Another 500-word submission for our creative writing group. This time, it’s a scary story theme, in honour of Halloween next week! FYI: The hypnopompic state is the part of the sleep\/wake cycle when you begin to wake from your dream.<\/p>\n
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Black places, people only half there, faintly-coloured outlines of themselves. No definite place, but a familiarity to the scenery, viewed immediately and from far away, all at once.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n A dense forest of winding roads that spin and span across a valley, a row of houses with no doors, a straight trail to nowhere. I am driving, I drive, I sit in the passenger seat. You, my colleague, my neighbour, me, my lover, a face; you talk with me. You drive. You talk to me. I understand. A suggestion.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n We must progress, move forward. The dirt tracks and exotic brush, we are in a buggy, we hurtle. The valley is kept together by the taught belt of wood and rope; we speed along it.<\/span><\/p>\n Below us, chasm, green, forever. A fall so far that clouds pass below us, obscuring the ground, the trees, the village, the river. Forward, imperative, go. Journey. On, to adventure.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I look at you from every angle.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Wide-eyed and screaming.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The belt above me, the car above me, you above me, me below. I fall from the edge. I tried forever to grab for the side, I did not understand why I could not hold it, but I accepted. I fall.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I move so fast that the air does not enter my mouth. I was just holding your hand.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I fall, I spread and twist. Falling is silent. Falling forever. There is no rapid-rise within me, no change in balance, shift in gravity. I fall without sensation. The air still does not enter my mouth.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The ground below me is approaching. Perhaps if I cling to the side, I can save myself. I try forever to grab for the side, my arms are tired, I do not understand why I cannot hold it, my strength has left me, I accept. No saving, no side. I fall.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n No rush of wind, no air. I fall in a vacuum. Now I feel my chest. Not a sudden leap, but an ache. The ground is approaching. Shouldn\u2019t I wake up now?<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Pain. A throbbing, dense pain, threatening to burst out of my face. The air will not enter my mouth. No, it\u2019s not that. I cannot breathe. I cannot breathe.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I cannot.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Open eyes. Black place. No, my room. Dead night, dead pitch black. I cannot breathe. I kick, I struggle. I throw my hands to my neck, to the pain. Something there, thick, hard, strong.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n My face will burst, my chest will collapse, the pain, the pain. I look down. You are above me. Your hands are on my neck. Your strength, your anger, you crush my throat, your weight defeats me.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n My body dances in furious spams, my arms fail me. I feel capillaries burst in my face as I lose sight of you, as I lose sight of everything. The intense heat of my struggle is suddenly, forcefully, replaced by a nothing-chill.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I cannot feel your powerful grip on my neck. I cannot feel the clamp-weight of you on my body. I cannot feel my sheets, my bed, my pillow. I think of the buggy, sitting with you in the passenger seat, the dirt tracks and exotic brush. On, to adventure.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Another 500-word submission for our creative writing group. This time, it’s a scary story theme, in honour of Halloween next week! FYI: The hypnopompic state is the part of the sleep\/wake cycle when you begin to wake from your dream.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n