The trees provided good cover; their leaves created shadows that made it difficult to see clearly. The sun set sooner than I expected and I squinted but still couldn’t see well. Everything looked like something, nothing looked like everything.
I felt like someone was watching me and the hairs on the back of my neck were standing up. A chill went down my spine and I scanned the area for whoever was watching me, even though I knew I was being paranoid.
I didn’t see anyone I recognized. I was thinking about going home early when the sun finally disappeared completely, replaced by an inky black sky filled with more stars than seemed physically possible. They seemed to be blinking and moving closer, as though they were coming for me. I wanted to run away but my legs wouldn’t move. The stars got closer until they looked like a swarm of fireflies on a blustery night in late fall, flitting around aimlessly without any purpose or meaning.
But these fireflies had teeth; sharp white teeth that dripped with saliva and glistened in the dark like tiny opals made of light instead of crystalized carbon dioxide frozen underground over millions of years before being freed by miners and sold at stores where people bought them as cheap jewelry or fashion accessories without ever knowing their origin.
The fireflies moved quickly, faster than seemed possible given their size relative to human scale, almost as fast as bullets fired from guns during war movies or action films based on comic books or graphic novels that portrayed unrealistic situations involving large-scale violence with no regard for consequences or repercussions (and no matter what you think about gun control laws it doesn’t change the fact that these movies exist and are popular).
Faster than bullets but slower than light speed; just slow enough so that everything appeared to happen all at once instead of over time — this is probably hard to imagine unless you were there yourself — which is another reason why it’s hard for me to describe everything in detail because time moves differently depending on your perspective (meaning if you knew how fast time passes from God’s perspective then you would know why He created us imperfectly) (or maybe this was something else entirely).
The fireflies swarmed around me until I couldn’t see anything except pure white light illuminating every inch of space around me; there was nowhere left for me to hide even if I wanted to escape whatever fate awaited me next (which I didn’t want because running away never solves anything).
The room went dark, except now the shadows had faces. They had long noses and big ears with hairy tufts sticking out. It was like they had antennae folded back behind their heads, like those old cowboy hats worn by pioneers crossing the American plains towards Oregon after gold was found out west but before news reached them. Now everyone who read about it thought they could get rich quick digging up yellow metal instead of doing honest work. But busting their backs laboring at menial labor jobs under abusive bosses who took advantage of them by paying below minimum wage while taking full advantage of tax loopholes available only because Congress doesn’t care enough about average Americans’ economic wellbeing despite claiming otherwise when election season rolls around every two years is not a very good plan.
The faces roared with laughter as the fireflies swarmed around me again and again, faster than before. The light was so bright I couldn’t see anything except pure white light illuminating every inch of space around me; there was nowhere left for me to hide even if I wanted to escape whatever fate awaited me next (which I didn’t want because running away never solves anything). When the fireflies disappeared this time they stayed gone; only shadows now instead of faces.
I looked around but saw nothing but darkness outside the tiny circle of light created by my flashlight — which had fallen out of my pocket when the fireflies first appeared — sitting on top of a pile of rocks in a clearing surrounded by trees. The clearing also had a trail leading into it from another part, though that path wasn’t as clear anymore since lots of brush had grown back in since then.
My heart beat fast and my palms were sweaty; I felt trapped despite having enough room to easily turn around if needed without bumping into anything or anyone else. My adrenaline spiked and it felt like tiny explosions were going off inside my head although maybe this was just fear talking or something similar instead of literal explosions causing physical damage like you might expect given how it felt (though let’s be real here: your brain is basically just meat so why not?). It felt like an eternity passed before the fireflies came back one last time, slower than before with less force behind them — almost gentle compared to their earlier appearances — until they disappeared completely leaving nothing but darkness once more in their place.
The faces roared with laughter as the shadows swarmed around me again and again, faster than before. The light was so bright I couldn’t see anything except pure white light illuminating every inch of space around me; there was nowhere left for me to hide even if I wanted to escape whatever fate awaited me next (which I didn’t want because running away never solves anything).
When the fireflies disappeared this time they stayed gone; only shadows now instead of faces.I heard a loud buzzing noise coming from somewhere nearby that got louder until another swarm appeared — bees or maybe hornets maybe although it’s hard to say since we don’t have either here in northern Indiana — that circled my head several times before disappearing into a blur similar in speed and brightness as before, leaving nothing but darkness once more in their place.
They blotted out everything else and caused spots dance across my vision as though someone had taken control over my optic nerve pathways using direct brain implants or something similar capable of transmitting images directly into your brain without needing any sort of external input device like televisions or phones or other screens designed specifically for displaying media content.
