LUCID

CHAPTER 7

"It's okay, it's okay... calm down, you're out, you're safe..." Kat's voice drifted in from the distance. I was lying face-down on the ground, flailing and scrabbling about, coughing and spitting dirt and dust. It took a few seconds to come around. As soon as I realized I had space to move in I flipped onto my back. Kat's silhouette hovered over me, behind him a vast open sky.

I jumped up, paced to and fro, swung my arms to feel the liberating space, breathed in deeply to suck in as much of the sweet desert air as my lungs would hold.

Finally, I turned to Kat and grinned, "Thank...you!"

"You're welcome."

"I need a cigarette... and a coffee... and a chaser. Have they got liquor in the store?"

"It's your store," he reminded me.

"Of course it is... of course it is." I was still somewhat dazed, not fully grounded. I sat down again, leaned back onto my elbows, lifted my head towards the sky, closed my eyes, felt the sun on my face...

"I'll get the refreshments," Kat said.

He could have manifested the items right there, didn't have to go into the store to fetch them, but I guess he knew I still needed a little time to recover. I appreciated that, almost as much as I appreciated the overwhelming sense of release I was now feeling. My God! I'd never been so strongly confronted with my mortality until now. Unnerving to say the least. And ironic considering I wasn't actually in my mortal body. How can you fear death when you know it doesn't exist? And if it's not death, what is it that you're really fearing?

I was posing these questions with no intention of trying to answer them, not in this state, not just now. Kat returned from the store carrying a tray with the drinks. First things first – my refreshments.

The cigarette was just what I needed. The liquor was... just what I needed. The coffee was... de-licious.

"Mmm Mmmm! Did you make this or manifest it?" I asked.

"I made it. Something I picked up from a cafe-owner I know on the fifth dimension."

I mused on this for a moment. They have cafes on the fifth dimension? Wouldn't think they'd need them. Couldn't imagine it so I let it drop.

"Well it's great coffee," I said. "So you managed to find a coffee machine in the store? Didn't know I had one."

"You didn't – that I had to manifest."

I didn't care – it really was good coffee.

"Feeling better?" he asked. "Ready to talk?"

I wasn't really, but I did anyway. I gave him the full account. Described it as detailed as possible. Might have over-dramatized the end, didn't want to let him think I was a 'scaredy-cat' and all. But he didn't. He was attentive and concerned about my well-being. He was also clearly fascinated by the stories of my childhood – shook his head with incredulity. Said he marvelled at the resilience of humans, even as children, to suffer such cruelty. I told him not to blow it all out of proportion.

"What was really interesting, " I said, "is that they didn't get me with memories of actual events, but with an imagined event."

"Our greatest threat lies in the darkness of our own mind."

"Yeah, well, thanks again for pulling me out... but if it's all the same, I'd rather not go back into the Void for a while."

"Oh, but that wasn't the Void..."

"WHAT? – What do you mean?"

"Small steps," he said. "And I wouldn't have been able to pull you out of the Void."

"So where was that then?"

"That was here. It was all here. You never left, you never went anywhere. It was all in your mind. The Durge were still in your domain. It'll be worse when you're in their's."

He saw the shock on my face and smiled an encouraging smile that was lost on me.

"Don't worry," he said, "All in good time. I won't push you, that's not the role of a guide or a mentor. I'll make sure you're not bothered by them until you're better prepared, and there's still a lot to do. I think first though, a change of environment might be beneficial."

"Yeah..."I said, still a little stunned by what he'd told me, "Someplace with coffee as good as this." 

Author note

They really do make great coffee in the astral... and you don't have to pay for it!