Dreamscapes: The Possession of the Unicorn

What to do when the demon enters our ride

My room is a disaster: clothes on the floor, books on the bed — it looks like it will take hours to clean it all up. Every time I’ve ever tried to magic a mess away, it’s never worked, but I decide to try it anyway. I wave my hand, and I can feel the energy flowing through me. Suddenly, objects begin to lift all over the room and my eyes grow wide with excitement as I watch everything gradually being put back in its place. I yell to my brothers, “Come in here, it finally worked!” They roll their eyes as they walk over but their jaws drop when they see that the room has indeed been cleaned in a matter of seconds.

Now that my room is immaculate, I move onto the next important task. I am determined to find and befriend a unicorn. Out the window, I see one zoom by impossibly fast in the yard. I tell my mother I have to go get the unicorn, but she tells me I have to go to bed. I decide to play along, but when everyone else is asleep, I sneak out and begin to fly around, searching for my unicorn.

A large field appears before me, and at the edge of it are four men. As I fly over them, I see that three of them are in a circle, and they seem to be casting a spell. The remaining man is off to the side, hunched over. Suddenly, a bolt of white races under and past me, and I turn and follow it with my eyes. A beautiful white horse is galloping across the field, and I hope against hope that it is really a unicorn. As if on cue, a horn sprouts from the top of its head. My joy is palpable as I zoom over and land on its back. I’ve finally found it. My unicorn.

We trot along through an outdoor restaurant, and the four men I saw on the field have joined me. We start to chat, and I casually ask them what kind of magic they were performing on the field. One of them looks at me and says pointedly, “An exorcism.” Gears start turning in my head as I look over to the man that had been off to the side on the field. He appears to be fine. “So when you banish the spirit from one being,” I begin, growing more worried by the second, “it…it jumps to someone else?” The men nod, and they do not seem as perturbed as I do. “Did it go into this unicorn?” I ask, now downright frightened as I glance down at the gentle beast under my legs. The men nod again, and they seem to be almost smiling at this point. I feel a mix of rage and terror swelling inside me. Before I can hurl a storm of words at them, they have gone, and I am left, filled with dread, atop a creature possessed by a dark spirit that could reveal itself at any moment. For now, though, we seem fine, and we start to trot away.

Suddenly, the unicorn turns black. The spirit must be taking hold! It is galloping now at an incredible speed, and I can do nothing but hang on for dear life. I have no idea what this spirit is capable of. Does it want to kill me? Does it want to take me somewhere terrible? I can barely think as we race past buildings and forests, faster than the wind, headed toward some unknown destination.

The next thing I know, we are in a stable. I am sitting on the ground, my back against the wall, staring at the unicorn, who sits across from me in the hay, curled up with my white cat, The Bubz. The stark juxtaposition of their colors is not lost on me as I watch them nuzzle each other, but I am still scared of what the unicorn might do to my cat. My mother is in the stable as well, and she is urging me to perform an exorcism on the unicorn. I am not sure if I can do it on my own, and I know that even if I try, it will be very dangerous. I finally work up the nerve, and I wave my hand at the unicorn as I begin to speak the spell in Latin. The unicorn’s face turns wild and frightened and I feel that it is working, but I suddenly stop. I realize that the spirit will never truly leave, it will just keep jumping to the next warm body. That could be me, or my mother, or even The Bubz.

I wrestle with this decision in my mind, and after a few moments, I decide to do something that may prove to be futile, but it is my only hope. I decide to attempt to commune with the spirit. “Someone must have hurt you really badly to make you want to hurt others,” I say. “But it’s not your fault. You don’t have to cause others pain. I am not here to hurt you. I am here to love you.”