Somewhere outside the realms of reality, outside the boundaries of the known universe, Taylor was floating. High.
He was overlooking some kind of a field, covered with sparking white. Only the white wasn’t snow. It was grass. White, sparkling, iridescent grass, sprinkled with little specks of bright red that were moving here and there. The grass stretched all around him as far as he could see. There was no wind. But still, the grass was moving. Swaying back and forth with the wind that wasn’t there. He watched in amazement. He didn’t even notice the celestial spirit float up behind him. It lingered there for a moment, waiting for Taylor to acknowledge it’s presence. After a few moments, it grew impatient. It spoke.
“Do you know where you are?”
Taylor spun around, still floating. He was silent. Speechless.
“Taylor?”
Taylor fought for words. “I- I who....what...” He gave up.
“Taylor..” The being said with a gentle laugh. “It’s okay. You’re safe.”
“Wh..” He cleared his throat and started again. “Where am I?” He stared into the being’s violet eyes, looked at the beautiful, shimmering purple robe it had on. His eyes followed the robe all the way down, in wild amazement as the robe seemed to just gradually blend into nothingness and the bottom. His eyes were wide as he stared. He blinked, surprised that his contacts hadn’t gotten dry. He rubbed his eyes, then lifted down his lower eyelid and put his finger on his contact. Only it wasn’t there. His eye burnt where he’d touched it. He stood, floated rather, rubbing his eye furiously, trying to get the burning to quit. When it finally did, he looked at the being, ready for an explanation. His words were back.
“Where am I?” He demanded. “And what in the hell is going on?”
The being disregarded Taylor’s attitude. “You left your body last night....”
“WHAT? I’m dead? I died? How? How could that happen? I.. I was fine! I can’t be dead!”
“You’re not.” The being replied simply.
“What do you mean I’m not dead? You just told me I left my body! I classify that as being dead!”
“Now Taylor, settle down.”
“I will not settle down until you tell me what’s going on!” He fumed.
“Calm down. Then I’ll tell you.” The being said calmly, patiently.
‘Calm down my ass, lady. Or whatever the hell you are.’ He thought.
“You’d better watch what you think, Taylor. There are some that can read thoughts.” The being was slightly offended by Taylor’s remark, but it didn’t let it phase it. It continued.
“Last night you were on the beach, thinking, right?”
“Yeah.” Taylor replied, still not too happy about this whole situation. He wanted to be back home in bed.
“And you were staring at Venus when it..........” The being was at a loss for words.
“exploded.” Taylor finished for it.
“Yes. It.. exploded. And then.. do you remember anything after that, Taylor?”
Taylor shook his head. “Last thing I remember is watching Venus expand and explode and..... I remember thinking that I knew it was my calling, my way out......” He said softly. “and I remember I wasn’t afraid. And I didn’t know if I was dying or dreaming... or what. I wasn’t afraid.” He took a deep breath. “Then I woke up here.” He looked around. “Where ever I am.”
The being smiled. “You’re on the planet Ilth.”
“Ilth? Where’s that?” Taylor was genuinely confused.
“You tell me.” The being said mysteriously.
“What? How would I know?”
The being smiled again. “Because you created it. This planet is a figment of your imagination.”
“Wait a minute!” Taylor began pacing on air, 5 feet above the snowlike grass. “I left my body on the beach, but I didn’t die, then I end up in a figment of my own imagination?! Oh yeah, that’s balanced!” He continued pacing, the being’s eyes following him as it talked.
“Taylor, don’t worry. You’re fine! You’ll wake up soon...”
Just as the being finished saying it’s sentence, Taylor heard a voice from above. He looked up into the starry sky. The voices continued. “You’re on my arm, Amanda! Roll over!”
“What’s that......” He said as he was still looking up. When he got no answer, he looked down where the being should have been. It wasn’t. But in it’s place was a full length mirror, and the reflection in the mirror wasn’t his. It was someone else’s, and he wasn’t anywhere in sight. He stared at the mirror in disbelief. The voices from the sky continued.
“Lori! You kicked me! Owww!” Taylor kept staring at the mirror, just standing there, slack-jawed, unbelieving. ‘Am I dreaming?’ He thought.
He eyed the image in the mirror up and down, past the tight, flare bottom jeans, the little baby tee shirt, at the girl’s body that he was presumably in. He looked at the hair, honey blonde like his, only slightly darker, the deep, dark brown eyes that reminded him of chocolate. Then his eyes stopped on something. Something hanging around his neck. The necklace. The blue-green cross that was hanging around his neck on the body he was in, and his neck on his body, back on Earth. ‘Oh, my god! I DID switch souls with someone!’ He let that sink in, then realized something. ‘Wait! If I switched with someone, and that someone was a human, that would mean I’d have to be on earth! Not on Ilth!’
Now the voices from the sky no longer sounded so distant. The were intermingling with his thoughts, mixing in with his reality, or his fantasy, whatever state he was in. The images of Ilth around him were dissolving. The stars seemed to melt, they pooled up like raindrops on a windshield, then all ran together, hitting the white grass, melting it, distentigrating it, leaving a black void. It was nothingness. And it was creeping towards him.
He looked in the mirror to see the reflection that wasn’t his laugh at him, then disappear. Then the mirror evaporated, leaving him with a slowly diminishing landscape.
He watched in horror as the grass underneath him melted, leaving him floating in pure blackness. Not darkness, just blackness. There seemed to be some unseen light source somewhere, although he couldn’t see it.
He remained floating for a few seconds after the grass disappeared, then he fell. He was falling, falling, falling in the nothing, towards nothing, from nothing, but he was falling just the same.
As he fell, he noticed that the voices were getting louder, filling his entire realm. Then he realized was happening.
He was waking up.
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