The Hallway

Your body walks down the hallway. A soft, white glow emanating from every surface. Not bright, but present. The empty blue sky giving way to the blistering heat of the sun.

"This body of mine is worn."

The stinging rays turn the thin, slick layer of sweat into a sharp mist that seems to cut into your flesh. Your muscles slowly rolling under your skin. Feet dragging. Ribs reluctantly allowing air to fill your lungs.


You notice there are doors on the walls you're using to stabilize yourself as you meander from side to side slowly down the hallway. You touch one. A thin line of gentle, blue light runs around the edges of the door.

The shape moves away from you and disappears into an unending void. Black is all that can be seen from where you stand. There is no sun in there. All you can feel is the faint whisper of air moving across the hairs on your skin as you stand in awe of what feels like the touch of a heavenly body in a time of great need.

It pulls you in.

Your body moves of its own free will, drawing you into a cool nothingness. Your eyes close and your arms open wide to embrace this welcome change.

Your eyes open in an azure world with no depth. The weight that was resting on your legs is no more. Your sun-burned skin is now chilling under what feels to be a fine, mentholated mist.

Focus.

As your body moves, you realize that it is no longer moving through air, but through a liquid. A deep breath. Your lungs are already full of this stuff. A coolness soothes you to the core.

"What is this? I want to scream, but I can't! I can't breathe!"

Your hands clasp at your throat, trying to remove unseen, nonexistent hands.

Stop struggling. Accept where you are and you will be fine. You are not in danger.

Your eyes close and you feel your heart beat slow down. Your body relaxes, enveloped in the soothing liquid. Your mind centers itself and you feel your lungs moving again. They fill and empty as if you were breathing air.

Your eyes open and the world around you lights up once again.

"What's that?"

You swim towards a faint object, motionless in the distance. The cooling bubbles in the liquid brush against every surface of your body taking with them tiny shreds of your clothing. The more of your body that is exposed, the more you relax. The more you feel at home.

As you approach, you realize that it is a ball. It's filled with something that allows it to move through the medium with no resistance. 0 buoyancy. You begin to play...

--------------
In an attempt to reignite my writing spirit, I've done this as opposed to my usual. This could evolve, or not. Let's see what happens.