My eyes closed and opened once again to find myself sitting in the same place as I had been what seemed like an eternity ago when I had gone from the world. Upon looking farther, I noticed the strange fog had gone and the moon now shone brightly in the night sky. Dawn was about to pierce through the darkness. I remembered the night's events a dazed, dream-like state of mind. A disheartened thought then entered my fancy. Surely I had slept the entire evening to ruin. What my mind had conjured had been a dream and nothing more. I would have to wait another year to learn of the figure that yearly honored my cousin.
As I began to rise, something fell to the ground. I looked down and saw a small piece of parchment that had perched itself on my person. After a few moments of silent contemplation, I knelt down and snatched the object and brought it forth to my eyes. Inscribed on it was a quill-written sentence that read thus: 'All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.'
It became apparent to me at that moment that the things I had seen and heard that evening were real. It was not a product of my imagination, but had came to pass. I had ventured to a world that most would not dare to enter and received a warning from my cousin. I was cursed, doomed to ignorance of my own fame.
Years have passed since my first interview within the realm of the dead. My cousin Edgar's prophecies have all proven to be true thus far. The urge if the pen is even stronger in me than before and likewise the refusal to accept my books grew as well. I remain at the University of Virginia and shall likely be there until the darkness of death engulfs me into the abyss of my family's curse.
Then, I know I shall be greeted by a familiar voice. Once a year, we shall walk the mortal world on the anniversary of our birth. Together, we will put a blood red rose upon the tomb of our bodies and toast. For we toast not fame, but the pen,the mystical and haunting object that has been our blessing and, likely, our curse.
"All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream."
Edgar Allan Poe
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