"Bring Me a Flower" by Jennifer L. Post

I was happy with my life, comfortable in my monotony. Sure it was kind of odd, but it was familiar and that was what mattered. I traveled constantly but never seemed to get anywhere. I rarely saw other travelers and, when I did, they scarcely ever talked to me. Everything around me had a dreamlike feel to it, kind of like nothing was really real. Except the flowers, they were the only things that changed, ever. The only things you could really touch and smell, and the only things that made the endless days bright.

            I realize all this now, though I never seemed to before. At that time the flowers were minor details in my busy life, little things that didn’t really matter. I thought each one just the same as the other, just as I had thought that this day was exactly like all the ones that had preceded it, and that this field was just the same as all the ones behind.

So, wrapped in my ignorance, I entered the field just as I would any other; indifferently, wanting to get to the next one as soon as possible. But as I neared its center I tripped on something. This in itself was not weird; I tripped at least once every day. But this was not my usual small stumbling that was easily corrected. No, this was a full-on, face in the dirt trip and it sent me crashing to the ground with a thud.

I shook myself and got to my knees, looking around for what I had tripped on; a large stone sticking out of the ground. I thought it odd that I hadn’t noticed it when I was walking and went to examine it. It didn’t look any different than a normal stone, but when I touched it, the stone sank back into the ground; making rippling rings that spread outward through the whole field like the disturbed waters of a lake.

It was at about that time that I started getting freaked out. I wondered what could be happening and if I should run. I looked down at the place where the stone had been and gasped. The area was completely transparent and kind of shiny looking, like the surface of a bubble. Beneath the bubble was a swirling blackness; just looking at it gave me the creeps. At that moment my mind screamed, “Run!” and I scrambled to my feet.

But it was too late. Just as I stood, a new set of rings rippled outward from the spot, erasing flowers and grass as they went and changing the entire field into the bubble like substance with the blackness below. As I stared down at the blackness in horror strange thoughts began to fill my mind, whispers of fear and doubt. Nameless forms of dark horror filled my mind’s eye.

I tried to run, my mind finally plunged into a panic; but my feet were stuck fast. I reached down to free them and discovered that they had sunk into the bubble. Realizing what this meant I began to struggle, sitting down and trying desperately to pull my feet from the bubble. But it only got worse. As soon as I sat down the rest of me began sinking. I screamed and flailed about, but to no avail. The flowers were gone, my ignorance could no longer help me; and there was no one to witness my fall.

So I found myself in a world of black silence, where creatures of nightmare stalked my vision and bombarded my mind with horrible whispers of pain, devastation, and fear. My panic turned to madness and I ran, ran until I was almost too tired to breathe; too tired to see the nightmares or hear the whispers. And now I lay here in the endless dark, sometimes wondering about my life and sometimes thinking of what I’d do if I could escape this horror. But mostly I just wish. I wish that somehow, someone would find me…and bring me a flower.