🌿 Mystical Gardens Tale 🌿 ✨ The Thing I Keep Forgetting At night I dream. Most people do. They say dreams are from your subconscious mind sorting out the problems of the day. If that's true, then what is my subconscious mind seeing that my waking senses aren't able to detect? I quickly say my prayers and go to bed. As I'm drifting off, I ask the Lord to help me figure out what's keeping me from doing what I want to do, what I know I should do, what he created me to do, what I know I'm meant to do. Warning, don't ask unless you really want to know. As I fall deeper into sleep, I feel my breath gently hitting my arm. Something feels different. Wrong. Instead of one little spot, the breath is blowing across my entire arm. A tail swishes against the crook of my arm, its soft hair drifting up, tickling my nose. I know something was wrong. I try, but cannot wake up. The darkness shifts. Things come at me. Shadows move. The air rushes by me as if a bird has just flown too close. I scream out to the Lord: "Jesus! Help me!" I feel the things trying to attack me tremble, but I can tell they aren't going to give up until they hurt me. They circle, watching and waiting. They're not going to stop. Mind racing, panic starting to build, I try to remember what to do. All my life these creatures have chased me. I have physical scars from a few of the battles I've had. There is a way to stop them. Why can't I ever remember when I need it the most? As a child, I would run until my feet left the ground and I flew across the city, jumping from rooftop to rooftop, but I could never out run the creatures. I've even woken up with their marks on my physical body. They are real. If I can just remember, I can stop them. I run. I always run. I stumble, I fall, I get up, and I keep running. I can see something ahead. A tree with branches hanging to the ground. A weeping willow. Hope stirs inside my chest. I can hide under the branches. As I run toward the tree, the shadows begin to receed. My mind takes in the beauty of the flowers under my feet and a peaceful calm fills me as I draw close. I duck beneath the hanging branches and wrap my arms around the trunk as if my life deepens on it. I take in a deep breath. I finally remember the thing that I always forget. It's what keeps the creatures away. I scream as loud as I can into the darkness: "I am covered by the blood of Jesus Christ. He gave his life for me and his blood covers me. You cannot touch me." Silence. The creatures vanish. I feel something like a warm hug as the thin branches surround and brush against me. I could swear I hear a voice whispering through the leaves, into my mind, telling me that I'm safe now. I collapse to the ground and curl up at the base of the trunk. I sleep deeply, knowing I'm safe. I wake in my bed, just before my alarm goes off. There's a faint scent of flowers lingering in the air. The dream starts fading. It will be back. The creatures always come back. They'll wait until I forget how to defeat them and then they'll return. It doesn't take long. I forget to read my Bible. I forget to pray. I forget to focus on God in my everyday life. I get so busy that I often forget the most important things. Every time, I promise myself that I won't forget and I will be prepared next time. The creatures wait. They know when I drift away. They come. I'm running out of next times and I know it. Scriptures to hold onto: "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony." Revelation 12:11 Or: "The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe." Proverbs 18:10 Or: "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." John 14:6 #MysticalGardens #christianwriter #christianfantasy #ChristianFiction #stacyfrantz