Skyward

I clocked in, then in the evening, clock out. It wasn’t that hard really. You go in, do your job and voila, you’re out again. It’s just...too easy. Day after day after day. I return home again completing my routine as per usual. The same routine day after day. Bleached lamplight spills in through ghostly curtains, their shadows dancing around my favourite painting. I don’t know why I watch it. It’s as if one of the hot air balloons was going to fly out and whisk me away. But I can dream. I always wanted to fly, to escape this wretched cycle. Still, it’s interesting, maybe I’ll stare at it a little longer tonight.

Specks of light picked at my eyelids as I was roused from my slumber. I gaze around the room and I see him. Who? I don’t know, so I blink and he vanishes. I make my way to the kitchen where I see him idle waiting at my coffee table.

“Good morning,” he says waiting for me to reply. Before I could respond, he vanishes again. I exit my house at the same time as any other day, watching as the rays kiss my cheeks. I walk down the familiar path to the office viewing the never changing scenery.

“You know, you’re going to get stuck,” a sudden voice proclaimed. I turn my attention to the voice. Up in a tree sits the man from earlier. “Heck, you already are,” he chuckles gesturing down. I look at the ground, it looks back at me, same as always. The ground begins to melt. Concrete and cement hands grab at me feet. I yelp pulling myself free, I ran into the office building, panting. After that, everything proceeds as usual.

It was a couple of days before he appeared again. He would comment on things, simple inanimate objects, and they would meld into monsters aimed at me. I ask him why he was doing this and he told me that the world was always like that. He was just helping me see it for what it really was. Without his presence I began to see them too, the disgusting creature roaming the Earth. I often wonder if I was the only human left locked up in my own home. If I went out, the monsters would get me. A familiar chuckle sounds as I close the blinds to the outside world.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you, who are you?”

He simply replies, ” I am you.” Surprisingly, I wasn’t surprised. I gazed up at the sky and ponder. He had known of my dreams and respected them. Well of course. He was me.

” I’ve got to show you something,” he said pulling his shirt off revealing a pair of magnificent wings.

“I have wings?” I question. He smiles his reply, “you do, do you wish to fly?”

“Yes, I do. Anything to escape those monsters,” I whisper.

“You are still a bit too heavy but I will take you higher, I will take you further. There will be no limit to where you can go. I will return when you’re ready,” and he vanishes. I heed his words, losing weight in the process and I waited at the window. He waited for me on the other side levitating in the wind.

“Sorry still a bit heavy,” he announced turning away.

“Wait!” I exclaim grabbing a knife from the kitchen, “I won’t need my feet right? When I’m flying all the time.”

“I suppose you won’t,” he answers smiling as he watches me hack at my feet. It didn’t hurt. Nothing. No pain. Just the flowing red liquid gushing from my ankles where my feet used to be.

“Am I ready now?” I pant. No pain, there was no pain.

“Yes, you are. Come to me.” He leant forward with outstretched arms. I climb towards him sitting on the window pane. Everything faded to black. And then, I was flying.

I awoke is a crisp white room to the soft beeping of monitors. I turn to inspect my surroundings and spotted a woman walking towards me. I couldn’t contain my excitement.

“Did you see me? I was flying! Way way above the clouds,” I giggle. “Far far away, flying high. Hahahahahahaha I Flew! Hahaha, I can fly!”

I continue to laugh watching her strap me to the bed.

I can fly.