Pickman’s Student: part 2

Selected extracts from the Personal Diary of Adrian Stimson

Wednesday 27^th August 2008: I settled down in the basement tonight and began the ritual of Dream of Revelation. Such revelatory visions can sometimes be confusing or at least so complex as to require contemplation to interpret, however what I saw on this occasion was fairly straightforward. I dreamt of Nelson’s apartment on Monday night. I saw Nelson take some dream dust and settle down on his couch with the unfinished painting on the easel above him. He seemed to be chanting something unintelligible. Within moments I saw him appear inside the painting. He hopped across the rocks and past the various statues and ruins until he reached the waterline at which point he jumped into the water. This was all I saw.

Thursday 28^th August 2008: First thing in the morning I called Detective Alex Douglas and arranged to meet him at Waterloo station before heading to the hospital to see Nelson. I told Detective Douglas that I had more information for him regarding Nelson, but I was not sure what to tell him or how to explain things. When I arrived at Waterloo I went to Starbucks as arranged with Det. Douglas and found that he had brought a colleague with him, one Dr. Belinda Durham, an archaeologist apparently specialising in ancient British history. With some trepidation I began to try to explain how I learnt of what had befallen Nelson.

As I tried to describe my dream experiences without appearing to be crazy it became apparent that both Det. Douglas and Dr. Durham were familiar with the concept of controlled dreaming. This came as a great relief and I was able to describe what I had seen without beating about the bush! After I had described the vision we decided that it would be worthwhile paying another visit to Nelson’s flat.

At the flat we met Hilda Tadley, Nelson’s cleaner, and questioned her again to clarify the circumstances under which Nelson had been found. I showed Alex and Belinda Nelson’s latest unfinished work which was on the easel overlooking the couch where it had been during Nelson’s dream experience. We discussed my vision again and I explained to them how the Dream of Revelation spell works. I told them about ‘Eibon Saith on Dreams” and that I had lent it to Nelson. We also spoke about the Liber Ivonis, which Alex and Belinda had heard of, and how it influenced ‘Eibon Saith’.

After examining the flat again Alex contacted the Thames Valley police and acquired some letters which they had taken from the flat. The letters seemed to suggest that Nelson had spent a lot of time studying in Dreamlands and that he had contact with Pickman! Is it possible that Pickman disappeared into Dreamlands and still resides there? If true this might explain a lot about how Nelson’s artistic talent has flourished so rapidly.

Alex, Belinda and I came to the conclusion that we would need to dig a lot deeper in order to solve Nelson’s situation. We decided to use the flat as a base of operations and Alex and Belinda said that they would call in some colleagues to help with the investigation. I told them that I was going to the hospital to check on Nelson and to try to speak to Dr. Jamieson. At this point Alex said that Dr. Jamieson was also a colleague of his and that she would be helping us with the investigation. This explains why I immediately felt that Dr. Jamieson had an understanding of what was happening to Nelson – it seems that she is also no stranger to supernatural occurrences!

I returned to the Royal Berkshire to see Nelson in the afternoon. He was in an awful state – definitely worse than before and suffering horrendous physical trauma too horrible to describe. The brain activity monitors apparently indicate that he is in a coma, but there are clear indications that he is in a state of enhanced dreaming. Something is happening in the Dreamlands which is causing his current physical condition, but what could it be? If we are to have any chance of saving him we must find out, but I fear greatly what we might discover the deeper we search. Penny is in complete denial, convincing herself that he is getting better and will be out of hospital soon. I think the horror of Nelson’s plight has become too much for her.

In the evening I returned to Nelson’s flat where Alex and Belinda had been joined by Adam Walters whom I had met when he and Alex visited the gallery on Tuesday. I was also introduced to another of Alex’s colleagues, one St. John Cartwright-Fiennes who is an ex-schoolmate of Nelson’s. It seems that Alex is a Special Branch detective and I get the impression that he has put together this investigative team to solve paranormal/supernatural situations. With the help of this group I am now more hopeful that we can save Nelson. After a late night shopping trip for some basic supplies we succeeded in transforming Nelson’s flat into a temporary HQ and all settled down to sleep.

I lay down on the couch to sleep, Nelson’s latest work perched on the easel overlooking me. The night was warm and the flat rather stuffy until St. John opened a window and a breeze from the river freshened the air somewhat. However, there was still the smell from the couch – the odour of the sea and the stench of ancient mudflats recently disturbed.

I soon drifted off to sleep and almost immediately it seemed I was on a rocky shore where fingers of rock stretched out into a shallow sea and there was ruined statuary and architecture all about. The place was instantly familiar though I was sure I had never been there before. It took but a moment to realise that I was in Nelson’s picture! Obviously I was dreaming and had dreamt myself here without the aid of any substances of rituals – if this is a result of the proximity of the painting alone then Nelson really is some artist!

The statuary thereabout was a curious mixture of wildly different styles. Beside me was a headless medieval angel next to a fallen torso of apparently Egyptian origin. Before me was a pillar that was unmistakeably Indian. The breeze carried the smell of the sea, salt spray and mudflats, but there was a mist hanging over the sea. Glimpsed through the mist the water appeared dark and forbidding. Many leagues distant the far shore was marked with mountains; the sky was grey and overcast, but lighter towards the horizon. The atmosphere was oppressive and I had the feeling of being watched, like someone (or something) was waiting for something to happen.

Realising that I was in the painting, I decided to investigate where I had seen Nelson enter the water in my Dream of Revelation. Making my way across the rocks to the water’s edge I found I could see through the mist to the water reasonably clearly at close range. The water was unusually still for the sea and there was an oily film on the surface. It was very hard to see anything beneath the surface due to the oily film, the poor light and the light reflecting on the surface. I could see some rough-hewn steps leading down to the water where Nelson had entered it and I thought I could make out what looked like seaweed beneath the surface, but I could not be sure.

Straightening up from examining the water I could see a vast 'wood' stretching to within a hundred yards of the shore, invisible in Nelson's picture due to being 'behind' the viewer. It was a forest of great fungi lit up with eldritch lights: blues, greens and violets, all from glowing fungi. Some of these were growing as large as redwoods in the Waking World.

I decided to have a closer look at the wood and as I advanced towards it two impressions overwhelmed me: a) the smell; an overpowering stench of rot and b) the overlapping canopies of mushrooms made it very dark within the wood indeed - phosphorescence was the main source of light. Though it was not exactly sunlit outside, it was bright enough that the darkness within the forest was largely impenetrable to my eyes.

Common sense told me that to investigate either the sea or the wood too closely would be to invite a mishap so I turned my attention to the various stonework in an attempt to find any clues to the nature of this place. The strange mixture of styles seemed not to offer any inscriptions that I could make out, but there were some bas-reliefs in evidence. The pillar of Indian origin had the best preserved examples, displaying a series of scenes.

In one, a bunch of demons were gathered around what looked like a goldfish bowl, each offering something: a heart, a head, other unrecognisable things. I could not make out what was in the bowl. In another, a typical Hindu god with three heads and four hands appeared to be at the bottom of the sea from the stylised fish floating past. There were still traces indicating it was painted blue at one time, again typically Hindu. He was smiling with one of his hands raised in a strange sign that would probably mean something to a practising Hindu, a blessing of some sort.

A third scene showed the same god escorted by half a dozen mermen (that is with fish-heads and flippers for feet), but evidently on land. The mermen were evidently paying homage and two were playing wind instruments, flutes perhaps? The last scene showed a different Hindu god, what seemed to be Ganesha, surrounded by water with his head turned to the sky. But then I noticed that Ganesha had more than one trunk on his elephant's head, about half-a-dozen, perhaps? Surely that couldn't be right?

The longer I spent in this place the less I liked it and the more disturbing I found it. I decided to examine some of the ruins in case any of them had an interior, but the only ones which seemed even vaguely intact were offshore. There was something which resembled a medieval castle away in the distance and closer to shore was a tower, possibly a church bell tower? To reach this would have involved a short swim or a risky jump from a rocky promontory. I did not wish to risk winding up in the water since I was alone with no hope of rescue should I fall into difficulties. After all, the last time that Nelson was seen he was disappearing beneath the water and I know what befell him!

Taking a final look around, I caught sight of a single rough-hewn stone about half way to the 'forest'. The marks and stains on the top seemed to indicate an altar. There was no inscription but the carvings around the sides depicted desert scenes, a fierce lion-headed man wielding a mace (whom I thought must be a god) and a lot of what looked like dead bodies.

I decided that I had seen quite enough of this dreary and unsettling landscape and so I forced myself awake. Opening my eyes I looked up from the couch to see the painting over me, the cover blown off and the now familiar scene laid bare for all to see. A shiver ran down my spine as I looked upon it again – it seemed all the more disturbing for having actually visited it! I found some sticky tape and secured the cover so that I would not have to see it again as I began to document my experience in this journal.