My chills eventually subsided.

  I pieced myself back together and stood back on my feet. There was absolutely nothing in sight as I stared out into the endless plane. Somehow, I felt it staring back at me. I chose to walk until I reached anything at all - a decision that sent me on an indescribably long journey across a field of nothingness. My mind had gone completely numb from the lack of stimuli.

  After hours of roaming and countless steps, a miniscule skyline of buildings had entered the horizon. My desensitized brain couldn’t even find an ounce of excitement; all I could do was continue meandering towards them. I eventually stumbled into what felt like a town square, except all of the cobblestone buildings were colorless and unlabeled. The main street that ran in between them abruptly stopped at the edge of the town. No one else strolled through the streets. No sounds or movement greeted me. I was completely alone.

  A rumbling sound from above began to slowly drift its way towards the town, growing louder every second. It started progressively moving towards the spot where I stood in the street. Something clear that resembled rain started to fall from the sky. As the drops collided with the ground, they completely shattered. The noise in my head was deafening. It was filled to the brim with sounds of breaking windows echoing through my head. I finally realized - this was no regular storm.

  I ran through the monsoon of precipitating glass droplets, heading towards the closest building that had any overhang to hide underneath. The shards of shattered glass that ricocheted off the asphalt left microscopic cuts on my arms and legs. A small trail of blood began to form behind me as I burst through the door to the building in front of me. The door cracked and fell off its hinges from my body’s momentum forcing its way inside. I tumbled onto the ground, eventually coming to a stop in the center of a massive, empty foyer. Still feeling stinging sensations across my arms and legs, I managed to slowly lift myself up. As I looked around, I noticed that the walls of the building were translucent from the inside. It gave the illusion that I was standing out in the rain. Not sure what that trick was supposed to accomplish - the lie didn’t convince me in the slightest.

  Not knowing where else to go, I took a step forward. The sound of a large crack bellowed beneath me. I closed my eyes and took another step. The cracking sound resonated even louder, beginning to spread out across the floor. I opened my eyes again. Through the translucent walls, I could see that the rain had stopped.

  Instantaneously, almost the entire floor shattered, its fragments falling into the deep abyss that now surrounded me. All that remained was a narrow walkway between myself and the door. The walkway looked incredibly fragile, like even the slightest breeze would cause it to give way.

I took my first step.

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  Screams erupted from the abyss. They begged me to stop crossing the walkway.

I took my second step.

  My foot began bleeding profusely, staining the entire walkway a deep red.

I took my third step.

  It wasn’t until then that a sharp pain finally started radiating from my legs, surging through my whole body. I could feel my energy seeping out in the form of my own blood. Looking up, I noticed that I had almost reached the door.

One more step.

  The walkway collapsed beneath me. I fell into the abyss, surrounded by shards of jagged red glass as we sunk into the depths. I caught brief glimpses of my reflection in the fragments as they tumbled through the air - I had begun to look more like myself again.

  After an abrupt landing, I found myself inside of another glass house. The walls were decorated with intricate patterns of blue and red - the lines that were draped about the surfaces resembled webs and capillaries amidst the seemingly random cracks. Every footstep that I took left behind bloody footprints in my wake.

  I approached a large window that gave me a glimpse into a beautiful bonsai garden. Lush flora decorated the stone paths of a stunning nursery that was all brought together by a strong, tall tree as its centerpiece. Water flowed from several fountains sculpted to resemble the archangels. All of the angels were directly facing me. Their gazes made me uncomfortable.

  I lightly touched the glass pane in front of me. Suddenly, red paint started oozing from the cracks in the walls, coating them from top to bottom until the entire room was a single color. Oddly, I could still see my reflection in the pane - a teardrop of blood trailed from my left eye.

  I clenched my fist. I struck the pane of glass, barely damaging its structural integrity. Minute cracks had developed from the epicenter.

  Once again, I punched the wall in the same spot, slowly creating fractures that now sprawled throughout the walls of the house. Strike after strike, the screams grew louder, yearning for me to give up. Their pleas and shrieks began to ensnare me like a web, clutching at me to stop me from shattering their conception of reality.

With all my might, I drove my fist straight through the glass.

  The entire house instantly shattered from the ceiling to the walls, its shards raining down on me like a blanket of snow. My fists were perfectly intact - no cuts or scratches to be found.

  I looked onward to the garden. The horizon had turned an eerie shade of brown as the wind howled away. The tree in the center had wilted and shriveled. It was no longer strong and tall - no, it never had been. The fountains had run dry. All signs of life were just an illusion - a façade. Every single head on the angel statues had completely crumbled, with one exception…

The angel holding onto the lily still glared at me.