The Shadow

Date: 10/16/2016

I was in a greenhouse, that's what I remember best. The vivid imagery of a high ceiling, translucent panes of glass overlooking trees and shrubs, some of which I don't think were real. The architecture of the place wasn't flat-floored, it was as if someone had built a greenhouse enclosure over an untouched plot of land used for growing, so it was very hilly and the terrain was rough, but still overgrown with plants. It was a short dream, but I remember that I was running from something, and it was fast, too - always right behind me. I traversed this ridge that cut off suddenly into some kind of weird, several story high cliff, with a multitude of plants at its peak, including a tree that sort of resembled a weeping willow, with the exception that its branches had been bound together into these weird hanging pillar-type things with a small board at the bottom for a kind of platform. I knew my only option in continuing to flee my pursuer was to jump to one of the swingy-platform-things, and before I did, I looked back to see how close my pursuer was, only to realize that it was a shadow. Well, not a shadow in the traditional sense. It had the figure of a human being, though it had no facial features, like a mannequin, and it's body was completely black. It wasn't like some person walking around in a morph suit though, like one of those weird vinyl Halloween costume bodysuits you see around, instead it seemed like it wasn't really *solid* if you know what I mean, like it was just a cloud of smoke compacted into this strange figure. It's color bled into the environment like ink, wisping through the air before dissipating. I only glanced at him for a moment, noticing his brisk pace as he strode toward me over the ridge, and then I jumped. Shockingly, I made it pretty easily to the first swinging bundle of branches, which hung about ten or so feet from the cliff edge, and steadied myself before looking back at my pursuer, only to see him waiting at the edge of cliff, motionless. He didn't look like he was going to jump too, he just sort of stood there facing me- I would say looking at me but he didn't really have eyes. I don't know, something about it really freaked me out in that moment, and it parallels other moments from other dreams I've had where faceless figures stare at me from beyond their reach- but anyway, I just felt myself freeze, and I stood there on the swingy thing just staring back at him, watching, waiting for him to do something, which he didn't. He just stood. Watched. The platforms weren't terribly far apart, about five or six feet, and another, similar tree was seated across the ridge, close enough to swing to if I had the tree swinging dream talent. So my immediate course of action is to swing to another platform so I can get to this other tree and get away from this thing, so I spot the platform I'm going to swing to, and before I can even begin to gather momentum, I just let go of the platform. I don't really know why I did it, it just sort of happened. One second I was holding on, the next second I wasn't- and then I was falling, plummeting towards the bottom of the ridge about three stories below before I hit the ground, and woke up. Maybe it all means something, but if it does, I have no idea what. Thanks for listening, if you did.