Rebirth

Short story I wrote in a stream of consciousness mode

Staring down at my hands they weren’t different. There wasn’t anything wrong with the dream I was dreaming, yet I had awoken. I felt refreshed. I was still dreaming. Through my fingers I could see my feet,  nature slipped through my naked toes. She had me in her green embrace, I could feel divinity calling me from beneath to walk. All the focus was on my feet, the energy of untamed plant life flowed up my legs, until the wild put my blood into the earth. 

Suddenly the sun jumped out, the sky lit up and all around me were the purest of souls all smiling at the sun in gratitude for warmth. Something was unnatural, I couldn’t hear anything! There was no sound, where was the sound? If I listened very hard I knew I’d hear the screaming again but there was no sound from anywhere and I just wanted to smile up at the sun like everyone else. The darkness behind was so unappealing, that must be why people are screaming, I looked behind and noticed that everyone who was screaming was behind me, their broken bodies strewn before the my image, which was fine but I had to leave, the wolves were getting closer and they wouldn’t show mercy to anyone, least of all their master.

As soon as I reached the forrest it was time to dance, the trees were waiting for me and they were scared, they are always scared. They tried to grab me but I danced like one of their leaves falling far from the tree. The wind howled angrily and blew me to safety where a pond swallowed me up.  On the other side of the pond where I was spat out was the sun. The pond was angry like the wind but I didn’t care, I wanted to be warm, the water had taken away my purity. My robes were no longer white, there were no longer robes, only skin. Wet skin.

I couldn’t dance any longer so I fell asleep beside a tree, it was nice to be held so close to one much bigger and stronger. When I awoke I knew there must be something beautiful about this tree:I wasn’t made of wood. So I knocked it down and made a raft. Its sticky blood covered my naked skin. The work made the world strangely clearer. I felt like a murderer, so impure that not even the water wanted me, nor the dead tree and so I kept afloat almost all the way to the sun.

I was 14 trees away from the end of the world when rather than fall of edge I decided to get out of the raft. Fear and realisation hit me, I was doomed, every action predetermined.  Fate had dictated to me where I was to go and I must free myself . I had already freed myself from something. The raft slipped off the edge of the earth, I watched it from the safety of the long grass. This is a dream I thought, and I don’t want to change anything, I want to be changed, I want to love every blade of grass. So I did that for a while until I saw the sun beams grinning my direction, perverted light greets every new encounter. There is something new under the sun. Everything refused to make sense. A yellow brick road was not 40 feet from well, my feet. Maybe the wizard would be able to help me I thought as I skipped along laughing to myself.

The end of the road left me standing in front of a great house, it sat under the sun. The air seemed to demand that things made more sense, my feet hurt from the journey. The door didn’t answer when I called it, only the window gave way. I met my first person, he didn’t much like the sight of me. Snooty looking butler with a great moustache.

“Can I help you Miss?” he asked

“Oh that’s right I’m a woman now”

“Weren’t you always?”

“Not when things didn’t make sense”

I walked through the door he guarded, swung my hips a little. This was going to be fun.

There was a party happening in front of me. Everyone was dressed so beautifully, the host raised a webbed hand filled with its own blood.  The hand was not his, it twitched slightly and spilled a single drop on his bark coat.  He was clearly angry, the webbed fingers dropped its charge and slipped from his hand. All eyes followed the terrified little hand scuttle across the floor and toward the door. It had escaped my notice up until this point that I was the host. My crown fit nicely upon my head, I knew it felt powerful, it couldn’t be taken off.

Our eyes caught and would not release. I begun walking toward myself.  I was aware that all the guests were now staring at me but I walked proudly, sexily. All I was interested in was myself and how powerful I looked. I could hear their voices saying how the tree blood complemented my figure but I only wanted to hear my own voice. Finally we met. I told me that I looked beautiful, I had already told myself that all the way here. I told me that I looked handsome and powerful, I smiled, a tear escaped so I kissed it away and killed myself.

The crown felt heavy, heavier than before but I could still see the sky. The sun above looked different from directly below.

The guests chanted my name, I could feel their chants lifting me up into the sun. It shone my image everywhere, through my image I could smell the ground calling out in thirst. I could taste the little wolves crying from hunger and the pure ones all around offered themselves with their smiles. Something about this felt so familiar that when the screaming began again and I descended back to my guests I was starting to worry. I was made of wood. There was something new under the sun.

I couldn’t feel anything and it hurt so much. As I touched the ground everyone around congratulated me on my work. I felt proud, I was really something, well a part of something, rebirth. They talked and talked, they talked about complicated things, that made my head hurt. I was so proud but my crown was so heavy.

The door openned and the moment I was waiting for happened finally, I wasn’t sure whether it had been several minutes, hours or years, time was flying all manner of directions but her beauty was breathtaking. I couldn’t breath. I raised my hand. Everyone thought I was making a toast. It spilt a drop on my bark, my face went red. In front of the guests and this beauty. I let the hand go free. Spilling it’s blood all across the floor.

She must be a queen, she is so perfect I thought, looking at her naked feet, then legs, up to your chest and oh those eyes, I could get lost in those eyes. Time stopped and I could breath again. We stood these staring at each other, I was amazed she could move, I was paralysed. I think everyone knew what was coming next, all apart from the tear, I hope. She must have kept the knife warm, it was a much nicer way to slip away from a dream.

Reviews

[Ruhoun Q. Geins]

I'm not sure what to say about this piece. It felt so surreal. Like a dream within a dream within a dream. There were some unnecessary repetition, in my opinion, throughout. I liked how alive your piece is with so much movement. I could picture this dreamlike setting in my head vividly. A few tweaks here and there and maybe taking out some redundancy would improve the overall appeal of this piece immensely. Keep up the good work.