The Statue

Bright, bright light covered the entire room I found myself in. Completely empty, but full of light and me. No, it wasn't a room, it was a never ending white light. I open my eyes and blink instinctively, attempting to adjust, but found there was no need. There is no horizon, no way to perceive distance. I look full circle around me, and find nothing. I try to look up or down, but can not move my head. With some force, I can jerk my head striate up, but somehow my feet sweep out from under me to level off with my eye line. So I am looking at where the horizon should be. You would think this would be disorienting, but it took me a few moments to realize something unnatural even happened.

I have no idea where I am, but that never concerned me. I need to find something or someone specific. I start by calmly scanning the area around me. Being very careful not to lose myself, and mentally noting every place I've looked. But soon I become frantic. After circling three or four times and finding nothing, I lose my mind. I am turning round and round, breathing hard, and seeing nothing still. I am loosing my humanity, turning into an animal with no ability to understand my surroundings. I am completely lost and I haven't moved an inch.

But then I see it. Something. Anything would help me, but I know exactly what this is. And I know this will help me find what I need. I run toward it. I sprint toward it. My legs are pumping harder then ever before. My feet slam down at every long stride, but I'm not moving anywhere. The spot, the only way I can judge distance, is not coming any closer. I looked over my shoulder and saw nothing. Not the nothing that I saw before, the nothing that was bright and constant, but a nothing that is dark and deep and frightening. It was looming on me, getting closer and closer and closer.

Turning toward the dot again, I run faster then I had been. I run faster then I have ever before. The darkness triggered my instinct, adrenalin pumped into my vines, though my heart, to my body. My muscles grew and my legs hardened. I ripped out of my stuck position. It felt like a piece of me ripped apart, too. I looked down and realized that a part of me was, in fact, missing. My right arm had been perfectly sliced at the shoulder and was lying on the ground. I stopped and looked down to see the darkness swallow it up. Horrified, I run faster toward the dot, which wasn't a dot any more. The faster I ran, the more my left arm hurt, and soon that fell to the side also.

Closer and closer I get. Faster and faster I run, but the darkness is always right behind me. Being armless makes it that much more difficult to run. The dot has turned into a vague shape, that was still unidentifiable, but I saw it was a statue. Faster and faster I run, and never out running my fear. My legs hurt. Aching. And then I couldn't feel the left one, and I was on the ground. The leg lay behind me being swallowed by my fear. Some how I pick myself up. It felt like I was helped by some outside and heavenly presence. Or maybe it was in myself. Closer and closer, I can see the statue bigger, but still can't make it out. Something, some haze is obscuring my sight. Now I'm hopping on my one foot left. Some how I am keeping the same pace. Closer and closer, I fall again and tumble with out my last limb. Behind me it disappears. I stop at the base of what I have been pursuing. I look back and see the darkness, I look forward and for the first time I see my savour. The statue was less then the length of my arms away from me. If I hadn't lost my limbs I would have been fine, I would have been safe, I would have been saved. I look up and see it. I see a life size, life like, statue of a penguin. Standing tall and proud, protecting an egg in-between her feet. She looked down at me, and I saw her cry. I tried to scream, but the darkness took over me. The air in my lungs disappeared, my body devolved, and my mind was taken over. That was the last thing I saw. My savour, my protector, my one true love crying over my loss.

I woke with a start, jumping out of my bed and breathing hard. It took me a few moments to realize where I was. In the past a voice would take me out of my nightmares, but it isn't here now. It took me longer to get a hold of my self, and to realize I was crying. I have had this dream before, but I didn't understand it, couldn't understand what it meant. I am lost. I am swallowed in darkness. The statue would have saved me, if only I had the ability to reach out and hold on. If only I knew how to reach out. If only it wasn't to late. I can't sleep now. I can't sleep ever.