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a reasonable voice inside her head told her in an attempt to keep the panic at bay. But her hands, outstretched in front of her, met wall upon damp, mossy wall. |
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When she tilted her head back more blackness met her straining gaze. When she shouted her own voice echoed back. |
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"Help me, help me, me, me, me." |
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The loneliness she'd carried inside her all her life became a tangible force within the cave. She understood, in the part of her mind separated from the dream, how her subconscious had personified a hidden fear of dying alone into a closed-in cave where she would, in fact, die alone, forgotten and unmourned. |
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But tonight, just after the first rush of despair came upon her, the dream changed. D.J. shifted and made a small sound of distress, which the detached, rational part of her mind heard and stifled. Instead of her voice echoing back as it usually did when she called out in fear, another voice answered her call. |
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D.J. turned and frowned into the shaft of light from a tunnel. She took one cautious step forward, then another. As she neared the source of the light, she saw a man. He held out his hand to her. |
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"Come on, D.J. We're waiting for you. The picnic's all ready, and the kids are hungry." |
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I have lost my mind. But this is a whole lot better than the way the dream usually ends. |
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D.J. took the remaining steps through the dark tunnel and emerged into the bright sunshine of a |
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