I wake to find myself

I wake to find myself on a very dark road. It is both strange and familiar, as though I have been here once before. There is something sitting next to me with coal-red eyes and an all-consuming presence. It seems as though it has been waiting for me to arrive. Perhaps it knew that this was where I would end up. It points wordlessly to the road and somehow I know I am expected to walk down it.

I stumble along aware now that I am not alone in this place. I can hear the echoes of others who have passed this way. Invisible eyes bore into and through me, willing me to hurry along.

The road is well worn with many smaller roads leading off it. I stop at a sign post and reach out to wipe away the thick grey dust that covers the words. But there are no words on it and I move on confused. Where am I exactly?

There is something blocking the road now. It is an alien creature and I slow down, afraid and cautious. It reaches me and wraps itself around me like a sticky spider’s web. I fight to get out but it is stronger than me and threads me up into a tight cocoon.

I fall asleep again and wake with a start. I feel different somehow and glance down at my hands. I reel back in horror at the mangled claws that were once my hands. I try to scream but my voice has been removed. How long have I been here, I wonder? And what kind of monstrous creature will I become once the metamorphosis is complete?

When I was younger I used to have a recurring nightmare. It was the kind of dream where although you know that something is coming for you, you are unable to shake yourself awake. In the dream I am moving along on a type of road and it feels like I am trying to get to something that is both beyond my control and out of my reach.

The dream suddenly reminds me of where I am now on the dark road. But then I realise that this is not the dream from my childhood.

It is real. And I am dead.