Grains of bustling sand spill over near the shore. Rocks embedded deep into the earth line the surface, lifelessly enduring the water's crushing vice. The inhaling and exhaling of maritime waves numb one's sense of time. What was once rock disintegrates into more sand. The walls crumble in a pathetic blaze of dust. Hundreds of winking suns, like white polka dots upon red fabric, smile down. A thin layer of glass clusters beneath my feet. I hold my breath.
In the distance I spy a man in his fifties trudging towards me. His bald spots had conquered a hefty portion of his forehead, leaving a peninsula of wispy threads inching down the length of it. A golden smile shines beneath his clouded features, and from his jet black pants to his royal blue tuxedo, he exuded desire. Primitive yet never satiated. Satan incarnate. Ruler of this world. He is irrelevant to me now though. All I know is that, and I tell myself so indefinitely. So that he would bow to me half-heartedly and leave, trudging into the watery, reddening depths and bringing his noxious cologne with him. I blink, and the silence that followed, decorated with salty whispers, spurred my shallow breathing, as in his wake emerged an emaciated pregnant woman.
Bones. Just bones. I could feel the glass crack beneath my feet. A skeleton would only give birth to a skeleton. And I would have to bury the remains. I approached the woman, the world cracking beneath me as my footsteps heated sand and trampled glass. A current of blood swept beneath the transparent ground, and the outline of shattering fragments melted into an oozing red, quickening my pace. I reached forward, an altruistic stranger. Reached. Her hand never met mine, yet I held something all the same. And since I held something, I kept it, holding it tight. A strange companionship.
The white polka dots above turned away, making the sky and coagulated sea wilt from red to purple to a bruised black. And then the glass gave way beneath me, turning our world upside down. I clutched my pile of bones, careful not to break them. We were sent flying beneath the sand, tumbling and struggling against the living current. It continued. Until of course it all stopped and all was calm and dark and still but the drip dripping of our wet bodies.
A pillar of light shone down from an unknown source up above, separating us from the murk. I could feel the shadows equipping pitchforks and knives as they shooed us closer to the center of our haven.
And then, like clockwork a hand descended from above, the center of its palm blinding us. I could barely see the intricate patterns of its gears as its massive fingers grazed the solid floor. It closed around us with an agonizing vice. Crushed us until we dripped from our own blood as well.
++
I woke up screaming.
