Masked Figures

Shortly after joking about mosquito bites, I got a severe case of dengue and had to spend four nights in hospital. This is like the time when I made a flippant remark about a minor earthquake and, two days later, experienced one of the most powerful earthquakes in recorded history.

On my second day at the hospital, I had... I'm not sure what to call it – a daydream? vision? hallucination? I was lying in bed hooked up to an IV drip, a bit drowsy – not asleep, but perhaps not fully awake either – when I saw two figures at the foot of my bed. They wore expressionless white masks which covered their whole face, and red robes like the Red Rebel Brigade.

The vision(?) lasted just seconds, and felt different from a dream, in that I could see the rest of the room just as it was in real life, but with these two figures quietly looking over me. Their aura was not exactly evil, but not quite benign either. Enigmatic, like Kaonashi in Spirited Away.

Anyway when I saw them, I had a feeling that I would die that day (specifically from organ failure). I had a friend who died of complications from dengue, so maybe that was on my mind. Interestingly, it didn't make me anxious or panicky – though I did think about my family, and how they would feel if I died before they could see me.

Why was I not scared? I think one reason is that I don't set much store by premonitions. I have hunches and presentiments from time to time, both good and bad. Some come true, and some don't. A second reason is that the masked figures felt, if anything, like a calming presence.

I wonder if I will see them again.