Twist

The ground under you is solid. You can feel the weight of it pressing into the soles of your feet. The texture is grainy, like wet sand you would feel on a beach.

You look at the ground. It’s a flat plane that has no features - no rocks, no water, no foliage. You are standing on a flat plain that stretches on endlessly. A perfectly-placed spotlight is above your head, pointing down. You look up and see only an empty sky.

You start running. No direction, no plan. You need to get out of this place. The vastness. The empty, empty landscape. It's too familliar. Horribly familliar.

No matter how far you run, you still remain in exactly the same place. You run aimlessly and desperately for hours. You realize that you are no longer tired, nor hungry. You continue to run. There is no end.

This can't be happening, you think to yourself. Again, and again, and again. Each time no memory of *escape*, just a jolt back to normal life. Only it's not quite normal. Something has changed.

(Has it?)

You feel panic start to rise up inside of you and know you are completely alone in the world.

(What is a world?)

Your mind starts to break apart as you stare at the open landscape. You cannot take your eyes away. The world is infinite, and you are alone. There is no escape.

You start to dig.

You dig, and dig, and dig. You dig until the flesh and feathers are scraped from your talons. You dig until your hands are reduced to bone. And still you dig.


...


You wake up.