Jason woke up coughing. A coughing fit an old smoker who was just about to lose use of their lungs would have. After a minute or two of what felt like dying Jason was finally able to calm his body down and relax. His eyes still closed because of the exhaustion that was deep seated in his bones he started grumbling to himself about his woes.

“Christ that was horrible. Felt like I had a jar full of dust just stuffed down my throat,” he rubbed his eyes and then flopped back down from sitting to lying down on his bed. THUNK.

“FUCK!” Jason immediately started rubbing the back of his head where a decent sized bump was already forming. What the hell did I hit? Jason thought to himself, finally opening his eyes so that he could take a look. He froze. He looked around opening and closing his mouth seeming very much like a fish out of water.

“IT WORKED!” Jason started laughing and looked around this time with more enthusiasm than before.

This wasn’t his bedroom. It wasn’t even his house and probably wasn’t anywhere near it either. The walls were covered in mosses and dirt, the floor seemed to be made of some sort of archaic stonework, and the ceiling was covered in a thin sheet of bright blue glowing something. It wasn’t those glowing mosses you occasionally heard about being in caves and nor was it naturally occurring light. It was much too blue for that.

As Jason watched the blue light seemed to pulse and the membrane pulsed with it almost as if it was alive. Gulping he looked away and looked at his more immediate surroundings. The blue tint everything had, while unsettling, didn’t really hinder his eyesight. He seemed to be in a cave of some sorts and for some reason someone had felt fit to create a cathedral or castle like structure in the cave.

From where he was sitting Jason could see the crumbling walls of the building all around him. He was in the direct middle of the room. There was an altar and a throne situated at the top of a small staircase at one end of the building and directly opposed to that was an empty door frame leading out into what looked like more ruins. There was nothing else in the room. Just the altar and the throne which led Jason back to his initial thought.

Was it a cathedral or a castle? Then again being a lucid dream it’s whatever the hell I want it to be. Jason chuckled to himself and stood up finding that a layer of dust almost an inch thick fell off of him. I guess I really did have a jar of dust shoved down my throat. And it looks like these lucid dream exercises I’ve been doing are starting to work. My days of dreaming whatever I want are finally starting to arrive. Jason faked wiping a tear from his blue eyes and then went to sit on the crumbling throne.

I’m actually surprised my psych teacher had those exercises right. Seems like the old fool actually did know a few things. I’ll tell him about it when I wake up. Walking up the steps to the throne he found that he could make out a symbol carved into the backrest of it. The symbol looked like an eye with the bottom and top of it extending out and up or down making it seem like a smile and frown were put together to make the eyelids.

“What did I read before going to bed to see crumbling ruins and ritualistic symbols? I seriously need to work out this lucid dream stuff. Maybe teach will help me out tomorrow,” Jason was stroking his hand across the throne and the carving just feeling them and marveling at how absolutely real it all felt.

“Alright well let’s change things around here. Maybe shift the dream to a beach or something. I missed vacation after all,” He sat down and hatefully remembered the vacation he planned to go visit his family in California that he couldn’t go on. All because his college delayed finals for two weeks after they were supposed to happen. I swear if I ever find who set the cafeteria and gymnasium on fire I’m going to set them on fire. Maybe I can do that here. Although with how real everything seems to be the burnt flesh is probably not going to smell great so maybe not.

“Whatever,” Waving his arm Jason willed the scene to change. The blue light pulsed and he could see the beach in his mind appearing and then… nothing. No change. Frowning he waved his arm again. And again. And again. “The fuck,” Jason stopped and stood up looking around once more. No ya absolutely nothing changed. Maybe it’s because I’m looking at it and my brain can’t comprehend the scenery changing as I watch. He tried it again. Nope closing my eyes didn’t help at all. The fuck.

A bit disgruntled he scowled and looked around, then he sighed and shrugged his shoulders a playful grin settling on his face. Well if I can’t change it then I guess I’ll just start exploring it. See what my mind can make and all that. Jason made his way to the empty door frame and then stared out into the rest of the cave and ruins. The blue membrane on the ceiling spread far allowing him to see the entirety of the cavern.

“Holy shit. This is beautiful,” It was an entire city just stuck in an absurdly large cave. Jason was standing at the top of a large staircase that overlooked the entirety of the city. There were mansions nearby the foot of the staircase and then beyond that were regular houses. Each house and mansion was made and carved from the same grey stone. All of them had runic symbols drawn on them; the mansions having more intricate and elegant symbols. Some of the mansions even had those symbols glowing red.

Obviously everything was crumbling from old age, but that added to the beauty of it because it allowed the plants in the cave to seep through the cracks and wrap themselves around the houses. There were bright green vines everywhere wrapping up every house they could. The interwoven nature and ancient ruins cast in blue light created a beautiful scene to behold.

In his awe Jason didn’t notice that he was walking down the steps until he was already at the bottom of the staircase. Walking through the streets Jason extended his right arm and let his hand touch and drag across the vines.

He stopped.

Turning to look closer at the vines Jason realized that the entirety of the vine was covered in etchings and carvings as if someone had taken a scalpel and decided to make a masterpiece of basic shapes. Jason kept an eye on the vine and started walking noticing that it was literally the entire vine that was like this. He walked over to the other side of the street and saw that the other vine was also like this.

Why does everything have these runes carved into them? Jason had been an avid DnD player but he didn’t think he’d been this obsessed to have everything in his dream be carved in magical runes. Of course then again I very well could’ve been. I didn’t do much besides study and play games. In college he didn’t go to any parties and had no significant others. He didn’t go to sports events or anything. He was the exact definition of a NEET and a proud one at that.

As he was walking through the streets and inspecting vines he found that he was standing in front of a gate. Or well where a gate would’ve been if it hadn't fallen to the ground ten meters in front of him. As it was now the large archway, reminiscent of medieval gates, was empty. It had four meter high walls on either side extending five or six meters to where the walls of the cave were. Making it so the gate was the only viable entrance into the entire city. Beyond the archway was darkness.

A deep darkness that Jason’s eyes couldn’t penetrate. With the confidence of the arrogant or the foolish, in this case both, Jason strode into that darkness. Slowly but surely his eyes adjusted and he was able to see a meter or two ahead of himself. He also noticed that he was walking up at an incline. I’ll be out in the open air soon then. He was grinning, excited about what world he’d find.

In fact he was so excited that he didn’t notice that there was a conspicuous wire running across the floor. Twaaaaangggggg. He broke the wire. Grimacing Jason knelt down and rubbed his bare foot that had broken the wire. Why was there a tripwire here? For god’s sake that hurt like…

HELL!!

Jason felt something brush against his side and he was sent flying like a cannonball right into the side of the cave. Fuck Fuck FUCK! Dreams aren’t supposed to hurt. Why am I hurting? What hit me? Jason struggled to even move his head to the side from the floor with how much pain he was in. Fighting through the pain he turned his head and saw a giant spiked log swinging to and fro exactly where he was standing moments before.

In fact the only thing that saved him was pure luck. That he had knelt down to rub his foot. Otherwise his head would’ve been taken clean off easily. What he actually got hit by was one of the cut off branches on the sides of the logs. I have no clue how a branch sent me flying but it did. Getting up slowly Jason checked all over his body. Finding only only a few scratches and bruises here and there Jason checked his left leg.

The entire left side of the leg was blood. Jason touched the leg with trembling hands. Pain laced through him like lighting and when it reached his head he screamed.

“JESUS CHRIST FUCKING HELL!!!!” Jason’s leg buckled and he fell to the ground. Which caused him more pain. “What the fuck. What the fuck. What the fuck,” he was whispering and whimpering as he looked at the ceiling of the cave.

After a few minutes Jason looked around fearfully and then got up careful not to touch or put too much weight on his injured leg. I need to get out of here. Find someone and get them to tell me where I am. I might be stupid, but I’m not so stupid as to still believe this is a dream. I should’ve known from the beginning. Everything was too REAL for it to be a dream. Goddamn idiot.

Jason looked at the log that had come to a standstill and once more decided to be much much more careful than before. Then knowing that it was death if he stayed here Jason started moving further up past the log and into what he knew was almost certainly more danger.