The street that I walk is like any busy city street. Cars move at a snail’s pace while the people move like rats in a flooded pipe. Usually the air would be filled with chaotic noise, but it is dead quiet. Not a noise is made; not from the cars not from the people. Dead silence.

As I walk down the street I cannot remember where I’m going or, in fact, why I’m walking. I’m just going as if programmed to walk this path. Getting closer to my destination, or at least I think I am getting closer people begin to run, with looks of pain and fear on their faces, they scurry away in the opposite direction. This perplexes me but looking upwards towards the sky I begin to understand.

The buildings surrounding me, the skyline of the city, begin to collapse. Crumbling as if by a controlled demolition, the rubble buries anything and everything. Cars jut out of the wreckage like budding plants, and limbs are exposed to the air. But I remain, untouched and unharmed with a path set forth for me. The street is clear and pristine as if newly cleaned.

I walk the path with some reservation, but I know that I must walk on. The path leads to a giant heap of rubble. Steel beams are contorted in a way that reminds me of a modern art piece. The plaster that once was a wall to an office is broken and crumbled. I begin to get nervous: “Why was I the only one left alive? Why am I the only one left standing?” I ask myself.

A figure begins to appear out of the wreckage. It looks transparent and ghost-like, almost not real. However, as it continues to levitate, the figure fixes into position. The humanoid figure becomes opaque and life like. I am paralyzed into place and transfixed on this figure.

The head is bowed, as if in prayer. The body of this figure is covered with a gown of silk and lace, it is beautiful in the sun that is shining down upon it. A veil covers the face of this figure, I cannot see the face of this being. It’s as if this figure is dressed for a wedding that it was late for, too late for in fact. In one fluid motion the lady lifts the veil, revealing the face beneath it.

The face is as white as the newly fallen snow in December, the look of it chills my bones. There is some rouge in the cheeks of this lady, and blood red lipstick has been applied. The face is gaunt with the cheek bones well defined. She smiles at me but it is not a friendly smile it is sinister. The contrast of the lipstick and her teeth again makes me shutter with bone shattering coldness.

Rising higher and higher in the sky, with arms outstretched, she opens her mouth in a scream. The scream pierces the silence like a knife and I recoil in pain. The noise envelopes me and I cannot escape it.

Quickly, the once humanoid figure of the bride, turns to a skeleton. First, the hands then the face becomes nothing but a skull: bare and empty. I try to turn and run in the opposite direction but I cannot move, I am stuck like a stick in the mud.

The figure dashes towards me and before it can touch me: I awake. Sweaty and panting, I grope for something real, anything. Touching the couch that I lay on I am once again in reality, but I am not free from the unreal. As I open my eyes I realize that I am in my dark basement, and as I gaze I can still see the face of the lady in white. She is staring at me with sinister eyes and smile. Blinking, hoping that it will go away, it does not dissipate. Closing my eyes and opening them rapidly I try to get rid of the image. It is only after what seems like and eternity that it finally disappears, into the deep dark recesses of my mind.

I turn the lights on to reveal a black leather couch, a foose ball table, and a TV. It was all a dream but it felt so real, so life like.

Signed,

xxx