Sly Hudgens/The Vessel

Sly Hudgens

Pain…anger…sadness. Most people when they dream, dream of impossible things…this holds true in this case, but they don’t have feelings of this nature. As he falls, he wonders if there is an ending, it seems as though he falls into in an endless pit of nothingness. Where is he falling? The truth is, he wonders who he is, if his life is the dream…or if the dream is his life. Will he ever truly awake from this endless nightmare? One can only wonder if it’s a life worth living…falling into nothingness, finally he stops falling…but doesn’t land, he just floats…still upside down with his eyes closed. He opens them to find that he is standing now, in a bright white room that goes on and on, never ending. He begins to walk, but quickly realizes that he isn’t moving…at least it feels that way due to the nature and landscape of the room. He opens his mouth and screams…but no voice comes out. He begins to run as fast as he can, but still doesn’t seem to be moving, he stops, and bends down to try and catch his breath. As he is bent over, a black hole begins to form at his feet, and begins to sink into it, he looks up to try and grab something, but standing in front of him is a person…he yells out for help, but again, he has no voice. He reaches for the person, but he is too far away, but yet he is standing directly in front of him. The person reaches back, but he can’t reach either. He sinks further into the hole, it engulfs his entire body, and we watch as he reaches through and his arm is all that is left gripping at the air, from the elbow, to the forearm, the wrist , the hand, and finally a finger. The hole closes and the person falls to his knees, placing his face in his hands…he cried. It was him, he watched himself fall into the hole but couldn’t help himself.

“WAKE UP!!” Shouted a voice that came from all around him. Sly opened his eyes to find that he was in his bed. He was sweating profusely, a cold sweat from fear. He had been having these strange dreams for quite some time now, but none were as intense as that, he realized that he had been crying, just as he did in his dream. The door to his bedroom swung open, and in came his parents.

“What’s wrong Sly? Why were you screaming?” His mother asked with a scared and confused look in her eyes.

“It was just a dream, a nightmare.” Sly answered with both fear and relief in his voice. He looked around the room as if to make sure that it was just a dream. He then looked at his parents and smiled at them. “I’m fine guys.”

“Sly, you were screaming some very odd things, you really had us scared.” His father said.

“What did I say?” Sly asked. His parents looked at each other shocked that he didn’t know what he had said, due to how loud he had been screaming.

“You said…help me Sly, you have to bring me back. You were screaming it.” His father said to him, terrified. Sly’s eyes widened.

“Oh…” That was all Sly could muster, he didn’t know why he would say something like that, the dream was so vague and strange, he didn’t understand himself. “I don’t remember the dream…I just know that it was very intense. I’m sorry that I scared you, it must’ve been a nightmare. I’m fine though, really.” He replied to his parents. His mother walked over to him and sat next to him on his bed, and gave him a hug.

“We’re here for you baby. Don’t ever forget that, whatever you need we’re here.” Said his mother as a tear ran down her cheek.

“I know mom, I’m ok though, I promise.” He said as he hugged his mother back.

At School

Sly sat in the front of class; he had been moved to that seat thanks to his stellar performance on the proficiency tests. He was top of the class, he could feel the jealously from the other students, every time he answered a question correctly. He wasn’t answering questions today though; his mind was on the dream. “What does it mean?” He wondered to himself, all morning he had been reading a book about the meanings behind dreams. There was nothing even remotely close to the meaning of his dream, it was as if no one had ever experienced a dream like that before. He began to feel angry, he was confused, he slammed his fists onto his desk, and looked up to see that he wasn’t sitting in his desk, he was standing in front of his teacher’s desk, and it was that desk that he had slammed his fists on.

“Sly! What are you doing!?” yelled his teacher. Sly looked around the class, they all had a terrified look in their eyes.

“I…I’m sorry, I don’t know what happened.” Sly said as he sat back in his desk.

“Well…alright then, perhaps you can answer the question on the board?” said his teacher trying to change the subject. Sly looked up at the board…and was immediately swept with fear…the board had writing all over it, but the writing all said the same thing…”HELP ME SLY!!!!!!!” Sly’s eyes widened, he jumped up from his desk and ran from the room. “Sly! Wake up!” he heard his teacher yell. He opened his eyes to find that he had fallen asleep in class. It was another dream, but this time, he realized that he was standing in front of the class and writing on the chalk board…the writing read, “HELP ME SLY!!!!!!” This time he was writing it. The same words from both dreams. He looked at his class to see their terrified looks.

“What is happening to me?” He said to himself as he walked with the teacher to the counselor’s office. His mind was racing as he walked down the hallway. He felt hot, his entire body was sweating again. “Is this a dream too?” He wondered to himself.  He sat in the chair in the counselor’s office, and behind the desk was a very tall middle aged man, with long brown hair that he wore in a ponytail.

“My name is Mr. Herg. Would you like to explain to me what’s going on?” said Mr. Herg with a smile on his face. Sly could tell it was a fake smile. That man didn’t want to help him, he was being forced to help him.

“Nope.” Answered Sly very quickly, throwing another fake smile right back at Mr. Herg.

“I understand that you wrote something very strange on the board in class. Is that right?” said Mr. Herg with a sigh. “Your teacher said it was like you were sleep walking, from what he tells me, you’re a very exceptional student, top of your class. Perhaps you’ve been studying too hard and are stressed out? It’s very common.”

“I wish it were that simple.” Answered Sly looking down at his feet.

“Well tell me what’s going on then, maybe I can help.” Said Mr. Herg. Sly thought for moment, he didn’t know if he should, it sounds insane when he thinks about it, what would this guy think?

“I’ve been having strange dreams. They don’t make any sense.” Sly gave in and explained what was happening to Mr. Herg, who seemed shocked, and didn’t say anything to Sly as he told him about the odd dreams. There was silence for a moment.

“How often do you have these dreams Sly?” Mr. Herg finally asked.

“Every night, and just now in class.” Sly answered.

“Is there ever anything that is the same in the dream?” Mr. Herg asked.

“Just the words “Help me Sly.” Which is weird, I know.” Answered Sly.

“I’ve heard about this believe it or not. I think you just need to relax, you’re probably just stressed out like I said. There is nothing to worry about, find something that relaxes you and go home and do it.” Said Mr. Herg with a smile. Sly looked away with no response.

Later that day at home, Sly began researching strange dreams on his computer. To no avail, there was nothing about a dream like his. He tried to put the meaning together but found none to this extent. He closed his eyes, remembering the dream as best he could. Finally he decided to learn about controlling a dream. Perhaps if he could realize it was a dream during the dream, maybe he could find the meaning. Over the next few weeks, he practiced the techniques he found to control his dreams. At first nothing was happening. He had set his mind before bed every night to realize that he was dreaming by checking the writing on his shirt. He read that if he checked the writing the on something the way to realize that your dreaming, is if for example your shirt reads “Hello, my name is Sly” the first time you check it, look away and check again, the second time it may say “Goodbye” instead of “Hello”. After several weeks of training his mind, and nothing happening, finally it worked. He was wearing a shirt for his favorite band “Skimming through Pages”, and the second time he checked it read “Shining through books”. He quickly got excited and yelled out in excitement. Alas his excitement caused him to wake up!

“Dammit!” Yelled Sly realizing that he awoke right after it finally worked. He reached over to his bedside table, in the top drawer he had been keeping records of all of his dreams. This was one of the steps he had read about. He was pretty happy to write that he finally made progress. The next night he wrote is journal exactly how he wanted his dream to happen, and focused on the writing on his shirt again, seemed to work last time. He drifted off to sleep.

It started out the same as always, he was upside down, falling, from where? He didn’t know, he immediately looked at his shirt. It looked “It’s a dream.” He closed his eyes, and this time it read “It is a dream”. He fought back his emotions of excitement, in fear of prematurely awaking early again. He realized that he was approaching the ground, he turned himself right side up, and closed his eyes and thought of flying. When he opened his eyes he had stopped falling, but was floating ten feet from the ground. He lowered himself slowly and put his feet to the white floor, immediately the black hole formed under him and he jumped up and flew again. He stared down at the strange black hole, it looked like tar, and it stood out in a completely white room that never continues on forever. He lowered himself down again, and stood in front of it, he knealed down and reached a hand out to touch it, and it reached back, he fell on his backside to get away from it.

“What the hell is that?” He said, realizing that he finally had a voice in this world.

“It’s about time Sly.” A voice from behind him said. Startled, he spun around to see a young man, not much older than he walking towards him. The young man was wearing a black cloak, he had black spikey hair that flowed down his back, and piercing red eyes, and a red glow shown around his body. As he approached Sly he reached out his hand to him. Sly was suddenly swept with fear, he was losing control of his emotions.

“Who are yo…?” He didn’t get to finish his sentence. His fear had gotten the best of him and caused him to wake again. He let out a sigh of relief and reached for his dream journal, as he grasped the handle on the drawer, a red glowing hand suddenly grabbed his wrist. Startled he looked up to see the young man from the dream staring back at him!

“We need to talk Sly.” The young man said.  Sly quickly looked to his shirt, it read “It’s a dream”. He closed his eyes, then opened them, and read the shirt again, it read “It’s a dream”.

“This is real!?!? It’s not possible.” Said Sly, realizing that he wasn’t dreaming this time. “Who…who are you?” He asked.

“My name is Laraniss Prince, and you have finally let me in.” Said Laraniss with a smirk.

                              To be continued….