Sep 27, 2011

The Glass Cell (the dream*)


(*This is an actual recurring dream I have that I am also using as the basis of a scifi story, albeit with changes.)

This morning I woke up naked in a glass cell. Last night I went to sleep in my own bed in my own room in my apartment. I filled the cat’s food and water bowl, watered the cactus, set the alarm, took a Valerian root, and crawled into bed. I lay in bed for about an hour reading headlines on Twitter, then flicked off the light, rolled over, buried my face in my feather pillow and fell fast asleep.

I expected to wake to the annoying alarm, buzzing of leaf blowers, and birds chirping, but no. I woke up cold and alone in a glass room. Where am I? Where are my clothes?

Am I dead?

Am I still me?

Am I dreaming?

I have always suspected reality is tenuous at best, but this is ridiculous. For example, it’s one thing to think vampires are cool, it’s another thing to meet a real one face to face.

I look around me. I can see other glass cells stretching on for infinity above and below me and side to side. There seem to be figures in most cells. Some look human, others, well, I’m just not so sure. Are they animals? Behind me is a glass wall out of which all I see is a blanket of stars vast and wide. Is that the milky way? A nebula? Where am I? I need an intergalactic “You Are Here” map. When I turn away from the stars, back to what seems to be the only way out of this cell, I see, beyond the wall imprisoning me and locked glass door, a vast hall filled with catwalks and corridors leading down from the various rows upon rows of other glass cells leading to a central vaulted pit that stands taller than a NYC skyscraper. From this vast height, as I lean my forehead and hands against the glass to get a better view down, my knees begin to shake and a strange sensation emanates from the pits of my feet. I feel dizzy and nauseous. Must be vertigo, I tell myself, and press on trying to find clues as to where I am and what exactly is going on.

In the center of the vaulted pit is what appears to be a training ground, well, actually several if I crane my head to the left and right as the pit extends in both directions further than my eyes can see. Beyond the training grounds is another giant wall of glass that seems to open onto a vast, beige, dusty planet with swirling sand storms and poor atmosphere. I can see humanoid creatures in spacesuits working out there and driving strange machinery.

Inside, though, down in the training ground... I’m not so sure what’s happening.

The training ground itself, at least the one directly in front of my block of glass cells, is rectangular in shape with the longer sides parallel to the glass cell blocks. Within this training ground there appears to be what looks like a movie set version of a bar and lounge. There is half a wall set up as a bar back drop with a large fat purple alien like creature that bears striking resemblance to a rhinoceros wearing a tuxedo and presumably acting as the bartender.

Sitting at the bar is a beautiful woman who looks a lot like Mila Kunis. She wears a gorgeous black dress made of an unidentifiable fabric. The dress kind of looks like a scrunched up giant tube sock around her. The material shimmers but is jet black. It looks almost alive, like it’s breathing. Her hair is pulled back in a tight bun and her make up makes her look like a futuristic Cleopatra. She says something to the bartender in a language I don’t recognize. The bartender nods then turns around to make the drink. When he does this his long purple tail like a lizard’s whips around. Mila jumps, startled. The rhino glances back over his shoulder at her quickly. There’s a buzzer far off. Then a shout, “Reset.” Human. English. American. What is this place?

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