As I slept, I wandered into a distant land of possibilities. It wasn't a long stay, it was as if I was sent there to hear a message to inform the many on the otherland.
I was placed in a house, one that looked like a hut on the outside, but on the inside it was massive. The hut was made of bamboo sticks and and dried palm leaves. Another significant thing was that it was placed in the middle of the ocean.
Inside it where men, men left there to die and rot. Some of them were sinners, people who did the worst in life. Some where people, who were wrongly accused.
All seemed to have one demeanor, a sober and peaceful look. They all looked like they had accepted the faith of being left there. Some even sang in a carnatic style, a song I couldn't fathom it's lyrics but understood it's feeling.I could see some incense burning in the corners too. I slowly drifted into this feeling of acceptance of whatever fate had installed.
Suddenly, I saw a door open and a brige leading to a place not too far. I thought, Alas!!, freedom!!!!. As I wanted to run towards it, I felt a slight tug from someone sitting and my body immediately relaxed. My mind was still wondering why my body was relaxing when I saw a group of men walking slowly in a line outside the bridge. I watched their faces and was puzzled. I expected to see happiness, but I couldn't read what I saw. For a split seconds I saw a tear fall from one of the men's eye and suddenly it was gone. While they walked down the bridge, I heard a loud noise, and suddenly I saw a creature like no other. It was three times the size of a tiger, and had a skin of a skunk with a head of a wolf, not just a head, but three heads. I was stunned.
It sat majestically at the end of the bridge and I wondered what it was waiting for.
I saw the men slowly walk towards it and as they went, to my greatest surprise, they just bent forward and allowed their selves to be eaten by the beast.
My eyes were almost exploding out of my body as I watched this. I turned to the man by my side and asked, "Why are they not escaping!" It was as if the universe was responding to me in my mind, I just went into a trance and saw the event that would have unfolded of if anyone tried to escape. The pebbles I thought were placed on the bridge transformed to huge alligators and they pounced on the defaulter, dragging him into the ocean and down to the abyss. I heard in my spirit,"It is better to die willingly and peacefully than die by force".
I sat there with streaks of sweat in my forehead and wondered what I did to have been placed in this centaury of doom.
© Faith Daniel