the ruins

Benjamin Connor

I woke up in a field. Last I had remembered I was at school, drifting in and out of sleep during a

discussion of ethics and impacts between humans, animals, the environment. I had strong feelings

on this which I will not presently get into. The field was full of bright flowers. large petals and thick

stymens overtowered me and the tall, thick grasses that I could not see through or over. I pushed

through them, hoping that I was traveling in the same direction and not in circles, until I finally

reached a stone. It was slightly luminescent, which helped as it had begun to get dim. I wasn’t

certain whether or not that was from an oncoming raincloud or the sun setting. I tested my footing

and grip on the slick rock face and began to raise myself up. I had to rest at several ledges before

continuing onwards. I wanted to continue because I could tell that the sun was in fact, setting. I was

able to see over the grasses almost immediately, but I wanted to get the best vantage point I could.

The grassses probably ended up being seven feet tall, while the flowers were closer to twenty or

twenty five. The rock, however, didn’t seem to end. I climbed a few hundred feet before reaching a

larger landing where I could rest. It was odd. Usually I was afraid of being so high up, but

someething about the landscape calmed me, cleared my mind. I closed my eyes and felt the smooth

cold stone around me. it remained luminescent throughout the setting of the sun and wouldn’t allow

for my eyes to adjust to the darkness that had blanketed the surrounding landscape. Looking up, I

could see that what I was climbing continued up hundreds if not thousands of feet. I submitted and

laid, shivering on the ground, waiting for the sun to rise. During my restless sleep I dreamt about

school, but nothing significant seemed to happen.

I woke up sweating. The stone had absorbed the heat of the rising sun, which was blaring directly at

me. I assumed it rose in the east, so I had been climbing to the west, despite the stone rising almost

directly into the sky. I could now see the lands around, and the field was surrounded by stones like

the one that I was climbing. They held an opalescent feature similar to labradorite, and when the

sun hit it at the right angle through it’s shifting rays, a brilliant display of radiant blues and pale

greens would appear. Occasionally there were ruby and garnet colors that pulsed from the

mountainous rocks. During the night, these numerous rocks were not visible, it was only this center

monolith that shone by itself. I could not see over the wall-like stones that surrounded the field, but

in the daylight I could see the flowers more visibly. They were incredble hues of white andpink and

blue, recreating something that could only have been seen in a dream, something so beautiful that it

could not have existed. I decided that I would climb higher, see whether or not it would be worth it

to try to pass the surrounding stones, and then continue. There’s nothing else that I could do.

Drive

Benjamin Connor

You were driving along the road in the middle of the day without listening to music,

without thinking, without doing, well, anything. You grabbed the water bottle in the driver’s side

door and took a gulp, looking down at the road as you tilted your head back to get every last

drop, crushing the plastic bottle in your hand and twisting the cap off, stabilizing the wheel with

your knees as you did so. You didn’t stop to think about it, you just let your body do whatever

felt natural, following different roads and absent-mindedly checking the rearview mirror every

once in a while, not that you would see anything there anyway. All that was in your car (other

than the crushed water bottle that was now in the backseat) was a briefcase with a labyrinth

insignia branded on the front. It looked like leather, maybe from a cow, or a goat, or a horse.

Maybe a pig? Some animal with thick skin and tough muscles. “Was the brand given before the

animal was slaughtered?” was the first thought that came into your mind for the first time in a

long time. “Or was it slaughtered? Did it die of natural causes?” You scolded yourself for calling

the animal an “it,” taking away the worth of life. You didn’t know what was in the briefcase, or

how it got into your car, or how you got into your car, or when or where. Where were you

coming from? Where were you going? In the middle of a desert, with mountains in the distance,

sparse cacti, and shrubs, and occasional roadkill, you felt your eyes getting heavy, drooping. You

decided to close your eyes for a second, relaxing your foot, letting its weight push down the gas

as much as gravity wanted it to. You counted, deciding to let yourself rest your eyes for three full

seconds before opening them again and driving on. One... two... three...

BAM! Whiplash. You felt yourself jolt awake in your car, staring at the smoking engine

and toppled tree before you. The surroundings were completely different. Lush forests, loud bird

calls, roars, wind, rain. Falling to your knees and grabbing your head, you felt overwhelmed. The

noises vanished as you squeezed your eyes tight, practically crushing your head with your hands,

feeling pressure and heat forming at your temples. You opened your eyes and saw the open road

in the desert before you again, but you were out of the car, knees scraped on the hot, burning

pavement. You gasped for air, releasing your hands and falling to the ground. You felt your face

hit something wet. Eyes half open on the forest floor, you saw a figure weaving through the trees

and branches, vines and bushes. The figure got closer and you could tell that it wasn’t human.

You scolded yourself once again for using “it,” seeing as the figure was likely alive. “Living

things aren’t objects,” you mumbled as the whole scene snapped back to the desert. You stood up

and walked back to your car, gasping for air. You saw the dent in the front, the smoke. You

walked around to the passenger side and grabbed the briefcase, leaving the crushed water bottle

in the back since it didn’t matter any longer. It didn’t have an immediate use to you. Would it

later? There wasn’t anything in sight that could’ve done so much damage to the car. You walked

off away from the road with your briefcase, carrying it loosely by your side. You didn’t need to

protect yourself at all. The desert continued until you saw a town in the distance, and at that

point, you decided to turn, back to the car, hoping to start it and maybe get into another wreck.