My Slumber -A Memory-

My Slumber -A Memory-

by GEIST von PA, Aug 20, 2010, 9:07:27 PM
Literature / Characters & Settings / Sci-Fi & Fantasy / Sketches
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I used to take nice hot baths in them, now I use them as sleeping alcoves whenever I come across an abandon house.
I remember those day. The days before the wars.
Before the famine and diseases.

I would turn the hot to full blast until the tub filled.
Then as I stepped into the burning water I would imagine myself in packed ice, like being inside a giant glacier.
Pretending that the water was so cold it burnt my feet.
I would eventually submerge myself into the hot-tub-like water, lean back, breath deep and relax.
Clearing my mind of the day's events and letting them melt off me as I began to sweat from the steam.

Those days are gone now.
Fifteen years later, but I can still remember those days as if I had done them only moments ago.

I begin to drift into sleep, my legs slightly bent and my arms tucked around my makeshift pillow that is my rain jacket.
The tub maybe a bit cramp and hard but for me it reminds me of what we once had, security.
My rucksack lays within reach, but most importantly is my knife.

Sleeping in a new place every night leaves one never getting a restful night.
Your body being on high alert.
Your ears never sleeping but always listening to the sounds around you, unfamiliar sounds.
For the first few years your mind races while laying alone at night.
Hoping no one is following you, hoping the long way around was not tracked or that the fire you have lit to keep warm will not be seen.
A plethora of thought overload makes one grow so paranoid that eventually a nervous breakdown ensues.

After that. We grow wiser, more cunning and observant in our everyday life.
We tread with out sound, breath without whisper.
Our thoughts become like that of a blank slate.
Our natural instincts overcome and we become the most efficient killing machine to stalk the lands.
Not only do we have the advanced thought that our great society had to give us for our time, but now we are once again like the elusive cats of the jungle.

An Advanced predator.

I sleep more soundly now.
It is as if my brain has split in two.
The alert.
Still listening for danger while I sleep.
While the other part sleeps as soundly as a baby without a care.

A balance.

The gentle gnawing of a mouse in the wall sooths me into sleep.