here. What was there to see? It was just a plain field. But I wanted to remember it. Remember every second, every moment that I felt happy and free because I don’t know when I would be able to feel it again.
I looked up and found a rainbow stretched across the sky now. I followed it until I got to the end. Instead of a green bush with a pot of gold, I found a bush of roses in different colors. Despite the fun and visibly brighter colors, only one rose caught my eye: the lone black rose in the middle of the bush. I picked it and let its thorns prick me, the blood trickling down my finger. I raised my polaroid camera and took a picture of it. Took a picture of the bush too. Took a picture of the rainbow. Took a picture of myself.
When I decided to take out the pictures and look through them, that’s when I saw it.
A tall, dark, cloaked figure.
It was present in all of them, looming over from far away. I couldn’t see its face or any identifiable features. A chilly gust of wind suddenly sent shivers down my spine.
I felt its presence as I stood there. I wanted to run, but my feet were planted on the ground. I wanted to scream, but my lips were sealed shut. I wanted to cry, but my eyes were dry. I wanted to look, but my eyes were glued to the pictures. I couldn’t look up. I felt like I didn’t want to see what I knew I was going to see.
I wanted to breathe, but my heart felt like it stopped.
My eyes started to feel heavy. I started to feel light-headed. I stood there, suffocating, struggling for air, until the pictures slipped from my fingers and my body fell to the floor ever so slowly.
Strangely, I didn’t hear any shushed shuffles of the figure approaching until I saw it tower over my dying body with its skeletal arms outstretched towards me.
“Memento mori,” I heard it whisper in my mind before the darkness swallowed me whole.
.
.
.
I gasped for air as my eyes opened wide. Air flowed back into my lungs and blood rushed through