My eyes flutter open, allowing the sunlight to blind me with its brightness. I gasp for air as I remember the horrible nightmare that I had just endured seconds before, the memories seeping back into my mind slowly and painfully. The experience replays in my mind repeatedly as if I am reliving it once again. The fingers that are mine appear to be normal, but everything that makes contact with them deteriorates and eventually disappears. My touch wreaks havoc, causing destruction all around. It spreads too rapidly, and there is nothing that anyone can do. Why is this happening? The damage continues until there is nothing. There are no people, no buildings, no Earth. All that is left is me, floating in blank space, defying all logic.
With the moment of pure vacancy, I take the opportunity to reflect. Throughout my entire life, I always asked questions like 'Why?' and 'How?', but now I realize that maybe those were the wrong questions to ask. Sometimes it is not better to completely understand events that occur but to instead just accept them. Although it would not provide any closure, it would make life easier and less complicated. However, life was not one of the concepts that I should be thinking about in my current circumstances. Something snaps me out of the day dream of remembrance.
My eyes widen as I actually pay attention to my real surroundings. The world is just so colorful with the bright hues of a variety of shades. Creatures that I thought were only fiction are not a fantasy at all, for they are very much alive. Am I going crazy? There is no sign of anything that sparks a feeling of recognition in me, and the creatures act as if I do not even exist. However, as I investigate more into the world I am now in, I find myself noticing that people from my childhood storybooks and fairytales inhabit this place.
"Characters," I whisper. Suddenly each person fixes their gaze on me. Terrified and confused, my breath escapes me, and I am hyperventilating unconsciously. Not wanting to reciprocate the gaze, I stare everywhere except for them. Looking at the sky, I notice that there are faint words written in its depths. It is quite hard to read while the word is being written backwards, but I begin to read the words aloud, "And then she... real? Oh! Realized... that she was...trapped?" The words settle into my bones and sheer panic overwhelms me. A slight ringing sound begins to fill my ears.
Eyes opening wide, I sit up from my bed and throw the sheets to the side. My heart is beating quickly, and I fear that it might burst. Beside me, my writer's notebook is opened up to the page at which I left off at last night. The only words on the page so far were 'And then she realized that she was trapped.' Fearing the worst, my hands tremble as they erase the words. At least I know that it is all over and done with... Or so I think.
