A Strange and Unfriendly Awakening

Author: Robert Quick

Where the -@!# did my muse go?

Writer, dreamer, knight, shackled by entertainment . . . and people.

I woke up flat on my belly, a rocky and uneven ground pushing uncomfortably into my stomach. My body was stiff and cold. Just out of reach was a familiar meat cleaver, its handle rising out of a puddle.

The world seemed to be two places, overlapping echoes of each other, both there and and somehow not-there at the same time. I inched forward and stretched out, grabbing for the handle of the cleaver. On my second try, I succeeded and the two worlds soundlessly snapped together becoming one. Raindrops pricked the back of my hand in cold pinches and gave the surface of the puddle a multitude of eyes that opened and closed in rapid succession. The firm reliability of the cleaver gave me a kind of confidence. Slowly, painfully, I pushed myself up off the cold hardness of the ground.

I was in a cemetery. I had been lying on a cobblestone path that wound through the headstones. I wiped some of the accumulating wetness from my face. I remembered being afraid but I wasn't afraid now.

I just wanted to get back home.

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Comments (4 so far!)

Average reader rating 5.00/5

HSAR

A mysterious awakening, with an interesting choice of props.

#833 Posted 8 years ago
0

wolframdioxide

Fascinating.

Should I regard this as part of a larger series, based on the tags?

#835 Posted 8 years ago
0

ethelthefrog

Gorgeous. Superbly executed.

The cleaver is such a... satisfying tool. The heft is perfect in the hand. I can see why this character finds it a good link with grounded reality.

#838 Posted 8 years ago
0
5 out of 5

ElshaHawk LoA

I love how the world is there and not there, such a simple way to state that place between asleep and awake where you try to figure out what is going on. This person is definitely a survivor. Of what, we don't know.

#1161 Posted 7 years ago
0