There is this place in my dreams where Hogwarts and an escape room are fused together. Instead of houses, you are sorted into different groups depending on the nature of your magic within your bloodline. It didn't matter if you were, "pureblood", "Squib", "Muggle-born", or anything in between. you were judged based on the blood that dripped into the fire of a golden skull's open head and the animal that came out. Mine happened to be a canary but I couldn't tell you what the others were as the sorting is a private affair.

My magic apparently dealt with the manifestations of beasts and the understanding of magic beasts. I had enough sense to summon a familiar that mostly took the form of a dog that helped channel my magic into different elements I needed (Terrestrial beast magic for ground-based attacks, dark beast magic to fight within shadows, etc.) And since this place had some aspect of Hogwarts, everything is trying to kill you within each challenge and room.

A test was given to us and -in my opinion- was the toughest the creator of the place could dish out. A group of other magic users and I had to channel our powers into some canons to battle what the game called an "Infinity painting". Essentially, the floor had some type of monster on its tiles that could attack us within the second dimension it resides in or, in the third dimension where we exist.

(Ever played The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds? Basically, the monsters had Linnks ability.)

Two members of our team had to charge up canons not just for the monsters on the floor, but the last three people of our team had to fight minor foes that emerged from a giant mural across the room, against the wall. Our objective was to shoot the tiles on the floor to kill the more dangerous monsters there as our next room to continue onto was below the floor and down a pit. Sounding tough, we braced ourselves for the monsters and nearly choked on the ones we got.

The Mural morphed and mixed as paint till it showed off a very detailed Eastern dragon with long whiskers, a long blue and gold body, and an army of samurai in armor mid-run and ready to be released to attack us. The floor morphed and showed a single body of blue on one end and an ombre of gold on the other. On each side of the body, was the same head as the dragon on the mural. Both heads on each end of the floor rose up and roared a gross mixture of screaming and the wringing of a gong. That was the signal to begin.

I touched my familiar's fur and tried to imagine a dragon as well for him to morph into and give us coverage for the army popping off the wall and yelling war cries thankfully, I was given a red and black scaled dragon to send a wave of fire towards the attackers. One of my teammates's familiar morphed its body into a flow made completely out of water. It sprang onto the canon and allowed its form to dissolve into the canon and glow a bright light as the canon began firing at the two-headed serpent on the floor. The canon's marks were powerful but the serpent head retaliated by blocking the makr's with their faces and absorbing the water element to shoot at my poor familiar and teammates.

The three teammates on the frontlines of the army were great fighters but lacked any cohesion between them as they started to bicker about how the test was bullshit and the others were engaging in friendly fire. One girl with a sort of plant element connected to her hair actually got so fed up with her teammates, that she used her hair tendrils to toss them at the army and accidentally chipped the mural in the process. The thrown teammate was out cold and was technically eliminated along with the girl who threw him with her hair; so they disappeared in a flash of light, back to the beginning to be placed in a new team.

We were down on ground control which left one teammate to fight the oncoming army but he was already badly beaten. My partner at the second canon jumped to help but made the mistake of actually stepping on the tile, allowing one of the serpent heads to each them alive in the 2-D plane, it was horrifying. It looked like they were spilled paint with muffled snapping. What made things worse is that there was a "referee" who had been silent this whole time and decided to make themselves known now with an insult to the horror.

"Oh My. It seems only two members remain and one body destroyed a priceless magic mural . . . Too bad. and to make things worse, a Canary is still standing."

The heckler of a referee had a thing against Canaries apparently and openly insulted me any chance she got and treated disqualifications and deaths like someone spit in their drink.

Unfortunately, I had to use the tragedy as a distraction and told my familiar to get my last remaining teammate away from the front. He obeyed and snatched them up to man the second canon while I told him to use his own magic to push back the army into the wall mural while my familiar morphed into a shadow creature to sneak attack any stragglers that got through. The twin serpent was too preoccupied with its meal to defend the tiles it lived in and we used that as our chance.

Tile after tile had come apart and occasionally a serpent head would try to peak through but my companion and I would shoot off the tile before it had a chance. The area was filled with nothing but screams of anguish from both the army and myself as the magic with each blast of my canon continued to rip from me. My teammate was getting paler as he not only surged his magic through the canon but had to maintain a mall of fire to keep the soldiers from venturing forth, frying in the process. I look up and see my familiar is also waving in his shadow form as he hand preoccupied himself with fighting the serpent heads that threatened to snap at us as well as the samurai that attempted to impale me. We were exhausted and only able to use what spells and invitations we knew to continue but the referee was relentless and pushed me further into my frustration until I couldn't take it any longer.

My familiar disappeared and was absorbed into my body briefly. My fingers and nails grew long and inky and I could feel my teeth and hair being engulfed by shadow magic. Curses were not forbidden but I knew, mine were extremely potent as they were linked to my beastial soul. I had a horrible but great idea to use the referee's magic reservoir for our cause to move on to the next test. I look directly at the referee and say,

"I summon the darkness within. To destroy your light with your sins. with the watchful eyes of hellspawn, I do my part, and cast the spell of Anabelle upon your heart."

The curse was cast and everything from my point of view went silent as I watched the referee appear in front of me with glassy dull eyes and a sweet smile on their face. I move my hands like a puppet master and hail magical blow after magical blow from the ref's fingertips to destroy suit of armor after suit of armor while my teammate blasted the tiles away. My fingers were beginning to burn and I could feel my eyes burning as I held the Referee's soul within my hands and skillfully controlled them but time gave in and I had to separate myself from the shadow magic or I could have been lost to hell's darkest trench forever.

When the last tile fell, the army stopped mid-step -frozen again- but a new and much larger problem came to light. The dragon on the mural mourned its serpent brethren and began to circle us from the walls. We knew we needed to leave but I couldn't until I released the Referee and my familiar.

the sensation was the equivalent of unsticking glue or gum from your for with a weird soft feeling in between. Thankfully my familiar was safe although drained of energy and shivering from fear like myself but the referee's fate was sealed after I had finished my curse.

She lay on the ground with the same doll eyes and a plastered smile. She was now wearing a clown costume and was only three to five inches tall. Her hair resembled yarn-like ribbons and her skin was a soft velvety material. I knew this would happen as the Annabelle curse seals its victim into the body of a possessed doll; forced to live the punishment of their sins in life until someone exercises them with holy magic of some sort. I assumed she was a Heretic her entire life and was considered a clown in Hell's eyes for her sin of Heresy. I saw a single ink tear fall from her face before my teammate and I jumped down the now-open floor.

We landed gracefully and thankfully with some glowing fungi to light our path once we were ready. The light also showed my teammate's fearful face as we both sat in heavy silence over what I did. The Annabelle curse is a very taboo one and those who cast it, usually never fully recover from it.

"Did you have to do it?" My teammate asked, who I now can see is a blonde-haired and blue-eyed boy with pyromagic symbols littering his body.

"We would have died if I didn't," I answered tonelessly.

"She didn't deserve that."

"We don't deserve this." I said angrily and gestured to the walls around us that kept us in this stupid life-or-death game. He said nothing for that, I think he was afraid to look at me after that and I didn't blame him. My familiar walked up to me and whined as he put his head in my lap, begging for pets and comfort to know I was still me again. I gave in and pet him mindlessly to show that I was still here and I still loved him.

"What do you call him?" The boy's question caught both my attention and my familiar's.

" . . . I . . . don't think I named him."

"You should, you care for him alot." The boy shakily rises from his sitting position and moves closer to pet my familiar. My familiar immediately greets him with friendliness and happy panting.

"I thought you were scared." I said but the boy only shook his head and said,

"If you were a dangerous Canary, you familiar would take a dangerous shape. You're just full of wild magic." He began to scratch under my familiar's chin which the dog spirit enjoyed.

" . . . I think I will call him . . . Mika." I said gesturing to my familiar.

In this dream, I was another holder of the venom symbiote but mine was named Tarr who had a feminine voice. In this dream, I was paralyzed from the waist down and bound in a wheelchair and went to a classy co-ed prep school.

I was rolling up a ramp to the front of the school in time for a class when Tarr said, "Someone's coming." I looked over my shoulder and saw most of the other students making their way past me and up the stairs to their classes but no one else I saw was interesting to me yet, I kept my head down and rolled into the grand hall of the school. I stopped to get some water as Tarr began to talk to me mentally.

"Someone's coming, we need to attack."

"No, Who's coming?"

"Someone like me."

". . . good or bad?"

". . ." When Tarr didn't answer me, I decided to make a detour to the bathroom and wait till the halls went quiet. I felt the presence she sensed and told her mentally to transform us so we could escape by slipping out of the bathroom windows and going to the off-campus library to hide.

After making sure everyone was gone and the bathroom was empty, I asked Tarr to peer outside to make sure no one was hanging out on the quad so we wouldn't be seen. I felt the presence get closer and almost had a panic attack when I sensed it outside the bathroom door. I was saved however by a passing hall monitor questioning the person on the outside of the door.

"Clear." Tarr said almost with anger as she enveloped me in the black and blue slime of her true form. I looked in the mirror briefly and saw that I had mandibles on my face like the predator and she took pieces of my wheelchair to allow my legs to stand upright and gave me extra spider legs on my back like a tarantula. We slipped out of the window but Tarr changed the plan and climbed to a dark nearby bell tower to get a better look at who we were dealing with.

We watched as a sweaty guy in a gray hooding muttered to himself while looking around frantically when he crossed the street (Eddie Brock).

"That guy?" I asked almost unimpressed.

"Yeah." Tarr answered in the same tone.

"He looks like a sweaty loser. Or at least a schizophrenic junkie."

"The dude might be but, the symbiote is definitely a loser."

" . . . Should we go say, "Hi."?" My suggestive tone was my way of saying causing trouble and I could feel Tarr get just as excited as I did.

"Absolutely. Maybe a "warm greeting" would be nice." that was her way of saying threatening and scaring the hell out of them. We both watched them leave the school grounds towards the beginning of a tree line for the woods.

"How convenient." I said.

"Might be a trap." Tarr answered.

"Might be fun."

"True~" After getting confirmation from Tarr, we slinked our way to the world and found the two of them talking to each other physically. Venom was facing him and he was talking in an angry tone but we didn't give them a chance to finish as I used my extra limb to pin Eddie's legs to the floor while Venom retracted to Eddie's chest. Eddie tried to scream but I used some of Tarr's slime to muffle his screaming.

"Tarr?" Venom peeked his head up higher and came at eye level with me. Tarr retracted herself from my face and faced Venom in an annoyed disembodied head manner.

"Venom. what do you want?"

~~~~~~~~Then I woke Up~~~~~~~~

Image Imagined by David Sawin and Generated Using the Power of Dall E 3 Unlocking the Mysteries of the Night By David Sawin | April 13, 2024 In the quiet of the night, our minds weave tales that can illuminate, guide, and sometimes even confuse. This post, “Dreamscapes,” invites you to delve into the enigmatic world of dreams, exploring how these night visions are not just random neurons…

Surprisingly enough I remember last night's dream in relative detail. I remember I was driving around somewhere. I feel like I wasn't supposed to be driving around, but I was. It was early so I stopped at Sheetz for breakfast. Before I paid for my food I met this girl. She was younger than me. She had light brown skin and curly brown hair. We ended up talking and exchanged Snapchats.

Next thing I remember was I was at home. My friend Mike showed up at my door piss drunk, saying he wanted to go to the street carnival down the road. I didn't want to go at first, but I decided fuck it. Since I was already drunk I ate three THC gummies to match his energy. We went to the carnival and I saw the girl from the Sheetz. I kept trying to get her attention, but she was always in line, or on a ride, or talking with her friends.

Towards the end of the evening the carnival was shutting down, but nobody was clearing out. I took it upon myself to walk through the carnival grounds to tell everyone it was over and we all had to go home. I walked all the way to a lake where I had left my things on a picnic table. My wallet, my keys, my water bottle, my glasses, my phone. There was a group of older people, separating themselves from the carnival. They were meeting there for something but I couldn't tell what.