Everything
on Scrivener's Quill is ©
Dianna Dalley, and is not
to be used in any
way by anyone else. All rights reserved.
Dream
I do not know how long it
was that I lay on my bed
fearing to close my eyes. The minute I fell asleep I knew I had
done so and began to cry out in terror. The shadows in my mind
began to form into the images that had haunted me for so long
now.
I had been haunted by the same nightmare
for several weeks now and feared the time my body required me to
sleep. The lack of sleep was beginning to show so much so that my
mother had sent for the healer who plied me with noxious brews and bled
me nigh to death.
If only they believed me that I was
being pursued by the devil
himself. My mother gently applied the poultices the local witch
had prescribed. She bade me drink potions to help me sleep that
her mother had taught her to make. I would do as she asked if
only to soothe her.
Through all this we continued to prepare
for my wedding due to take place in three days. I pled with my
parents to postpone the wedding until my mind was again my own, but my
father flatly refused saying that I would settle down once married with
children of my own to care for.
Left on my own to rest, I was now
totally bound in my dream. The weight of the blackness around me
pressed in, threatening to smother me. I writhed in agony as
fetid breath touched my cheek and burned my soft skin. The weight
of one of the demons pressed me into my bed as it climbed up my body to
sit on my stomach.
Pinned as I was, I saw the days of my
childhood pass me by as if in another dream. I was such a
precocious child. Never did I think that my father would tie me
to the world with marriage. I thought my life could go on as it
had in the past. Without a care in the world and free to do as I
chose, my days were full of adventure and leisure.
Looking up at the demon pinning me to the
bed, I peered into the shadow of its face, trying to identify who it
might be. The shadows shifted and parted and I found myself
staring into my own face. I wondered why I wanted to confront
myself in my dreams. As I stopped fighting myself, the demon
sprang away from me allowing me to lie more comfortably in my
bed. Relaxing now, I let my mind wander through my thoughts,
dreams, and feelings.
The journey was extraordinary. I
relived all the moments in my childhood, my great adventures and
misadventures alike. The feelings of happiness, joy, fear, and
sadness all filled me and flowed through me. “I was free then,” I
thought with such sadness that I had to stop all other thoughts.
Why would I not be free now? I
would be chatelaine of my
husband’s castle. I would still be able to have adventures, just
not the same as I had in the past. I would be able to share with
my children my stories and have them share with me theirs. There
would be many new experiences that I would not be able to have if I
were not married.
With these discoveries, the shadows
departed and I slowly began to wake. As with all dreams, the
memories began to fade as the sounds of daily life in the castle
touched my ears. A smile touched my lips as I rose and summoned
my maid and the seamstress. I knew somehow that the nightmares
were over and that I had a full life ahead of me.