The Guardians of Light

The Lucid Dreaming

I opened my eyes and saw the ceiling. I was intrigued by the in variance of the scenery.

Cause whenever I slept, I witnessed the change. Initially, if I was on earth, I pictured myself in Orpheus after I woke up and vice versa. Perhaps I got lucky this time.

It took time for me to analyse my thoughts.

My parents were both relieved and surprised that I was not acting like a lunatic anymore.

'How did I get here?' I asked.

My father left the room right after I asked the question.

'Well, the doctor suggested that a familiar environment where you feel secure might ease you up. So we brought you home,' replied my mother.

She looked worried.

'I'm alright now. You don't need to worry about anything.'

'The doctor said that the reason for your fainting is because of lack of sleep. Is there something that's bothering you, sweetheart?'

Sweetheart? She hasn't called me like that since my boyhood. It bugged me because where did that love go all these years? And all of a sudden, her love sprung up like a fountain.

'I am perfectly fine. Can I rest for a while?'

I indirectly asked her to leave the room.

She nodded and left.

I am never going to sleep again, probably. The things Evelyn told seemed truthful, but the eerie shotgun man creeped me out. The thought of him caused me distress.

Later that day, I got up from my bed and moved stealthily into the kitchen. I needed a lot of caffeine to fight against my deadliest enemy, The Sleep. So, I prepared coffee and sneaked back into my room.

Now, I have to decide what I am going to do to pass the whole night. I remembered about dreams that I studied the other day. So I opened that chapter and started reading.

The next topic looked interesting too.

"Can people in a coma dream?''

Coma is basically a state of unconsciousness in which a patient does not react with the surrounding environment. Someone who is in a coma is unconscious and has minimal brain activity. It is not possible to wake a coma patient using physical or auditory stimulation. They’re alive, but can’t be woken up and show no signs of being aware.

The person’s eyes will be closed and they’ll appear to be unresponsive to their environment. They won’t normally respond to sound or pain or be able to communicate or move voluntarily.

They may be able to breathe on their own, although some people require a machine to help them breathe.

Over time, the person may start to gradually regain consciousness and become more aware. Some people will wake up after a few weeks, while others may go into a vegetative state. Coma patients can exhibit different levels of unconsciousness and unresponsiveness depending on which brain regions have been damaged and how much or how little of the brain is functioning.

Coma may result from intoxication (eg d**g a***e, overdose or misuse of medications), metabolic abnormalities, central nervous system diseases, acute neurological injuries (eg stroke, hernia, hypoxia, hypothermia), or traumatic injuries caused by falls or vehicle collisions, etc. In some instances, coma may be deliberately induced using pharmaceutical agents.

But during dreaming, the whole brain is active, unlike those of in a coma.

But there was a woman named Stephanie Savage who, after recovering from the coma, said that she experienced lucid dreaming.

She also mentioned that her hospital room was very cold, and she was barely covered. They also packed her with ice sometimes because of high fever. They didn't think she was feeling the cold, so they did not bother to cover her up. She also thinks that the cold influenced the nature of her dreaming.

After spending a considerable amount of time on the dream concept, the first wave of sleep started to commence.

I closed my book and drank coffee.

Under ordinary circumstances, the silence soothes me. But silence is my enemy these days. In addition to my bad luck, even the sounds of crickets were absent today. The more absolute it is, the more terrified I became. Every cool breeze which used to caress my skin now created terrors.

I closed my windows because I didn't want any special effects. 

And the moment I became free, the brain got filled up with the Orpheus stuff.

I sat on my bed with the hands-on my head trying to get that stuff off my brain.

I heard a faint creak that spooked me. I immediately went and hid behind my bed. The door opened very slowly while making the creaky noises. Out of the utter darkness, came a moving figure. My fingers were curled into a fist, nails digging into my palm.

To my alleviation, the figure turned out to be my mother. Once I saw that it wasn't anything spooky, my tensed body started to relax.

I came out of my hiding and asked, 'What are you doing in my room at this time?'

'I just wanted to check in on you. Why are you still up, and why were you hiding?'

'Well, I got alarmed by the creaking noise of the door.'

'Are you alright, dear? Is there anything that you want to share with me?'

'As I already told you, I am absolutely fine.'

'You can tell me anything, sweetheart. Please share your distress with me.'

Her repeated asking made me mad for some reason I don't even know.

I lashed out and said, 'Where did your care go all these years, huh? Where were you when I needed you emotionally? Where were you when my father used to yell at me on everything possible? You did not care to pitch in and protect me from his abusive. You just stood there while he went on ranting while I looked at you helplessly, hoping you would do something. Na, that day never came. And all of a sudden, you now start showing interest in my life? I am not mad because of your attempt to involve in my life. I am mad because I don't know why you have behaved like that. You know what, past is past, you want to know about my problems? Here it is, when I sleep, I am going to an alternate version of the Earth. It might be possible that I could get stuck there for eternity. Ergo no sleep.'

My mother gave me a 'he-finally-lost-it' kind of expression. Of course, when I said it out loud, it sounded bizarre.

She did not know how to comfort me. The problem I had is on a whole another level. It's beyond my parents.

My mother stayed with me all night as she was worried I might do something to injure myself. She informed me that I wouldn't be going to school the next day. I didn't ask her why, and she didn't tell me.

At 6:15 AM, my phone started to ring. I didn't want to lift it. I let the phone ring. My mother waited for a while, and finally, she got up to answer the phone. It was from Mia.

She had called to check in on me. It was then I got to know that my mother had planned on taking me to a psychiatrist, and that is why she had f*******n me from going to school that day.

After she got off the phone from Mia, she told me that Mia would also be coming to the psychiatrist to see you.

My mother assumed my silence as consent to see the doctor.

Even though I did not want to see a doctor, I decided to go because it is the only thing that will make my mother get off me.

My mother asked me to get ready and left the room to prepare breakfast.

I headed to shower immediately, so I could feel less sleepy. I was suffering from sleep deprivation, and the caffeine was the only thing that kept me going.

The soup she made, made me feel better. As soon as I finished my soup, we headed out.

The atmosphere that day was not supportive as well. The chilled climate and the rainy clouds created a depressing vibe. The uber finally arrived, and we hopped in.   

It started drizzling right after we got inside. The AC in the car made me feel like I was in a polar region. The driver might have noticed me shivering, so he had turned the AC off.

Finally, I sighed.

I stared through the window, capturing every single detail as I may not see them again anymore. Every tree, every house along the street that I have been seeing since childhood seemed special at that moment.

I was just lying there sitting in the car, unsure of what was going on and what I was doing.

When the uber stopped at the destination, I blinked for the first time.

We got off the cab and went into the office.

My mother asked me to wait in the hall while she went into the doctor's cabin to have a pre-talk before the process.

I sat in a chair and looked at the interior of the place. The place was painted with light colours, and a lot of portraits of thoughts were nailed to the wall.

Those thoughts were really encouraging and inspiring, and if used by an appropriate person in an appropriate time, they could act as better influences for a depressed person.

When I was done looking at the portraits, my mother came out and asked me to go inside and have a chat with the therapist.

I reluctantly got up and walked to her office.

But the moment I opened the door, I got hit by a wave of cheerfulness. The ambience of this place tends to set the mood. It is like a perfect atmosphere for a date.

The temperature is also adjusted, and it did not even feel like it's raining outside.

'Nice place you got here.'

'I am glad you like it. My name is Emmanuelle, and you can call me Emma.'

'Okay, Emma. My name is Ryan.'

'Hello, Ryan. How do you feel today?'

'I was all gloomy and depressed until I got here.'

'Well, good to know. What did you have for today's breakfast?'

'I had soup.'

'That's it? That is what you regularly eat?'

'Nah, I did not have enough sleep yesterday, so she might have thought soup would be better.'

'Does "she" represent your mother?'

'Who else would it refer to?'

'Never mind. So why is it that you can't have enough sleep?'

'Let's just say I am having dreams. They are more like nightmares.'

'Okay. So how often do you have nightmares?'

'Look, I have had a plethora of dreams since childhood. Some are good, some are bad, and the others, I forgot. The ones that I am having now are a lot more different than any of those I have ever had.'

'How so?'

'They feel so lively. These dreams don't follow a natural course. I have to make a choice at every step. It feels real.  The characters I met in my dream talk to me, and they tell me that it's a different world. You may think that I am crazy, but I think that they might be telling the truth.'

'Okay. So the characters you mention, do you know them?'

'No, I have never seen them in my life.'

'Have you heard of lucid dreaming?'

"Yes, But I don't think I am lucid dreaming."

'What makes you jump to that conclusion?'

'Okay, the dreams that I'm having have nothing in common with this world. New people, new environment.'

'Sometimes, I also have dreams where I find myself in an alien planet too. It can happen in a dream.'

'But three days in a row? I don't think it is a coincidence.'

'Shall we have a session of hypnosis before I ask you any more questions?'

'I am all yours.'