*****

Waking up fast, it was the smell of fire that greeted his nostrils. Moving faster than ever before, all his things were secured, machete in hand, as the inferno closed in.

Leaping like a white-tail deer, he cut down obstructions and desperately searched for daylight. The canopy was thick like cooked spinach above him, the dark green ceiling compressing his world. Over another log, down a short slope, it was a feat of acrobatics any Olympian would admire. But this was not running for the gold and glory. The race now represented his preservation of existence. A selfish coup of extermination. A miraculous mutiny of mono-murder! A towering triumph over traged–…you get the point.

It was just as he began to overstep, and lose control, that the forest broke apart. The ground beneath did too, and he plummeted to a syrupy lagoon below…

*****

“It ends that way every night, Doctor. I never know how it’ll actually turn out.”

“Every night? Exactly the same?”

“I swear, I’m not making this up!”

“Whoever said that you were? It is essentially that we determine where the pieces of this dream have come from. Your case is rare, but not one-of-a-kind good sir, and you’re far beyond hope. That said, please don’t expect me to connect this to your father’s death, as, well, I am certain this is something altogether…unique.”

“Huh…Well, alright then. More tea?”

“More tea.”

*****