Anonymous bystander, 2029 | San Diego, California | Awakening
I got a job cleaning one of the high end condos at City College Trolley Station and i knew that this particular TreeBnB was not due to be rented out again until 3 pm today. It was early in the morning- the sun wasn’t even out- and i had nowhere else to go, so i helped myself. It was the first time i’d slept in a bed or anywhere clean in a very long time, despite my 3 1/2 jobs, and i slept into the late morning hours. I was so stressed out for so long about absolutely everything, i couldn’t even begin to tackle my stressors. When i woke up, i decided to take a long, hot shower, then made a small bowl of instant oatmeal- i carried packets with me for when i came across hot water. I finished eating then i cleaned everything up and rewashed the sheets, making it appear as if no one had ever even been here, as if the condo was simply magically clean after each guest. I was about to walk out the door when i heard noise from the balcony’s screen doors.
"What the hell," i mumbled anxiously to myself after what sounded like two gunshots went off. I paused then walked over to the balcony. The usual protesters were violently overrunning police officers as they beat a woman brutally. The protestors pulled them off of her and attacked them as a teenage boy darted around the young woman who had been shot. She was stumbling backwards into the trolley tracks. I looked both ways and, of course, two trolleys just so happened to be headed toward her, but the tracks sparked and i could hear metal screeching angrily as the trolleys came to a violent stop, smashing into an invisible barrier. A few people in the crowd- the few who noticed- gasped and stared in shock.
The woman started rising into the air and she seemed to be flickering between a human form and pure light. She floated farther and farther up. Was i dreaming? Most of the crowd still wasn't paying attention. She kept rising until she hit about 20 or 25 feet, then she stopped. She reached for something, i followed her gaze to a man who was running to her, yelling and pleading incoherently, looking around frantically. All i could make out was "no, not yet,” then i followed his gaze. I saw dense black fog, almost like smoke, racing toward him. He started eating it. I shook my head and squinted. What?! Yes, he was eating it, pushing back. He was doing all he could, but so much was coming. The smoke appeared to be conscious, aware, and it was trying to get to the floating woman. The man started eating it and fighting it, psychically batting it back as he ran. Some of the dark appeared to be helping and even protecting him, but it just wasn’t enough. He started panicking as more of this fog sped toward the floating woman. The scene was breaking my heart.. it was like they were losing a battle that was detrimental to- i winced and grabbed my head as it throbbed at the thought- to our very existence.
The floating woman was trembling and crying hysterically. She reached out to the man and choked out “no!” Sparks and arcs of light were popping and snapping out of her and getting unbearably bright. He was cringing as it hit him, and the protective dark was doubling down, but he didn’t stop his advance. The light was sporadically tolerable as it sputtered in and out of sight, my eyes adjusted and I saw her face. She was crying, in pain, screaming. I wanted to save her from whatever was hurting her. So did he. My desire to help her became an ache that just kept getting more and more unbearable. I dropped to my knees. Some of the crowd felt this too and mimicked my response. Even more lights were shooting through her and she appeared to be having a seizure, yet somehow she looked determined. Everything started shaking from the ground to the air, i gripped the railing and the wall to stand up again. I saw another woman on the ground looking up at the floating woman, to the running man, then she threw her hands up toward him; she appeared to have put a shield around him and it was deflecting the light as much as it could, but it was also faltering. She was straining to keep it around him, barely standing as she struggled.
I saw more popping lights spinning around the floating girl then the lights rose out of sight. The sky opened up- unbelievable!- and let a few dim rays of light through. Hundreds of winged spectral beings, some with glowing bows, appeared above the floating woman. Some of the spectral lights appeared to be hostile toward the man, but the ones with the bows took aim at the hostile lights and the colossal black cloud directly opposite of them. Most of the onlookers had hit the ground, out cold, and they were shimmering, disintegrating, but very little and very slowly. The remainder of the crowd burst into odd forms; some appeared as black smoke, some were grey and lighter grey, some were even glowing silver. Several of them were moving toward the young man in poses that reminded me of a predator just before it attacks its prey. A few of the spectral beings released their arrows onto the ground on either side of the pleading and panicked man, creating a barrier that blew back the angry crowd and formed a path protecting him as he ran to her.
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[Inspirational Song | Muse, “Knights of Cydonia”]
"Do not interfere," i heard commanding voices say in unison through my thoughts, “let it happen” they said in an even lower tone, though more threatening. I looked down and saw that the conscious people in the crowd appeared to have heard the order as well, and all of the hostiles seemed to have slowed their advance. There was one, however, who ignored the order completely. The woman who had been beaten by the cops stood and began walking toward the floating woman in a trance. She walked right through the arrows that served as an iron shield to the others. She was coming to a realization, looking down. She closed her eyes and shook violently, then two silhouettes stepped out of her. I blinked several times. Every time i thought i’d seen it all, another bizarre thing happened. The two women who stepped out of her solidified and what appeared to be red auras flared intensely around them. The auras turned into glowing red thread and then sparkling red gowns. The... Fates? The spectral beings saw this and were shocked and relieved. The Fates seemed to remember where they were and what was happening. They snapped their heads up, their gaze locked on the running man, then their eyes darted quickly to the woman under the floating woman. She stared back, gasping for breath.
“What- are- you- waiting- for,” she snarled in a panic at the Fates. They glared at her but acted quickly; the running man jumped into the floating woman, but then red thread reached up from the ground, restraining him. He fought with all his might and some of the spectral beings started to raise their bows again. The man started thrashing.
“No,” he bellowed, “NO! I have to get to her, you can’t-”
The Fates teleported to him, following the threads, looked at him sympathetically with tears streaming down their faces and shook their heads. He was fighting them, screaming at them, but they embraced him as close as they could, flickered, then they all disappeared. The shielding woman collapsed with relief but as if she were an over-loved rag doll. The spectral beings attempted to stave off the hostiles, but black smoke immediately attempted to envelope the floating woman. As soon as it hit her, everything went black, it was the most eerie feeling i had ever experienced. For several seconds, i knew what it was to live a life with absolutely no hope, only fear and uncertainty, on a very deep level. I never wanted to feel this pain again, i wanted everything to end.. but then i saw light like nothing i'd ever seen in my life. It was as if an actual star had appeared where she was; the sky was black and she was lighting it up like an overpowered lantern in a pitch black forest at night. A horrible, pained shriek came from the star, then every piece of glass within eyesight shattered and fell to the ground. The souls that had been disintegrating before were gone, completely disappearing when the starlight hit them. The black smoke was nowhere to be found.
I saw lights, bright lights of every color, falling out of the sky and moving to the star. They all halted suddenly upon reaching her, then light poured from them into her. It seemed as if the star was draining them and there was odd movement coming from them. I squinted my eyes and saw that there were human-like figures in the smaller lights, and they didn’t seem to be in pain. As a matter of fact, they seemed to be encouraging, no, giving their light to the star. The woman who had been underneath her stood and fought as well, looking close to death. The star seemed fearful, and was trying to reject whatever it was that they were doing, but they wouldn’t relent. Some of the spectral beings pushed light toward her as well.
After a few minutes, the lights started dimming and i watched as they hit the ground, exhausted, and the star became still. Had she died?! No! I saw the young woman again but only as a light silhouette. She had dimmed to a bright glow and the once chaotic and unstable shine consuming her seemed to disperse as she began slowly lowering to the ground. Her outfit now resembled an elaborately adorned silvery ball gown with red, orange and yellow lights inside of it, a hood covered her head and she held a cast iron lantern with a tiny star in it in her left hand.
As her light dispersed, the lights that were nearly unconscious began coming around, dazed, but apparently overcome with enough joy to bring them to tears and the remainder of the people in the crowd cheered. The sky lit up again, and i saw my city, San Diego, but everything in it was pearl white and champagne gold, the newly white streets were covered with white sand- the glass that had shattered then turned to dust. The air felt cleaner, lighter. I had a bad feeling about something earlier, but it seemed to have gone away.
[Inspirational Song | Nightwish, “Bye Bye Beautiful”]
