Dream.

It happened five minutes before her lunch break was due to begin. Truthfully, she was counting each of the remaining three hundred seconds as they ticked by. The day had been frustrating, filled with exasperated locals and ignorant tourists who complained to her about the small town not having a coffee shop or a laundry mat or a flower shop or whatever the fuck else. By the third time she'd explained to someone that the nearest Starbucks was an hour away, she was about to ready to smash someone's face off her counter. She really, truly couldn't understand why, in the Age of Information, people couldn't take the time to check the internet or get a tour book or-

Something was wrong. Setting down the paper towel she'd been cleaning with, she shut her eyes and listened. Beneath the quiet clatter and squeaking of cart wheels, she could hear... buzzing. Like someone had let a swarm of bees go in the store and they had congregated beside her.

There was light. The sun seemed to have dropped out of the sky, filling the air with the purest, most white light that she had ever seen. Despite being a fervent atheist, she felt like she was witnessing Creation itself. Even though her retinas were burning, she forced her eyes to stay open, peeking through her fingers at the silhouettes of the cars parked in front. She couldn't see any people, although the parking lot had been filled only an instant before.

She only started to scream when the entire glass front of the store imploded, sending fragments towards her. Slamming her hands to her ears, she dropped to the ground, cowering against the metal shield of her counter. She had missed most of the glass, although a piece an inch long had stuck into the soft flesh of her thigh. She wasn't aware of her screaming; blood from her shattered eardrums trickled through her fingers, running down her wrist. Even with her eyes closed and her head pressed against the ground, the light invaded her brain, filling her skull with excruciating pain.

"Stop!" she wailed, pressing her palms tighter against her ears. Her fingernails dug in her scalp, spilling more blood. Her wish was granted half a second later, when a wave of heat engulfed the entire store. In one instant, her flesh had been torched off her body, leaving her bones for another microsecond. Then, even those crumbled into dust, as did everything around her.

Sweat covered her face as she sat up abruptly, panting slightly. In the corner of the break room, one of the stock boys was looking at her with a raised eyebrow, obviously on the verge of calling the nearest mental hospital.

"Sorry," she managed to pant out, rubbing her forehead. "Rough night." He nodded once then went back to the book in his lap. Groaning, she looked back up at the clock. She had only been asleep for fifteen minutes and there was still another half hour left in her lunch. Her sleep the night before had been non-existent, thanks to the bottle of wine she had consumed with her brother. Setting the alarm on her phone, she put her head back down, almost immediately falling asleep again.

This time, she dreamed about unicorns.