A recurring theme for me is an odd archaic-looking door, usually in an alleyway or tucked away behind something a basement, sometimes in an ‘employees only’ hallway of a mall or subway, that leads to a stairway down. There’s a gradual change as I descend from normal modern building stairs and walls to smoothly-worn stone stairs and walls carved out of bedrock to something even older that looks like sandstone. At the bottom of the stairs is a long hallway with many doors on either side, and other hallways branching off. (I sometimes wonder who’s in charge of the torches in the wall sconces.) As I walk down the hallway, I can hear a wild variety of noises/voices from the rooms, some in languages that I doubt any human could speak.
Eventually I may come to an open door and look in. The room/furnishings may look medieval, but it’s obviously an apartment or lounge or something. None of the ‘people’ look human, some may be quite bizarre, others mostly human but slightly odd. They seem wary of me, but accepting, welcoming, not hostile. It is a warm and comforting place.
I may join them at their table, or just briefly speak with them before moving on. If I join them, some may convince me to go with them and lead me off down the hallways to another door, and whatever adventures lie beyond. Or I may continue on my own and open a door, beyond which lies another world. And therein lies the dream, whatever it may turn out to be.
I guess that most likely started after I read Cabal or watched Nightbreed, but it has stuck with me ever since. A sort of underworld dream lobby, where the characters are all strangers, and uncertain about me, but welcome me into their dreamworlds. It’s a world of monsters, but it’s comforting and familiar.
