Animus

“I saw my death in my dreams. Many times.” 

It’s quiet here. The gentle breeze blows over the tip of my nose, tickling my nostrils. My body is suspended in a bed of crystal clear, blue water. It sloshes into my ears, intermittently muting my hearing as I gaze up into the cloudy sky.

Rain. Rain trickles down the blotched sky inking my face with transparent droplets. The sun now shies away from me and hides behind the clouds.

Alone. I realize I am alone in this large body of water, but I don’t panic. Instead, I close my eyes and let the water take me where it needs to go. 

Something sounding like a cork being unscrewed is heard throughout the large body of water. I can hear it rippling towards me, like a tidal wave of sound.

I can feel myself descending down the water, like someone pulled the plug in a bathtub. It’s strange; my clothes remained dry, even though I was completely submerged in water. 

I landed on my back after the decent. When the water completely drained it felt cold, like the icy kiss of a winter storm. I placed on hand on the ground and carefully stood up. It was ice. I looked a bit closer to realize there was nothing underneath ice layer, only the endless abyss below me.

I felt a warm ray of heat and realized that the sun had appeared once again.

Suddenly, a winged beast appeared from the sky and landed on the ice. Its figure was shrouded by the rays of the sun silhouetting its appearance. It held a scythe as its wings fluttered as it stood up tall to face me. I could make out its mouth, but the identity of the beast remained a mystery.

The beast’s lips moved, uttering something to me in a hidden dialect I wasn’t familiar with. I couldn’t respond.

It didn’t seem to like that.

With a powerful stomp, the beast shook the fragile barrier between the abyss and me. It nearly knocked me off my feet. I looked to the ice; it had splintered and cracked where the beast’s feet was. The ice wouldn’t hold up with another stomp like that.

The beast stomped again while simultaneously raising its wings. The ice shattered sending pieces and shards into the air while larger chunks were taken by gravity in the blackness of the abyss.

And me along with them.