Boo. What happens now?
The floor turns to sludge. Her lifeless eyes follow the light as it goes out, and the floor captures her body, pulling her towards it. There was no fear left anymore. The process was slow. The soft slush sounds of the floor were oddly comforting and put her body at ease.
Drowning. Slowly underneath. Body somewhat floating. So relaxing.
Underneath, there was nothing. But nothing was something. Plop. She fell to the floor.
Ta-da~! Where are you now? DREAM SEQUENCE 1: THE APOCALYPSE WORLD
Dust. Sand. Ruined buildings. Empty streets. Bright sun. A beautiful world because its emptiness contains a world filled with the memories and souvenirs of what it once was and now, what it is not. Yumi stood in the middle of a road, beyond it lay something, and behind it, too. But as time stood still and there was no one there, did anything that was there matter? A wonderful quote I thought to myself: Everything is ordinary. Nothing is valuable. It only becomes valuable when we see it for its worth, when we equip it with a value by what it means to us.
To her side, there was a building. It had a convenience store. She walked towards it slowly and entered, opening a broken door. The store had items which you'd generally find in any convenience store: chips, candies, drinks, and everything of convenience. But the store looked cleared out, filled with dust and sand. Empty yet full. Useless yet useful. Meaningless.
She walked out, nothing in her hands, for there was no hunger to be sufficed. Back to where she was, in the middle of the road. To her left was the store, to her right was the sun, shining so brightly. Must be Sunday afternoon. There were more buildings, some of which had been under construction for ages, and were yet never finished. They'll never be, not here at least. The horizon never seemed so beautiful, but it was.
She looked behind to see an empty, endless road and then looked forward. Park a few meters ahead and more emptiness. An intersection from the left, which should lead to more societies, at least as it did in the real world. Yes, this place does exist in the real world, and it was close to her home, except that it wasn't such a dull place in reality. Thousands of people lived here, and many cars, trucks, and bikes used this road. It's only in this dream that it was empty, and the buildings here are going to fall in a few minutes, just as they did in the original dream sequence.
Yumi walked ahead, reaching the intersection, and saw the buildings, homes, and a lovely park that lay across the street for the people who lived there. Crumbles.
Just as predicted, the buildings fell, one by one. And as they did, Death came to meet her.
"Why am I in this dream?" Yumi asked Death.
"What had been going on in your mind to envision such a thing?" Death asked Yumi.
"I don't know."
"It seems nice, complicated, but sad."
Yumi looked at Death with a surprised look. "Do you generally do such things?"
"Not exactly. But you seemed to interest me, and I thought that you're someone worth looking into."
"You seem so different than what I expected you to be."
"I'm aware."
Silence. A good friend at those awkward times that we face. But not the answer to the question. How do we interpret this dream? Why would anyone dream of such a world? Oh, did I forget to mention that the first building to fall is where Yumi's grandma lived? I don't think it matters, at least not to me, I'm just some- I don't know who I am. But for Yumi, the first thing she remembered as she saw the building collapse was that it was where her Grandma lived. She'd died 4 years back, but the dream is 5 years old. She could still remember because she had decided to write all her dreams back then as a kid to recognize them and understand them. How we all are as children, and how many empty words we say and empty promises we make.
But sometimes we shouldn't cling to memories, or trust a magical being whose goal just might be to torture you. Because they could make a building fall on you. At least that's what happened to Yumi.
BOO!!! Next!