five minutes last an hour

origin

The sky was the sea.

When I opened my eyes, I did not realize how surreal a world I was in.

I did not know where I was, nor when I was. In the future on the planet Venus? In a parallel universe a hundred years ago? I thought endless answers, yet none sounded possible. But then again, although they were right in front of me, everything I looked at was scientifically impossible.

The surface of the sea was at the horizon, where it met the earth at the middle. Not a drop fell from above.

It was daytime, yet the moon was out, I noticed as I leaned my head back. On my right, it shone bright. The moon ten times bigger than from Earth, and it shone as bright as the sun would from where it was far, far away. There were no stars, but instead luminescent shrimp and small fish, very still in the sea above. They did not swim or jump or wiggle around; the only movement above was the gentle ripple of the waves and the twinkling of the makeshift stars and gigantic moon. It looked like the sky was a painting and the creatures were trapped in it, restricted from making the slightest movement, yet there was life in the vast artwork the creator of the sky painted.

I took a deep breath in and exhaled heavily. The air was sweet and fresh. There was plentiful oxygen in the world I was in.

I looked down at my clothes and saw that they were soaking wet. The attire I wore was comprised of numerous shades of red, yellow, and orange. This mix of warm hues made it look as though I was wearing a suit of fire. The fabric covering my feet were simple leather sandals. And of the same material as my footwear, I had a single armband with a metal buckle.

I scanned my surroundings and noticed that the ground was composed of dry rosey orange beach sand, rocks, and saltwater puddles. There were no buildings nor structures of any kind but instead hundreds of grayish-purple rocky mountains and hills.

I walked toward the biggest mountain, turning around to catch a glimpse of everything I passed. Everything looked the same: rocks, sand, and hills all colored with blue, indigo, purple, and hints of grey. There were no trees or vehicles of any sort, so it was hard to determine how far I had moved from where I found myself standing.

How I had even gotten to that place, I had not the slightest clue.

My feet left trails in the sand, so if I did get lost, all I had to do was retrace my steps.

The mountain had a ten-foot tall opening. So it was a cave, actually. Small droplets of water trickled from tips of icicle-shaped rocks at the ceiling of the cave.

I peered inside, careful not to step into the rather deep puddles. They were more like small ponds, actually. The path descended as I progressed through the torch-lit cave. The water became deeper and, sooner or later, I reached the dead end.

The cave ended at an area with an imperfect dome-shaped top and was submerged in murky water. The only way for me to keep dry was by hopping on clusters of bluish-purple rocky land.

Young children were huddled together on a small circular island with dark-colored gravel, and a teenage female sat cross-legged in the center of the ring. They were wearing similar garments as I.

I jumped from one island to another, causing the water below to ripple, until I stopped in front of an old-looking bookshelf made of thin wood painted a dull violet perched on a small chunk of land. Inside the shelves were worn books of different colors, layers and layers of cobwebs keeping them from falling out of the rocking bookcase. But there was one spot on the shelf free of dust, and only then did I realize that the lady was reading stories to the children, and she was holding a book in her hands.

This cave stretched deep into the darkness and seemed to be filled with nothing else as far as I could see. There were no more torches this far in, so I decided to turn back. But then I noticed a boy about my age on his knees with his head submerged into the water in the corner of my eye. He looked almost dead, his chest not rising nor falling, but I approached him anyways.

Before I could tap him on the shoulder, I heard a voice echoing off of the walls of the cave.

"When you are awake," it said, "you are asleep elsewhere."

I froze, assuming that the voice belonged to the boy, and as the thought clicked, as if on cue, his head shot out of the water and he pulled me towards him. In the split second I was able to see his face, I noticed that it was pale--so pale that it was almost blue. His face and hair were soaking, dripping with black. His eyes were wide and dark purple veins popped out from the sides of his sclera. He did look almost dead.

"You are not welcome here either," he said, and then he shoved me into the water, holding tight onto my neck.

I struggled to escape, unable to see anything in the dark water I was in. I began to choke on the water I realized only now was as thick as blood, and then it started to fill my lungs. And then he threw me into the darkness, sinking.

The moment I felt my body give away, I also felt more alive then I ever have been before.

The feeling of his fingers to my neck lingered, but he no longer had his hold on me. I was still underwater, it seemed, because I could hear water. I felt numerous small bodies touching me all at the same time. I didn't know what they were, but they felt oddly familiar.

I drifted to what felt to be the bottom of a ocean, yet there was no sand in this ocean floor. Although the rest of my body was submerged in the water, my arms seemed to be able to dangle freely. And they were dry.

Then I realized that that boy threw me into the water because that's where I belonged.

I opened my eyes, attempting to adjust to the sudden change of lighting. In my peripheral vision, I saw tiny glowing sea creatures--crustaceans and fish, mostly. In front of me, my arms extended out of the clear water, waving helplessly as I tried to escape to no avail. I am trapped

in the sky that is the sea.