Real[m]ity

He should have known that her crazy mutterings were serious. The young woman was insane, loose in the head, missing one too many screws. And now he was descending fast into her world of rampant madness.

“You’ll see it,” her smug smirk twisted into a devilish grin through his delirious eyes. “I’ll show you.”

A horrified scream arose from his throat as she conjured a swarm of black hummingbirds out of thin air, then sent them flying straight at him. He threw up his arms, a vain attempt to protect himself from their needle point beaks, and stumbled backwards on his quaking legs. Then suddenly he was falling, limbs flailing wildly, desperate to catch hold onto something. Anything. The sound of her wicked cackling could be heard, even over the roaring wind as it rushed past his ears. It only grew louder and louder and louder until it was all he could hear.

And then he woke up.

Staring at a foreign ceiling, his blue eyes were wide and frenzied. His heart hammered wildly within his chest, still tangled up in his vivid nightmare. But there was a soft, pleasant laughter lilting in the empty air and it slowly drew him back to full awareness. Heart stayed and breathing even, he started the process of remembering how it all began.