6.

A land lays still upon the slow change of seasons, a winter darkness dulls the summer brightness, an advantage being gained or lost perhaps. Time waits for no one and so it shouldn't though perhaps it is waiting for me to catch up and start over ... a test in preparation for the real confrontation. Is there such a thing as a last chance saloon?

I awake on a bed in a hospital, with no blankets on me. Odd that I should wake like this and have a lack of blankets be my first concern. At first, I could hear nothing, I am extremely dizzy, and it is very difficult to see, everything is no more than a blur. My senses need to settle apparently, and it would not be long before things would indeed settle.

The light was so bright it hurt my eyes, after a few moments it stopped hurting. Unlike the last time I found myself in such a position like this, I am not alone. There is plenty of movement, with a lot of people around. A nearby nurse called out for a doctor. I could hear her speak. I look at my body, I am once again thin.

'Shit, I'm still asleep' I assume, 'what am I doing here? Where is here, exactly? Where am I?'

I eventually calm down and a doctor tells me that I had been in a car accident, not far from where I live, and that I had been in a coma for the past three months, which would be the explanation for actual weight loss, and why I also feel like there is a lack of blood circulation as what I had felt upon waking in my dream or whatever it was.

Apparently, all this right here is real, unlike all of what I thought I was experiencing of late. My mind, so I'm told, was working overtime to deal with what was happening to me. In my mind I had been fighting a demon, but what I was really fighting for was my life, the doctor told me, most people in my situation would not have survived. Funny how supposedly I crashed near my home, and I dream someone else had done this while they fall victim to a demon attack ... this feels all too ... fictional.

I had been resuscitated on more than one occasion, so I'm told, and this explains the moments of dizziness I had felt within my dream and when I think about things and as to what they might actually be, the first time I had seen the demon was on the bonnet of that other car close to where I live, and when I concentrate on that moment and look properly, it is me myself that I see inside that car, not someone who is a stranger to me.

What a head trip this is ... I had also come through a fever, which explains the lack of blankets in my dream state, as for a fair amount of time in my hospital bed; the blankets had been removed in an attempt to cool me down.

Was it coincidence, or just something I somehow worked into my dream as I lay in a coma? But there were two guys who worked in the emergency services who had arrived on the scene of my crash, these paramedics paid me a visit during my recovery to see how I was doing, their names are Keith and Mike. This dream world, this other place, demons, none of it real yet it was real for me. I'm sure it was.

I still find it hard to accept what happened and what makes things worse is that every once in a while, I am convinced something is watching me and sometimes I can see something moving out of the corner of my eye like a dark shadow but when I turn to have a proper look, I cannot see anything.

I can't explain it but sometimes I feel that they are actually out there somewhere. Dream Demons, do they actually exist? And if they do then is anything that we can do to stop them? They are coming, in a way I feel it, but for all we know, they are already ... HERE ...

7.

Time moves on, but can I trust time as it is. Some time has passed, or have I just imagined that it has? My life had returned to some kind of normality, or so I thought ...

I am standing by the bench outside that derelict hospital where all this first began for me, but that was not real, right? That place was a dream within a dream, something straight from my comatose induced imagination, right? How did I get here? And why once again, like before, does it feel so real? This is not making any sense to me. I must be dreaming; I don't remember what I was last doing, I couldn't say with any accuracy as to where I may have been right before I find myself right back here.

I must have gone to bed and fallen asleep, so this has to be a dream, but why am I back here again?

Something is moving behind me, almost as if it is stalking me. Out of the corners of my eyes I can see this movement, like dark shadows moving quickly. When I turn, I see nothing. I haven't had that feeling, that sensation, like as if I am being watched for such a long time now, nor have I seen these movements behind me in a long time either, not since soon after I came out of that coma, I was in.

About one hundred meters or so to my left, there is an old oak tree. It is a rather large old oak tree. Standing next to this tree there is a tall, slim man with grey hair. He looks over at me and nods a hello as if he knows me. I begin to approach him when something quite odd begins to strike. Three strong pulsating thumps shake the ground beneath me almost knocking me off my feet.

I stop to catch my balance. Just as I begin to continue, I am hit again by three more ground shaking pulses, each feeling like a brief, miniature earthquake. The man I am trying to make my way to seems undisturbed by these pulses as he moves to make his way behind that rather large old oak tree and out of my sight.

I get to the tree; walk right around it but there is no sign of this grey-haired man. Once again three more ground shaking pulses hit, this time I am knocked off my feet and when I hit the ground, I am no longer anywhere near an oak tree but on the floor of my bedroom, I had fallen out of bed, apparently. Something like this has happened before, I was dreaming then so am I dreaming now?