The credits for the movie had just begun to roll and Amanda changed from full screen to regular on the laptop, allowing the time in the lower right- hand corner to become visible. 12:15pm it read.
"What would you like to do now?" my friend asked me.
"Actually," I said. "I think I had better go have that nap soon. I have a hard time trying to sleep during the day- it is something foreign to me." I laughed.
"So, I will need longer to try and fall asleep."
"No problem." She said understandingly.
"Thank you for inviting me to watch the movie." I thanked her. "I am glad I got to spend time with you."
"Awe!" She gave me a big hug. "Love you, sister!"
"I love you too!" I told her as I hugged her back.
"Have a good nap!" she instructed, as she let me go and I picked up my blanket to take back to my room with me.
"I will try." I promised, as I exited the room.
Five minutes later, and I was lying in bed, with the curtains drawn, light off and the door closed in an attempt to make the room dark. I needed it dark to sleep. I was just one of those people.
I rolled over onto my side wondering if I was too hot or not. I hadn't changed. I just jumped into bed in the same t-shirt and sweatpants I wore all morning. I sighed.
'Was it the sweatpants? Should I change to shorts?' I thought to myself. "No, you are just being foolish." I whispered to myself. "Just close your eyes and go to sleep!"
As if it was that easy, I stubbornly attempted to relax my body, one muscle at a time by thinking about that muscle and willing it to relax. And, of course, this didn't work at first.
I spent the next unknown amount of time attempting to fall asleep. As I drifted in and out of consciousness, time seemed to stretch and pull and fold itself in strange ways. And so, I had no sense of time as I saw images in my minds' eye.
The first I can recall was full of fear and anxiety, I saw some outbuildings for storage of grain from my home village burning, but as the flames grew and ate up anything inside, no one came to put it out.
That is when I realized the sky was still partially dark. It was the early morning, the farmers should be awake, they should have noticed the smoke and flames by now. But still no one came.
I tried to run to the village to alert them, but I couldn't move. I fought to move, fought to even turn my head, but it didn't work. Then, suddenly, I was falling down into the ground, a dark, gaping hole had appeared and swallowed me up.
I stopped moving when I hit the bottom. Above me the hole closed. I thought the darkness was complete, until I noticed a torch to my left. I quickly went to retrieve it.
I used the illumination to examine where I was. The ceiling was too far above to see clearly, but it looked manufactured of stone. The floor was worn, but large chunks of hewn stone, fit together like puzzle pieces. It reminded me of …a castle?
I reached out and felt the wall. The rocks were cold, damp, and clammy and bringing the light closer revealed a fair amount of moss. Moss needs lots of water, and a fair amount of shade. So then, dark, wet, damp, but consistently…a dungeon.
This was a dungeon. My heart sank. That is when I heard it, voices calling to me, asking me for help.
I ran down hallways, through doors, and down flights of stairs, past empty cells, until I could hear the voices just around the corner. I rounded the corner and then…the whole scene around me shifted. I was somewhere else completely.
There was grass and trees, rocks, and dirt, it was a forest. As I walked, I realized that I was going uphill. The forest was at the base of a mountain.
After walking uphill for what seemed like an hour, I came upon a sleeping, iridescent, green scaled dragon. After staring for a few long moments at the beauty and size of the creature, I decided it would be best just to sneak past and not wake it up.
Holding my breath, I made my way around the dragon, and further up the mountain. Near the top, I should have a good view and be able to figure out where I was, or at least where to go next.
But the gap in the trees brought another surprise: it was a flurry of activity, and at the centre of it all was the biggest bonfire I had ever seen. Creatures, the like of which I had never seen, were abuzz with activity. I froze. Looking at it all was dizzying.
It was hard to pick one individual out of the masses, as three concentric rings of bodies swirled around the bonfire. The fact that two rings spun clockwise and the other spun counter clockwise didn't help things.
Eyes finally in the beginning stages of focusing, I first spotted a slightly humanoid beetle of enormous proportions (taller than I). It hauled some chopped wood over the spinning circles of bodies, without seeming to injure anyone, to land neatly on the burning pile.
A great cheer went up from everyone that seemed to echo into the distance. Some creatures then swooped into the clearing, flying closer to the fire, threw some things in and were off again.
But I couldn't see them clearly, I could barely make out their outlines, as they moved through the now darkened sky. I supposed someone spotted me, as an alarm cry went up. The sound got louder and louder in my ears until I awoke and sat up with a start.
It took me a minute to remember where I was and what was going on. As soon as my brain registered the noise as the alarm clock, I reached out and automatically turned it off.
'Such strange dreams.' I thought. I looked at the clock, out of habit; the blue numbers read 5:00pm.
'Time to get moving.' I thought.
I jumped out of bed and pushed the hanging blanket and sheet well out of the way so I could look into the space beneath. Reaching under, until my fingers brushed an old shoe box, I grabbed it with both hands, and hauled it out from under the bed and into view.
I placed it in the clear space in the centre of my carpeted floor, before gathering the few candles I had in the room. I retrieved the lighter I had taken from the kitchen earlier, off the top of my dresser. Only then did I open the shoe box.
Inside, like a geologist's treasure chest, were numerous rocks. I lifted out only the ones I needed before I slipped the box back under the bed. I arranged the four candles and the rocks in the largest most uniform circle I could make on the rug in the space available.
I absentmindedly thought it looked kind of pretty, once I had lit the candles. The light was reflected off the metallic gold and tiny, but perfectly square cubes of pyrite.
Meanwhile, the polished rose quartz seemed to bathe happily in the candlelight, and next to them, the spears of clear quartz, seemed like pale Halloween ghosts. More mysterious were the dark, richly coloured obsidian and tiger's eye that seemed to blend into the rug.
All these stones would help me to magnify, control and prolong my spell. I needed their help to make sure it went right.
I crossed to the wall right next to my door. I locked the door, took off the t-shirt and sweatpants and turned on the light.
Now, in my underwear, I returned to my stone and candle circle and sat in the middle of it. I gave myself a moment, before I began the opening prayer to bless the spell.
That done I used the energy stored in the rocks, as well as pulling some from the ground far below, under the house, to give me what I needed to get through the spell.
It took me almost an hour, each incantation different and distinct from the others. Each separate one correlated to a specific number, letter or sacred symbol in the ancient language, number, and belief systems.
I had to be careful to pay attention, I knew where each one went, and could picture them in my minds' eye before they appeared on my arms, legs, and neck.
Like Henna, they would disappear once the spell wore off, but they were not affected by water or soap. They didn't look like Henna though; the colour was a dark black ink.
To those who didn't know, they would look like I went and got a bunch of tattoos. At least, unlike tattoos, these didn't hurt.
I sighed in relief as I finished the incantation for the final mark. I was happy I hadn't messed that up. Now to get dressed.
I searched in the back of my closet to find the worn long, and shallow dress box, along with the old 1930's top hat box that held the undergarments.
I had never found exactly what I was looking for; but the pieces I retrieved were as close as the ones I would have worn at home as I could find here.
I took off my modern underwear and put on the slightly yellowed, but-mostly-still-white Victorian chemise and drawers. Over these went an emerald green, front-lacing corset from 1770.
I didn't worry about wearing these old pieces. After dressing, I would use a spell to protect and strengthen the fibres of the fabrics, so even if they got wet, they would not degrade.
The dress was made in the 1800's, and as I lifted it from its box, I whispered a prayer of thanks to whomever originally wore it; and just happened to be my size.
With great care I put the dress on and then looked down at the plaid on the fabric. It was the tartan for clan MacLeod, the colours of which did me no favours. But I was not meant to look good, I was to be humble and focus on the important ritual which would be occurring soon enough.
I straightened up and worked on a spell protecting the clothing I was wearing.
No sooner had I finished the spell, than a voice interrupted my thoughts.
"It's time to go."
I didn't move. I wasn't even completely sure that I had heard her. I looked at the alarm clock; 6:20pm.
The Great Goddess of All prompted me a second time, but she sounded impatient for me to hurry. "Sinead, you need to go, now!" I searched around the room for my keys but couldn't find them.
'Where did I leave them?' I wondered.
"You don't need them." The Goddess said. "Forget about locking the door, you need to go put shoes on and get out the door."
Again, when she spoke, her voice sounded akin to the mother of a 5-year-old, who was not listening and making her late for something important.