Nightmare

I find myself sitting in a pitch black room. Whatever I'm sitting on is hard and cold like furnished wood. The air around me is warm and stuffy. I reach my arms out in front of me and touch something else cold had hard. I reach my arms out to my sides feeling some kind of fabric. "Where am I?" I think to myself. Just then I am blinded by an intense, white light.

     I throw my hands up over my eyes to shield them, but the light begins to dim. I can see now. I can see everything around me. I am in a large room. The cold hard thing I am sitting on is a church pew. There are at least twenty rows of them, from the front of the church to the back. And that is only on my side, the other side of the isle has twenty more rows of pews. The fabric I felt was the suits worn by the people sitting around me. There are dozens of people, all dressed in suits and dresses. I look up to the front of the church where the pulpit is and see several more well-dressed people. There are five men and three women. The women are all wearing matching green dresses and all stand in a row on the left side of the pulpit. On the right side of the pulpit stand four out of the five men, all wearing tuxes. The fifth man stands behind the pulpit and wears the garb of a reverend.

     I begin to recognize some of the people. In the crowd, I see both my sisters and parents. I also spot Jessica, Katie and Wyatt. Not to far from where I am sitting is their cousin Jill. I see some of my relatives like my aunts and uncles that I haven't seen in years. I look across the isle and see a mass of people I don't recognize. The only faces I can pick out over there are a few work associates and one of my bosses. Everyone else over there are people I have never seen before.

     I look up at the pulpit again and notice that I recognize many faces up there, too. The man furthest to the right is my old friend Caja. Moving further left, I see his brother Joe. One place to the left of him is Landon. I don't recognize two of the women on the left, but the third I knew as Emma - another work associate. I then look at the man standing closest to the reverend and what I see shocks me. Standing before me is none other than myself. This event is my wedding.

     Just then the doors at the back of the church swing open and the organ begins to play. A woman dressed in all black - oddly enough - makes her way down the isle. Her identity is concealed behind a dark veil. She walks up to the reverend and faces me - the fine dressed me - across the alter. Her veil is lifted and to my horror, the face belongs to Ashlee.

     I stand up quickly from my seat and shout, "No! Don't do this! You hate her! You are making a huge mistake!" But I can't hear me. No one can hear me. I just stand at the alter with a stupid grin on my face. I keep yelling, but to no avail. I see Ashlee's lips moving and then mine. I can't hear what we are saying due to my shouting at myself, but I know they are wedding vows. "Stop!" I keep yelling, "Stop! Stop! Stop! This is a huge mistake!" Still no one can hear me. I rush towards the pulpit where the groom version of me is about to kiss Ashlee. "No!" I continue to shout, but I am too late. We kiss. There is applause. The organ begins playing again. I wake up. . .