The world stopped. Seas boiled and every living being cried. Seconds later, the seas and oceans began to boil.
Water rose as it engulfed everything. Iron began to evaporate, and like droplets, fell upon the damned land.
Pressure slammed into the vines like hammers. Lands cracked under the newfound power and everything in the world withered.
Anything left behind by the destruction of vines crumbled like paper as space seemed to crack.
Morpheus felt a tearing pain all over his body, like being torn into hundreds of pieces.
He tried to hold on. Cry for mercy, so the vines spare him.
Moments before fainting, he felt his pleading bounce off the vines as they rejected him.
In his vision, the vines laughed and shook in mockery at his attempts to survive.
His mind space crumbled into small pieces, achievements, library and his home all fell into the void.
He yelled, begged for it to kill him.
One by one, it fell into the endless void as he found himself back in the void.
Once it disappeared from his vision, the pain went away like a receding tide.
He curled into a fetus position, closing his eyes.
Then, he found himself back home. Earth as everything felt like a one painful nightmare.
Morpheus, no... Liam found himself back in the University.
Blurred, moving faces bowed to him as he started the lesson. Time flew and as the bell rang, he dashed home.
On his bicycle, he bypassed honking cars. At an incredible speed, he got home.
He smashed the doors open and extended his hand. There, his old mother held a basket of fresh apples.
Faceless, she offered him some. He smiled and thanked her as he bit into the apple.
"Mhmm, it must have been a bad dream. Yeah..." He said and ensured that nothing was wrong.
The pain must have been him stabbing his toes while dreaming.
"Oh! It's already 9. I should really go to sleep. Tomorrow the kids have finals..." He said as he brushed his teeth.
The mirror reflected nothing but a flying toothpaste and his brush.
He flushed his mouth and jumped into his double sized bed.
"Ah, the day after tomorrow my little &#&@# should come home~. I should take her to the newly opened aqua park before that bitch can." He said and promptly fell asleep.
10 minutes later, the alarm clock went off.
"Mhmm, that was the best sleep I ever had." He said and cracked his back.
The blood red Sun welcomed Liam. He got himself into a proper suit and took to work.
All around him, the skyscrapers became blurry and a few places turned into a clear void.
Liam didn't even glance at it. Rather, he looked away as he greeted one of his students that he shared the neighbourhood with.
20 minutes later, he returned home. All tired, with a fulfilled face.
"Mhmm, none of the kids cheated. Good, this generation is promising." He said and found his mother holding a basket of pears.
Full of smiles, he took one.
15 minutes later, he bid his mother goodbye and went to pick up his little sweetheart.
10 minutes later, he returned home, holding a blurred person. He looked at her.
"Mhmm, I am glad that you've enjoyed our trip! Don't tell your mom or she'll be all mad again." He said and patted the blur.
His hand became blurry as he touched her before he retracted his hands.
Not caring, he waved off &#&@# as he sullenly returned home.
There, his ma offered him an orange.
Each day turned the surroundings more and more into an unrecognisable sludge.
"I need to go to the ophthalmologist again. My glasses must have broke." He said, as he couldn't escape the void anymore.
The university turned into a single classroom. Dozens of students came in and bowed.
He began his lecture.
"Today we'll be talking about meters and various variations of this measurement. We have prefixes such as nano-..." He said and taught until the bell rang.
The students left, and, and he brought out his exam papers from yesterday.
"Mhmm, how can she not get a simple conversion centimeters to millimetres correct? I'll have to have a talk with her..." Said Liam as he graded the papers.
Not far away from him, hundreds of papers laid on the ground. Filled with the exam he now corrected.
The bell rang again as he checked his watch. It showed 5 o'clock right when he finished the grading.
Liam ignored the papers and hopped on his bicycle. It lacked gears, chain and brakes.
Liam got himself home and took the fruit his mom gave him. No longer could he see her aged wrinkles in her hands.
20 minutes later, he got up and readied himself for work.
After he said his goodbyes, he stopped dead in his tracks. The door now replaced with an endless void.
His hands trembled before he stepped out. The trusty bike waited for him as he saw his classroom in the distance.
"I can't disappoint the kids by being late..." He said.
He cycled in the endless void, not getting any closer. Was it because of the lacking tires? Perhaps.
Liam shook his head and continued to cycle. It couldn't be, he got that bicycle repaired just a month ago...
Pictures like falling snow appeared in the void, giving it some colour.
One of them had a picture of Liam carrying a young girl on his back with a falling sunset in the background.
"Mhmm, Emily... I wish I won that battle..." He said to himself as the picture turned into dust.
"Battle... Battle?" His body shook while droplets escaped his eyes.
His house behind him vanished into dust, along with the classroom was far away.
"Don't go!" He said as he held the remaining parts of his bike.
It, too, got replaced by the void.
Liam screamed as his throat went sore.
"I-I don't want to be free anymore... Just... Just give me back my old life." He said and sobbed.
Back in his fetal position. He stopped his pleas and turned motionless.
For a while, he stared into the void as he closed his eyes for the second time, wishing to go back.
Nothing.
His eyes remained closed. Liam dug up all of his remaining blurred memories.
The mother that took care of him almost all his life. Silly students, always studying at the last possible moment.
His greatest treasure and that toxic woman that took her away...
He moved through them back, into his days as a child. The countryside, full of mysterious places left to be explored.
All the way to when he learned how to crawl. His mother picked him up and held him in her warm embrace.
He felt the warmth and unconsciously tried to feed himself. Her young face, filled with energy, untainted by time, smiled at him.
"Liam, I hope you'll be strong. Stronger than your father and stronger than this useless mother of yours." She said in a pristine voice.
"Mhmm, I will, ma, always will. Just don't go!" He said and reached out for his mother.
Eyes opened, the void no longer dominated his surroundings. Coloured mist floated all around him.
Right now, a blanket of red mist surrounded him as he felt a welcoming warmth.
The other coloured mist gave way for the red one. His remaining tears turned into blue mist as they joined their companions.
All around him, mist danced.
He stood up and walked around. Brown mist became his foothold as he touched the different mists.
Light blue mist before him combined itself with pieces of green mist and he felt something in his hand.
Pulling back a piece of pistachio ice cream now waited in his hands.
The ice and green mists separated and danced around him.
"Thank you? Mhmm." He said in confusion and licked it.
A pleasant taste washed all over him. The long forgotten ice cream he loved in his childhood.
"Childhood?" He asked himself and dove into his memories.
Unlike before, the blurry faces of people he met. Friends and experiences became crystal clear.
However, when he dove deeper into them. He felt a stinging pain.
He continued to swim throughout the endless sea of memories before he arrived at a gigantic door.
All cracked and tattered, he hesitated for a moment. In the end, he sighed and turned to the mist that filled his memories.
"Can you fix it?" He asked as it began to move.
Mist from the outside poured into him. The door recovered and opened in one swift motion.
He stepped through and watched the new sea in silence.
The words of his mother rang inside his ears. Every time he tried to cry and hide, she would say it.
"Cry, but, my dear Liam, never run. My dear warrior." She always said it.
Liam, not Morpheus. A fragile dream that held no power.
"You'll help me guys, right?" He asked the mist around him as it bopped around in agreement.
Ready to fight it again? No way.
Liam didn't dare to look at the sea filled with those vines. But, if he didn't even prepare.
His last gift from his mother might be gone forever...
"God? How stupid, watch me ma as I show them all!" He said as the door closed in a loud bang behind him...