This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/Accomplished_Oil_611 on 2024-09-15 13:34:56+00:00.

Caitlin was a mischievous child.  When she was just 2, she was able to climb out of her crib, crawl down the stairs, open the freezer, and pull out the ice cream.  She was even able to find a spoon and crawl into a closet to avoid the authorities.  Perhaps to her benefit, she was often foiled in her heist, unable to open the top and get that creamy goodness.  When she was 5, she’d figured out the near infinite complexities of the TV remote, enabling her to navigate to her favorite shows, which included Sponge-Bob, Uncle-Grandpa, and the multitude of Saw movies, which she preferred to The Purge.  This invariably followed her into the evening where she revisited all the finer details in her high-definition nightmare. 

Her parents were, generally speaking, not the best.  They patted themselves on the back as successful parents for putting food on her plate, not leaving her in the hot car, and keeping her away from the toolshed.  Beyond that, they didn’t win too many Adulting awards.  However, after she’d managed to crawl into their bed for the third time in a week, they began strategizing a solution.  Obviously, simply not watching the terribly inappropriate and terrifyingly scary shows was no longer an option.  So, they researched the problem and found an unlikely article recommending lucid dreams.  That evening, before bed, they sat her down and explained it to her.  “You can control your nightmares if you can wake up inside of them.”  

Caitlin didn’t know what her parents meant, but she did trust them.  She thought about it into the evening as her eyes grew heavier.  Then she was there, in a dark cave at the top of a cliff.  Deep in the cave was a spider and it was crawling out, pushing her towards the edge.  She was so scared.  She couldn’t think about anything except the terror and … something nudged at the back of her mind.  Suddenly she remembered what her parents said, and that was it.  She was suddenly awake within her dream.  She pushed the spider back into the cave with her mind.  The cave collapsed and she was falling.  She screamed but then remembered, she can control it.  So, she started flying.  The monster came from the shadow and started following her.  She made it her pet.

Caitlin loved her dreams.  The worse they were, the better.  Her parents began to offer her horror movies because they kept her so calm.  She was excited to go to bed and to fall deep into her dreams where she was a god, and anything could happen.  She was happy.  

Years went by and Caitlin’s childhood gave way to other thoughts and pursuits.  Her evening nightmares gave way to dreams of romance.  Her nightmares were more focused on the real world… bills, rumors, health.  She was still young when she got her first seizure.  She was taken to the doctor where she was diagnosed with a rare degenerative disease.  It began like Epilepsy, but the disease would spiral out of control over time.  She would be dead within the year.  

The seizures were scary.  She’d shake, and then… nothing.  She’d wake up seconds later on the ground.  People were staring at her and strangers were approaching.  Time passed and she woke up minutes later, with people holding her.  Sometimes she’d have clothing in her mouth to keep her from biting her tongue.  She had no memory of it.  More time passed and she’d wake up hours later.  She was in the hospital now.  Sensors covered her body, a tube was down her throat, she had a catheter.  Again, she had no memory, no dreams, no loneliness, and not even a memory of darkness.  There was nothing human in it; nothing conscious.  She imagined that this is what death would bring.  Cold empty nonexistence where time didn’t exist.  She thought about it a lot.  

She was in the park.  She thought about the seizures.  She focused on the fainting, and about snapping out of it.  Her mind drifted back to her childhood fears.  She remembered that first night, that first dream.  And then, as she felt the seizure coming, she remembered the feeling.  She remembered taking control.  Darkness… Nothing… Snap… she was awake.

Caitlin was looking at herself.  She saw the people around her begin to panic.  She saw the ambulance come and take her body to the hospital.  She followed.  She found herself in a bed.  The doctor was there talking to her parents.  They were talking about her.  She didn’t have long now.  She felt her heart race.  She felt the panic.  She heard the voice of the child inside her that said she could change it, manipulate it, even control it.  Her feet left the ground.  She reached into herself, and she pulled the malignant mass from her skull.  It evaporated into nothingness.  She saw her body tense, then relax.  She saw the doctors scramble to understand the readings from the many sensors hooked to her body.  She laid down within herself and she awoke.

Caitlin lived a prosperous and wondrous life.  Those around her had the best of luck.  Odd things happened everywhere she went.  Illness faded in moments.  Financial issues disappeared overnight.  People were happy.  The years grew long, and death approached.  Still Caitlin wasn’t scared.  She was familiar with the silent emptiness, the nothingness… she knew it could be overcome.  She knew the truth about lucid dreams.