shanvan014
08-29-2008, 02:16 PM
I lost myself in the depths of the newborn volcanic ash. It pressed against my eyelids, searing the skin above my cheeks, but I continued on. I swam downward as the last bits of breathable air wasted itself against the soles of my shoes. Something pulled at the cuffs of my jeans, but I kicked it away and maneuvered blindly. There were ashes for miles. They crowded my nostrils with their dead scent-pushing their collective body into my sinus cavity and down into my throat. I opened my mouth to gasp for a saving breath, but the orifice was instantly flooded with the unmerciful surge of residual flakes. A thousand tiny sparks ignited in my lungs and brain. Pins and needles overwhelmed my expiring flesh. I offered my outstretched body to the masses and they carried me into absolute blackness. My white knuckles loosened their grip on the last shreds of physical sentience. I floated further with increasing speed.
The discomfort diminished as my lifetime slowly disappeared inside the whirring volumes of rushing grains. Nothing more than a brittle white shell became of the form I had forever known. My thoughts echoed inside the corridors of my lifeless cavity as the ashes sailed past me at impossible velocities. Without notice, I abruptly met the cold skin of a concrete floor and shattered painlessly like glass against the surface. My body spilled in dusty, porcelain pieces and soiled the ground beneath it. But, while my structure had been destroyed, my mind remained a perfect glowing ball of awareness. I forced movement, and rolled away from my broken frame. The surface was damp and slimy against my amber sphere. Had I been able to laugh, I would have sent bellowing waves of delectation into the unending hallways around me. I immersed myself in puddles of unadulterated joy and gained power from the electric energy of a carefree psyche. No longer would I be inhibited by the gelatinous mass of my former life. No longer would I suffer feelings of pain or regret. I had become a perfect remnant of the self I'd always known.
I rolled against the concrete floor, bouncing at will, for what seemed like miles. But, soon, the waves of my happiness crashed against themselves with the violence of a brooding storm. I paused for a moment, and as soon as I stopped, I realized I was being pulled. I was being pulled with urgency toward a place I no longer wanted to go. There was no way to stop myself; the force pulled me with more necessity at each passing second.
I crashed against a wall of water. The liquid was too cold, and the currents tossed me about without concern. I rolled and swayed inside the stirring sea. The glowing of my golden sphere lost intensity with each unpleasant pass between waves. I emerged from the undertow and was born unto the burning sand. But the land was uneven and slanted back into the water. Weakened by the journey, I lulled against the nudges of breaking waves.
And then the tide came in, pulling me back into the undercurrent. The reverse motions happened at double speed as I was spat out onto a concrete floor. Wet and cold, I wheeled the length of the hallway until my body recuperated around me. I was thrust upward. Pushed toward an assumed sky. Faster and faster until barely moving. The pain returned as ashes evacuated the most infinitesimal recessions of my respiratory system. The pressure around my eyelids eased as I sprung into the air feet-first. I backed away from the opening I'd left, walking toe to heel toward an uncertain past. My hands swung by my sides, fro and to. But finally, I turned and a tear ran from your lip to the corner of your cinnamon eye. My own mouth formed incoherent backward phrases.
Everything stopped. Everything stopped for what could have been hours. Time, wind, the tides- everything paused. And there we stood, immaculate examples of Fate's perversity. The Universe swirled a vortex around our simple, aching forms as I watched from a distance unknown. I crashed back into my own head and opened my eyes. The unbelievable invigoration of a fresh breath overtook my chest and burned my nostrils. I looked on with curiosity at the ashes from your cigarette suspended beside you. I brushed my shoe against the rough surface of the walkway beneath us. And, as the weight of a choice diverted overwhelmed my human head, saltwater erupted around my grateful eyes. I sent a rolling series of uninhibited laughter soaring into the vacuum around us just before the hourglass overturned. With that, time marched on.
The discomfort diminished as my lifetime slowly disappeared inside the whirring volumes of rushing grains. Nothing more than a brittle white shell became of the form I had forever known. My thoughts echoed inside the corridors of my lifeless cavity as the ashes sailed past me at impossible velocities. Without notice, I abruptly met the cold skin of a concrete floor and shattered painlessly like glass against the surface. My body spilled in dusty, porcelain pieces and soiled the ground beneath it. But, while my structure had been destroyed, my mind remained a perfect glowing ball of awareness. I forced movement, and rolled away from my broken frame. The surface was damp and slimy against my amber sphere. Had I been able to laugh, I would have sent bellowing waves of delectation into the unending hallways around me. I immersed myself in puddles of unadulterated joy and gained power from the electric energy of a carefree psyche. No longer would I be inhibited by the gelatinous mass of my former life. No longer would I suffer feelings of pain or regret. I had become a perfect remnant of the self I'd always known.
I rolled against the concrete floor, bouncing at will, for what seemed like miles. But, soon, the waves of my happiness crashed against themselves with the violence of a brooding storm. I paused for a moment, and as soon as I stopped, I realized I was being pulled. I was being pulled with urgency toward a place I no longer wanted to go. There was no way to stop myself; the force pulled me with more necessity at each passing second.
I crashed against a wall of water. The liquid was too cold, and the currents tossed me about without concern. I rolled and swayed inside the stirring sea. The glowing of my golden sphere lost intensity with each unpleasant pass between waves. I emerged from the undertow and was born unto the burning sand. But the land was uneven and slanted back into the water. Weakened by the journey, I lulled against the nudges of breaking waves.
And then the tide came in, pulling me back into the undercurrent. The reverse motions happened at double speed as I was spat out onto a concrete floor. Wet and cold, I wheeled the length of the hallway until my body recuperated around me. I was thrust upward. Pushed toward an assumed sky. Faster and faster until barely moving. The pain returned as ashes evacuated the most infinitesimal recessions of my respiratory system. The pressure around my eyelids eased as I sprung into the air feet-first. I backed away from the opening I'd left, walking toe to heel toward an uncertain past. My hands swung by my sides, fro and to. But finally, I turned and a tear ran from your lip to the corner of your cinnamon eye. My own mouth formed incoherent backward phrases.
Everything stopped. Everything stopped for what could have been hours. Time, wind, the tides- everything paused. And there we stood, immaculate examples of Fate's perversity. The Universe swirled a vortex around our simple, aching forms as I watched from a distance unknown. I crashed back into my own head and opened my eyes. The unbelievable invigoration of a fresh breath overtook my chest and burned my nostrils. I looked on with curiosity at the ashes from your cigarette suspended beside you. I brushed my shoe against the rough surface of the walkway beneath us. And, as the weight of a choice diverted overwhelmed my human head, saltwater erupted around my grateful eyes. I sent a rolling series of uninhibited laughter soaring into the vacuum around us just before the hourglass overturned. With that, time marched on.