Her words echoed through my head as my eyes swam to keep steady. Then as soon as the bell chimed my eye lids fell closed.
“All dreams reveal something, they take use somewhere, beyond the memories, this reality of awakeness. Follow your own will, explore and what ever you do. Do not press play”
I jolted awake from the sound of water gently patting against a smooth surface. I brought my self up and looked around. Up above a blue sky with few clouds patterned about. In each direction large smooth walls of grayish red rose high. I moved following one of the walls to another room. It was a large square with different light colored cones of different sizes placed in the middle of the room. A large smooth ball floated in the air off center casting a hard shadow to one side. I ran my hand over one of the cones. It was perfectly solid and smooth with almost no texture. In some spots it was warm to the touch.
The next room past the cone room had a great rectanglular opening in the floor that held a abyss of black. The room was long and each side had arches framing the path ways. I peered down the rectangle. Darkness looked back at me and I carefully moved around it.
What was I looking for? I couldn’t remember. My ego and memory was fading fast. There was a reason to come to this place.
The next room opened to a vast ocean. The water didn’t splash around and the sea was calm. It bobbed up and down with passivity. On the left was a tall gray wall and a path that followed it out into the open sea. I followed it. My mind searching for the reason, for some idea why I was here. To find something that I had lost? No, to find something that was given to me. Something that I never knew. A memory that was not my own. Insight that I needed.
Soon the walkway stopped and a set of stairs descended onto a small island of sand where several Greek pedestals jutted out from the sand in different directions. There were about four, two held heads of marble. One had a metallic sphere hovering just above it and the last was a large Tube TV with a video player underneath it. I moved past the other pedestals to the one with the TV. Around me was clear blue skies, and water. The sea sat still glimmering into an endless horizon. In the sky there were streaks of something I could not make out. It shined in the sun and look as if someone had taken a paint brush of silver and skimmed it through the clouds. I turned back towards the TV.
“Do not press play” her words echoed in my head. Yet I did not know why she said that. She knew. She didn’t want me to know. Or was it that I couldn’t handle it?
Curiosity.
I pressed play.
The TV came to life and static buzzed from it. It took a moment, but the picture materialized in an old CRT low-fi type of way. It looked at a hill covered in shadow. The moon lit clouds contrasted with the hill and a couple of trees framed on the right. Then the image changed to a sunset. Among the glistening water the sun halved itself bringing orange and red light. It said good bye and ducked below the ocean and stars revealed themselves in a time-lapse. The camera then zoomed in. It kept going towards the horizon until it came to the exact island that I was standing on. The four columns jetting out of the sand and the TV lit up with a blueish glow.
A figure stepped from behind the TV, their eyes glowing a burning orange. The light from the TV casts upon their face.
My eyes stare into my own.
The TV turned off and on again. This time it acts like a camera looking at me. It reflects my movement as I lean in to see if it really is watching me. As my face leans closer to the thick glass, it switches again. A flash of words that are to quick for me, and then in large red letters.
THE END.
As soon as my mind wraps around the letters. My eyes shoot open and a I am awake again. Really awake.
“What happened?” Her words came through haze.
“I pressed play” I closed my eyes again.
There was no answer for a long moment.
I could hear her shuffling around in a panic. I couldn’t remember anything, the purpose, where or who I was. I sat in between.
The shuffling stopped. I opened my eyes and looked.
The endless water sprawled out into infinity. The sun had just started to dip its self into the horizon.
The TV was on. In large green letters it read:
IT BEGINS.
This story, to tell the truth I have no idea. It is inspired by those math book covers and vapor wave art. I would see these pieces of art hanging in places where it would be computer generated cylinders on weird backgrounds and I always wondered what that place would be like. This story has some ominous feelings to it. Dreams and reality really do blend. What is the space?
Was listening to Vapordreams TOKYOPILL - E t h e r e a l while writing this.
Grip reality as tight as possible. You never know when it might slip.
Cheers!