Beyond Space & Time

It was one fine day in my university hostel room. I was working on a plant design project for formaldehyde production together with my team members. 4:45am in the morning and we were cracking our brain to optimize the process – a 500m cooling tower was just ridiculous, it will break the Guinness World Records, we laughed. Something must be wrong with the mass balance, probably a misplacement of decimal point somewhere. 

Ling said she can’t concentrate on this anymore and asked if I can make her some coffee, she forgot that I have caffeine intolerance so there won’t be any coffee at my place. “Let’s get some fresh air”, I suggested. I was famished after staying up all night and needed a sugar fix, plus my vision started to get blurry after staring at the monitor for such long hours. The idea of taking a break from the plant design woke everyone up, including Mei who was zoning out since 3am. We walked through the long corridor in silence and I suddenly realized that I forgot the car key. “I must be too exhausted”, I murmured to myself. The girls went ahead to take the lift and I headed back to my room to get the key. 

I pressed the lift button but the lift was not moving, just my luck. Without hesitation, I took the staircase instead, imagining how hard the girls will laugh at me later. Turn after turn, the staircase seemed to be never ending and I was nowhere near the ground floor. It was only 6 floors and it shouldn’t be taking so long. Puzzled, I exited the stairwell to check which floor I was at, and had chills running down my spine when I glimpsed at that big 6 on the wall. I skeptically dashed down the stairs again and was welcomed by another 6th floor. This can’t be true, not something scientifically sound! I tried to reach out to my floormates but none of them answered the doors. I brutally opened the doors and to my horror, the rooms were all empty. Adrenaline rushing through my body as I ran through the long corridor that connects 4 blocks of hostels, opened the doors one by one and found no soul in this space. Struggling to keep my composure amidst the absurdity, I leaned myself against the patchy wall and tried to pull myself together. Light-headedness hit me, I just couldn’t brain this, what’s going on? I took a subconscious glance at my watch and was absolutely terrified – the second hand was not moving, the time was frozen at 4:58am. 

I was trapped, in this space and time. 

Gasping for air, I woke up in cold sweat, with a racing heart and stiff muscles - apparently I was holding my breath during the dream. Ah, it was a dream. I rubbed my icy cold fingers against one another to warm myself up, fetched myself a glass of water from the kitchen downstairs to get rid of the irritating parched sensation in my throat. It has been a while since I last had such a vivid dream, it felt so intense and real. Scientifically speaking, it’s just another dream experienced during REM sleep, but I thought differently this time. 

The dream was a sign, I guessed. 

A sign that I need to break free from the intangible traps set by my own mind.

If there is any. :) 

Love,