All Was Golden

T H R E E

Ryan was walking. He looked at his surroundings, but nothing seemed familiar. Shapes of trees and buildings were shadowy and smoke-like. The ground was gray, with no distinguishable features. When Ryan let out a breath of air, he could see swirls of white particles rise up out of sight.

Figures walked past him and alongside him. They looked human but, like his other surroundings, they were shadowy and smoke-like silhouettes. The only thing he could see about them were their eyes. A figure with bluish green eyes walked beside him. Hazels, blues and greens walked past. Each one looking him up and down before continuing on.

"Why do they keep doing that?" Ryan asked out loud.

The figure walking beside him didn't respond.

Ryan looked down at his outfit. He wore a patterned long sleeve shirt covered by a tan vest. The vest also had a black tie tucked underneath it. He could faintly remember wearing these clothes before; he could practically see the hazy image of himself looking in the mirror with the outfit on, but the memory wouldn't fully materialize.

He shifted his attention back to the endless, gray path ahead. The figures had grown scarce. Where there had been small groups, there were now only spaces out individuals. They didn't look at Ryan now. They kept their eyes down.

Ryan gulped. He wanted to stop his moving forward, but his legs seemed to be getting other orders. They continued on as fewer and fewer shadow figures passed.

"What's going on?" Ryan turned to the figure walking beside him. Its bluish green eyes stared back at him as they walked. "Why is this happening?"

The figure said nothing, it just continued to stare at Ryan before looking forward.

Ryan turned to look forward, but his eyes caught sight of something that made his heart stop. Brown eyes bore into his from a lone shadow figure. It approached quickly, never taking its eyes from Ryan.

Ryan tried to stop again. His heart pounded against his chest as he struggled to haul the movement of his legs. "Stop!" His voice came out as a panicked squeak as he continued to move towards the quickly advancing figure. "Help!" He turned to the figure that walked beside him. Its form had faded. It was just the faintest silhouette now with eyes that dripped red tears.

"Please!" Ryan begged, "I'm-"

Ryan was cut short by his tie suddenly tightening. He was pulled forward by the neck, gasping as he found himself eye to eye with the brown eyed figure. It held his tie in a tight fist, pulling it away from Ryan and holding a hand against Ryan's chest to make it tighten.

Ryan gasped, finding it harder and harder to get air into his lungs. Darkness crept along the edges of his vision as he looked into the eyes of the future before him.

The figure didn't even blink. Its eyes bore into Ryan, but there was absolutely no emotion or reasoning to be found.

Ryan shut his eyes. He couldn't stand to look at them anymore. He couldn't die looking at them. At the sound of ripping, however, his eyes shot back open.

The figure had a mouth. It shook as a rip appeared in its form beneath its eyes. As the rip grew, teeth began to be exposed. Dull teeth. Sharp teeth. The number continued to grow as the rip opened wider.

Ryan couldn't move. He could only watch in horror as the rip grew and the number of teeth multiplied. The sound rang in his ears like nails on a chalkboard. The creature in font of him consumed his vision as it continued to rip and show endless teeth.

Ryan lifted his head from his desk screaming.

He slapped a hand over his mouth as his chest rapidly rose up and down. Panic ran through his veins as his head darted from side to side, trying to figure out where he was.

He wasn't on a shadowy street. There were no figures around him. He was in his dark room.

Goldfish were scattered across his desk and on the floor, along with the cup of water that was soaking into his carpet.

His body shook. None of it had been real. He had just fallen asleep. He slowly pulled his hand down from his mouth. It shook violently until he pulled it against his chest.

Words escaped him. He didn't know what to do, or how to process what had just happened.

He felt frozen.

He stayed seated at his desk for what felt like hours before he finally rose to his feet. His legs were still shaky, but he managed to move across his room to his bed.

He reached out to place his hand on the blanket in front of him, but stopped. For a reason he couldn't explain, he turned to the corner that held the covered box. Nothing about it had changed since Ryan had left it there. He found himself turning his body towards it rather than the bed.

"You can't hurt me." Ryan hissed as he took a step forward. The shadowy figure with Brown eyes flashed in his mind, but he shook the image away. "You can't hurt me."

He dropped in front of the box. He reached out to the blanket, letting his fingers graze the material. It was cold to the touch, almost enough so for Ryan to pull his hand away... But he didn't. Instead, he gripped the material and ripped it away from what it covered.

The sight of the box sent an instant chill down Ryan's spine.

He gritted his teeth. "No!" Without thinking, he leaned forward and tore open the tabs that held the box closed. He held his breath as he looked inside. There was fabric. There were notebooks and scraps of paper. Near the top, there was a small, dark brown box. The wood of the box was polished with three small engravings etched into it.

Ryan hesitantly reached into the box and trailed his fingers over the engravings. "An eye... The sun... The moon..." He whispered to himself. He pulled his hand away and attempted to shake off the cold that spread up through his fingertips. "I don't remember you."

Ryan started to reach for other contents of the box, but stopped. His eyes looked back to the smaller box. He grabbed the cold wood and lifted it from its groove among the other possessions.

"When the moon found the sun..." He sang absently as he brought the box to his lap. He suddenly felt tired. He didn't want to deal with whatever mysteries waited within the box. "All was golden in the sky..."

A drop fell onto the box, just beside the eye engraving. Ryan reached up to his face, discovering tears on his cheeks. "Oh..." He pulled his hand away and shut his eyes.

Maybe he did remember the box.

Ryan shifted where he sat. He set the box on the ground before laying down beside it. He stared at the glossy finish, trying to remember while also trying to keep any more pain pushed back.