Momento Mori

I was visiting an old church with my Mum, a childhood friend & his mum. The details are hazy but it was highly adorned & gothic with a rich scarlet rug from the entrance to to the altar. A young volunteer working as a tour guide took us all downstairs, through a lamplit hallway, into a court yard & finally under the roof of an old hall with many strange artefacts.

There were antique paintings & crystals harvested from local caves, including a large, glowing one Kept in a glass bottle, hanging from the ceiling. Mum, who had previously been so excited & enthusiastic about exploring this place began to grow restless, wary & deeply unsettled.

The tour guide was likewise anxious but likely more a result of having too many responsibilities and keeping track of too many people. She barely had the patience to answer my questions about the crystals.

Mum was getting a strange feeling in this place, hairs stood up at the back of her neck while she nervously eyed every corner. She occasionally gets this feeling in specific rooms of old stately homes or churches, rooms haunted by old spirits or places where great evil may have taken place in dark corners.

The Courtyard was lined with ancient Oaks & yews. There was something about the sprawling branches of the largest oak that was strange. You could stand at the other side of the courtyard & still reach for it's leaves. When I try to think of the texture & appearance of it's bark my mind turns blank, almost as if it was something the waking mind was not meant to comprehend. It was adorned with Faces hanging like baubles bound by ribbons.

Mum emerged from behind the trunk of the oak & beckoned me with shifting eyes, as if she was afraid of strangers listening. She seemed upset.

"I want you & your brother to remember I wasn't always like this."

I knew immediately what she meant. Anxious & afraid all the time. Unable to let go of things, driven to anger & bitterness to escape the fear of having to face change.

It was like this place had driven her to remember the nature of mortality, that she will not be on this earth forever.

"Momento Mori" i heard in a quiet gravelly voice. It came from no direction, as if it was in my head yet somehow I knew to look up at the tree. There I saw a face composed of leaf like shapes carved into the trunk above us. It's hollow eyes were locked on to mine for an uncomfortable amount of time.

Then I woke up.