A Scary Dream

I opened the front door and I saw lions walking around in the street. Not running around, but casually walking around as if they lived there. The street was empty with no soul to be seen, not even vehicles. Just one lion walking calmly looking around. The foot path was spot clean with grass evenly growing in the open space beyond it. Everything was at right angles, the road, the footpath, the grassed area, and the houses. The houses didn’t have a boundary wall, just a small veranda that opened on to the street. I went inside and shut the door. Fear didn’t seem to overtake me at this moment. I went back to do my work. Suddenly I heard a shriek. I ran out to see. The lion had done something, hurt a person or hurt itself. I brought it in. He walked in and sat in the living room in one corner with his head held up. He didn’t seem to be fearful and neither was I. I looked at him for a while and then turned around to get back to work. And I hadn’t realised that I had another animal in my house, my dog! He ran into the living room barking playfully or with anger and straight ran to the lion sitting there. And the lion sprang up and caught hold of my dog’s neck. They quarrelled little bit first. Now my dog was still with his neck clutched in the lion’s teeth. It happened so fast, I couldn’t even stop my dog. I didn’t know what to do. I stood there staring at them. And then suddenly like lighting it struck me I have to save my dog. I ran towards them, held the lion’s jaw. With all my strength I pulled it apart. My dog fell on the ground. I called out in anger, “Susan! help me.” She came running from inside and she also held the lion’s jaws and together we pulled it apart. At this point I wanted to kill it. That was the only thought running through my mind. With the anger of seeing my dog wounded, almost dead I just wanted to kill it. I broke its jaw. And next thing I ripped him up into two pieces from his head to tail. Every single bone in this body, his spine I had broken it with my bare hands.  There he lay dead on my living room floor. I was so saddened looking at my dog. I couldn’t see him like this. I loved him so much. His cute, innocent, dreamy eyed face pictured in my head. I ran to him to check him. He walked a little and then he fell flat all of a sudden. He was not dead completely. I inspected his neck. There was no blood flowing out but marks of the lion’s teeth were there like it had made holes in his neck with blood being seen but nothing flowed out. I had to take him to the hospital. Me, my mom and Susan, my sister were discussing and came to a conclusion that we would ask our neighbour if he could take my dog to the doctor in his car. So I went out, he was coming down the stairs. Hesitantly I asked him if he could help in taking my dog to the doctor because there was no other way we could get him there fast. This neighbour didn’t like us much so I wasn’t sure if he would help. But he said yes. I carried my dog out and to his car. He had a Ferrari, red in colour. Only two people could fit in it. The doors opened upwards. It was such that if I sat in I couldn’t see the driver and neither could he see me. There was a covered space that separated the two seats. Maybe it housed the engine. Even the space where one had to sit was really small. I had to stuff in to fit. But there was my dog too. So I put him in and there was no space left now for me, I closed the door. My dog was sad and he didn’t even cry out of pain. I was standing beside the car, when I saw a man walking down the street. I shouted, “go inside your house, there’s a lion walking behind you.” And I turned around and sat on top of the car on my dog’s side keeping support and we drove off. There was something going on in the city. I had felt it before we had started. Unlike our street it was so noisy, so many people all around the place, shops were filled with people buying stuff. People were not their normal self. The sky was dull and not blue. It left devilish, like something evil was going on. We reached the place. It was a huge complex. There were lot of people here also. It was like a huge Greek structure. It had huge pillars separating large halls but without a ceiling. It was gloomy in there. I had to go to the doctors’ section. One hall had many circular tables with people sitting around it and eating, like in a restaurant. Another hall there were more people all around. I walked and stood in a queue. It was not one but four queues filled with people waiting to go in. We were standing  beside the hall with the circular tables. In the other hall something had happened and a man took out his gun and pointed it to a woman’s head. He held her and brought her to the circular tables’ hall and said he would kill her and suddenly everybody started dancing. There was loud music and everyone started shouting and dancing. Even that man and woman. I stood in my line there waiting for my turn. My dog was dying and there was no sign of the queue ending. People were shouting now standing for so long. I was fearful. I didn’t want my dog to die. I couldn’t handle it if that happened. I wanted him back the way he was, I couldn’t let him go like this. I was so impatient. I didn’t know what to do. There was no way I could see that would condense the line of people in front of me. Then I spotted a man in the front. I knew that man. I could ask him for a favour and he could let me in before the others. I went to him and told him about my situation. Instead of helping me, he pushed me further back in the line. I was furious and at the same time anxious. I wanted to do something but I wasn’t able to do and there was no way that I could go in. People were going mad, worse than before. I was getting the feeling that I was in a temple. Some strange temple where there was something evil everywhere I looked. The air inside was stuffy. The sky was dull than ever. It was like everything was blackening slowly.  There were roots hanging from the beams that connected the tall pillars. I was burning inside. A man went in from the queue. Everyone was dancing as if they were possessed. And he went in dancing like this. Suddenly a few people in this madness threw him into the water. It was a water channel with walls on both sides and water currents strongly flowing, so much so as huge waves were formed because of that. The walls had pillars that extended till the ceiling which were dark like the other pillars. This water channel flowed through this complex.  I couldn’t trace the origin of its source. It came from nowhere. This water channel had a slanted ceiling unlike the other areas, covered in black. And as he flowed with the water, it threw him here and there, I could see him laughing and enjoying it. As the water threw him, his head hit one of the pillars and everything froze for a moment and the next second the man was nowhere to be seen. Only his blood covered a part of the pillar, flowing down into the water. In no time the strong currents washed of the pillar and it looked like nothing had ever happened.

And my eyes opened. I was lying straight on my back. I felt paralysed all throughout my body with my arms and legs stiffly straight. Slowly I regained consciousness. I got up and went to the front door to see outside. And what I saw was unreal! There was a lion walking down the street. No one was outside. I ran back inside to check on my dog. He was lying on the floor half dead in the back room and my balcony door was open. I ran to him and saw teeth marks on his neck but he didn’t bleed. I sat on the floor as tears rolled down my eyes and looked at my dog breathing with pain.