Waterfall

The stars had long flung themselves around you, knucklebones forecasting the rest of the world, or perhaps just this night. Wood creaks as the wind tears the words formless from your lips, sending them tumbling down into the gorge below. The grass surrounding you is a rich verdant green, shadowed by the towering trees and the vast expanse of the dark. Every time you open your mouth you taste the wet earth, every breath inhales the frosted air, every sound that reaches your ears is met with confusion.

His lips move, as do yours, but if either of you are speaking words, you don’t understand them. The spray from the waterfall flecks your face with tears; the waterfall of your tears flecks the stream with salt. A heron cries out, perhaps answering you. Your knuckles are white and numb, clenching at vestiges of hope, his hands between yours. Droplets sit still on his eyelashes, like dew upon morning grass, wavering above dry eyes. A jaw chiselled from stone threatens to crush you beneath its weight.  He says two words, and though you can’t hear them you know what they must be, just as you know how hollow they are. Your hand stings almost as much as your eyes, red like blush swelling from under his stubble.

He does not move. Nor do you. You each stand, perfect in your isolation, fractured by your proximity, two halves of different wholes. The wood around you sways imperceptibly. An eternity passes, too quickly, and then you have moved, or perhaps everything else moved around you, hurled you toward the stream.

His hands reach for you, but your white knuckles have gripped their last. The river swallows you greedily, silver beneath the waxing moon, as it urges you to follow your wind-swept words. His granite face, breaking at last, splitting across the middle. Your throat hurts, torn from the screaming. You are weightless, unchained for the first time. You close your eyes, your mouth, your heart.

Overlooking the gorge there stands a perfect paradox, one fractured half of a whole that never was.

Fade to Grey

Two people standing in the woods, bright acrylic greens and reds surrounding them in royal sunbursts, cocooned by colour. There's a pause between them, a distance that could just as easily be a breath as a chasm. One speaks five words, the other does as they are told. Fade to grey.

A figure splayed across the ground, shattered glass lying in specific patterns around them, the last fragments of their broken wings. Hair like flames - not like? - and eyes green enough to dance in, dance until your feet bleed, red swirling with green. Fade to grey.

A crowded dance floor here, two terrified teenagers here, but there. Fog swirls and twirls, mimicking the dancers or perhaps drawn by them, impenetrable either way. The teens jump, no way of knowing what lies beyond. Fade to grey.

A flicker of a city, a flicker of a man writing on a train. The man could be in the city, but he could just as easily not. There is the warmth of the sun, dividing his face into light and shadow. The light writes apologies; the shadow does too. Fade to grey.

The seeds are planted, ideas coiling tight around the brain stem, some brighter or bolder than others. If you grasp at them too soon they shirk away, slowly smothered by the light of attention. They must be left in the dark to morph, find the shape they want, the face they will show the world. Then they will allow themselves to slowly uncoil and breathe on their own, and only then can they Fade to grey. No.No no no. Clutching at one, forcing its tail down, there is a burst of colour before it fades to grey. There is colour here, he KNOWS there is, but the shell is all a harsh, dead grey. He digs his fingers in, tearing apart the carapace, finding the entrails so vibrant in hues and piling them end to end along the paper, but the hues fade from the visible spectrum, the intangible not meant to be given form, not like this, and at the end with heaving breath and bloodied hands all he is left with is grey.

Sideways, Into Eternity

The forest glowed a vibrant green, the rich scent of animals and wood and decay and sunshine mingling beautifully. Scott walked beneath the boughs that reached far above, listening to the sounds of the birds. Dappled sunlight broke through the canopy, laying shifting patterns on the leaf litter underfoot. A deer ahead heard Scott approach and darted away, dancing from step to step, a spring uncoiling.

The sound of laughter and merriment gradually rose above the ambient noise of the forest, coming from a small campsite of men in earthy greens and browns. They welcomed Scott warmly, with wide arms and open smiles. He joined them a while, drinking and carousing, before whispering something to their leader and taking his leave. Once out of sight, he found a shadow and slipped into it, into the in-between places. Stepped sideways, into eternity.

Eternity swallowed him as an old friend, its cool embrace familiar and comforting, his step stretching out longer and longer. After a moment, an hour, a minute, Scott stepped out into the light rain, a gentle drizzle that slowly worked its way down the back of his neck and shoes. The city was grey and dismal, dark clouds hanging low and brooding over intermittent spires and flat roof slats. He stepped under an overhanging eave and covered his nose to block out the smells that ran down the street like rivers, the fetid stench of unwashed bodies pressed too close together and human waste. Lightning crackled in the clustered clouds, forks of light spearing the sky for far too brief a time. This was no place for him. Scott found an open doorway and stepped inside. Stepped sideways, into eternity.

People milled around each other, smiling and laughing and hugging, all the while speaking in a language he didn’t understand. Eternity had placed him in the middle of them, next to a graffiti-covered wall that people sat, stood, sang and juggled atop. He was jostled relentlessly as he attempted to make his way out of the crowd, or perhaps he jostled the others. Their joy was infectious, and he found himself grinning when men and women embraced him, rather than pushing them away. Finally he broke free from the main press of the mob, leaning on a brick building to regain his breath. The crowd was an incredible sight, thousands of people celebrating… something. Scott couldn’t make out the object of their rejoicing. The sky was a clear, pure blue, radiating a clarity that only weeks of rain can bring, as if the heavens themselves are glad to be open again. A smile lingering on his face, Scott found a fold in the world and slipped into it. Stepped sideways, into eternity.

He regretted the deal. He knew something was wrong at the time, but had been too excited to care. The man had been so nice, his too-white coat matching his too-white teeth. The prospect of being able to slip out of time, through time, between time, landing anywhere and anywhen... how could he refuse? But he was tired now. He just wanted to go home, to find himself before he made the deal and stop it from happening. He'd been slipping for years now and he feared just what it was that he was slipping towards.

He stumbled over the uneven ground--no, not uneven, swaying. The view over the edge of the boat was limited by a heavy fog that pressed down on all sides. Despite it, there were people mingling on the deck: clearly passengers, not a deckhand in sight. He grimaced. He knew how this one ended.

There was a band playing, elevated on a small stage, the music swallowed by the mist. He pulled his coat closer around his body, futilely attempting to shield himself from the cold. He stepped backward, into the shadow. Stepped sideways, across the deck.

He frowned. Stepped sideways, into the railing at the edge of the boat, the sliver of eternity slipping infuriatingly away.

Speed, that's what I need. He thought, gripping the railing.

A shudder rocked the boat and would have knocked him from his feet had he not already been holding on. The sharp keening of shredding metal filled the air, drowning out the cries of the passengers.

Now or never.

He vaulted over the rail, the water looking impossibly far away, only just visible through the fog. As he fell, he tried to tried to slip between the world, but something was wrong, very wrong. Eternity was there, just in front of him, just out of reach. He knew that if he could just get a bit more speed he could make it.

The water hurtled toward him, no longer so far away, but still eternity eluded him. He stretched his hand out and managed to hook a finger through. He pulled hard, trying to heave himself forward but the water was too close now and he struck it hard with only half a hand through. The pain wrapped around him, shielding him from the cold, forcing his breath out in an explosion of bubbles. Weakly, he registered that he still had a hold between time and let himself slip down, sideways, into eternity.

He opened his eyes, unsure if he had made it or not. He was lying on a bed in a white-walled room, there were electronic displays around him and an incessant beep-beep that was gradually speeding up. He knew this place. He did not want to be here.

A woman walked in, wearing a too-white coat and a too-white smile. He tried to move, to roll over, to escape, but his limbs were sluggish and unresponsive. The woman held down his arm and inserted a needle, shooting something into his veins.

Gradually, his panic subsided. The beeping slowed once more and, under the woman's watchful gaze, he felt himself slipping.

Slipping sideways, into eternity.