Never have I experienced a dream this intense...
It begins with me looking out my bedroom window to see the most vibrant and abundant group of stars off in the distance; an extremely unusual sight for my suburban area.
"Look at this!" I shout to my husband.
When I look again, I notice the stars seemingly dissipate and transform into more of a shapely, aerosolized appearance. It looks sort of transparent, resembling that of summertime heat waves coming off the hot hood of a car. Upon further study, I notice that whatever I’m looking at is actually shooting out of two chimneys from a neighbor's house across the street, a few houses down to the left. I quickly realize that their house is completely engulfed in flames! Now I'm hearing sirens in the background as I yell to my husband that our neighbor's house is on fire...
"Like, REALLY on fire!"
As I continue to watch from my upstairs window, in a shocking instant, the house right next to it goes up in flames. These flames are shooting out of every single window. Then the exterior walls of this house seem to suck inward before letting out into a giant explosion. The house just blew up! Before I can process anything, the next house over ignites and this one too, just like the previous, explodes! Then the third house does the same. I can see this domino effect occurring right before my eyes and it's heading straight for the house directly across the street from us.
I stand there wondering if our house will escape this fate as I think about all those people who weren't able to get out. They probably didn't even know what hit them. Is the neighbor's house directly across from us close enough to trigger the same spontaneous reaction? I say a prayer out loud for Jesus to send His mighty angels to surround our house and protect us. Then I yell out to my husband,
"We have to get all the cats!"
Next thing I know I'm downstairs. I see two pet carriers across the room, one stacked atop the other. Within a two second time span I'm thinking to myself about how impossible this will be to round up all of my eight indoor cats and secure each and every one of them safely within their carriers in order to get them all to safety. As I start running towards the carriers the two windows to my right burst. Everything becomes like a slow motion scene in the Matrix as shattered glass flies through the air.
I instinctively raise my hands to shield the back of my head from the flying shards as I turn away, running in the opposite direction towards the laundry room. I can't hear any sound at this point; it was like a mute button was pressed. I can feel immense heat envelope me. The atmosphere was palpable, the heat thick and weighty.
In this moment I now know I have to make a decision right then and there, because there's no time left. I know I can't save anyone but myself at this point. I consider staying put and dying in the soon to come explosion. But then I see my husband run out the kitchen door and head down the driveway. I can see him from the room I'm standing in and decide to follow him. I exited through the opening that was once a window, but I don't recall climbing over anything; I just sort of passed through to the outside, the whole time fighting to push through the thickness of the heat. (Everything was still in slow motion, mind you, including my husband.) I told myself that if I just focus on him I'll make it out in time…
"I'm with him," I thought, as I struggled to catch up.
I finally make it out and meet up with him on the sidewalk. His arms look reddish purple, scorched from the immense heat. I know my arms are tender as well, but we gently embrace for a second before I sit down on the walkway. As I ponder away in the early dawn light, I wonder if any of my cats will be found later, like survivors they find in post-tornado rubble. I feel a sense of relief knowing that all that stuff, all that junk… all that mess that was inside our house is completely gone and I can start over... like a clean slate, I suppose.
Then I woke up.
As I transitioned from dream state to reality, I could still feel the intensity of the dream. I think my heart was beating harder than normal and it took me a bit to come down before I went back to sleep.
Is it strange that, as I finish writing this, I’m hearing sirens and just saw a fire engine pass by my house heading up the street in the same direction where all the fires began, as per my dream?
Nah.