Death

How would you react when confronted with it?

I had the oddest dream last night.

I was a prisoner, perhaps of war but I couldn't be sure, of what I recall to be Japanese people, in my own bedroom, remarkably. Now I was aware that all the prisoners were being killed, despite not actually seeing anyone else, except the one (strangely) Arab-ish guy who is telling me to eat what is in front of me.

On the desk is a white bowl containing a tiny worm-ish sort of thing, but with lots of legs like a millipede. It is yellow except its head which is blood red. Like some kind of twisted Bushtucker suicide pact, I'm supposed to eat this freaky thing knowing full well it's going to kill me. But I had to and so it's best to go out with a little bit of courage.

So I put down the bowl containing said creature and sit on my bed, best place for one to kick it I suppose. But there's a problem; I try to pick it up and I keep dropping it, it slips through my fingers. There are blood stains where it has fallen onto my bed. But I pick it up again and on the count of three, with this Arab guard counting to three as well (oddly I didn't see fit to just kick him in the shins and run away, I was resigned to the inevitable it seems) I eat it and chew it up and swallow it.

Now about this time I become a little more conscious and as I'm lying down my stomach seizes up and my mind races off on the subject of my imminent demise. I'm sorry to my family for leaving them behind. Think of all the things I never got to do! I'm going to meet God, whoever or whatever that is, and find out what the heck has been going on! I'd best keep in mind that I'm dying, so that when I go out through the head and through the ceiling like those people in NDEs do, I don't need it all to be explained to me that yes, I am dead!

Aaaaand awaken.

A relief, but kind of a let down in another way too.

A reminder that any day could be your last.