Boom! Crash!

Echoes of an explosion seemed to ring out, louder, and then dimmer. The sound of a combustion, the shattering of glass, and the crumbling of stones… and then silence. A long moment passed. 

In the bleeding ears of an adolescent boy, these echoes reverberated, forwards and backwards in an incomprehensible loop. After a period of time that he could not determine, the sounds ebbed away, and an empty silence filled the space instead. Listening to that silence, he suddenly became aware of the sound of his own breathing, and his eyes fluttered open. 

The stream of sunlight that flowed into the boy’s eyes blinded him, and he shut his watery eyes out of reflex. In that dark space, he felt the sound of his breathing get louder, and his skin began to feel the prickling of grass beneath him. Cautiously, once more, he opened his eyes, and this time his crimson eyes absorbed the light, taking in the clear scenery. He saw a brilliant blue sky and a seemingly endless plain of grass, with the chaos of an explosion nowhere in sight. 

His eyes scanned the horizon, and then turned towards his own body, which was ridden with wounds. He glanced at his hand, which felt the soft brushing of grass, and his fingers twitched. Then, as if understanding that this hand was an extension of himself, he reached out and waved his hand amongst several blades of grass. Their edges wiped against his skin, and the blood from an open wound trickled down, vibrantly red in contrast against the golden green. 

Intrigued by the crimson blood that flowed from his pale, nearly white skin, he prodded at his wound a little. The sensation sent a shock of pain through his hand, and he flinched, afraid of this new and uncomfortable feeling. He looked towards the other various wounds along his body, and his garments that were torn and muddied with blood. Then, his eyes moved back towards the hand that he had poked, which oddly no longer seemed to sting. 

On that palm that had dropped blood just a moment ago, there were no traces of any wound. He wiggled his fingers, and opened and closed his fist, all without any pain. He stared at it in awe for a moment, and then his attention quickly diverted. Standing up, he felt the odd sensation of grass and dirt under his feet, and stumbled a little trying to maintain his balance. He tripped over a rolling pebble, and fell face first into the ground. Wincing at the pain, he lay there for a short while, and when the sensation subsided, he got up once more.

Like that, he stood up and fell countless times, and had progressed a ways through the field when he noticed that the color of the sky was changing. He stopped for a moment and watched the sun fall over the tip of a mountain, red seeping out through the sky as if it was bleeding. He stood there for a long while, entranced by the gradient of the sky that continued to evolve. 

At long last, the sun was no longer visible, and the edges of pink and purple hovered dimly above the horizon. A dark blue spread over the heights of the sky, and the boy lifted his head to watch tiny specks of dust appear in the dark. Those miniscule orbs twinkled and flickered, and he reached out his hand towards them. When he failed to touch anything, he waved his arm across the air, and realized the grand depth between him and the distant sparkles. 

The soles of his feet sore from having to maintain his weight, the boy sat down, and then reclined to see the vast sky expand before him. His gaze did not part from the flickering stars in the night until his eyelids grew heavy, and began to fall. Unable to resist the feeling that began to flow over him, he closed his eyes and fell into a deep slumber. 

***

When the boy next awoke, it was morning, and the crisp air filled his lungs. He lay amongst the grass, enjoying the feeling of it, when he began to feel an odd feeling in his stomach. A growl erupted from it, and the boy was a bit startled by his own body. Even while being confused, he somehow could understand that what he was feeling was hunger. He glanced about at the grass that surrounded him, and ripped some out of the ground. Placing the blades that still had some dirt on them into his mouth, he began chewing. It was a very unappetizing taste. 

He spit out the half-chewed grass in disgust, and sat for a while, at a loss of what to do. His stomach continued to growl, and he placed his hand on his torso, hoping to quiet the noise. When it didn’t, he finally decided to get up in search of something more appetizing to eat.

And so the adolescent boy wandered for a few hours, out of the grassy plain and into the outskirts of a village. The rocks underneath his feet pained his soles, leaving scratches and cuts on his already worn feet. Despite this, numerous other small wounds around his body faded in these hours, as if they had never existed. The blood that had seeped into his clothes was now dry and hard, and no more flowed from the wounds on his chest and legs. Though uncomfortable, he was not in much pain, especially compared to before. 

What primarily occupied the boy’s mind was the emptiness in his stomach, and a parched feeling in his throat. Thinking of nothing but these two things, he wandered, and continued wandering, until he began to hear a sort of trickling noise in the distance. He headed towards the noise, and then saw something glimmering under the sun. He walked closer and found a river, the clear water glistening as it rushed along its course. Entranced by the reflection of the sky in the water, he brought his head over it, and was startled to find a reflection of himself. The movement of the river distorted his features, and when he reached into the water where the reflection was, it rippled out and disappeared. 

Rather than the strangeness of the scattered image, the boy found himself more intrigued by the cool feeling of water against his skin, and he jumped into the river, wanting to feel it more. The cold water flowed past him, and he planted his feet firmly in the dirt, trying to stay in place. After he regained his balance, he looked down and saw his distorted body in the water and shook his arms around, confused. When he raised his arm above the water, it was perfectly smooth and whole, but when beneath the surface, it appeared to move and sway, even when kept still. 

The boy was thoroughly amused by this, and spent quite a moment of time changing his position and seeing the image of his body under the water. He was so taken by this activity that he failed to hear nor notice a girl approaching from the other side of the river. Wondering what things would look like under the water, he submerged his head beneath the surface, and the sudden impact to water quickly stung his eyes and nose. Shocked, he immediately pulled his head out, sputtering and flailing in the river.