Child Labor(?) Dream

Date: 11/26/2017

Somewhat foggy, but still really memorable so I’m writing it down. I was a child in a facility, apparently sometime during the industrial revolution except instead of children in child labor it was more like slavery. We were gonna be there for the rest of our lives. We were corralled around the facility. Which was mostly made of concrete and glass, as it was underwater close to the surface. It was pretty bright lit. The places we went were sort of “workshops”, where we were gonna receive lessons on what we were going to be doing later on. The only one I can remember actually happening though was one where we were taught how to use the rough wooden flutes we were given. They were magic. Uh, yeah. It was weird, but I was able to get mine to work. I can also remember that in the hallways we went through, there were occasional “viewing” hallways or windows near us that upper class (Victorian Era, remember) watched us through in disdain. Somewhere along the line, girls and boys meant for dirtier, rougher work had their hair shorn. I was part of that group, and it was clipped pretty short. At the workshop after that, I was at a table with some of my real life friends, who were also apparently at the facility. They commented on my suddenly short hair (They were all boys, so I was generally the only girl with cut hair there) and how weird it must feel. It was pretty weird. Someone there mentioned that that was only the first haircut, though, and more would be hacked off later. During this workshop, I had a realization that this crude work was what I was going to do for the rest of my life, and I was going to be stuck here forever. I got really upset about that. Later on, in the hallways, me and my friends mentioned that it would be impossible to sleep in the barracks later, because everyone would be so rowdy. Currently, it’s important to mention that anyone who was caught in machinery too badly to be saved or anyone who tried to escape would be executed by the on-site executioner. It was pretty bad. One kid got his leg stuck in part of the wall and a long metal turning device, and was twisted upwards as it moved. The guy there then wrenched the long metal part out and took him away. Now, I was in his perspective, though I didn’t feel any pain. I was outside the facility, on a red-painted wooden bridge with siding above the water on the outskirts of the facility. I was sitting hunched over by the siding, and “loosened” the metal part crunched around my leg until it slid down to my ankle. The weather was actually pretty pleasant. Then, the executioner came up, with the gaudy mask and sharp axe and all, and swung it into my neck, and everything went black for a moment. Now, I’m a mermaid, swimming in one of the water tanks encircling one of the rooms in the facility. Yeah, I don’t know either. I take pity on one of the kids in the room, who happens to be one of my other real life friends. I somehow get into the room, and talk to him. I pull out a stretchy mesh bag and tell him that if he can climb in there and hold his breath I would be able pull it along with me to help him escape. So he does, and I get back into the water tanks. I thought there was glass wall I could break to exit but it doesn’t work and I have to bail before he drowns. It was a close call. I try again with no success. Then, as a last ditch resort, I go to see the on-site “teacher”, who has a room full of fish tanks with openings outside for real effect. The room is empty except for him. I beg him to let me free, as I knew that his job in the facility was just a facade for his love of fish. He begrudgingly opens the hatched outside and we make it. The rest is kind of blurry, but we make it out and suddenly we’re birds flying away. I don’t know either. We arrive at an island full of pretty colored rocks, and pick them up for a while until one of them is actually a turtle thing and we have to leave. That’s the somewhat underwhelming point at which I wake up.