Pieces of the Sky
Pieces of the Sky
Daanish Siddiqui
You open your eyes. You’re lying on a beach, the gritty sand hot against your skin. It’s bright. Sunlight dances on the rippling surface of the deep, blue sea. The warm wind skims across the surface, pushing millions of tiny droplets into the sky, filling the air with the scent of salt. The droplets catch the light of the sun as they fall, glistening orbs that disappear into the wet sand. Seagulls screech as they circle above the swaying palm trees. You glance up at them, and fly up to join them. From high in the sky, you can see everything. The vast blue sea stretching out in every direction, speckled with dozens of green and brown islands.
Suddenly the sky begins to darken. Noticing the change, you look up and are startled to see small pieces of the sky breaking off and falling. Large cracks begin to form in the sky, jagged shards falling from the heavens. The sea growls, rising, swallowing up the sand, the trees. A loud blaring sound rocks the earth, shredding the air with its high-pitched screech. The sky is dark now, a void that consumes all the light. The icy cold wind blinds you as you suddenly lose control and plummet down towards the black, cold sea. As your body crashes and breaks, you hear the blaring sound pounding into your skull, beeping over and over again.
You open your eyes. You’re lying in bed. The loud beeping continues to bore into your head. Irritated, you look around, fumbling for the alarm clock through the haze of sleep, and angrily turn it off. It’s 5:30 AM. Yawning, you slither out of bed and pull back the curtains, gazing out of the dusty, rain-streaked window at the drab gray sky and the filthy streets.