The higher levels are hard to reach, the process slow and onerous. Pieces fall from great columns crushing playful children below. Their undeveloped minds let them be naive. The columns cast deep shadows for the setting sun. Only the tallest children can touch the light, and I, standing on a fallen stone, blood seeping out from below and foaming as it mixes with the sand.
Higher.
A growing wind tickles the leaves of dancing plants mocked by little ghosts hidden from the thinning rays of amber light. Cascading stones come crashing down sending tremors through the earth which bore them. Children hug the columns closely, hopeful not to stumble off the narrow ledge and down the ever-rising cliffside.
Higher.
Raucous gusts carry dark clouds looming across the sky. Sweeping sand and uprooted plants are thrown harshly into laboriously crawling children clinging to the ground. Children cry and spit as sand and debris pelt their faces. The wind wails back as it forces through odd cracks between the columns, singing foreboding songs.
Higher.
The sunlight bends, a golden sliver cuts across the sky. The pale moon glows brightly, growing larger as if to swallow up the sky. I see it now! I see the summit! We can make it, we only must push forward! The children are screaming now, their bloodied backs and hands tormenting, but they must keep onward, they must keep going.
Higher.
Visions of the future and the past flash before me. A pregnant woman stands naked and alone amid a torrential storm, clutching a dagger within her hands. She looks straight into my eyes as she lifts the dagger and thrusts it deeply into her belly. She screams, doubling over from the pain, but her eyes remain fixed on mine as if I'm the reason she's doing this. She pulls out the blade and blood pours through the wound spilling down her legs. Crying out, she plunges the blade into her belly again, and again, and again.
Higher.
I can't see; I can't feel. I think my head has hemorrhaged
It's silent now. The moon is gone. Everything is gone. I am only aware of striking numbness, an absence of feeling. I can't even feel my heart beating. Is this the summit? Where are the children?
Higher
origin: Nov 30, 2018 @ 11:30am
until: 08/11/2025, 20:26:24