Authors note: As very special favor for some very special friends, I've been asked to resubmit a couple of my older stories once listed under Thesandman. It is not my intention to submit all or many of my older works, but for those who have truly supported and appreciated my writing over the years, I have relented to do so. Additionally, I will not turn voting on for any of these, as they have had their moment in the sun so to speak.
But for those of you who've asked: Resubmitted
The Sandman, "Dream-Walker"
Long ago when I was very young, my Grandfather once told me about "Dream-walkers". I didn't fully understand then the meaning of that, or what it meant until much later in my life. But he told me that being able to Dream Walk wasn't a generational ability, though it had manifested itself down the family line from time to time. It had been a long time since a Dream-Walker had been borne, but as I had been having dreams, which were more like out of body experiences, he had told me this was a good sign that perhaps I might in fact be one, and eventually learn the secrets of Dream Walking and what that would eventually mean.
Sometimes when I dreamed, I would see what I could only describe as a thin blue colored shimmering curtain. When I parted that curtain, walking through it, I entered a realm of sparkling lights surrounded by total darkness, a void that was infinite. Over time I learned that I could go to any one of those lights in the blink of an eye, no matter how far or distant it seemed. The twinkling lights became bubbles, not unlike those we have all created at one time or another with a mixture of soapy water and a cheap plastic dipper that we blew on to form the type of bubble's that existed in this world of dreams. I learned that small bubbles were simple dreams of children, and that the larger the bubbles, the older the person was who might be found there dreaming. As I learned, explored, and eventually came to know, color's signified the types of dreams a person was having or experiencing. Through trial and error, exploration and experience gained in my occasional nocturnal excursions, I found that bubble's, which had a purplish tinted color to them, were usually those of people who were having some sort of sexual dream. The deeper the color, the more erotic, and so on. I also discovered that once I had visited a particular individual, I could return to them anytime I liked, instantaneously, regardless of the thousands, tens of thousands of sparkling bubble lights that seemed to hover nearby any one of them I had visited previously. The first time I had made this particular discovery was quite by accident, but it was the springboard for what I can only say became a near constant obsession for me afterwards whenever I found myself in the "void", and dream walking.
As I had learned, I could slip inside someone's bubble, someone's dream. In that instant, I took on shape, became apart of whatever it was the person was dreaming about, including their surroundings. I became then apart of their dream experience.
We all know how disjointed dreams can sometimes be. People, places, even situations can suddenly change in the blink of an eye without rhyme or reason. And being apart of someone else's dream, when you haven't learned how to control that, can be a little eerie.
I had just slipped inside a young woman's bubble dream. At the time I had not yet fully learned the various shades and colors that implied what type of dream a person or individual was having. I had picked this particular bubble as it seemed closest to me, and the color was a light shade of violet, which I was attracted to for his alluring beauty more than anything else. I eased through the outer wall of the bubble, and suddenly found myself standing in a young woman's bedroom. She was sitting at some sort of vanity desk preening her self and brushing her long blonde flowing hair. She was wearing a sheer white nightgown that did little if anything to conceal her womanly charms, and I judged her to be in her late teens by all appearances. I had not moved after just entering her dream, but realized if she turned in the slightest, she would see me, or at least in my mind, I felt somehow that she would. Spotting an area of concealment next to her canopied bed, I envisioned myself hidden away behind it, and suddenly I was. There was a brief moment however when the young woman perhaps sensed my presence and turned to face and look in the direction where I had first been standing. In that moment, her hair changed from the long golden blonde it had been to a much shorter dirty blonde coloring. Additionally the white night gown had also disappeared, and she as sitting now in a well-worn, ill-fitting pair of baggy pajamas instead. Spotting herself in the mirror this way, once again the image shimmered and returned to the way she had obviously first imagined herself to have been when I first entered her room. She quickly finished brushing her long blonde hair, then stood. A mirror suddenly appeared behind the door where it had not been previously. She walked towards it, and as she did so the white nightgown suddenly dissolved so that she as now standing in front of it totally nude. I watched her turn, studying herself in her reflection.
I inwardly smiled to myself. As the young woman turned, I noticed her breasts suddenly enlarge, they grew to enormous proportions initially, but then as she continued to turn studying herself in the mirror, they seemed to go through a wide myriad of changes and shapes. She finally settled on breasts not too far differently than what I had first seen nestled beneath the confines of that sheer white gown. They were perhaps a bit more perky, nipple's which were now slightly upturned at an angle, than as they'd originally been and perhaps a bit fuller in shape as well. Satisfied with this new image, she looked at herself and suddenly a much tighter firmer tummy appeared, she didn't do anything that I could see or notice to change the appearance of her neatly trimmed pubic patch, except perhaps to lighten the coloring to more closely resemble the hair on her head. Once again, she turned to view her new self at all angles within the floor length mirror. Satisfied she smiled, and then I watched as she slipped a hand slowly and gently down between her legs.
I was totally unprepared for what happened next. Still too new to understanding what Dream Walking was all about, or of the possible dangers or side effects to having invaded someone else's dream, I became disoriented momentarily as the girl suddenly disappeared and the room and surroundings changed. I was no longer hidden, or standing beside her bed, but found myself standing out in the open once again. Thankfully however, my presence remained undiscovered.
Glancing around me, the room had turned into a magnificent field of brightly colored flowers. Bright sunshine, warm and delightful fell upon me. The young woman was still only a few feet away, but thankfully now engaged with a young man as they lay atop a blanket spread atop the wild grass and flowers of the meadow I now found myself standing in. I quickly dropped down, envisioned the grass high enough to conceal me, and thankfully it did. I was learning, and quickly. But it was obvious I still had much to learn yet about Dream Walking and all that it entailed.
In my newfound concealment, I continued to watch her now as she lay beneath the man who had suddenly joined us both. There was something vaguely familiar about him, though I could not initially place who he was, or where I had seen him before. It was only when she was obviously in the throes of ecstasy, close to achieving orgasm did she call out his name, which I only then recognized as being a young actor of recent rise to stardom and fame amongst the younger set.
