New: Darkened Horizons (free, open-ended, email, human, modern, rpg, abstract) From: lindahl@pbm.com (Greg Lindahl) Date: Wed, 06 Jun 2001 15:55:08 +0000 Name: Darkened Horizons Email: darkness_pervades@yahoo.com Frequency: one per two weeks Type: horror URL: http://www.galatea-design.com/Darkened_Horizons Costs: free Last-Update: 2001Jun05 Keywords: free, open-ended, email, human, modern, rpg, abstract Description: Every human being dreams. A day dream, a fantasy. . . or a dream during deep sleep. They enter R.E.M. and leave behind the conscious world. When they sleep, they enter into a world of mystery, of wonder. . . and of horror. After the sun sinks below the horizon, many of them climb into our warm beds. They rest their heads on plush pillows, and their bodies are enshrouded in soft pajamas. They feel secure, encompassed in soothing darkness, drifting off to sleep. Yet, there are some. . . some like myself. We know that our dreams are far from safe. We fear what is in the dark. No matter how warm our blankets may be, and no matter how tightly we are cocooned within the fabrics, we fear. A deep, paralyzing fear that constricts all of our logic, and all of our rationalizing. Our dreams. We try to avoid them. We watch television for hours on end, or we read. We play scrabble with ourselves. We eat snacks. We always pursue these distracting activities when alone - for we are sure that if we are in the presence of another while we try to busy ourselves, we would begin to talk. We cannot tell them, as no words to begin to express how petrified we are, or why we seek refuge from our dreams. They wouldn't understand, and we will never tell them. So night after lonely night, we occupy ourselves in an effort to elude sleep's call. Yet, in the end, no matter how much we fight to keep ourselves out of the grasp dreamland, we always end up dozing off somewhere. In the office, on the bus, or in the car. The dreams haunt us after we awake. We don't wake in cold sweats, or screaming, like many who experience nightmares are prone to do. We awake pale, and trembling. The blood in our veins feels like it has trickled to a crawl. We are surprisingly lucid, but that does nothing to make us feel better. We try to cry, or to scream, or to make some sense out of what we experience - but all we can do is breath raggedly. Others are concerned for us, though we never give indication to what is wrong, but they know nonetheless. They notice our lights on after four in the morning, and the dark circles under our eyes resemble black holes. They tell us to see psychiatrists, to visit dream specialists. We don't. We seek one another out. Others who can understand us. Others who might be able to help us, for all that we know is becoming distorted, and all that we care for seems to be disappearing into the menacing shadows. For in our dreams, not only do we face our deepest fears. . . we become them. [ This is a new entry for the PBM List. You can find the list itself, and instructions for adding games or comments, at http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/pbm_list/ -- greg ] Up