SOMNIUM

Prologue

That night was full of dreams . It felt like I was floating between dreams and reality.

All of a sudden I woke up from my sleep , and I could sense an intense difference in my physique .
I wanted to see it . So I rushed to the dressing table , and when I looked at myself in the mirror , "oh my god it was not
me" !!!
It was a girl , A reflection of a girl who looked very different from myself .
The eyes were light brown with flecks of gold that looked so bright yet was lacking liveliness , they were staring at me as though trying to convey something to me begging me to understand something that I am yet to see .
She was dressed in a beautiful silk dress unlike that I have ever seen before , her head was covered with a veil that she held in one hand covering her hair partly , she was adorned with ornaments from head to toe , she had a very very fair complexion that somewhat looked out of this world .
It looked as if she was staring at me through the mirror .
I have never seen that face before .

I was unable to move my eyes away from that reflection. But the more I stare at her , there is a strange feeling which I am not able to express .
The way she is looking at me becomes so disturbing and painful at point where I just close my eyes tightly . Praying for whatever it was to just stop.
I open my eyes , gasping for air and realised that I was still in my room drenched in sweat .
I immediately rushed to the mirror to see my reflection , I let out a deep breath it was just me , what I saw before was just a dream .
I kept saying to myself that it was just a dream that it was normal and that everything is fine . But somewhere deep down I know that it wasn't .

This is not the first time i am seeing that girl in my dream , But it surely was the first time I saw her as my very own reflection .
From the past year and a half , from the day I had turned 20 , I keep seeing her in my dreams very often that I lost count ofhow many times . They all weren't the same dream , no , But she was there in all of them .

Sometimes I see her in the corner of my room , most of the times I see her in an unfamiliar place that I have never seen before.
But one thing common in all of those dreams is that girl .

She just keeps staring at me , no words , no expressions , no actions , nothing just looking at me in the eye .

I have come to a point where I am tired of this dream , I have no idea , who she is or what she wants from me . But I just keep seeing her in my dreams again and again .
I wonder if all these dreams will ever stop , or if there is something I can do to make them stop . I have no idea . But I am very desperate to find an answer to these unstopping questions coming from my head .

I tried , I tried asking my parents , grandparents , my friends , family members , each and everyone I have come across or I am close to , they all are just as clueless as me .
They all say the same thing that its just a dream , forget it , get on with life , distract yourself , stop seeing movies , and what not .
Each and every time I hear someone tell me that its just a dream I feel like screaming .

Because I know from heart that a there must be a reason for me too get the same dream again and again .

There should be a reason for sure.

I know that its not normal . And I know that the girl in my dreams is desperately trying to tell me
something . And I believe I will find my answers one day if not today .

Having that thought in mind I started my day like usual , focusing on my work , trying to keep myself distracted from all sorts of disturbing thoughts .

Suddenly, the ringing sound of my phone shook me out of my thoughts .

I got a call from one of my friend , she had to visit an old palace in the outskirts of the city as the part of her restoration project and wanted me too come with her.
I thought why not it will be a great distraction to me and decided to go along with her .
It took almost three hours for us to reach there .
And when we did I was fascinated by the palace , it looked old yet very intriguing, I wasn't
able to move my eyes from the front .

My friend had started analysing the place , me tagging along with her , there weren't many people around just few photographers and tourists here and there.
We went through various halls , rooms , corridors and Courtyards each of which was as fascinating as the façade .
When she was done with her study and we were about to leave from the place ,
we were standing at the end of a passage way and that's when we heard a sound .
We saw a small girl , must be around the age of seven , she was standing at the other end and crying .

There was no one around her , she just stood there and kept crying , covering her face , as her cries started becoming loud and loud me and my friend tried to goo near her , to console her .
But she saw us and started running further along the passage .
We just looked and each other and started going behind that girl , we started running behind her , through new passages that we hadn't noticed before .
Following her we ended up before a huge door , and the girl was nowhere to be seen . Again looking at each other , my friend moved forward and pushed the door open .
The moment the doors opened . I let out a huge gasp , that echoed through the hallways unable to hide my shock .
I became still , unable to move , unable too speak , I wasn't even able too hear my friend anymore as she was shaking me and saying something .
My eyes were glued in front of me , towards the opened door ,

where

stood a huge painting , no not just a painting ,

It was the painting of the girl whose thoughts have haunted me for the past year and a half .

I couldn't believe what I was seeing anymore ........what I saw all these while was
supposedly just dream .........Just a dream ...Or not ..

To be continued ..........