The Shepherd and the Dream

I could hear the screams, the sound of crunching plastic and broken glass filling my ears. The smell of burning rubber and gasoline filled my nose and I tasted salt on my lips.

Multiple pairs of hands were holding me back, keeping me inside. A cacophony of voices telling me to stay inside, that EMS would handle it. My heart kept hammering in my chest. I needed to be out there.

“Let me go or I will wax violent!”

The threat worked and I was released. Police stopped me from leaving the sidewalk but I would not be held. One of the cars was mine and I explained that to the lawman. The other car? Hers.

~From behind multiple panes of glass, 2 robed figures watch over a sleeping woman. A headset of wires sits atop her head while images play on a screen.

“She sleeps fitfully, this one. Poor child.”

“Her mind is broken, you think?”

“Not broken, just tired. She needs an outlet for her words, her frustrations, her feelings.”

“The screen. Look!” ~

A sleeping woman lay upon a bed, wires protruding from her head and feeding to a screen; she was being studied. No bruises, no blemishes, she appeared to be well taken care of but there was something familiar about her. The vine like tattoo on her right arm and the bright pink tips of her hair… wait a minute. Was that- ? No, it couldn’t be.

I woke up screaming in my bed, body aching as though I had been severely injured and my head spinning from something.

~ “She is aware of us?”

“Maybe. It is hard to say with this one. I admit I’ve never studied an adult of her kind, certainly not one with such an active, childlike imagination as she has.”

“The data we will collect!”

“Hush Shemer! This isn’t just about data collection. Even though you brought me this one, as is your duty. There is more at stake, or have you forgotten, Curator?”

“Bold of you to assume I had forgotten, Warden Alistir. Speak to me again in such fashion at your peril.”

2 figures hissed at each other, clearly a disagreement of some kind. Another figure robed in gray inched closer to my side.

“You are aware of us, dreamer?”

I shrieked and brought the blanket up to cover my person. The 2 arguing figures hissed at Gray Robe in a language I could not place. Gray Robe hissed back at them, a warning perhaps?

“Easy Dreamer, I am Amparo, a Shepherd of this realm. Are you aware of us?”

I glanced towards the screen and could see everything playing out in real time. Amparo smiled, or at least that was the energy I felt.

~ “She is aware of us!”

“Her brain suggests she is in the deepest cycle of sleep for her kind.”

“Then how is she aware? How is it she speaks to the Shepherd?!”

“I have not a clue. Why do you think you were tasked with bringing her here!?”

“You raise your voice at your peril, Warden. Would you prefer your tongue ripped out or sliced?”

“Enough! This lost one is mine and as Shepherd of this realm, I claim accordingly. She will leave with me. Find another to study.”

Carefully and easily, I was lifted and carried out of the lab, the headset clattering to the floor. The Warden and the Curator argued and hissed, very distressed by these actions. The outside was bathed in early morning light and very cool. Amparo gave me their cloak to ward off the chill and I was stunned by their features. Shoulder length brown hair, the faintest shadows of a beard and mustache and behind silver glasses were eyes of a color that I couldn’t place.

“Easy dreamer. You are safe now. Warden and Curator are quite the pair and they do get feisty. I assure that while you would not come to harm under their watch, their disagreements have been known to level the place a time or two and such things are not conducive to healing. Come, walk with me.”

The pace was slow but still I tired easily. Under a large tree I was placed and bid to sleep.

“This isn’t the first lab they’ve destroyed in the name of research, unfortunately. But you needn’t fret, dreamer. You are safe here, rest easy, and let your mind walk.”

I saw his face, kind and smiling. He held his hand to me, his grip strong and his hands warm. The touch was gentle though the skin was rough and calloused. Behind him stood another, glaring daggers and shaking with rage at the sight. Words were exchanged as I was pushed into the arms of a trusted friend with the command “get her out of here. Her safety is paramount.”

The men exchanged words and blows while the friend, a stocky sort of fellow with fair skin, light hair and eyes, led me away from the fray.

“---- was adamant that you didn’t see that, much less hear it.”

“But he will be hurt!”

“He can handle his own; it’s you he worries for.”

I awoke to clenched fists, tears down my cheeks and my throat hoarse from screaming. But had it really been a dream? Something cold and leafy with a touch of sweet was poured across my lips.

“Drink child, this will restore you.”

~it was like watching from outside my body. What state was I in? Who were these beings? Angels? Aliens? My own dreams and fears made flesh?

More visions assailed me. A man, staring up at the ceiling of his bedroom. One hand rested behind his head while the other held a ball. Though he lay there in silence, tears raced down his cheeks and stained his pillow. He rolled over to his side, grabbed his phone and opened it to a picture of a young woman. His lips moved, presumably her name, but I could not hear him. Violent sobs racked his body and he tried in vain to not scream her name but the pain was too much for him.

Another image of another man, this one sitting outside in a yard with a drink of some kind in his hands. He too was lost in thought, his eyes skyward as he watched the stars dance in their eternal waltz. He too had someone on his mind but all he had was an image in his head. His reverie disturbed by the happy sounds of younglings in the house and he smiled. 2 of these were his and they brought friends. Words were said but I could not discern them. The sounds of youth in full riot and bloom faded to silence and the man returned to his starry eyed musings.

“Dreamer?”

“Amparo… I saw things. I could not hear but I could see. Tell me, what am I? Who are you? What are you?”

Amparo handed me a cup of… something and bid me to drink.

“It is tea, it will help.”