Over a Candle

Woke up from a nightmare this morning. It went like this;

I was the middle child of three kids. I had a little sister named, I think, Katie and an older brother named, I think, Caleb. Katie was five (or around that age), and Caleb was like nine or something.

Katie and I were playing outside on our property. We lived in the country so we had a lot of land to play on. As we were playing an image appeared to us. "Come," spoke the spirit who whenever she spoke to us, she spoke with her face over a candle with a long flame. She kept fading in and out quickly so I couldn't really define her complete shape. It's kind of like those really old movies where the people are standing still, but because of the recording technology it appears as though they're inconsistently moving. She kept fading in and out quickly and reappearing slightly to the left or to the right of her prior placement. She looked quite lovely and attracted Katie's eyes and mind immediately. Katie dropped what she was doing and kept telling me that she wanted to follow "the lady". "I don't think that’s a good idea Katie." I spoke with the amount of wisdom that I contain today at age 20. [It was the mere fact that she spoke slowly with her face near the flame of the candle and did not even flinch that fueled my discernment.] "No, I really think that..." Katie appeared in a near tranz, following the spirit with partial curiosity and willingness and yet the spirit appeared to be dragging her in. I followed Katie, partially curious myself, but also hoping to change Katie's mind and leave the, who had now become, creepy spirit. Caleb, at this point, was playing nearby and yet far enough away that he saw what was happening, but remained behind to do whatever it was that he was doing.

We came to a darker area of the property where it almost instantaneously became dusk. There were large dark, rough wooden remnants of barn/shed-like building frames around and the spirit seemed to be weaving in and out of them, strengthening Katie's curiosity and drive to follow, all the while strengthening my own discernment and desire to break Katie from her tranz. I kept telling Katie that I didn't want to follow anymore and that is was a bad idea. "But she's so beautiful. She's so lovely. I want to see her," Katie continued her pursuit. The spirit then spoke in a riddle, alluding where she next desired Katie to go and then appeared much farther down a path that led up toward an old house-like building on our property. "School!" Katie yelled out discovering the answer to the riddle and immediately ran off toward the spirit. "Wait, Katie! Wait!" I struggled to catch up to her. I found her out by the barn looking through an array of old school desks. I immediately knew what she was doing; she was looking for a desk that she could bring with her. I too looked for a desk because at this point I knew the spirit was bad, but I did not want Katie to go by herself and who knows what could have happened to her. If I were there, at least I might have a chance of breaking her out of the situation. In fact, that was what I was relying on.

Katie found her pick of desk and ran off. I found a desk that was not too heavy and appeared to be the best choice for me and grabbed it from the long, overgrown grass. I ran to the building that Katie had now begun to enter. When I got in, the room was lit by the sunlight coming through the windows. I spotted Katie, but the scene began to unfold as I placed my desk catty-corner to Katie's desk. In fact, there was a row of desks lining one wall of the small, closet-dimensioned room and then a teacher's desk facing the row of desks, but in the corner of the room. Due to the fact that the room was so small and rectangular, the teacher's desk was quite close to the students, in fact, some students desks overlapped the teacher's desk. But this was no problem because, you see, I then realized that every child, excluding me and Katie, was a spirit. Each spirit found its body to be very doll-like, turning their heads/arms very stiffly. I was quite sure that if someone had not set them up in their places, they would surely have fallen over. On the teacher's desk sat a large, yet strong, male spirit who watched the class. I knew instantaneously that this was the teacher. The lady spirit, who Katie had been following, stood up by the teacher's desk, all the while keeping her focus on Katie as Katie feverishly wrote. This "lady" watched Katie with hungry eyes. When I entered the room, I immediately positioned my desk (somewhat in the middle of the room, but catty-corner to Katie's) and immediately began taking the test that everyone appeared to be so feverishly taking. The spirits both viewed me, but the lady spirit quickly refocused her attention on Katie, while the teacher continued to watch me. I looked through my paper (as if it wasn't even there), not caring what the test was, but drawing a mental image of the room; planning our escape. I tried to make the teacher believe that I was testing, but my eyes kept shifting from Katie to the lady spirit. The hunger in the spirit's eyes drove chills down my spine and I knew that if we did not escape when Katie finished her test, we would be in serious trouble. It's no longer a game, Katie; we have to get out of here. This is not right. I thought.

Katie finished her test and handed it to the lady, who then handed it to the teacher, I got up to bring my scribble-scrabble test to the teacher. On the way to the front, I spoke to Katie through the corner of my mouth; "We have to go Katie. We have to go." I tried to remain focused forward, hoping not to draw attention to my warning for our escape. The lady spirit, seeing Katie's subtle distraughtness, turned to me; identifying me as the source. Katie did not want to go, but knew she must. The spirit starred at me coldly, angered by my causal of Katie's distress. Then, all at once, the spirit burned with rage. I dropped my paper, grabbed Katie from her desk and threw my desk behind us as we ran for the door. The lady spirit shrieked in a horrifying shriek of mixed fury and terror. I shoved Katie ahead of me, as I got closer to the door; knowing that once we got outside of our confinement we would have a better chance at outrunning the spirit. Katie got through the door and I nearly got through when the lady spirit appeared before me. Katie ran, but was caught by the teacher and as I tried to run by the lady spirit, she grabbed my ankle. I tripped and fell on my face. I remember as I fell keeping my eyes on Katie. I had to get Katie free. I wanted to make sure nothing happened to Katie. "Caleb!!!" A scream arose in my throat. "Caleb!!!!" I screamed with everything I had. "CALEB!!!!" My voice hit high decibels and seemed to stun the spirits for a short second. Then the lady spirit fought more violently to silence me. "CALEB!!!!!!!!!!!" My final scream of horror and desperation arose. Sure enough, Caleb jumped out of nowhere onto the teacher, who was attempting to contain Katie. The spirits at this point became fleshly, though still the same spirits, but were able to be touched. I grabbed the arm of the lady spirit and turned it around behind her back. I heard her bones crack as I continued to twist her arm. The spirit screamed out in pain and struggled defenselessly, now on her knees on the ground. I remember seeing her collarbone muscles rip from beneath her skin as I twisted her arm and watched Caleb and Katie struggle with the teacher. I knew, instantaneously that we would be free soon. And then I woke up.

I grabbed at my muscle that stretched over my collarbone. Right by my shoulder, the muscle ached. I rolled over, putting pressure on it to relieve some pain. I think I fell back asleep. When my alarm went off, the pain was gone.

It's still kind of sore, though, as I type this.