A short story by: Rachel E. Zullo
A Nightmare in Endless Island
All I could see was a never-ending darkness over an endless sea, and an island surrounded by a dull fog and blurry images. I could make out a jungle of tropical trees and bushes facing the ocean with only little open land of just sand and driftwood. The ocean stood still at a wave in the process of crashing but I could still hear the roaring of it as if it were a still picture with sound. There was no movement as if someone had frozen time but still left the volume up.
The sound of unnamed creatures lurking in the forest beside me brought shivers down my spine. Fragment of foot-steps snapped branches and crushed leaves no farther than five feet from where I stood. It was not just in front of me; no, it was behind me, too. Next to me, the vicious purring of a creature much larger than any tiger grew louder and more vivid. Once the chaos of screaming birds, fighting cat-like creatures, and the snapping of branches under large animal paws seemed to fade, I was only again startled by the heart racing crashes of the oceans waves. Unlike any ordinary, soothing sound of a relaxing wave, these waves brought a more haunting music to my ears for they sounded as screaming birds do circling around the decay of an unfortunate body. A Nightmare in Endless Island
All I could see was a never-ending darkness over an endless sea, and an island surrounded by a dull fog and blurry images. I could make out a jungle of tropical trees and bushes facing the ocean with only little open land of just sand and driftwood. The ocean stood still at a wave in the process of crashing but I could still hear the roaring of it as if it were a still picture with sound. There was no movement as if someone had frozen time but still left the volume up.
I could almost taste death all around me it was so close. Smoke from bombed ships washed ashore filled my mouth with a metallic, dull taste. I soon found it hard to breathe when the conspicuous taste of lava filled my entire mouth from the roof to the insides of my cheeks. The sharp burning was so strong I could feel my cheeks becoming hollow as the lava began to make its way out through the sides of my jaws and down my neck, leaving an opening in my cheeks and burn marks down to my collarbone.
The invisible bumping and pulling at my body made me anxious and timid. The slithering of 20-pound snakes over my feet and around my ankles brought me to the conclusion of holding my breath to stay calm. Sharp touches made their way up my spine and arms, like needles in a doll. I had begun to feel teeth marks of a hungry tiger-like prehistoric creature gnawing on my fingers until they slowly started peeling off, leaving a fountain of blood rolling down to the sides of my leg. Hesitant touches of sand paper-like lips rotated around my neck along with a moist breath exhaling by my ear. I couldn’t help but feel contained and yet uneasy and hollow at the same time.
The smell of rotting fruit and decaying flesh filled my head quickly. The biter scent followed by an eye watering, sour. My eyes began to fill with tears as the fishy smell mixed with death and decay filled my mouth with its strong, sour aroma. Rotting fish and manure quickly began provoking me to hold my nose in order to keep my stomach at ease.
While being surrounded by haunting sounds, piercing noises, and horrific smells, I collapsed myself to the soggy sand beneath me. I sat there with my eyes closed and head help up trying to remember what the real world was once like before I had been abandoned there in my endless sleep. I imagined a green meadow full of wildflowers that grew carelessly in a majestic way. I pictured what it would be like to lay under a willow tree and listen to the birds singing a melody I had failed to mimic many times before. Though all around me, I was surrounded by a nightmare of an endless, broken island, the images of my dreams brought a tear trembling down my cheek and a hopeful smile to my face. I knew I was at ease.
