GREDGZA

Everything was black and quiet. For a while, I thought I was dead, until a static ringing, piercing through my subconsciousness woke me up. Then, HAZE. My eyesight -it's blurry. I can't make sense of anything around me except the lights; round balls of bright light, illuminating the roof of whatever this place is. It lasts for a while, then DARK, my eyelids shut against my eyes. I blink in what felt like a thousand times in an attempt to ward off the blurriness, I open my eyes, it's still bright and they hurt now but it's clearer than before. I want to get up, but I can't. I feel bound to what l'm sitting on. I look to my right and a man sits there looking at me. I try to talk but nothing seems to come out. I want to speak, but I can't. He just sat there looking at me while I struggled. I look back to my front and I see a person walking down the aisle of this thing. They were collecting little pieces of paper from each seat.

“Am I on a bus” I ask myself, without noticing that I just said it out loud.

“You’re on a train,” a voice to my left speaks, it was the man. The man that watched me struggle. I look back at him in anger,

“Why am I on a train?”

“what am I doing here?” I begin to panic, but it doesn’t help. I still feel bound to this sit, I try to get up but still can’t. I look at myself to check what’s holding me back but nothing was. I return my gaze back at him.

“Where is it going to - I mean - where are we going?”

“We?” He replied, looking at me like I’m delusional.

“I’m going to Gredgza, as for you, I don’t know.”

“What is Gredgza?” I ask him, looking delusional.

“Where I’m going”, he replies, sarcastically.

Defeated, I put my hands together, knelt down and started crying,

“Please, I don’t know where I’m going, I can’t even remember how I got on this train to begin with, or what Gredgza is. I live in the US, California and all I can remember was that I was on a night out yesterday with friends. We drank heavily and were about going home when we saw this wretched looking man who sold us some pills.

Oh my god the pills!!!!!!

I look at him, eyes wide open, dried my tears and stood up.

I stood up, I just noticed that I’m standing and the paper collector was in front of me. It was a young woman in her 20’s.

“Ticket pls,” she says.

I put my hand in my pocket but I can’t see a ticket. I wring my pockets out but pills fall from them. Through the corner of my eye, I see a hand stretch and hands her a ticket.

She looks at me and I look at her for a while then the craziest thing happened. She walks through me and continues to collect tickets from people behind me.

I turn to the man on my right, eyes wide open, mouth wide open and fingers pointing at her.

“WHAT THE F*CK”

I turn to the person sitting with me, who handed a ticket. I try to speak to them but they couldn’t hear me. I try to touch them but my hand just goes through them. I look back at the man on my right.

“WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME ? Am I dead?” I ask him.

“You’re not dead Sam, you’re UNDER” he says, turning to face his front.

I was so occupied with her passing through me that I forgot she didn’t collect a ticket from the man.

“Why didn’t she collect a ticket from you?” I ask him.

“getting defensive, I see” he replies, with a cheeky smile on his face.

“I don't know where I am and I don’t know where I’m going, and will this train ever stop?” I ask him.

“It would Sam, but not for long” he replies.

“Then, Please take me with you.”