Dream State

Wandering alone through an empty life

Running through the vacant aisles of a hazy store filled with things I used to love.

No one is manning the check stand yet hollow beeping echoes in my ears. I bag my overpriced specialty garbage and lug it into the sun.

I trundle over empty sidewalks and stumble across streets with automated cars speeding down them. Ready to dispassionately flatten me at the slightest misstep.

My key clicks into the lock, and I step into a house I have only heard described and seen in photos. A place I can’t return to, a burned-out husk, collapsed inside.

Positive I am screaming, I push with all my force, but all I feel is hoarse. No one comes, no echo reverberates through these vacuum-still corridors, only dust curtains hang in light panels.

Pushing through the curtains onto the blindingly lit stage. The music plays so loud in my ears, the choreography starts involuntarily. Prescribed motions carry me across. My mind blanks for the time it takes to complete my impromptu routine. As I take my final bow, my vision finally breaks through the light barrier.

Stumbling off the stage through the blaring light, I expect to drop into a lap, instead, the pit seems to never end.

I lie awake immobile, unable to grasp which way is up or what task is next. Lashed down, but I’m bound so tightly I can’t get a look. Desperately scrabbling with the strap and the hook.

Finally, the rope flings free, sending me floating into eternity. All feeling and thought disperse, and I allow all tension to escape into the universe. When finally I feel and see nothing, I cease to be.

That’s when I awake to the real nightmare.

Reality.

K.B. Silver