Encircled in a White Crystal (part 1)

(Rated 16+ for profanity, and only in the prologue)

Out in the falling sea of despair

I stumbled upon a slice of Heaven

Booming with life and love

It was there that destiny

Caught up to me

In the form of a billion blooming flowers

And an Angel

I trudged blindly through the acid rain, cold, sick, tired, incoherent and just about to give up hope. My body was slouched over in an unnatural humpback position and my view was firmly of the ground below me, as it had been for the past several miles of walking. There was no way to tell what was in front of me or what was behind me. I could only trust destiny that I wouldn’t accidently walk off a cliff.

The winds let out a ferocious roar and there were sharp metallic noises of objects crackling and collapsing. The pitter patter of the rain had become second nature, almost like the white noise a ceiling fan makes. Although the force of the wind sometimes tried to push me in another direction it was never so strong it had knocked me over. It felt almost like the elements of the earth were laughing at me, cackling at the fact that there was still a human alive in this shithole.

Thankfully I could not feel any wetness on my body except for some small condensation on the back of my neck; the only part of my body exposed to the rain. Earlier the pain had been burning as though hot coals had been unloaded on it, but now the pain had subsided. I could not bear to think how bad the wound looked, but due to helpless scenario I was currently in I would probably be spared that nasty task.

From the way I was currently walking, I would have had to have guessed that I was walking down a slope. So I guess there was little chance that the downward slope would lead me to the opening of a cliff. Still, better safe than sorry they always say. When I got the chance to regain my footing after a burst of wind tried to bowl me over, I tightly grabbed my cloak, the only thing protecting my head safe from the awful black rain. Strangely I continued to wander down blindly the slippery slope, my only companion being the echoing death of the world around me.

How the fuck did I get in this scenario, you ask? Well, that’s a good question, and I applaud you for thinking of such an insightful, inquisitive inquiry. The thing is, I don’t know the answer exactly. Flashes are all I remember. Lightning, babies crying, cats moaning, the earth being shaken, hurricanes, bakeries collapsing, the burning of flesh, they’re all just flashes. A disjointed mess of colors, memories, and emotions all wound up neatly into a ball of confusion. All I truly know is the here and now.

It all couldn’t have happened more than a couple of hours. I realized this fact almost immediately, yet I still couldn’t put all the pieces of my memory together. Besides, my mind has barely even touched on this scenario or what happened. For the past few hours I could only think of her and whether she was still alive. The chances were improbable. Shit, it wouldn’t even surprise me that much to find out if I was only the only human alive within a twenty mile radius of where I currently was.

Still, I trudged on. By now I could not even walk right, and more parts of my body hurt than I care to explain. Soon enough I would need to face reality and die. I knew that, and yet I could not downright accept it as fact.

Then my head, the most outward part of my body, hit something hard. It was completely unexpected. I could not stop myself from grunting. Instinctively, I took a step back. For just a split second I thought it could have been something dangerous, but then I realized that it had been a stationary object, something like a house or statue.

My mind leaped. If it was a house then that meant that I’d wandered out of the countryside and back into town. That also meant I’d have shelter, at least until the hurricane made its way over here, or the acid rain burned a hole in the ceiling of the house, if it wasn’t already burned.

Carefully, as to not get them wet, I outstretched my arms as to touch the object I front of me. Since I was wearing gloves I could not feel the texture of it, but obviously the thing in front of me was not a statue or anything like that. It was too big, too wide, it had to be something else. The thing was not wooden or concrete; it didn’t feel much like a house. I concluded that it had to be a building.

My arms surveyed the shape again and again to get a feel of the thing in front of me. The walls of the object closed inward, feeling somewhat like a dome. For just a split second I decided to tighten my cloak and take a tiny peak at what was in front me. When I did was when I saw…It was indeed really a building!

I must’ve been looking through a window, because I could blurrily see the inside of the large room. I could not make out the contents of the room, but there seemed to be a dim light inside, which meant that there had to be electricity working in there. What luck!

But I braced myself. One wrong move and my head might accidently get exposed to all the death falling all around me. Once more I outstretched my arms and slowly moved myself around the building so that I could find the entrance.

At this point I had not seen the building completely, but I had imagined it to be structured like an igloo. That was because as I moved around to find an opening I found that the building was queerly crafted so that it was shaped like a circle.

One more step, I told myself, what seemed like a hundred thousand times. Without warning, my hand touched something new….a door knob! Never thought I’d feel one of those again…I hoped against hope that it would work. Precariously I took both my hands, exuded some force downwards, and opened the door.

I was thrust inside, stumbling a bit at my new sense of gravity. The wind screeched behind me through the ajar door as though it wanted me back. Well not today buddy.

Still being in the same awkward hunchback position I was, I went back to the door and tried to close it. The winds were strong; as though they had gotten stronger in the few seconds I decided to leave them. With all the remaining strength I had I pushed on the door until it finally shut.

The most important task out of my way, I stumbled a few steps and collapsed onto the ground. I was cold, sick, tired, and incoherent, remember? It also felt like there were a thousand bruises on my body, in places I didn’t even know existed. My fatigue which I had tried so hard to ignore the past few hours all came at once. In all honesty, I’m completely surprised that my fragile human body survived long enough to make it to where I was.

For what seemed like the first time in decades, I uncovered my slightly unshaven face from my cloak and looked upwards from the floor. It was bright inside, much, much brighter than what it looked like from outside. Unlike what I had thought, the roof of the building was not circular, but concaved into a square.

The ceiling of the building was completely clear, so I still had a dazzling view of the acidic rain outside. Where was I? My brain was much too tired to receive any information, and my body would probably not budge even if I forced it too.

That was a stupid question though. Where was I? It didn’t matter. As long as I was out of the sea of misery it was a slice of heaven. I closed my eyes to sleep. Maybe this time I really would wake up in heaven. My last thought was comforting; it was of her skipping down a cobblestone road. I was next to her, the day we shared our first, and only kiss.