Waste Not, Want Not Chapter XIX

Paul was a bit excited as he went about the usual routine he had so far fallen into here at the ranch house. Here he was much slower, more relaxed than he would be in his normal work or living environment. He liked that, surprisingly.
But tonight he rode a thrill of silent exultation. He was certain he had found his cavern.
He was no spelunker and had done very little cave crawling. “Hell, I am even a bit claustrophobic.”
Paul had brought rope, rope ladders, powerful flashlights, goggles and chalk markers and a camera. He just wanted to get in and take a peek and get back out and go from there.
After his nightcap and a bit of reading Paul was ready to go to bed.
Quickly he was off to sleep. His sleep was again fitful and instead of rest he was filled with anxiety. Then he dreamed. In the dream he found himself in a torch lit room. Suddenly amidst the clouds of sooty smoke he saw a fantastic figure, standing taller than a man with huge, bulging, expressionless eyes, pupils pinned to small black spots. The figure was moving rhythmically to and fro in a kind of slow dance. As he focused on it he saw it wore an elaborate carved and jewel encrusted headdress . The impression was reptilian because of what seemed like scales but long multi colored plumes extended out and down the back like a tail.
The strange thing wore armor of turquoise, covered with its own carved shapes and designs. It also wore gold bands around the wrists and ankles and bone necklaces around its neck. It had large jade loops worn through the earlobes. It had a long jade splinter piercing through the septum of the nose. A gold ring hung from the lip on the lower right side of its mouth. It was breathing smoke and its large insect like eyes sometimes glowed in green and blue shades.
It was altogether an extremely frightening sight. In one hand it held a large jade knife. In the other hand it held a beating human heart. The creature took the heart and held it high and Paul saw it was beating as a torrent of blood, far in excess of what you would expect, poured from the heart. The blood seemed to flood the scene until Paul could see nothing but blood. It all seemed to be happening in some kind of vivid, fluorescent 3D. Then the heart was hurled into an abyss of darkness and the scene faded away. Paul was not awakened but the dream had a terrifying effect and it lingered long after Paul got up that next morning.
“Whew! What a dream!”
Paul was a confident and secure person. He did not rattle easily. He took stock of his experiences as he had his breakfast.
“There is definitely something strange about this place,” he thought. “I am not just imagining all this.” Paul was slightly concerned since he had not experienced nightmares or any unusually strange dreams in years until he came here. But he had known people what had put too much stock in dreams and what they thought they might mean or portend. He had seen them become ill with worry and dread. Paul did not think dreams held any great powers of prophecy. It was usually easy for him to shrug them off. This time it was different. He had a feeling he was still waiting for the last shoe to drop, so to speak.