[StLee]

I saw myself in a dream. Back to the past I zoomed in my dream to that moment on the mountain. I was still in the stream. I still slipped and slid my way down towards the cliff. I still saw the Shadow Man watching me. But then I stopped on the edge of that cliff. I don't know why, but water rushed past me as I stood up and walked out of the water to the dry rock near me. My family, standing on the plank bridge above me, was in exasperation, their mouths all agape in unison.

I walked out of that water, but that man was there. He came out of the shadows, too. He was not very old, and had a trimmed moustache and goatee, just like I have now. His eyes, his hair, everything about him looked familiar. I was standing on a mountain with my family in shock from my near-death experience, and this man whom I recognized but did not know walked up to me out of the shadows. The teenager me in that dream was not sure who the man was, but I most certainly knew him. He was me. Today as I appear. He was the me who walks in the wastes trying to make this world a better place. But this version of me was not the same. He congratulated me for surviving. He pointed at the cliff and told me how lucky I was. He led me to the cliff to look at the jagged rocks waiting below had I not escaped that rushing river.

Then he pushed me.