5 Jan 0930

HellfireMorning, Jenny.
Hmmm.
Rough night?
Do you have nightmares, Mary?
I don't know.
Still don't remember anything?
Just sudden images in dark, empty space.
I think you're having my nightmares. Except mine are horrible images in dark, empty space. I've been up since before dawn. They're not too talkative, the night staff.
Well, I'm here now.
My Gates of Hell nightmare.
You have them catalogged?
Only the worst ones. This one starts on a cold dark plain without any stars. Four angels are standing over me, laughing and leering at me. They stoop to feed on me with vampire teeth and vulture talons. I'm paralyzed: I can't do anything but sob.
They tear off my skin, strip by strip. They cackle and critique me as though I'm some sort of exotic recipe. One of them tears off my eyelids.
My body is stripped of all flesh, just my naked muscles in the night. But the worst is how they taunt me. They tell me everything I've done, everytime I've hated, all my failures.
Then it comes. It's a horse but with goat horns. And it walks upright. I can't see it well-it's backlit by the fires of hell. It rips apart my womb and splits me wide open, right through my skull. My brain is shredding into a million tiny pieces of terror and pain.
Then I woke up.
I guess I wouldn't want to go back to sleep either.
Anyway, it's just a dream, not real.
What makes you say that?
Everyone knows dreams aren't real.
Whatever gave you that idea? Reality isn't as simple as you seem think. It certainly isn't global or uniform. In fact, you really can't talk about the Reality. It's an illusion. 
the child waits in chill of night
the girl has seen the grisly sight
where angels rend her aching skin
where stars are dark and strength is thin
before the gates of fire's reign
where sobbing fills the sinner's fane
Reality isn't real. Don't go mystical on me.
I'm not. It's elementary physics. You can only say what things are when you have them under direct observation. Your reality is local. Did you know I sprouted wings and flew around while you were in group yesterday?
No, you didn't.
How do you know? If you can't find out, how can you possibly know? It's like your apartment. Probably just the way you left it, bloodstains and all. But maybe a mad cleaning lady broke in, or it's burnt down. You aren't there, so you don't know. The most you can say is its probable state.
You're just playing with words, Mary. Whatever might've happenned, something definitely did happen.
You're wrong, Jenny. Every possible state is an alternate reality.  All these things are simultaneously true and none of them are. All these realities exist and interact, creating interference patterns. Those interference patterns, those are what dreams are.

'Anyone who talks about infinity hasn't got a clue. If there are aleph-n worlds making aleph-0 decisions in each (incr t), you'd get aleph-n+1 worlds, then aleph-n+2, and so on to the end of time. Many worlds are aleph-omega worlds.'
-Patricia Metley
 
  Page 2  Page 3

 Previous << Navigator >> Next