A Beautiful Now

[Svo'k Lynd]

*Intrinsically reduced to the blur of time was the way it would be, for now and forever more. The world was a haze, things happened. So many things happened, more than one could count. It was a flurry of lights and tactile responses. There were colors, more than were perceivable by the unaltered mind, the kiss, so many of them. The feeling of flesh was perceptible but unrecognizable in the midst of the blur of altered perception.

A man, a woman, another and another, red light enveloped the scene, the scene of everything and nothing all in the same place. He became distinctly aware that he was watching the scene unfold, outside of himself, it all unfolded before his eyes. A constant stream of unconscious movements, he felt them all as if he was living them, but not experiencing them. It was difficult for the conscious mind to understand, but he was participating in everything with everyone, but it was as if it was someone else was actually living it.

He felt the tender touch of lips against his own, and the taste was there, for a long moment he experienced this and then felt stubble against his face and another pair of lips against his, it was different this time. He looked down upon himself but could not make out the scene it was ever changing before him, never the same for more than a few moments, or at least what felt like a few moments to him in this altered world that he was currently seeing and not quite believing.

It was cold now, he felt the wind in his hair and all of the sudden he was pulled back towards the Earth, his mind struggling to perceive what was going on around him. The sky was yellow, his mind could perceive that, the area in front of him was a shroud of darkness. He spun and the environment follow him, there was darkness but the yellow of the sky contrasted with it. He knew what was in front of him and what was behind him, he felt lips on his neck but could not see anyone or feel them. He was here in this world, but they were there in the outside world, it was somehow better for them he thought. He looked to his right and saw blue and his left and saw grey, yet when he turned his whole body it was all black. He started to run and felt his heartbeat in the side of his head as the blood moved quickly through his veins, his vision blurred again and everything turned grey as he felt a prick on his left arm followed by a burning sensation pulsing through his arm and into every vein in his body. His breathing slowed, but he could no longer, he tried to catch his breath but the air was gone from this world. He looked him around again and felt the overwhelmingly good sensations that were occurring in the outside world, but they were overtaken.

He smelled something this time, like fuel for a podracer, a strong scent that shot up his nose and into his brain.Then his heart rate sped up again and was running, the colors of the scene became sharper and more defined, it was as if everything was vivid now and clear. The darkness in front of him, the yellow sky, the grey to his left and blue to his right. The faster he ran the more clearly defined everything became. There were buildings and sense of civilization, in fact there were people all around him, he could see them all. He stopped to ask a man a question but as he approached he was horrified, for the man had no face. Where there should be features was nothing but blank flesh, no eyes, no mouth, no nose or ears. He heard a muffled screaming and immediately pushed the man away.

He swallowed hard and tried to catch his breath as he reached for a woman to ask for help, but she was the same as the man. He turned panicked and tried to find his way back, but the path was gone. He was now in a room, a small room and he was surrounded by the faceless monsters pretending to people, he looked for the door, he had to find a way out but there was nothing. There was nothing. He felt them all closing in on him, another whif of what smelled like podracer fuel and he saw them more clearly. He put his hands on his head and spun around as his heart rate started to increase and he felt a stabbing sensation in the put of his stomach. He gagged and tasted bile, the room was getting smaller now and the people were getting bitter. He felt himself shaking in fear, what was going on? He didn't know, he felt another pin prick stabbing sensation, coupled with an awful smell and things began to blur again.

The corners of the rooms seemed to be expanding again and then there was the other sent and everything seemed to be expanding and contracting at the same time, the sky was still yellow, he felt himself falling backwards into the pit of darkness the blue and grey on either side of them but all he could feel was the darkness. It felt cold and harsh enveloping him and dominating all of his senses, soon he was covered by it and it's dominance was inescapable. The wind soared around him and his field of vision became smaller and smaller until all it was was the darkness. The sense of free fall continued on and on and his stomach felt like it was outside of his body, the terror was extreme at this point until finally there was an impact on his back and he felt it stab through his stomach.

The teen gasped and oxygen filled his lungs, his red eyes shot opened, a blanket covering the lower half of his body, his clothes scattered on the floor. He sat up and twitched and winced. He looked down at his left arm and saw a broken needle sticking out of his vein dried blood holding it to his skin, he pulled it out and cringed, he licked lips and tasted dried blood. He became conscious of two others in the room, another guy and a girl, both were getting dressed and leaving. He squinted and tried to talk.*

"H...ow."

*His voice cracked and he cleared his throat.*

"How long have I been here?"

*The man turned towards him and walked over and patted him on his red and black tattooed shoulders.*

"We've been partying for over a week, I was starting to think you weren't going to wake up. I'm glad you did though."

*Svo'k sat there, the words pierced through his very being and burned him to his core as if he had been stabbed by a lightsaber.*

"And you didn't get me help?"

*The man smiled as he walked off.*

"No one noticed until a few minutes ago, that's why everyone left."

*Svo'k sat there shaking, he saw his pants had been thrown beside him, he stood up and put them on, his legs were like gelatin and his knees buckled. He sat back down and cupped his head in his hands shaking, he wasn't sure what all had actually transpired, but he knew this was a new thing, this was a new depth that he hadn't been to before. What was he going to do?

What could he do?*