Dream Thief

My dreams of thievery

A long time ago, I had a dream. Every night again, without fail. I would dream of a world, a replica to ours. With shadows clawing at me. And one day it didn’t let me escape again, so I write about it instead:

In a world like ours

In a city like any other

There once lived a thief

A trickster, a keeper of secrets

In an old clock tower

Upon a cliff

At the seashore

Looking upon it from the outside the tower was brittle and weathered. It had been standing for quite some time. Aeons if one wanted to know the truth. A few 100 years for the normal people, who had a hard time fathoming a building could survive for that long. Simply because it doesn’t fit into their perception of normal.

Bricks breaking, vines growing from the bottom high. This tower stood still and tall, throughout time. Holding the tower in an iron grip, ivy ranked around it like a tight rope. Though if not for it, the tower would've collapsed centuries ago. Crumbling like dust.

Now let me tell you about this old tower. The tower of thieves, where time, was but a concept of men. And worth more, then riches of any kind.

At the top he had his residence. Lived there for a few years. Never to be seen, by the ordinary people. A legend he may have as well been.

Our thief of time.

And maybe I lied before.

And maybe this world is not so like ours.

And maybe it is a world of mirrors.

And maybe in this world you pay in time. To see a dream. To be a viewer of your own destiny.

Shadow creatures that long forgot how to live. Buying dreams with time. Looking into mirrors, to find meaning in life. Trading their time like poker chips. Never noticing how you slowly loose it. Give up the chance to live for what is a life without any dreams in it?

A long, long time ago a world came to be, in it, everyone has been given some time. Just like in ours. How much? You don’t know. One day you will run out of it and that will be the end of it. The difference. These people had no dreams. Forged through mankinds desire to live forever. A world came to be, separate from ours. Creating shadows, looking like humans, with more time then you can imagine. The only downside, the price for a near immortal life, never dreaming once while you exist.

And a life without dreams, soon became, a world of misery. So the people invented the dream machines. You could pay with your life, to live a forgery. To live a dream. Just once, to feel, to taste a bit of freedom. Trapping images of wonder in steel mirrors, for they can’t survive otherwise. Carrying around a dream to look at. So you have something to live for, to want a tomorrow. However, more and more people started to stare into the mirrors. Longer and longer. For days on end. Staring into a dreamland, to feel something. Anything. They were numbly watching dreams, slowly turning into naught but a shadow without meaning to them. Slowly giving all their life away.

The land of shadows was born. Its habitants would slowly wither away while watching what could’ve become of themselves. Till this day ever more people started to live in a fantasy. Walking among others like corpses. And all of this unbeknown for the people of the normal world.

And all this time their stood a tower tall. The people who lived there steadily changed.

Their profession never did.

Thieves they all were. A special kind of them. Thieves of time, hiding in plain sight.

They stole time, for themselves. Why may you ask? To feel a little bit longer as though they were free. Time was worth more than any riches, and what thief does not like shiny things. To get back a little bit of control over the end. To be able to use their time with making their dreams come to life, and anothers time to spent on living.

Time is fleeting, unpredictable. To fight against this circle of never knowing, not being able to decide, how much time they had, for trading with it was what enabled them to live. Performers they all where, they did not dream, like the rest of them. They decided to live everyday as if there were no boundaries. Tricks and plays, charades and lies. Endless possibilities. The only obstacle: you need time for them. And as most people of the shadow lands, chose to live in blissful ignorance. Trading their time to watch a weaving of wishes, forgetting that reality exists. Our thieves wanted the opposite. To have more time, to play more tricks, to be who they wanted to be, to play charades in reality.

For wasn’t it more fun to weave a dream, then simply watch it? So, in order to live free, our thieves, stole time with schemes.