and conscious storytelling.
Previous dream sequence: The Boundary
The stones here were old. Older than any stones she had ever seen. She walked the narrow moss covered path, between the ancient stones and into the light. Just past the final pair of monolithic stones was the edge of a cliff. It was a sacrificial cliff, one upon which the faith of countless before her had been judged. She had seen the old and scattered broken bones at the bottom of the cliff, but she wouldn’t be here now if she didn’t believe.
The woman, dressed in a thin flowing white shawl, reached the cliff ledge and turned around. This was the time she had prepared her entire life for. This was the time she had foreseen in her meditations. Now was the time to prove her faith. She lifted her arms high above her head, closed her eyes, and fell backward.
Her fall was stopped before she reached the bottom. She felt warm hands under her shawl and on her lower back. She opened her eyes and gasped. Her rescuer was beautiful. Long flowing silver hair fell to just below his shoulders and framing either side of his face. A pair of light white feathered wings expanded from behind his back. The wings beat rhythmically to gently support her fall. Their bodies floated harmoniously down together, paired like dancers who had been expertly trained since birth. She tried to open her mouth to speak, but words had long since escaped her by now. Their descent slowed as they approached the rocky bottom below.
The rocks and bone fragments clattered as their feet reached the ground. The woman gazed at her rescuer’s face. It was familiar, the face of an angel she had seen before, perhaps in a dream or perhaps in deep meditation. A realization hit her and she spoke abruptly, “Falconer, it’s you.”
He smiled. And in that moment her heart sank with regret and shame. She knew that he was her savior, and she knew that what she had done to him that day in the grassy field so many years ago had been unforgivable…
***
The dreams continued for me for years. Each night I felt myself sinking into my bed. Each night I felt myself falling back through the layers of the world. I could feel myself falling through the soil, then through the rock, then into the warm, moist clay that was my earth.
I would then fall into the engulfing darkness that was the underworld. Then out of the darkness, into the warm light of the land of the dead. Through the land of the dead to the city of the dead, then into the shadowy realm of spirits. All my senses were overwhelmed by the sights and sounds and smells of death, but I felt myself at peace.
Then my descent reached its end. I found my mind free of all concepts, of my old self, of everything save the pure light of the realm of gods and demi-gods. My soul was cleansed and renewed. I felt it and I rejoiced in it.
Before my angel rescued my body, my body had no soul. With one act of ultimate forgiveness a lost soul was able to join this empty body, and another soul was earned. Two souls saved by one act of unconditional love and sacrifice.
Leave a Reply