Along the river, the dream skyline beckons to me. Awash in frosted colors of winter, a mixture of cool blues, greens, and yellows, each light is a thousand people burning and dying away. Those high skyscrapers and towers shooting from cold, neon concrete, and those burning people screaming in agony in unison, is the perfect nightmare chorus for this evening.
The river water reflects the shades of my character flaws. A little bit of gluttony, lust, pride, and other deadly sins, a watery grave to put them in. I’m approaching the harbor with my doppelgänger, a slightly deformed version of myself; the eyes are too sunken, the teeth too sharp, and the appetite too large.
Listen to the screaming; it’s glorious. This is what the nightmare within the nightmare sounds like – a hall of mirrors, you enter into one, and you discover it’s a maze with no exit, just descend deeper into the belly of the city-beast. This city is a living thing. This city has a beating, blackened soul. Come with me, wade into the freakish storm. You won’t regret it.
Author’s Note: I decided to do something different and write a piece of “microfiction” with this one. Microfiction is a bit shorter than flash fiction, typically consisting of 300 words or less. The picture is one I took of the Manhattan skyline in New York City recently. I was up there with Rachel for work, and we got some great pictures. I used the distorted image as inspiration for this, trying to incorporate some surrealism and dream-like qualities. I like the way it turned out, but you be the judge!
I think it’s excellent! Nice work.
Thank you, Jennifer! It was good to get some writing inspiration from my work trip. NYC is such a fun and interesting city.
It turned out very well!
Thanks, Ashley 🙂
I often feel the shorter the copy, the harder it is to execute. I applaud this piece. Good job!
Thank you!