Tennessee

The dream begins breaking through clouds, looking over a silver city full of tall glass buildings with beautiful flower shapes and nature-like innovations. I was the eyes of the dream, not flying, just seeing. I was at a shop where the clothes they sold were based on icons of the past and I specifically remember shopping at the Jackie O. section and completely marveled at the beauty of the confections; of course, they all had their futuristic twist. Suddenly, it was night time, I do not know if I bought anything at all--all I remember was leaving and stepping out into the parking lot when the lights start to dim one by one until I am all alone and surrounded by darkness. I had but a moment to feel fear and then I was taken from the very ground my feet were stepping on. Like a pull they took me, I felt a strength and vertigo in my stomach unlike I have ever felt before and, out of nowhere, nothing.

I awoke, you could say, in darkness again and as soon as my eyes grew accustomed to the darkness I saw the difference between the night sky and the mountain of trees that meet at the very tip with it. It was like a place I had never seen before and the air smelled of wet dirt and trees, but there was a silence as cold as death and even though I stood on some sort of pathway, there were no cars to be seen. Shocked to be completely naked, I ran to the other side of the road hoping for no one to see me in such a state. I began to notice that I was cold and my feet covered in mud. I did not know where I was or how I'd gotten there, for all I could remember was being at that parking lot, but this mountainous and tree covered land was unlike the one I lived in at all. I began to fear the worst, what if I was in another state or another country? Was this Earth at all? I did not understand it. 

I felt weak and hungry and had nothing to feed on. I searched along the ditch for rags or something to cover myself with and alas I found some wet dirty cardboard, but it would have to suffice. Suddenly I heard a snap and looked towards it--it was a light coming on--and it was a sort of dirty white hut, and seeing it as my only hope, I ran to it and searched for a door, found it, and opened it to find myself stepping into a wet dirty bathroom. I've had dreams like this before, I thought to myself, where all the toilets are clogged and the floor is wet and dirty, but I had never been naked and barefoot, unprotected, afraid and alone. It all made the matter far worse. 

I ran to the mirror, I pretty much ran instead of walked anywhere since I felt every second counted and with each one I was further and further away from home. How was I ever going to get back? I asked myself and as I looked into the mirror I found myself thinner and paler than usual, with bruises on my arms, legs and stomach, of fingers, long, thin, I feared in my dream the very thing I know I sometimes fear in reality. Suddenly, a light shone through the broken bathroom window, it was a truck of some sort so I ran to it, with cardboard dangling and all, and waved the arm I could spare and tried to scream out to them--I don't know what I screamed or even if they heard me at all, but I had to try. They stopped and I asked through the window where I was. "Tennessee," he said. I woke up.