05-01-24
I was standing in line to go to a large festival of sorts. Only the line was extremely unusual. It started off normal until I reached the end at a sort of foyer with two sets of stairs on either side of an unlit fireplace with a vibrantly blue mantelpiece above it. There I could choose, only once, to take either the blue stairs on the left or the green stairs on the right to reach the festival, which was at a venue at a higher elevation.
I somehow knew that if I took the green stairs, that it would take an extremely long, uncertain amount of time to get there. As in I would eventually reach my destination, but only after what would be a near eternity. The blue stairs were much shorter and visibly ended at a cliff with some footholds where I would then climb the rest of the way up. It was an immensely long way up. I knew that if I chose this path, I would get to the destination in at least a definite amount of time that solely depended on my climbing ability. So I chose to climb. Most of the others waiting in the queue did as well.
When it was my turn, I began climbing. Shortly after beginning my ascent, I was suddenly holding on to a different, and organic, surface. I was now climbing up a six meter tall spinal column that tilted back and forth repeatedly. Since the approaching tilt was rather severe, I had to cling on tight or else I would fall. This was not easy since the spine was covered in a thin layer of slick visceral tissue. Most of my advances were on the retreating tilt. At the top of the spinal column there was no cranium. Instead I was met with yet another taller spinal column to climb. I had to grab on to it as the two tilted towards each other. This repeated at least one more time afterwards.
Upon approaching the top of the final spinal column, I was suddenly now holding on to the chest of a large humanoid figure. The figure had slick decayed flesh, open eyes with hollow sockets, and cracked lips that were bleeding. The scalp was bare. The figure spoke to me in what I thought was a Meso-american language that I did not understand, yet I also did understand. He said that this next session of the ‘climb’ would involve me ‘dancing’ with some ancestors, of which he was the first. By dancing, it was more of me just having to avoid losing my grip and falling while the figure danced a waltz.
We spoke in his language during the dance, but I did not know what either of us were saying. At the same time, however, we both could understand each other. The figure eventually decided we had ‘danced’ enough and gave me a blessing of sorts. Then he kissed me, and passed me off to the next figure (By pass off, I mean I had to leap to the next tall corpse figure he just so happened to be dancing near). This repeated multiple times. Eventually, after I got the kiss from the last figure I was to ‘dance’ with, I was suddenly back on the cliff, just barely below the top ledge. It was easy to pull myself up the rest of the way.
From there I got a brief view of the festival. Many of the attendees were wearing masquerade masks. It seemed like a haunted house themed Halloween party with staff popping out and scaring attendees at random. There was even an open auditorium where many were watching plays being performed. Overall, it looked like everybody there was having fun. Then I woke up.