The Departing

I then found myself in a lush green field on a warm summer afternoon. The sky was an eerily clear blue, and the sun shined upon me like a lighthouse would- for a minute, it was focused on me and only me, but just as soon as it appeared, the warm feeling had vanished. Miles and miles of rolling hills and tall green grass stretched across the horizon, and I saw nothing else but that.

A woman in a knee-length, tattered black dress waltzed from the horizon to my location, moving like a ballerina would. She had smooth porcelain skin and dark eyes, matching her dress. She was barefoot, and she was beautiful. “She seems to be out of place…” I thought.

She danced in circles around me in a never-ending rhythm. But then her twists and turns got more violent and spastic, and she was soon flailing her arms and jumping up and down. Her body shook wildly and with one swift motion she threw her arms up, changing the summer afternoon into a nightmare.

The grass burned into charred black crisps starting at the horizon, and making its’ way towards me. The sky shook and rattled the blue from itself and began to glow a deep, blood red. The lighthouse sun that I had begun to love fizzled out like the last embers of a burning campfire and nothing was the same.

The girl laughed a deep laugh that was not at all hers and her eyes began to glow like the sky. She smiled a truly evil smile and started dancing again. The ground opened up beneath me, and hellfire shot up through the cracks, licking my skin and inviting me in closer. My whole body went numb and I had no choice but to surrender. I just lay on the ground, waiting for the fire to take me.