When I was depressed all of my dreams would take place in the same town. I have never been there.
The nightmares were relentless, night after night. The torment of being awake had finally caught up with my sleeping hours.
Being on the road to recovery I noticed many changes in myself. I put on healthy weight, started eating properly, I let myself live as myself for once. I became who I was supposed to be.
The nightmares stopped.
They used to be so strange, trapped in a reality of somewhere so familiar yet so alien to me. This town was vast with woods as thick and as dense as my condensed thoughts. The trees towered above the city and an eerie fog loomed at the mountain edge.
Along the coast of this town lies a beach lined with huts and coves. I have never set foot on this beach in my dreams; but it is always there. A little into the mainland overlooking the dark sand dunes was a gigantic cathedral. Its spire pierces the sky with its clouded grey armour. Like a lance in a tourney in the times of old. In this cathedral there are never any religious proceedings, usually a collection of Boy Scouts or a sale or something taking place. More recently, a rebel army had made themselves at home. The ceiling was covered in artwork with no feeling. The twelve disciples shrouded in uncertainty, no feeling in their eyes.
This town has a university campus, the library was connected with a theatre. The red curtains remained open as the stage gathered dust with every dream. The prop cupboard is the most well-lit area of this room. Haunted accessories spill out making that clanging sound that only happens in a dream sequence. If you walk behind the theatre you reach a large field with acres of sports grounds. Empty. Always.
The city centre has a large shopping area that is so big you can get lost. I do get lost regularly.
The top floor is a large makeup store with faceless customer service representatives. Each pedestal houses a different brand. but I never stop long enough to look properly.
Just down the painfully still escalators there is an activity centre. There is a maze of blue and purple lasers which I always seem to get tangled in. The lines stick to my skin like silly string and makes me nauseous. I can feel it, hours after I wake. And I wake up sweating. For some reason there is a reservoir inside. I have been ensnared in the centre mindlessly spinning in a rickety boat for hours on end.
Just behind this centre is an alleyway. It leads to what looks like an oversized toy town. The wooden beams and the bright houses are never open. I run past so often my mind cannot comprehend what is inside. On the outskirts of town, the other side to the sea is a campsite. This green space has strange trees like hands or limbs. No one bats an eye.
When the dreams happen; I remember each and every event. Even to this day they shake me.
When I was depressed all those months ago this is where my mind went.
Last night for the first time in 5 months, I had a nightmare.
Written by Rosella Hazeldine - 19
"I have always wanted to write, ever since getting into trouble in year 7 for using all of my printing credits to print my collection of ghost stories which I'm certain no one read except my mum. Its so good to have a platform now where people can read my work"
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