Summons

I had the oddest dream last night. I guess you could call it a nightmare, but it wasn't really. A nightmare is when bad things happen to you. What do you call a dream where you do bad things to other people?

I set my alarm clock for 6:20, like normal. It had been a perfectly ordinary weekday. I had gone to work, come home, cooked and eaten dinner, watched television for a few hours, and then prepared for bed. I drifted off to sleep like any other night.

The first thing I remember of my dream was standing in a strange dark room. It was lit only by torches, about a dozen of them. A bunch of people in dark robes stood in a circle around me, chanting something. Then one of them repeated my name three times and said, "I have a task for you."

You know how it is in dreams. You don't really think about what is happening, you just kind of go with the flow. I said, "Sure, what is it?"

The dark figure said, "You will go to The Palace of the Blue Orchid, find Princess Maileen, and kill her."

Somehow I knew where this place was and what the princess looked like. I said, "Okay."

Then I was outside some kind of castle. Although it was nighttime and dark, I could see that the castle was clean and pretty, with banners flying everywhere and well-kept grounds. I walked up to the large wooden door, pushed it open, and walked inside.

I only dimly noticed the pieces of the smashed and ruined door falling around me. I was too busy looking for the princess. I went swiftly from one room to the next, looking for the princess. I did not think about anything else. Sometimes people would try to get in my way, but I quickly shoved them aside and kept looking for the princess.

The people all seemed really scared, shouting something about a demon, but I ignored them. Some guy attacked me with a cheap little play sword made of tinfoil, and after the thing broke against my ribs I tossed him aside. After that, everybody ran away from me.

I went upstairs and found a chamber decorated with the finest silks and jewels. I looked around the corner and saw the princess. She was cowering in a corner. I walked toward her.

But before I could get to her, a silly old man in a white robe jumped out in front of me. He said, "You will go no further, demon. I am a Seer of the Seventh Light, and with this magic bell I banish you to the hell from whence you came.

He pulled a golden bell from his robe and started ringing it slowly and steadily. I stopped moving. No matter how hard I tried to move, I was frozen in place. The ringing continued its slow steady pace, but then the sound changed. It began to sound less like a ring and more like a beep.

I woke up. My alarm clock was beeping at me. I reached over and hit the snooze button.

Then I had a sudden feeling of guilt. What had I been doing? Would I have really killed the princess in cold blood, just because some guy I didn't even know told me to?

I shook my head a few times to clear it. There would be time to think of that later. I needed to get ready to go to work. Thoughts about odd dreams could wait.

Then I saw the time on the alarm clock. It read, '3:42'. For some strange reason, it had gone off early.