I have seen eternity for I am eternal in a world that never ages. A picture perfect reel projected through my minds eye depicting a peaceful summer day. First came a beautiful blue sky with cotton clouds gliding away. Doves descended onto a neighborhood ideal for modern times. An interracial community thriving as a whole. White picked fences and bright green grass connected to bulky two story houses, perfect in every way. Everyone were off to start their day joyfully and full of life. Each greeting one another as they crossed paths.
They all have a purpose, a reason to live. Some are doctors, teachers, law enforcement. Some bake white others organize. No one is better than the other. They all valued ones choice to provide in this world. Somehow, I began to question where I stood among these perfect beings. That’s when my focus went to a couple staring out into the horizon. They smiled as if they had just achieve a milestone. Everyone around them kept busy while they just stood motionless.
My thoughts scramble for a split second and another movie reel flashed into my minds eye. A movie trailer intensified as havoc reached its climax. A hero stood before its antagonist in victory. A long battle for control came to an end with both parties coming to an agreement. I tried making sense of what the plots message was trying to portray but my mind was not for me to decipher. As much as I tried, I was not under management of my own accord. Though my eyes could see, my body was no where to he seen.
I must be dreaming, a thought in the farthest region of my mind whispered. Then, another projection blinded my minds eye. I could feel my body but I could not see it. Goosebumps shot the hairs on my arms straight up as hope slipped away. I now found myself alone in a tower, fear looming at every corner. Somehow, a window to the outside revealed a desolate world. This is a future any civilization faces. Everything ends.
But those where not my thoughts. Someone or something is projecting those kind of ideas into my head. Then, like before, another reel came into focus. I sat in my bed and looked around. Everything was back to normal. The world kept moving forward. People kept bringing more people into the world. The mailman ran their route. School buses stopped at their usual destination. What a weird dream, I thought.
As usual, I went about my ordinary life already forgetting those unusual series of events when suddenly I noticed something was off. My parents were nowhere to be found. I went outside thinking they’d be talking to the neighbors but even they were missing. Looking around, I began to notice no one was near. Cars ran on their own. Birds chirped in the air but there were no birds. Dogs barked in the distance yet there were no dogs. I could hear people but I could not see them. I must be dreaming, I must!
My heart raced as my mind panicked to find some reasoning. “What is going on!” I screamed towards the sky. My parents called to me concerned but I could not see them. They reached out to comfort me but I could not see them. I ran to the streets hearing the neighbors, feeling their worried stares but no one was around. I felt surrounded by absolutely no one. Then, it happened again.
As another reel projected into my minds eye I noticed something else. A bug-eyed creature with slender gray hands sat before me but in an instant it was gone. My minds eye painted a different scenario where everything made sense again. Snow pranced as it fell from the sky. Laughter set the tone as my eyes adjusted to a winter wonderland I long had forgotten. Memories of a time when the world was innocent and free brought me comfort, peace. Everything was perfect except those memories were not my own.
I blinked and everything changed. I was on an island celebrating with people I know but couldn’t remember. The sun stood in the sky with picture perfect clouds changing forms at every will. I blinked again and was transported to another place in another time. My mind was burning from all the information reeling through my thoughts. Someone spoke in my ear but I could not put a face to whoever voiced my subconscious.
I must be dreaming, the real me spoke. My own thoughts infused from outside sources were clouded but logic rationalized with my confusion. I kept my eyes closed until I could find sense from my dream-like trance. The voices echoed outside my head. They scattered all around but they didn’t make sense. They were blabbering as if they were telling me serious things. They all sounded the same, so I could not tell how many there were but they were closer than I thought.
Then, silence. An aroma of fresh green grass swept past me as clean air rushed throughout. The sun felt warm. As I opened my eyes, a pale man in a black suit sat before me. We were on a field, sitting on chairs with a table between us. I tried standing but somehow I was glued stiff. Restraints kept me from raising my hands and legs. I couldn’t even move my head. The man before me had no expression whatsoever. No eyebrows or lashes. He was bald with no color in his eyes. The pale man said nothing. He simply watched me, examining me.
Moments later the pale man took a series of paper and spread them across the table. He precisely set them down one by one, taking his time with each one. As he set the last piece of paper he began, “You may be wondering what we are doing here.” His tone was stale and lifeless. There were no range to his words, almost robotic. “I bet you have millions of questions racing through your mind. For now, I would like you to analyze what I have set before you.” He gestured the series of papers scattered on the table.
“Really look at them,” he glanced at the papers then at me. “Which stands out the most? Out of all of them, which calls to you the most.” He examined my reaction, expecting me to understand what they all meant. “There are no right or wrong answer child. Just trust your intuition and tell me what you see.” I observed each and every paper he laid out on the table. I studied every one of them then I studied him.
I could see him clearly by the bright sunlight beaming down at us. The vibrant green fields and the patches of perfect white clouds seamlessly moving among the wide blue sky seemed unrealistic, just like him. He did not blink nor moved a muscle. He simply stared at me while I stared at him. His skin looked plastic with no rough edges. “My existence is not in question,” the pale man spoke. “You need not worry who I am for the better question is who are you.” He joined his hands on the table and waited patiently. His eyes read my mind.
“For what?” I answered. “Who am I to you for you to have any interest in me?”
“Interesting.” The man replied.
“You are not real.” I proclaimed. “All of this is a dream. I am going to close my eyes and when I open them you will be gone.” I did as I said and when I opened my eyes he remain where he was, is. The pale man seemed impressed, despite him having no expression in his face. I proceeded to close my eyes and open them again expecting for him to not be there. I tried as much as I could but nothing changed. I remained stiff on the chair by the fields.
“Bold of you to express your opinions of me but that was unnecessary.” The pale man commented. “I am aware of your suspicion of me the minute you found yourself here. I am aware of many things about you child. Even the things you think you keep locked deep inside your subconscious mind. You cannot hide anything from me, know that well. I don’t have to read your mind because your eyes tell me everything. Especially when they are closed.”
“Then you don’t need me to answer the previous questions you asked earlier.” I said, trying to figure out a way to wake up.
“You may think you can clever your way out but I assure you the only way you will wake up is if I allow you to.” He was testing me, in my own head. “Its only a simple question really. I don’t know why you humans complicate things. Just answer my question and you will never hear from me again. That I promise you. No, I guarantee it.” He paused, “You have my word.” He sat back and waited for my next move.
There is no point in me trying to lie my way out of his puzzle if he can read my mind. Answering his riddle might set me on a trap. This dream was becoming a nightmare again. I looked at the papers scattered on the table. Still, I did not get it. What do they mean? What are they trying to tell me? I focused on one then the other, deciphering their meaning but I could not reach a conclusion.
They mean nothing to me. None called to me or stood out from the rest. Is he trying to confuse me or am I simply complicating things? Again, I examined each paper one by one trying to figure out what they meant. I cleared my head took a deep breath and looked at the papers again. “You must have confused me with someone else.” I answered after a long pause. None of the papers spoke to me or stood out or whatever he wanted to hear.
“And why is that?” He asked, almost as if that is what I was suppose to say.
“Because you want me to solve some riddle I know nothing about.” I answered. “You want me to tell you some secret puzzle to the universe that I know nothing about. You got the wrong guy.”
“Fascinating.” He was intrigued. “Is that what you got from these pictures?” Pictures, I thought confused. “Or do you see something else?” He noticed I got confused when he called them pictures.
“I don’t know what you want me to tell you.” I was getting annoyed. “I gave you an answer and clearly it’s not what you wanted to hear. What more do you want!”
“Honey.” My mother’s voice came out of nowhere. She appeared beside me, holding my hand. “Just be yourself and answer this kind man.”
“Mom?” Where did she come from?
“Son.” My dad appeared to my right, “There’s no need to lie. They just want you to be truthful about what you see.”
“Dad?” Both of my parents sat beside me as if we weren’t in some psychological dream. “What are you guys doing here?” They comfort me, pleading I answer truthfully unaware I sat restrained in the middle of a beautiful field. “Bringing my parents to this is unnecessary, you monster! Leave them out of this!”
“We did not raise you to behave like this.” My mother proclaimed. “You apologize this instant.”
“Maybe they can answer my question.” The pale man suggested. “Care to examine these series of images and tell me what you see. Which stand out the most to you?”
“I’ll go first.” My dad began. “Just to show you that there is nothing to worry about. To me, they tell a structured story about the human race. This one,” my dad pointed, “Calls to me for some reason. Strange, it really does call to me. I feel it even. Almost as if its wanting my attention.”
“Excellent.” The pale man said.
“Why am I getting a different image?” My mother began. “To me, I see a whole galaxy moving. It’s almost as if its breathing. Can’t say one of them is calling me but if I had to choose, I’d go with this one. Feels like home, even.” She turned to my dad and they both smiled.
“They are not real!” I shouted. “You are not real!” My parents were gone in an instant. Suddenly, I could hear them scream in agony. They were being tortured, punished by my own accords in some distant room. I could hear them but not see them. “They are not real. None of this is real!” The more I denied, the more my parents screamed. I could hear them begging their tormentors to stop. “This is not real,” I whimpered as the pain my parents underwent intensified.
“They’re blank!” I spat at the pale man. “These papers are nothing but white sheets spread across the table.” My parents agony was gone, silence settled. “I see no image, no detailed art work of any kind. They’re just blank pieces of paper from the moment you set them on the table. That is all I see.”
“Good.” The pale man spoke. “You are finally being truthful with me. The reason as to why where your parents saw images and you didn’t is because you have something special activated right there.” He pointed to my forehead. “Not too long ago, in a time when your parents were small innocent children, they had a unique kind of love planted into their pure developing minds. For your father, it was his father who taught him how to believe. For your mother, it was her grandmother.”
“Your mother’s grandmother,” he continued, “Loved her grandchildren so much that she planted a seed that would eventually grow into who you are. You see, your mother’s grandmother gave her grandchildren the power to imagine but it was your mother who believed the most. Naturally, when your father who carried the will to believe in the impossible married your mother whose womb held the power to make it so birth children, you were the end result.”
“A while back you had asked what you are to me,” he began to collect the papers, “And I just answered you.” He carefully stacked the papers precisely and set them on the corner of the table beside him. “You are the product of unconditional love in a time when no such thing exists. Not in a time where greed and selfishness reigns as pure and good. I know,” he read my mind, “You may think your life is unimportant and yes others are more fortunate than you. But listen well child, love is the purest source no one can buy.”
“What do I want from you, you ask?” He read my mind again, “I already told you.” He pointed to my forehead again. “You have a very powerful organ activated. All I seek is what you carry and once I have taken it from you, you will never hear from me again. As I promised you before. I have given you my word.” He stood now. I tried doing the same but I remained glued to the chair. My arms and legs were restrained by some invisible chains. “Your pineal gland is all I ask of you.”
“For what!” I asked, failing to break free. “Do you not have one of your own? What do you what with mine? It’s just a harmless useless thing!”
“Naïve child,” the pale man stopped as he reached for my forehead. “You know better than to fool me. We both know what it can do. Never underestimate the power of planting a seed. You’ve caused enough ripples on your planet. We are simply taming what you have started. If we don’t, by the time you wake up you’ll know who sent us and you’ll know why.” The pale man began to reach for my forehead once again.
He was getting closer. I tried retreating my head but I was stiff as a board. I can’t let him get away with this. This is all a dream, I know it. None of this is real. None of this is happening. It is all in my head. I must find a way to wake up! Though the bright sunlight and the peaceful sky brought me comfort, I could feel my world crumble into darkness. He was going to take my essence away, my creative stream of thought and there is nothing I could do to stop him. He is in my head and I am powerless.
“No!” I cast, “You are in my head there for I am in control.” The pale man froze. His hand inches away from my forehead. I was finally free from the invisible chains. I stood to find two more pale men behind the one who stood in front of me. One beamed a light aimed at my face while the other held a series of reels. I turned to find another crouched by the chair I sat. “You tried to manipulate my every thought. You made me think I was powerless in an attempt to cloud my potential.”
“I don’t know how many times you have attempted this or how many times you have succeeded.” I began to levitate, “But you found yourself in my head and in my head you will never prevail.” Before I knew it, I awoke from my dream. Grasshoppers orchestrated their melody near the window while dogs barked in the distance. It was a dream after all. A dream that felt all too real. I replayed everything that happened on the field and understood the message the pale man tried to erase.
I took my laptop and went to work. I opened a link on 4chan and titled my post anonymously. “Is the government powerful enough to send subliminal messages to you while you sleep, when you are at your most vulnerable? Are they launching inter-dimension stellar mind games on people who hack the system and expose the corrupted with the help of advance beings by calcifying their pineal gland while they sleep?” I re-read my entry and heard how paranoid I may seem, but maybe not to others.
“Has anyone else experienced such a dream?” I asked the unknown. “Where pale men in black suits give you some sort of test to see how active your pineal gland is. Anyone dreamt or have had weird visions of bug-eyed creatures blinding you with picture perfect memories as a distraction while they experiment on you?” I thought of deleting the post in fear of getting hospitalized for insanity but I continued. “Maybe some of you have only they have succeeded and you forgot. Maybe some of you remember only you don’t want to acknowledge it.”
“Well, it happened and you are not alone. We are more powerful than what we are made to believe and some of us can prove it.” I took one long look at my entry and debated whether or not I should post it. Doubt kept me at war in my head and each side was winning. I struggled to come to a conclusion but then I remembered my dream. I remembered what I said and how I felt. I remembered the strength emitting from my skin and the power running through my veins. No different than in the real world but that was not the real world and in the real world no such thing exists.
