December 13th, 2000 CE

I dreamed that I was a child who had found himself and a few dozen other people transported to some dark, lifeless world with no sign of life of any kind, human, plant, or animal, anywhere in sight. We were on a plateau near to the summit of a mountain, where a hotel had also been transported from wherever we were from. Nobody knew why we were there, where "there" was, or anything else about what was happening. Only that we were not where we were supposed to be. Below the mountain which we were on was an endless range of black, craggy mountains, with no sign of anything of worth - no food, no shelter, no roads or streets, nothing, anywhere in sight. There was a certain level of resignation among the people there - hopelessness soon set in, as it seemed there was no hope of survival beyond the few weeks it would take to starve to death. There was, at one point, a sighting of a group of vaguely humanoid creatures passing through the heavy mist not far from the hotel, but for some reason, nobody thought to make use of them for food. Perhaps they didn't think they could over-power them. Perhaps they didn't think they should. Perhaps they didn't care to obtain food to prolong their existence, and thus, suffering, any longer than they had to. Much of this dream took place during the night, which was cold and dark beyond anything encountered on earth. No source of electrical light being available, the starry sky was clearly visible. Somehow, this seemed even more terrible, though, as these were by no means the stars of earth - they were more plentiful and bright, and wholly alien, and it was a sure sign to all of the people there that they were completely out of their element, and would likely never see their homes again.

When day broke, fearful watchfulness gave way to indulgence, and the adults of the group began to swiftly empty the contents of the hotel's alcohol stores. I quickly grew tired of dealing with the drunks, and another boy and I decided to explore the surrounding landscape, not having anything better to do with our time. Eventually, we came upon an ancient plastic and steel scaffold affixed to the side of a cliff which led upwards for hundreds of meters. We began to climb up it, only to have the rusted construction begin to give way beneath us, collapsing into the abyss below. We desperately held fast to the remaining parts of the structure and continued to climb upwards, not having any other option. By the time we reached the top of the cliff, virtually nothing remained of the scaffolding, and we were forced to climb the last few feet along crumbling rock and shale. Miraculously, we topped the cliff successfully. Even more miraculously, we came upon another building - an ancient-looking, 3 story-tall rectangular redbrick building with intact doors and windows, but which had nonetheless obviously suffered the ravages of the ages. All around it, the ground was bare and dead, and the sky above had grown to be a deep, featureless grey. I wondered if this building had been sent here the same way as ours had, and if so, how long it and it's probable inhabitants had remained, without rescue or salvation of any kind. I wondered what this said about my own future here.

We went inside, and found the place to look very much like a Victorian-era mansion in it's features with deeply coloured wood construction making up a great deal of the construction. It's contents marked it as more of a library, though, albeit a heavily water-damaged one, and heavily weathered, as though it had been here for many centuries, without more than the most basic and minimal of maintenance. The first room we encountered after the lobby in the front was off to the right, where we found three very old men with long, wiry hair and faded suit coats sitting in ancient looking overstuffed, mauve-coloured armchairs, sipping tea from teacups on old china saucers. They didn't seem surprised to see us. Rather, they welcomed us coldly and advised us to take advantage of their fine collection of literature. I scanned the collection and found nothing of seeming value - technical manuals and old accounts of irrelevant events. All of the books were badly weathered, and in no obvious order. After a few minutes of this, one of the old men - gaunt and skeletal, with long black hair, led me back out to the lobby and instructed me to begin organising some books for him - books which were laying in four stacks on the floor, each of which were between 2 and 4 feet tall. His presence was intensely frightening to me, and I was feeling rather powerless at any event, so I agreed. I began to stack them within another room which branched off from the lobby, organising them according to some sort of pattern which only made sense in the context of the dream.

Before much time had seemed to pass, the task was complete, and the old man returned to inspect my handiwork. Seeming to approve, he then bid me to watch what happened next - the books seemed to suddenly form a barrier between the lobby and the interior of the room, with windows permitting me to view it's interior. There, there was suddenly a great many of the people who I had been with in the hotel, including the boy who I had travelled here with. They were apparently trapped in the room by the barrier I had inadvertently constructed, confused, and panicked. Water soon began to materialise out of the floor, and swiftly rose to fill the entire room. As I looked on, the people inside thrashed about and drowned before my eyes, eventually coming to float, lifeless and pale, in the water before me.

If I dreamed anything else before I woke up, I don't recall any of it.