Usually in my dreams, when I'm in a dire situation where I may or may not die, I wake up before my outcome can be predicted. I might have lived, I might have died, who knows, I woke up too soon.

A few nights ago that didn't happen.



I dreamed that two of my friends, Nikki and Alden, had won an all expenses paid vacation and they could bring two more people with them. They picked me to go with them and also made the decision that I should pick the final person to go with. I chose my sister Emily to come along with us. Maybe all expenses isn't the correct term; everything was paid for on this vacation, the restaurants we went to for our meals, the hotel rooms, new clothing, souvenirs, the activities we participated in such as: hang gliding, surf board rentals, jet skis, boating, just anything and everything.



The four of us took a cruise ship to our destination, I'm not exactly sure where it was suppose to be but it was warm and tropical. We were dropped off and enjoyed the vacation spot for about two weeks. For the return trip we were to take a plane, or two planes I should say. We spent a few hours on one plane then when it landed we changed over to another. The second plane brought us to a terminal that was within driving distance of our home town.



I've never actually been on any commercial flights so I have no idea what loading and unloading of passengers is like, but in my dream the four of us walked to the front of the plane and walked out into a hallway that connected the plane to the building we would be entering. It wasn't a very long walk before we crossed over into a hallway that was part of the airport. The carpeting on the floor, the wall to the left, and the ceiling were all bright white. The wall to the right was made entirely of floor to ceiling windows that looked out over the tarmac. It was a bright and sunny day, with an almost cloudless sky. Emily ran off ahead of Nikki, Alden, and I, holding a book she had found in one of the various shops we had visited. She hadn't wanted to put it down when we started back for home because she wanted to show it to Grandma and Mom as soon as possible. I started walking towards of the hallway which turned left at the end and called out to Emily not to run off to far ahead of us. I sensed that Nikki and Alden weren't following but didn't turn around; I figured they would join Emily and I when they felt like it.



Emily ran around the corner and disappeared from my sight so I picked up my pace. The vacation had gone so well, I really didn't want something bad to happen now that we were so close to home. I turned the corner and stopped. Standing in front of me was a balding man, it looked like he was wearing a uniform for the particular airline our group had currently been using, and he had a gun pointed directly at me. We stood like that for a little while. He didn't look angry, just very sad. I was scared, but I didn't make a sound, I didn't call for help, I didn't do anything to draw attention to us.



Emily must have encountered this man when she turned the corner and out of my sight, but I didn't see her. I glanced over the right shoulder of the man and saw Emily showing her new book to a young couple in the waiting area. They smiled brightly at her and exclaimed at the pictures as Emily turned the pages for them. I felt relief that she was alright and had managed to find something to occupy her time. Next, I turned my head to look down the hallway I had just come from. Nikki and Alden were still standing near the device that allowed passengers to move from the plane to the building and vice versa. They were holding each other and smiling. As with Emily I felt relieved that they were happy and didn't realize what was going on. I turned my head back to face the man.



His sadness seemed to have deepened as tears were now rolling down his cheeks. Then he spoke, "I am so sorry, but I have to blame someone." Tears started rolling down my cheeks and I remained silent while I cried just like the man had. He pulled the trigger and the bullet entered the left side of my chest. I looked at the man in disbelief, and he pulled the trigger again, the bullet hitting the right side of my chest this time.



I felt intense pressure in my chest but no pain. I closed my eyes and felt myself falling. When I opened my eyes again I was lying on the floor, the horrible pressure was present in my chest and I couldn't draw a breath. There was an erratic thumping, that was beginning to slow as I went longer and longer without breathing. I suddenly realized that the thumping was my heart. Nikki and Alden were on either side of me, the smiles gone from their faces. I felt sorry that they weren't smiling any more. Both were shouting, and even though they were only a few inches away, I couldn't hear what they were shouting. I wondered what they were shouting about; I tried figuring it out from their expressions. Neither was mad, both looked frantic, and kind of desperate.



My heart beat was still getting slower and slower, and I was dimly aware that it was because I wasn't breathing. My lungs just wouldn't work. The pressure in my chest made breathing a task that was too difficult for me. My sight was beginning to fail as well. With each progressively slow heart beat my vision began to fade. Nikki and Alden's features blurred until they became nothing but waving silhouettes. Then everything within my vision started fading to white and on my last heart beat all was white emptiness and I thought and felt no more.



I just thought I would share the dream because when I had it, it was so vivid that I was actually kind of surprised that I had woken up. It didn't occur to me that I was dreaming at all and that I hadn't really reached the end of my life.