Decay

I had another strange dream, tonight. This one was a little more coherent, though equally offputting, I think. I awake in my bed, on Saisio. It is as if it is any other day. The gentle morning sunlight pours generously through the window, it's timid, yet resolute warmth spreading over my body. The birds sing softly in the trees, which expand endlessly over the hills and mountains, their snowy tipped peaks reaching aspirationally for the heavens. Blossoms weave between each other in the soft, spring wind... I rise, and for a moment, something feels wrong. The bones my heels seem to push too harshly downward into the flesh, and for a fleeting instant, I feel a foul, bitter sickness deep in my belly, and the stirring of bile rising in my throat. But in an instant, it is gone, as if it was never there. I feel perfect, wonderful, utterly rested, and somehow very clean. Like a child. I stretch my arms and legs, finding no measure of the aches and pains I am used to, my form seeming utterly weightless. I toss aside my pajamas and throw on some proper clothes, taking a quick swig from a glass of water by my bedside. It tastes fresh and rich, like from a spring. Feeling eager to go out and enjoy the day, I practically rush out the door and hop quickly down the stairs, feeling full of energy. The house is very, very quiet, and empty - More so then it would ever be in reality - But in the dream, I do not notice this, for whatever reason. I slip into a pair of boots lying where I usually leave them, and head out into the garden. I smile, my heart light as a feather. I smell flowers and fresh grass. Everything seems ideal. I walk through our garden and out onto the pathway to the town below, a skip in my step. The wind blows in my hair. All is as it ought to be. I almost want to sing, like something out of a really bad holovid. Have you ever had those moments where you feel furious at dream? Where it is so perfect, so much kinder then reality, and suddenly it is snatched away from you, like a child robbed of a gift she has just been given? Suddenly, without warning, something changes, and everything is now very wrong. I feel frail, weak. There is a coldness in the back of my head, and I smell something out of place. A sickly sweet, foul and bitter rot. I try to catch my breath, but there is some manner of fluid in my throat, and I can only take short, sharp gasps. I look down... ...And see my legs, which I suddenly realize I cannot feel, twist and snap, making a horrible creaking moan as they do. The flesh on them rends, blood splattering all over the ground. Shards and warped splinters of osteoplastic, their reflective surfaces glimmering in the sun, scatter over the street below like tiny jewels, artificial marrow oozing out of them, becoming black and fetid as it does. I fall. I try to reach out with my arms and stop myself, but they shatter, as well. I attempt to howl in agony; My entire jaw dislocates and falls loose, the "bone" crumbling into dust and the flesh sliding off eagerly, metamorphosing into a dismal red slush , reduced to raw biomass. In horror, I plummet downward, my head striking the earth with the most awful of wet crunches. I feel my innards drain out of my chest, organs falling from my stomach and popping absurdly, like balloons. My eyes become grey and lifeless, my own mind rotting as I still dwell within it. My skull collapses in on itself... But I feel nothing. At some point, I simply... Left? I seem to drift, formless, from my body. I watch it below me, slowly reducing itself back to it's base components; Decaying until nothing is left but foul, black liquid and bitter dust, in a puddle around my clothes. I feel cold, exposed in a manner worse then I have ever felt. I feel free from all bonds, but unable to exercise it, whatever remains of me now seemingly paralyzed. As the dream ends, I am carried away by the wind, unable to do anything but accept it my fate. My home, and all that which is known to me, falls further and further into the horizon. I think I'm going to start sleeping less.