Ethan Dyer
Per 5
Layla’s Apocalypse
Finally, the
sea welled up against the earth and devoured it.
The dream
had started almost three weeks ago, and since the first night not once had
Layla slept without having the same hellish dream. In the dream, all of earth’s
natural forces suddenly awoke, and destroyed the entire planet.
Layla thought about how she would
deal with her day.
Layla found herself in the kitchen.
She did not remember being there. She was not hungry. She had a sick feeling in
her stomach.
There was something wrong, but Layla wasn't worried. These things happened. Things seemed normal, and that’s how
they played out, normally.
Layla watched with indifference as
people she knew, women and children were torn apart by wild animals. The
streets ran red with blood and the floods carried the bodies and limbs of all
people. Something about this dream felt slightly different, more worrying. She
felt like someone she cared about was in danger.
The next day went as a normal day
would go. And Layla thought nothing of it.
She closed her eyes at night, and
everything changed. This was different, it was dark, and cold. A great crack
opened in the Earth, and out of it came pure evil. She was shown the death of
her grandfather, the last of her living family. It was violent, and Layla woke
up crying.
A month passed, and Layla began to
lose her sanity as the dreams became more terrible. She became convinced that
this apocalypse was legitimate, and impending. She decided to spend her final
moments with her grandfather, at his home.
The cross country trip, which spanned
over four days, was grueling for Layla. She felt that at any moment the world
would open, and she would be consumed.
Layla slept in a motel one night, and
had her worst nightmare yet. She tortured and killed her grandfather with
gardening shears. And upon waking she vomited violently.
She moved in on a Sunday, and when
she got in the house her grandfather was at church. Layla decided to take a
nap, after an exhausting journey, a nap which would change everything.
As soon as she shut her eyes she saw
fire. Blood rained from the sky and bodies lay in the streets. Her grandfather
was dead. And Layla, in this dream, escaped. She floated into the sky and woke
up soon after.
Layla decided to kill her
grandfather, to save him from the impending doom. He would die quickly, so he wouldn't have to experience the end. Planning this was difficult, she had to be
able to get away with the murder for some time, until the world ended.
One Sunday morning, she waited for
him to come home from church, and split his head with an ax she had found in
the gardening shed. She cut him up, and put him in the upstairs bathtub on ice,
to stop the smell.
That night Layla had a disturbing
experience, she did not dream. Something was wrong. This disturbed her deeply.
She woke up to an even more disturbing sight, a police cruiser in her driveway.
Layla ran out the back door, got in
her car, and sped away. Crying hysterically. She had done wrong, and she had no
faith now that the end was near. As she drove down the highway going as fast as
her car would take her, something strange happened. Her car began to lift into
the air. Layla screamed but felt comfortable.
She heard a great cracking noise as
she rose up, and when she looked back over her shoulder she saw a split in the
earth, and out came fire and hell. Layla looked to the sky as she rose into the
clouds, leaving the dying world behind her.
