All Shall Fade (LOTR-Wattys 2014)

All Shall Fade- Preface (Prolouge)

All Shall Fade

Preface

White buildings, white streets, white petals.

It was like one of those crazy dreams you have, when you’re running. You’re running for some reason and it’s so unbelievably important that you have to run faster, and faster… But it doesn’t work, you move at the pace of an underwater swimmer. You can’t make your legs move fast enough, and you just keep getting frustratingly slower.

This wasn’t a dream though; it was horrendously, vividly real. I was running, my lungs feeling like they were about to burst as I frantically gulped down more air, fuelling my legs. I was frightened, I knew that much. But I wasn’t running from anything… I was running towards something. Something more important than my own life right now… I was frightened of being too late.

The porcelain white streets were empty; my continuous, rapid footsteps echoing off the grey-white buildings, the sound bounced back and hit my ears which were already filled with the deafening pumping of my heart. More sounds came, I could hear people now, I was close.

The buildings were beginning to give way to the brilliantly blue sky, interrupted only by the white petals, falling from an unknown source. The burning hot sun added to my already high body temperature, making beads of moisture appear on the surface of my skin, causing my hair stick to the back of my neck. I kept running, through the people that had appeared. I pushed, forsaking courtesy as I strove to reach my destination. The crowd got thicker, bodies pushed into whatever small space or crevice was available, but still I pushed on. They were loud, cheering, screaming, but I couldn’t really hear them, I just kept going. My body told me to stop, to rest, but I couldn’t. If I did, I might be too late. It wasn’t far now.

The people were even closer together now; they reached out, pulling me back. My crazy dream was fast becoming a nightmare as I fought against them. Instead of a disorganised crowd they were now in uniformed rows, and they parted as I ran, but still tried to hold me back. I struggled, shoving against them, until my foot caught on the white cobbled ground and I tripped, crashing to the ground as the people moved away. Hands that had previously been trying to push me away were now outreached to offer me assistance – voices that had been raised in irritation were now lowered with concern. In fact, everything seemed to have gone a lot quieter. I could feel their eyes on me, but I didn’t care, there was only one pair of eyes I was looking for. I pushed myself off the ground, wincing as my muscles ached in protest, begging me to lie down again, but I stood and then I was running again, and I realised my own voice had joined in with the shouts of the crowd. I was calling, just one word, a simple, yet important word. It was so important.

And suddenly, I stumbled again. Not because of my own feet, but because the mass of bodies I had been pushing against was no longer there. I looked up, realising that the crowd had gone deathly quiet.

I was through.