I floated in the silent cold dark world frozen in stasis. It felt right just as much as I knew it was wrong. The warmth I so desperately wanted, I no longer craved. It was as if a switch had gotten flicked within me, turning off the light. I slowly forgot that there was ever a warmth that kept me pushing forward.
My world began to spin out of nowhere, and the same suffocating feeling I had earlier returned. I soon realized I was back in the water and desperately swam to the surface. It was almost as if my instincts told me something was on the other side. I swam my way out of the darkness of the depths into the light of the surface. Something was telling me to reach the surface, so I did.
As I swam closer and closer to the surface, warmth radiated from my ring. Although my eyes were closed, I could also feel a brightness emitted from the ring as if it protected me from the darkness. When I got to the surface, my eyes opened to a different world than I had left. I was also lying in a pool rather than a bathtub. I quickly hopped out of the water because the pool looked like a swamp with leaves, dirt, and moss growing on the water's surface.
The pool hadn't been clean in a while, and I could even see weeds growing throughout the gated backyard. As I looked down at my ring, it seemed normal. There was no glowing or warmth radiating from it either. The accessory on my finger felt cold, so maybe I had imagined it all. As much as I would have liked to focus on my ring, I noticed my surroundings. It was utter destruction.
As for the gate, the wood was rotting, and the entrance seemed broken in certain places. It was as if it had gotten demolished by something. The grass was also as high as my waist. I walked to the grass toward the house before a snack jumped out and bit me. I didn't know where I was, but I wouldn't stay in this place. I hoped I was in Heaven, but I was getting downstairs vibes.
As I walked through the house, there were all kinds of dust and wear & tear. The house was in shambles, and plants were growing everywhere. The whole area gave me a post-apocalyptic feel. The other homes in the neighborhood were in a similar state as I walked around the cul-de-sac. Almost every mirror in every house had gotten shattered.
By the time I found a mirror, I got frozen in place. I was not in my 22-year-old body but rather one of a child. It was weird because I wasn't exactly sad. I even began to cry happy tears with a small smile. It was calm, even in this hellscape with no other humans. I was back inside what I believed to be my ten-year-old body. Before I could admire the beauty of my past self more, I could hear the sound of wings flapping outside.
Thinking of the prospect of seeing a living animal got me to run outside the house quickly. But unfortunately, it wasn't like there was much of a place left, so even before I walked out, I could see a dove flying into the sky. I instinctively twisted the ring on my finger. Whenever I saw doves after getting my sister passed, I always thought they were a sign of my only sibling reaching out to me. A stray tear fell as I thought she was still watching over me.
I wasn't sure what was happening, but I wouldn't let this opportunity go to waste. If I was hallucinating, what did being in this hellscape mean? I didn't enjoy being here, but at least it was quiet. It seemed I was the only human around, and other than that dove; I may have been the only living thing around. I couldn't even hear crickets or other bugs.
Wherever I ended up was a hidden paradise for me. All the stress I had and the hopeless feeling I had felt was gone. I finally felt free, like any thought of giving up was gone. I was ready to take the next step wherever it would lead me. I wouldn't mind an eternity of tranquility where I was young again.
My mental state was clear, and I felt right at home. My brown caramel skin was glowing with life again rather than the pale brown color I began to have. My hair that I had bleached blond hair was now also back to its original black and curly state. I wore my favorite blue power ranger shirt from my past with some black sweatpants and Converse. Rather than continuing to boost my ego from how cute I was when I was young because I was like a slightly darker Corbin Bleu, I continued to walk around.
As I continued looking around the neighborhood, some houses looked rundown and covered in weeds, while others seemed destroyed. It was as if a battle had raged through here, but no bloodstains or carnage were around. Not even a skeleton was lying around. There were, however, lots of cobwebs to the point I was looking for spiders. After watching the movie with the same name, I had mild arachnophobia.
That was until I saw a woman. She sat on the top of an SUV while just staring into space. Although her back was to me, I felt a bad omen was coming. My body refused to move near her as if a sixth sense told me not to get close. I could only breathe softly, hoping she wouldn't notice me. Instead, she seemed distracted by whatever she was looking at and even waving at something on her side.
This woman in a white dress reminded me of a Siren because she seemed nice, but her aura was causing my instincts to go haywire. My heartbeat began to quicken as I held my breath. Something was suffocating about this woman's presence, and I felt like I was looking at a demon. A pretty one, though, because she had a facial structure like the woman in the movie Maleficient. Although her skin was pale, she was at a photoshoot if a cameraperson was around due to her beauty.
I soon abandoned the idea of it being a photoshoot once I looked at the surroundings more closely near her. There were not only giant webs around her but ripped body pieces dripping blood on the web and ground. Of course, this woman lacked any blood on her, but I could feel as if she was the root. My questions got answered as webs began to shoot out of her hands. It was as if she was Spiderman, but the webs went everywhere. They only stopped about a foot away from where I was hiding.
I was only just out of range from being caught. However, if I touch the web, I likely get stuck or have my exact location found out. Hopefully, this was the limit of the web's range. I did not want to be ripped apart by a giant spider. Now that I was young again, I was too cute to die.
The woman's hair also elongated as she screeched into the air. Her lower body began to morph into one similar to a spider. Chelicerae began to come out of her face as six black eyes grey on her face. It was as if she had become Arachne. All the previous beauty was gone, and she looked terrible. Although this was a possible life & death situation, I could only think of the tagline, 'This is why we don't do heroin or crack kids.'
As I was having an internal monologue and contemplating if I would die the minute I moved, I noticed movement closer to the woman or spider woman. A couple was hiding in a car covered in webs but opened the door to escape. However, staying in the car was safer as the webs began moving once the door opened. Like any spider on a web, the Arachne creature was alerted and screeched before running over to them.
I contemplated helping them get away by distracting the spider woman. They could answer my questions, but I may also get murdered by the spider. Rather than running, the man began to chant some words as a floating symbol drew itself into existence. A web shot out before he could finish, trapping him and the woman. They could not even move a muscle, and certain death seemed imminent.
The woman began to cry loudly while the man seemed one step away from doing the same. So they were staring down death after all. While I sympathized with them, I was more interested in the words he spoke and the symbol. Either this world had high-tech like nanobots, or there was magic. I wasn't sure if I should be scared of death or fascinated; I was in a world of magic. Morally I should feel bad for them, but internally, I was saying, 'It sucks to be them.'
Lady Luck didn't seem to like me much because a tiny spider the size of my head screeched from the left of me. The spider woman looked directly at me, and I felt like her eyes bore into my soul. She then licked her lips before screeching and running my way. I turned and ran as fast as my legs would take because I didn't want to be sucked dry of my blood. But, for all I know, she may not even eat like a spider or human, so I knew I had to get out there.
I avoided the rubble the best I could because I didn't want to get caught. However, the Spider woman was thriving with her terrain advantage. My life started to feel like a video game because the spider woman chose me over two full-grown, meatier humans. Why did it choose two delicious steaks over a small lamb chop? I was wondering who plundered all of my luck.
Although matters were dire, none of it made me mad though. I was just miserable. However, I did get angry when I saw the couple escape the webs during all this chaos and choose to flee the other way. Could they live with the fact they let a child die? So much for human kinship.
When I finally turned my head to focus on where I was running, I slipped over an invisible piece of rock like the white girl protagonists in scary movies before they got killed. The woman spider launched itself at me like I was dinner as if right on cue. But, unfortunately, it was more like a bag of snacks. One bite could take half my body with it.
A firewall rose between us before it could get a bite of me, causing the spider woman to stop its advance. Unfortunately, one of its legs was not so lucky to escape the flames. I slowly turned, hoping my savior wasn't another beast trying to eat me. Instead of seeing another creature, a young woman stood behind me a few meters back. The only word I could use to describe her was stunning.
There were no imperfections from head to toe. First, the young woman's long curly hair was a luxurious and beautiful black. The hair flowed in the wind as if I were watching a CoverGirl commercial. Not to mention, her melanated unblemished dark tan skin glowed in the sun as she stood. I felt even more in awe as I saw her wearing a 1-shoulder yellow split knee dress that looked off the runway.
That was until I saw she was standing barefoot in molten lava. It also seemed as if her clothes weren't burning either. But, of course, the young woman wasn't burning, and I could feel the heat even though I was further away, so rather than seeing how it all played out, I got out of the woman's way and started running around her pit of lava. Unfortunately, I ran into someone since I watched what was about to occur.