I found myself lying in a courtyard in the middle of some old and aged apartment complex. The courtyard was gated in by brick walls and objects such as old gas cans and yard working equipment scattered the yard. All rusty, they laid still, but seemed to be inhabitants of the courtyards, like animals in pins, giving off somewhat of an atmosphere to the area around me. It was around dusk, the dark blue of the night was slowly finishing its chase of the day’s bright blue out of the sky. A cool breeze rustled the grass around me; it felt refreshing.
I was a bit puzzled by the situation, all because I seemed to be completely alone in the world, or… felt so at the moment. But with this feeling of solitude I was not bothered because I didn’t think I’d ever known anything other than it, or at least, this feeling of aloneness didn’t seem to bring any nostalgic feelings of unity with any one person.
I got up from the grass, brushed off and looked around for the exit; my curiosity tingled to explore my surroundings. To my right, a small alleyway with light protruding from it caught my eye and I curiously approached it. Before I could fully get to an angle to even see the other end, she blissfully popped through its opening in front of me. A warm blanket of some unexplainable comfortableness engulfed my heart by just the site of her. Her facial expression upon seeing me brightened to the most gleeful smile as she pressed on me and hugged me. I hesitated at first in a kind of shock at the suddenness of the situation, but I soon returned the action.
My whole body and mind seemed to rediscover a whole new disposition of enlightenment as she hugged me. I felt as though I were sinking into her arms, but as the feeling became a welcomed one, she let go and the feeling blew away. However, my mind and body were still at their point of enlightenment by just her presence. She greeted me with kind and endearing words and told me that we were going somewhere, pointing towards the light alleyway. I happily obliged her motive and she grabbed my hand and led me down.
I was brought out onto a street in what looked like an aged suburbia, but with hints of new age and time mingled in it. In the distance a large city loomed with lights shining out of it, as if the stars were living in its domain. I let go of her hand and strayed about the street, observing the sites around me— all of it was foreign to me. The buildings lining the streets all appeared to be townhouses, with small modules on the door that didn’t look to be of the same age as the house. In various places around the street, TVs hung on the streetlights and on the corners of buildings, along with modules, about the size of mail bins sitting randomly beside certain buildings. At that point in time, every one of these devices seemed to be off. The TVs remained dormant and blank along with the other modules, showing no signs of operation. The whole area we were in was dead and bereft of life, not another single person apart from ourselves seemed to inhabit the area.
I strolled back over to her and reached my hand out to her shoulder, but where the contact between my hand and her shoulder should have happened, my hand idly passed through her as if I were just grabbing air. As it passed through her her, ice cold engulfed my hand and she quickly turned around and smiled warmly, completely unfazed. She didn’t even seem to realize it had happened. I was shocked and taken aback by the fact I wasn’t able to touch her. A cold feeling began stirring in my chest, but slowly died down as her warm look reached my eyes. She pointed towards the city in the near distance with great enthusiasm and took hold of my hand again, leading me down the street.
The sun was setting fast, the horizon’s light diminishing minute by minute. We continued to stroll down the street, observing the empty alleyways and quiet sanctum of the streets. She stopped a little ways in our observing, let go of my hand, and looked around.
“What’s up?” I asked in puzzlement. Either she didn’t hear me or was choosing to ignore me because she didn’t even flinch or notice that I had spoken and continued to eye about the area. After about a second more of observation, she turned back to me and told me it was time to join the others. I was kind of puzzled as to whom the “others” were, but gladly accepted her motive. I reached out to grab her hand so that we could continue on to wherever the “others” were, but my hand passed smoothly through hers, causing me to stumble forward. The cold feeling again stirred in my stomach at my confusion at not being able to touch her at all, but without missing a beat, where my hand had missed her hand, she quickly took hold of mine and pulled me with her down the street.
Darkness had almost completely engulfed where we were so that the only light invading the area was that of the city in the distance. We strolled and skipped our way down the street together towards the looming city, its illuminating pillars of light shooting up into the sky like that of a blooming flower. It felt like it took almost an hour to get to the ledge of piercing lights radiating from the city. The whole way down, we had casually talked about life and the now, although I had no idea or remembrance of what I was actually talking about. Still, a strong sense of comfort and familiarity lingered around this girl, and though the area and space around me was completely foreign, it was hard to feel afraid as we walked hand in hand. It gave me a sense of unity with her, like a warm sense of togetherness that melted away the cold, whirling feelings in my stomach.
As we got closer to the metropolis, I became more and more astonished at the physical construct of the city. It was like all the buildings and structures within were made of glass or crystal that glared ultraviolet colors and radiated bright hazy light. The buildings appeared to be so fragile that even the slightest knock or breeze would mean the death to everyone around. Regardless, the buildings remained firm and solid.
As we finally found ourselves in the full entanglement of the blossoming city of light, we began to encounter life for the first time. Slowly, but surely, the city produced the usual amount of life a city is expected to, and our easy stroll became a series of scoots and pushes amongst the hustle and bustle. I started to notice a good couple of yards ahead that the sidewalk we were walking down, along with all of the other people on it, abruptly stopped, leaving only the open roads and intersections ahead. There didn’t look to be any place for people to go past that point, and only room for the vehicles zooming through the air and rolling on the ground to go to and fro.
I didn’t even get to ask what or why, though, because at the exact moment my hand was tugged to our right, where a large platform inside a huge tube-like structure sat idle. A good amount of other people were already standing on it, looking to be bored and waiting, and as more stepped on, a counter on the inside of the wall ticked up a little more. We stepped onto the platform and the counter clicked up to 23 then 24. We waited a short bit for a few more to get on, and when the counter hit 30, the opening of the large tube structure closed, and the platform slowly began to lift.
I was surprised at the smoothness in which the platform rose with so many people on it. It almost didn’t feel as though the platform were moving at all. The sidewalk and road became smaller and smaller below us as the platform flew gracefully higher and higher. I pressed myself against the transparent walls of the tube and stared outward at the passing stream of flying ships and vehicles. I turned back to the girl, hoping to share my awe with her, but she appeared to be patiently staring off into space, so I decided to leave her be. Within a minute we were past the height of flying traffic and a good ways away from the sidewalks and streets where we had once stood. I felt as though I were being ascended into the heavens, as the lights radiating off the buildings around us intensified.
After about two minutes, the platform smoothly came to a halt and its doors opened to a wide walkway that stretched out into the distance, breaking off and turning every which way. The crowd of people standing around us on the platform quickly began their exit onto the walkway without any hesitation. The girl followed, too, and I ran to catch up with her, trying again to grab hold of her hand, but only meeting with the transparency, and frustration, once more. The all-too-familiar, cold feeling stirred in my stomach. I sighed with disappointment, but followed her nonetheless.
With no roof above us, pillars of large buildings rose in every direction around. The night sky, contrasting against the brightness of the structures, stared down through their gaps. I followed behind her closely, staring around me in awe. The lights and formations were beyond anything I could ever possibly fathom.
After a short bit of walking, the girl stopped in front of a bench on the side of the railing and turned to look at me. She told me all that was left to do was to wait on “them”. I had almost forgotten about “them” after seeing so much of the city. She daintily sat down on the bench and looked about in self-amusement. Curious, I walked over to the side railing and peered over and down. I hadn’t been able to completely comprehend how high we had gone until I actually looked. Through the passing traffic crisscrossing below us, the sidewalk looked like a bold, black line and the streets were just larger, grey duplicates. I hung over the railing and continued to stare down at the city under me for a good while. I eventually raised my head and turned around, leaning my back on the sidewall.
“It’s an amazing view!” I said and turned my head toward the girl.
“Mhm.” She continued to stare off into space. Immediately, I felt bad. My existence around this girl had begun demeaning. The bond we had shared an hour ago in the abandoned slums became nothing but a delusional attachment.
I sighed and turned back around so I could just continue gazing at our surroundings. About ten minutes of silence passed, each more awkward than the last, at least for me. But then I heard voices aimed in our direction and turned my head. Four people were walking towards us while waving, two girls and two boys. I assumed that this was the “them” I had been hearing about. The one who seemed to be leading had shoulder-length black hair around his weathered face, and dark, aged clothing. Despite his rough exterior, he showcased a smile and a constant wave as he approached.
Joy shot up the girl’s face and she stood abruptly, running towards the group with enthusiasm. She greeted the one in front with a leaping hug and yelled what I could only guess was his name, although it was inaudible to me. I slowly pushed myself off the wall I had been leaning on and walked leisurely over to the group of reuniting friends. They surrounded the girl and asked her where she’d been as I made my way towards the group.
I reached the group of friends and stood outside the circle quietly, I was a bit puzzled as to what to do at this point considering everyone’s point of interest was the girl. I stared at my feet for a little bit trying to cover up the awkwardness of the situation. After listening in to their conversation for a few moments, the girl, alerted to my alienation from my group, popped out amongst the group and turned their attention to me. She grabbed onto my arm and turned around to the group, introducing me warmly. I wasn’t able to tell what my name was when she introduced me, along with everyone else’s names as they were introduced. We stood around for a few minutes making small talk and killing time. When that became mundane, we began walking forward into the labyrinth of walkways amongst the large pillars of ultraviolet buildings.
