...Daybreak Illusions/Death On the Shore...

The daylight is a crude illusion as the gray clouds roll across the sky. The sun is somewhere behind it as Death and I walk towards the sea. The rain begins to fall lightly, pleasantly although many would say it ruins everything. I have always loved the rain. Is Death trying to enchant me on the shore? No one is out in the rain, alive or dead. The waves aren't terribly high. The air is mild. Everything is bleached white, or gray against the pale sand. Wrappers and feathers dance together in the low tide. We walk along the shore of my life.

Clouds in the distance roil and curl into shapes as Death points his beauitful finger. Elephants, lions, whales. They pour out across the sky in an unlikely circus of creatures. Turtles, bees, butterflies. I am entranced with the visions as Death backs away, abandons me.

I find myself at the end of the jetty looking toward the lighthouse I have seen from the shore all of my life. Memories float by like foam on the surface of the water. The tide laps my bare toes with its icy tongue. I am freezing and angry once again. I have no where to go. The world is lost to me. I feel as if I am inside an enormous television, behind the gray screen of glass and untouchable to those who are watching. I slap my hands against the wall in a futile attempt to test this theory. It is true. I am locked in. My hands don't make a sound. I open my mouth the utter a word of disgust and find that I have no voice. Of course. What next? Am I dead yet?

As soon as I emit that thought a movement in the ocean catches the corner of my eye. I thought I saw a head but that would be too horrific at this point. This is the only way I know I am still alive in this place. I am still feeling human emotions and they are rupturing my thoughts of a peaceful hereafter. Why did Death have to leave me here alone? Is it wise to be aggrivated with the Reaper?

Again the head bobbed in the waves. The closer I looked at it the more I knew it wasn't just a head. There was a neck but it was entangled in seaweed and shells. The strange thing was that they seemed strategically placed around the long pale body part.

"What are you doing here?" The head spoke through a thick slice of water but her lips did not move. I couldn't answer. I thought if I did answer that I may awaken from whatever this was that was happening. Then I remember that I have no voice. I formed an answer in my thoughts and she went underneath the surface. I didn't see her again until she was at my feet with her green gray fingers like cold tentacles on my skin.

There was no time here. The sinewy flesh of her hands wrapped around my ankles and pulled me down slowly into the sea. There was no sense in fighting her, it was clear that she was Death in another face.

"Take me home."

I closed my eyes against the last rays of light.