March 26; 10:30AM

I went on an anniversary date with a friend a few days ago. He is a nice man, successful in his own right, and we've remained friends for years even with all of my moving. We decided that, after coffee, we would go to one of the bars down the street and have a few drinks since we rarely ever get to hang out. We had a ton of fun and met some new people visiting from out of town, but he decided to leave before it was too late in the night. He confessed some things to me in parting, revealing truths about his perception of me and of our relationship, which mostly I just found shocking. I had never heard anyone give me such a candid perception of who he or she sees me as, or how I effect their life. It was alot to digest. So, I returned to our little crowd and proceeded to drink. And drink. And drink. That night, I fell asleep just before the break of dawn and jolted out of my slumber at the end of this dream.

I was outside, the sun was shining, the field beyond me was a rich golden yellow. It was beautiful and majestic. I wanted to take it all in, enjoy it fully, allow myself freedom to run around and frolic, but there was a piercing pain in my stomach, shallow beneath my skin. I turned around in search of something, and it immediately was night and I was standing in the front yard of a familiar house. I entered (the home being the residence of a close friend) into a room filled with fictional friends and people that I was very close to. And him.

He appeared in front of me, beautiful in a beam of yellowy-lamplight. His face, pale in olive-toned skin, his dark, narrow eyebrows cradling hollow, black eyes. Though his beauty captivated me, it was his smile that always tore my heartstrings. He smiled when he saw me and the group parted away from him. He was always so graceful and angelic. As I walked over to him, my thoughts raced, my stomach clenched with a stabbing pain; I knew this was the moment. I had to risk the pain, the potential heartache, and let him know how I truly feel about him. Once I reached him, he grabbed me by the waist, looked me in the eyes and said, "I've been waiting for you all along."

Later, we are lying next to each other on a couch, naked, in a nondescript room, and I am tracing the lines on his body. I notice that the pain in my stomach has increased and when I sit up, I find that a large, albino snake has broken through my abdomen and has begun wrapping itself around me.

From this point on, until the very end of the dream, there are frames of action where the snake continues to grow as the evening progresses. My beautiful new boyfriend sticks by me unaware of the monster coiled around my torso. I confess to him that I love him, I always have. I kiss him on his face, on his shoulders, on his chest, bathing him in the affections I have waited so long to give him. However, by the end of the dream the snake is so large and terrifying that I cannot reach him, and am no longer touchable.

When my new love reaches out to touch my face, the snake lunges out and bites him in the ribcage. I wake up to the image of his eyes slowly closing and his body going limp in my grasp.