Forgot to post here yesterday, so here's two pages:
Matthew tapped his dad lightly on the shoulder, mumbling a quiet hello. Ezekiel turned around with a slightly delayed start “Oh thank God. Matthew, where the heck have you been?”
“Around...there was an earthquake...or something. I thought we didn’t get those here?” He spoke in reply. “Earthquake, that’s a good one. Weren’t you paying attention? It’s on all the stations.” Ezekiel bellowed a laugh in his deep, resonating voice, and turned the volume on the TV up to half.
The news lady spoke in a polite, but direct voice, with a rather bored look in her eyes. “We are currently waiting for an official response from the government of United States on this event. Stay tuned for more information on the mysterious bombing.”
“B...bombing?” Matthew stammered.
His father patted him on the back a little too hard and spoke. “That’s right, or at least that’s what they called it. Nobodies’ got a name for what happened. This massive purple disk, thin as paper, flies over the town and a beam of white light shoots down. Next thing they know, the Earth is crumbling to pieces, quick as that. The crazy channels are saying it’s aliens, and while that’d sure be grand, I suppose it’s some new experimental device for use in war. Look here, they keep playing the footage on repeat” Ezekiel half pointed to the television.
Just as Matthew’s dad has said, an odd purple disk, that’s thickness seemed imperceivable, dashed over the town, shot down a silent beam of white light and dissipated. Five seconds later, the ground beneath in a 100 meter radius began to act like a frenzied swarm of ants, moving left and right, no goal in mind, and the cracks began reverberating outwards. He figured that it was a good thing he wasn’t in the middle of that.
“So far there have been 14 casualties, with 24 reported as dead or missing.” The news lady announced. Better them than me he thought, and hated himself a little for it.
Lydia stood in the hallway, quietly examining Matthew. “Welcome back.” she muttered softly. Despite their behavior, both parents loved Matthew more than he knew, as tends to be the case. She suddenly felt the massive urge to envelope Matthew in a hug, but her fear that he’d push her away stopped her, though her heart begged for it.
Matthew was ignorant to his mother’s silent plea, and brushed past her to his room. He stumbled lazily in, and collapsed onto the bed and examined his many posters of famous actors and superheroes. Matthew had always wanted to be a superhero, but the kind who were famous without asking, and defeated every villain in the end without sacrifice. He drifted off into sleep without even realizing it, and Lydia softly wandered in, drawing the covers and planting a hesitant kiss on his forehead.
Matthew gazed around and saw before him was a candyland straight from Willy Wonka. Ice cream hills sat in the distance, and he was about to step forward when a decapitated head with cupid’s wings flew down from the sky, chuckling and still very full of life. “Eurlze! Eurlze!” It chanted mockingly, flying circles around him. “Eurlze! Eurlze!”
For some reason this seemed perfectly natural. Matthew tried to reach out to it, but he couldn’t move. He looked down and saw he was sinking into a pool of honey.
“Eurlze! Eurlze! Eurlze! Eurlze!”
That creature was really starting to get on his nerves. With every fiber of his being, Matthew wished that the detestable creature was dead, and rather unsurprisingly, it fell down dead before him. It flopped like a worm cut in two.
““Eurlze…”
Matthew looked down, and the honey was gone. He was no longer in candyland. Now he was in a spaceship. He looked around, but nothing made sense. Everything looked upside down and inside out and backwards while forwards, and everyone kept talking to him in a voice that he didn’t know but knew he must. The voices grew louder, but Matthew realized he no longer had a body. He screamed and screamed, but no voice came out. He felt like he was fading from existence and desperately tried to move, but it was all in vain. He felt himself fading away, becoming nothing more than a soft mumble in a universe of screams. “I don’t want to die!” He moved his nonexistent lips that he knew must still be there.
Matthew opened his eyes. His heart was beating and he was drenched in sweat. He rose quickly, throwing away the comforter and put his hand over his chest until it slowed to a steady rise and fall. “Good.” Matthew said to himself. “Just a dream.” He gazed over to the clock on his desk. It read 4 AM. Even more exhausted than he had been earlier, Matthew collapsed back onto the bed and gave in once more to sleep.
At that moment Ezekiel was having exactly the same dream, and so was Lydia, albeit their reactions were rather different. Ezekiel never faded. He stood there strongly, sinking into the honey as if that were what he was destined to do, and woke up mildly disturbed, never having encountered the headless beast. Lydia’s dream was closer to that of Matthew’s, but she skipped the candyland altogether, and just stood there quietly, hearing voices and fading away while nobody seemed to notice. They all talked amongst themselves, and she didn’t have the courage to try and disrupt their conversation.
Everyone awoke to a cloudy gray morning, mumbled soft greetings to each other, and ate their breakfast in silence.
).
