Monday, 25th of June

So, what about what about the thing which raises itself up from below? The beast which, in my Surrey Quays dreams, smashes apart the tarmac seemingly determined to destroy us all? In that particular dream I’m stood outside the shopping centre, feeling a terrifying sense of dread that seems shared by everyone around me. Then, suddenly, the world shakes and the pavement bursts to reveal something. What it is I don’t know, but I’m sure I have seen it in my night visions and think that it was so terrible that my mind has just blocked it out.
We have all had variations of this dream, we’ve all experienced the dread of this primal force rising up from below our feet – from the very core of the earth – to devour every one of us.

But what does it mean? The vision that’s most persuasive suggests something will drop from the sky and unleash a virus likely to destroy us all. So what is this terrible thing from below? How does that fit in? Sometimes, now we’re all together (and the power of these dreams seems a hundredfold more intense, now we are altogether), we all get the sense that something is watching us. Others think that we are monitored by forces (government or other) somehow, but I occasionally have the thought that it’s the thing below looking up and wondering how we’re coming along.

Tuesday, 29th of May

In my dream last night I was stood outside the Surrey Quays shopping centre knowing that something awful was going to emerge from below. Of course I’ve had this dream so many times, I’m aware what’s going to happen before there’s a single tremor or hint of disturbance. But last night was different, the fear and intensity of the vision was so incredible that it was impossible to believe for even the fraction of a second that all would be well. The dread seemed to transmit itself onto the faces of all the passers-by. Every one of them looked absolutely terrified, as if they knew without a doubt that the steps they were taking right then were the last ones they’d ever take.
I woke with a yell of fear, covered in sweat. Julie was beside me, crying in her sleep.

Sunday, 13th of May

And so I’ve had a lot to think about this week, a great deal to contemplate. I’ve been in contact with Dexter Phillips on a daily basis. Each morning I call him and tell him what I dreamt the night-before, then we compare notes. It’s interesting as when I have the dream of me stood on my street knowing something is going to strike from above, he has a dream where he’s outside his house with exactly the same feelings of anxiety. When I dream I’m in the Surrey Quays shopping centre with a monster rising from below, he is also dreaming of a subterranean doom coming for us all. I also speak to Denise, and it’s uncanny how closely the three of us dream.
Julie is fascinated by it. We stay up late and talk about in bed, and I tell her my dreams and Dexter’s dreams and Denise’s dreams and we try to interpret it all. She hasn’t seen the things inside my head, so as an outsider may spot some sign or hint I’ve missed. I’m glad I have her. She no longer looks at me as if I’m weird, instead she hangs on what I tell her and is there to offer help.

She’s a godsend. There are even moments when I think I’m in love with her.

Tuesday, 10th of April

Last night I had the dream where I was stood on my street. It’s a cold day (is the temperature something I’ve only started noticing in these dreams, or was it there before? We are heading into summer in the UK – or what passes as summer – so is the temperature in anyway significant?) and I feel the wind licking my skin. Before I can remember being naked in this dream – but now I look down and see I am in shorts and T-shirt. I'm almost dressed for a run.

This dream has burnt through my mind so many times now, that I know exactly which part of the sky the fireball will trail across. I am forearmed and ready. Slowly at first but rapidly picking up speed, I start to run to where that fireball should land. The streets are eerily quiet – I am the only person anywhere on the streets of South London, and running with a wild sense of purpose makes me seem doubly out of place.

I run fast, scarper, getting to the main road in Surrey Quays and pointing myself in the direction of The City. The Gherkin is ahead. But no matter how fast I go, I am not fast enough. Suddenly the sky is ripped apart by that familiar red streak – I see it nearer than it’s ever been before – then there’s a boom and everything vanishes around me.

14th January, 2012

The Surrey Quays dream again last night.
Once more I’m stood outside the shopping centre, and again there’s the woman with the baby. It’s a curious thing that even though I seem destined to endure these dreams endlessly, I always seem badly prepared for what’s about to happen. Every time the shock of the moment is so acute. Last night though, I seemed to know – I was aware that the earth was going to be ripped up from below my feet. But, rather than panic, I took the time to really see what was in front of me.

The woman with the baby is truly lovely. She has auburn hair, pale slightly freckled skin and delicately carved cheekbones. Hers is a gorgeous face, a wonderful face. She has green eyes which sparkle at me even though there has to be fifteen or twenty feet between us.

When her face is calm, it’s so lovely, like an angel from some renaissance painting.  But suddenly her placidness is lost, her features are contorted with a level of fear she’s obviously never known before. The baby gets clutched even closer to her, possibly too close, and they both scream.

For some reason I feel slightly distant from it, even though the ground is moving underneath my feet as well. It feels – for want of a better description –just like a dream. Except, there’s something quite un-dreamlike about it – the most incredible smell.(Can one smell in dreams? Does that happen?) There’s a dreadful stench – putrid and rotting, overwhelming everything else. I realise it’s coming from beneath the ground, that it’s rising up from the cracks which now exist in the asphalt. What is it? What the fuck is it? For a moment it seems as if it’s the literal smell of death. As if everything which has ever died is now rising its way up and coming back to us.

The lady with the baby, the beautiful lady with the baby, looks so terrified. I want to dash over there and be with her. But the ground between us is suddenly forced apart.