The dream starts the same way every time.
I'm lying in bed, in my bedroom. It's night-time, but I'm not asleep; I don't think I've woken up, and ... and it feels like I've been
waiting
, lying in bed sort of ... waiting. The TV is always on, but it's in black and white; it's reruns of something, some old sitcom. And then, sort of ... suddenly, it's just static and snow, but there's still no noise.
I look around my room, because I think, even in the dream, I mean, I think I know what's coming. And I see my bookshelves, and ... and I'm lying
on
my covers, not
under
them, and there's my lamp and my clock, and it's just after 3 AM, and then...
Then, there's this
light
, coming in my window, from outside.
Okay, stop. Wait. This starts before that. Let's go back.
I'm a normal enough person. We could have met, and you wouldn't have known; it's not like I carry a sign, or bring it up while I'm ordering a coffee - double sugar, double cream, also, I'm kidnapped by Faeries for a few nights, every month around the full moon.
I'm not crazy. I'm not saying the dreams are
literal
truth, just that, there's
truth
to them. I don't know if they happen, or ... or they're a dream, but I do know, I do know they're not
just
in my head.
I don't think I've ever
not
had the dreams. I don't remember not having them. I don't remember the first one. These dreams, these ... sixty nights out of the year, or so, it's just ... always been that way. I've known it's not that way for other people.
Anyway. Point is, I know it
sounds
crazy. But it has
effect
. I'd have these dreams, and ... there was ... there was no,
you know
, like, not back then. That didn't come until later.
When I was really young, it was just, I'd go along, and we'd play, just play, you know, like kids play? We'd toss and tumble, we'd climb and explore, and it felt wonderful and free, and there were no rules, and no adults, but we never needed them.
When I got to be a teen, we'd ... we'd dance, in these fields; everyone was wearing these ... masks, so elaborate, and the dresses and the men were in suits and jackets. One of them, he would bring out a fiddle, and he'd play, while we danced in a great circle around him, and he'd sit on this rock...
When I was eighteen, I started to wonder. No, that's not true. I'd always wondered. My mother called me her
faerie child
, and I never knew my father, but ... anyway, one morning, the morning after the ... the dream, I work up early, earlier than usual.
The sun's not even up yet, and there I am, getting dressed, and ... I had to know, you know? I mean, I had to
know
. I would have marks, and scratches from the grass and my socks were filthy and I knew, but I had to
know
.
I made my way out back, to the field. I knew the way, since I'd been so many times, even though I'd never been there awake. So, I'm spotting these landmarks - the bent tree, the run-off stream - and I'm passing over them, knowing which way to go like I'm following a map in my mind, but I've never
been
there.
And I found it. The rock, that ... he, him, the rock he sat on while he played his fiddle. And there was this ... circle, in the grass, all laid out, laid flat down, like someone had ... had
bent
the grass, like someone had come along and bent down all the grass, not trampled, not crushed, but bent it, into this ... Great circle, around this ... this
rock
, this boulder.
And I found the patch of grass where ... where one of them had whispered to me, and ... And I could see, where my hands had dug into the earth, and ... there was dirt under my fingernails, and I lined my hands up and
my God
, I must have been there, but ...
...
So, I'm older, now. I've moved out on my own - Collage, right? And the dream has changed. It's ... it's not just dancing anymore.
Now, as with then, there's this
light
. And it's not always the same; sometimes it's white and sometimes it's green, or gold or red, and I know the colours have
meaning
, I can tell what's going to happen that night from the light, but ... I couldn't tell you now, which colour means what.
So I rush to the window; I always do. And, my bedroom window, in my apartment, it ... it looks onto this alley, and out of one corner, you can
kind of
see this park, but mostly you just see the next building, and during the day there's nothing to see.
But I rush to the window, and look down, and there's this ... well, that changes. It's a different one sometimes, but usually, I think ... usually, it's the same one. And he's tall, I can tell, even looking down at him.
He's got on this suit, and it's black, but
so
black that it's like it's sewn from, I don't know,
darkness
, and his shirt is stark-white and crisp. And he's nearly always wearing a mask, but
what
mask changes. Sometimes, the mask covers his face, and it's wooden, painted elaborately with eyes and eyebrows, a beard of its own, and ram's horns; other times, it's a Domino mask, or sometimes, it
looks
like a mask, but it bends and moves like a normal face, or sometimes he doesn't wear a mask at all.
Last night ... last night, he wore this black mask, simple, a Domino mask; his hair fell down all around it, almost like this ... mane, of chestnut hair, so thick, and ... and ...