The very instant she closed her eyes, Myranda found herself transported to the blackened field that had poisoned her sleep the night before. Fear and desperation filled her as she searched for some remnant of the light she had remembered. In the distance, a handful of faint, flickering lights seemed to beckon to her. She ran toward them--but, one by one, the shining embers flickered out.
The ground became uneven and she stumbled, feeling the cold, dead grass crunch beneath her palms. Unwilling to waste even the time to stand, Myranda crawled toward the lights. There was a feeling within her that if she looked away for even a moment, the last piece of light would be lost to her forever. A sudden coldness beneath her hand startled her, and she reflexively closed her fingers around it. Whatever it was that she had found, it was firmly planted in the frigid earth. She wanted to move forward, but at the same time, she could not bring herself to let go of the freezing object she'd found. She pulled and strained, finally looking to the artifact she had stumbled upon.
Even as she could feel the speck of golden light in the distance flit away forever, she saw the item she'd found replace it. It was a lantern, and the second her eyes met the wick, it fizzled to life. In the oppressive blackness, the dim flame seemed blinding. When her eyes painfully adjusted, she rubbed them to find that the world she was accustomed to had returned. The light she blinked at was the handful of rays that made it through the heavy curtains. The dream was over.