By: Luke Wang

William Edwards rushed down the deserted avenue in downtown. His feet pounded against the black asphalt, abandoned vehicles littering the street, forcing him to sway in the maze of steel and smoke piling up from the idle engines. William looked up into the sky, gradually turning from an inky navy-blue screen to a pitch black blanket that blotted out the sun. William knew the only possible way to escape from the upcoming danger was to reach his house. His house from his memories was a cozy small shelter, a warm lamp lighting up the surrounding walls and furniture. William felt a gust of energy that engulfed his body again as his eyes brightened up with the picture of his comfort zone. He picked up his pace. After turning at a street corner, William’s house appeared in front of his line of sight. There it was, a petit red single-story wooden cabin that laid proportionally adjacent to the roadway. William dashed towards it, only to feel a strenuous grip locking his ankles. He looked down in horror to find his ankle trapped in the black asphalt road, except it wasn’t asphalt, the asphalt had melted into a swamp of rocks grabbing William. William waddled through the asphalt swamp as the buildings and cars also dissolved into the mass. He finally reached the door of his cabin, before he was submerged in the blobby mass that gashed to enveloped him like a spider to its prey. William tossed himself into the room and slammed the door shut behind him. He laid on the floor, breathless, trying to recover from the close call he just experienced seconds ago. His mind was racing, thinking and thinking until he realized something was wrong. He heard the unnerving squeaking of wood being stretched and squeezed, before he could even figure out the source, the cabin walls were busted open by the black mass. From the ripped walls, William can see the downtown skyline has dissapeared, the horizon having transformed into a waterfall of the black goo that charged and engulfed him. William felt that he was slowly suffocating, his head was cracking with pain. He saw the lamp from his room, he tried to reach for it only to see the lamp smashed to pieces by the waves of darkness, disintegrating below the surface. William felt hopeless, he didn’t know how to escape, there was no one to help him, he couldn’t help himself. So he closed his eyes and hoped, then he saw a dim glow, it was coming from the bottom of the murky ocean. William now knew the way to escape, he dived down towards the light, as he slowly approached the light, the light glared more and more until he completely merged with it.

William Edwards woke up from his bed, he remembered everything. It wasn’t a dream, he had no clue what these images were or how they were created. He did know what these images mean for him. William walked downstairs and took the small canister of antidepressants on the kitchen counter. He swallowed it with a cup of water as the window glittered under the morning sun.