dreaming in sequence

the tsunami

The world ended on a Tuesday as I lay supine under my lilac duvet, eyes closed but burning with saltwater.

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I am in a place that feels like Ireland, where the base of a cliff cradles a shallow pool of water, with stepping stones leading into the sea. These stones are slick with lush green moss that my feet slide over and I graze my legs until I bleed, but can't feel. The sun beats against the back of my neck as I lead a group of some seventeen people towards the Gate. They are a group of adults and children, all with their faces turned towards the horizon. I do not see their eyes, and their voices do not speak words but hushed, guttural sounds. They stare ahead at the blue sun meeting a red sea. A little girl tugs on the hem of my shirt, afraid.

Deep water has terrified me ever since I was a child, but I am aware that these people need me to know the way. So we tread carefully from mossy stone to stone, eyes averted from the glassy yet unfathomable depths beneath us, where creatures I don't recognise lurk. The water begins to reach our calves and the children's waists. It feels suffocating, the water stifling our movement like a serpent; winding, winding. There is a cave buried in the wall of the cliff underwater. It is not home.

As we move in closer, a scream behind me stiffens my body. A chill lifts the hairs on the back of my neck. I look ahead at the stretch of sea before us and gasp, noticing how the sky has quickly darkened and the water around our legs has retreated with great speed, allowing the wind to caress us for the last time. Glancing for a final time at the group I have carried so far, I see how the sea collects itself, gathering, gathering, until it grows into a tower before us. The sea rises like the peak of a mountain overhead until we are in the shadow of it, staring at the unkind creatures captured within its glass stomach. Seaweed to restrain. Teeth and tongues to swallow.

The wave begins to surge downwards and I feel my lungs take a final breath as the water embraces me, splitting me.
A pale blue sun glints in the distance mockingly, cobalt and cold.
The ether.