LUCID

CHAPTER 16

Actually, it was more like how I used to enter the Astral via meditation – stillness... drifting... colours and shapes and movement in the darkness... then clear, realistic imagery. I was now remote-viewing other peoples memories – pretty cool really!

But I wasn't viewing as an outsider, I was actually in the mind of the other person, seeing through their eyes. I could sense their feelings and thoughts too, but they were subdued so I didn't feel like I was them... I was still me inside them. A passenger.

The memories came and went in quick succession – short, disconnected, dream-sequences...

... I'm wading through a swamp, knee-deep. The water is black and thick like oil, with a vile stench of sewage mixed with petroleum. Bony, web-winged creatures are circling overhead, getting closer, sweeping past me like phantoms. They have fangs and claws, and squeal like cats being tortured. One catches the back of my head – sends me stumbling into the putrid slush. Another attacks as I try to get up. Then another. And another. I'm on my hands and knees – can feel the skin on my back being flayed open. One of the creatures lands on my shoulders burying its claws into my flesh – starts biting on my neck...

... I'm pushing through a blizzard across an ice sheet that stretches for miles. The cold, biting wind and sleet feels like razor-blades brushing past my face and hands. I can hardly move forward and I feel as if I'm going uphill. Then I begin sliding backward and see that the whole ice-sheet is lifting – tilting – getting steeper. I slip and fall flat – sliding faster. I claw at the ground but there's nothing to grasp but ice and snow. I look behind and see I'm sliding towards a precipice – and a sheer drop – into endless, black nothingness...

... I'm walking across an empty car park late at night. I come across two people, a couple, who are looking at me strangely and worriedly as I pass, like I shouldn't be here, like I should leave. Then I see an old woman coming towards me, grinning, arms outstretched. I turn and walk away but she follows. I try to run but can't. My legs collapse beneath me and I can only drag myself across the ground. I hear the woman cackling. She's getting closer... closer...

... A derelict city – post-apocalyptic. Dense, dark clouds fill the sky, still and heavy. I feel I'm being watched by a thousand eyes. I walk along a deserted street of gutted office-buildings, burned-out cars, scorched trees, melted lamp-posts and shop-signs. I sense movement suddenly and stop – listen. I hear screeching voices, high-pitched, distant but getting closer, louder, and from all directions. Then I see naked, scrawny, wretched human-like creatures pouring out of every window, swarming like ants down the walls to the street, racing towards me on all fours. I spin around to run, but they're coming at me from everywhere...

... I'm running – trying to run – in a desert, and all around me are worms thick as human arms burrowing up out of the sand, tripping me, wrapping around my legs, pulling at me. I manage to keep kicking them off and run – try to run – away from them, out of their reach. At last I escape them and stop. I'm standing on the edge of a steep dune. The sand suddenly gives way under my feet and I tumble and slide and roll down the dune embankment. I come to rest at the bottom, on my back, and I see a sand-cloud forming at the top of the dune. It swirls and rises like a tornado above me. Then it takes the shape of a monstrous sand-worm which arches its head directly over me – and dives onto me with massive, gaping jaws...

"Enough," I called out. Arlo turned off whatever he'd turned on in my mind, and the images stopped. I got up out of the recliner, stretched my legs, ran my fingers through my hair and shook my head as if that would sweep away some of the experience.

"Are you okay?" Arlo said.

"Yeah... just needed a little break. It's not as bad as I might have expected, but still..."