I lay back

And let the sound of

The clock wash over me

I listen as the chiming

Becomes thicker and

More prominent

Until I notice

That it's melodic chimes

Start to become less frequent

And I lay there

Wondering when

The clock will strike again

And play its beautiful song

That always lulls me to sleep

~This book is actually based upon horror, but I just wanted to use the title in a sense that it was actually soothing rather than terrifying.~

~Just a Little Touch Of Madness~

As I tiredly roll myself towards my alarm, I smack it off the edge and it goes silent.

I pull back my thin curtain, only to find the world blanketed in a sheet of darkness. Strange I think to myself, My alarm is set for 7:30 AM. I reach for my phone that’s resting on my nightstand, and realize that thousands of people had texted me. Thousands.

I checked to see where the numbers had come from, only to realize that they were from all over the world. New York, Las Vegas, the UK, Salt Lake City, and many others had contacted me. But for what?

I quickly scroll through the messages, only to discover that they all said the same thing. Text after text, number after number. They all read, “Look outside, the moon is beautiful tonight.”

My heart was hammering inside my chest now, and I could hardly breathe. I start frantically searching the internet for anything. Anything that might help, maybe even some people who weren’t brainwashed already.

As I start to search up, “The moon” a tsunami of messages flood my phone, and they all say “No, you must look outside, Abby. Just trust us.”

I knew better than to listen to the foul words, and threw my phone across the room towards my mirror. As the shards of glass began to shatter, I felt time slow, and everything that I had broken,the mirror, my phone, the alarm, had started to reform, and my room had been put back together, looking exactly like it had last night.

I started to hear the now functioning device spewing out hundreds of different ringtones, and it received even more messages now. I couldn’t bear to look at them, as they all probably contained the same frightening words that seemed to plague me.

I needed to leave, but how? If I went outside, then I would have to look at the moon.If I went outside, hundreds to thousands of people might be waiting there for me. If I went outside, I would have to leave my family behind. My family-I needed to find them, to save them. I got down on my hands and knees and started to crawl through my house, down the hall, towards the bathroom, and finally into my parents’ bedroom.

As I reach for the light, I quickly threw my hand back, not wanting to draw attention to my house. Instead, I walk towards my mother’s side of the bed, and found her lying there, still sleeping. Only, something was off about her. Maybe it was just the way she was lying, flat on her back with her hands gently crossed over her chest, like someone had placed her there. Or maybe it had to do something with her hair.

I stare into them, contemplating whether I should wake her up. Finally, I made the decision and started to reach forward, but stopped dead in my tracks. I had realized what was wrong with her. Although I couldn’t see it before because of how dark it was, my ‘mother’ was blankly staring at the ceiling with her eyes wide open, and her mouth stretched into an inhuman smile.

Instinctively, I drop to the floor, and try to crawl under the bed, but then feel a powerful force rip me from under it. Expecting to see my evil mother, I had closed my eyes and braced for the worst. Only, when it didn’t come, I had opened my eyes again. And, to my surprise, found that I had been in my room again, same as before.

“What the h-” I was cut off by a sudden gust of wind slamming into my backside. I didn’t want to turn around, but something had compelled me to.

As I started to walk towards the sliding glass doors towards my balcony, I noticed a small figure standing by the window in the house next to me, but they weren’t staring at the moon, but rather, me.

I opened the doors and stepped out, feeling the cool warmth of summer spread over me. I looked up at the moon, and felt beautifully calm.

~~~~~~~~

As I watched in horror as the woman stepped out towards her balcony, I couldn’t help but feel sadness for her, as she didn’t have the willpower to save herself.

She tilted her head skywards, and stared at something that I could not, and started to slowly melt away. I watched as she smiled, and started to fall slowly and calmly, but before she could hit the floor, she was gone.

~This story is kind of depressing, but has a good message overrall.~

She pressed her palm against the glass. Her breath caught as her reflection slowly started to dissolve into the mirror, and her stunning blue hair turned into the icy waters of the ocean. Her rosy cheeks that were red from the cold turned into a pink sunset, and her curls became small ripples within the water. Her light colored skin turned into the pale sand that decorated the shoreline.

As she gasped and started to back away, the mirror started to reform its original image, leaving only her perplexed face staring back at her.

“What the-” she stopped mid sentence as she heard the rushing of water spray from the bathroom.

She walked away from the mirror, and cautiously strode towards the tub. When she pulled back the curtains and gazed into the water, she once again saw her reflection. Only this time, it was her, the real her, staring right back. She waved her right hand, and the water did the same. She stuck her tongue out, only to have the action mirrored.

“What are you?” she called out, only this time, the reflection did not mouth the words back at her. Instead, it stepped aside to show a desert landscape.

When the girl peered past her reflection and saw the sand, she gasped. For she has never seen a world so devoid of life. She had never seen a world without busy streets and people and animals. She had never seen something so empty. She had never seen something so- stunning.

Transfixed, the girl peered farther into the water, and when she touched it, was sucked through with only a few water droplets to show of where she had come from.

As she stared at her surroundings, she realized that it wasn’t as pretty as the water had convinced her. The beautifully pale sand that she had been staring at before seemed to be specs of dust compared to other image, and the comforting emptiness that she once saw seemed to be only a barren landscape now.

The girl dragged her tiny feet through the black sand until she could no longer walk. She searched for a shaded spot to rest, but to no avail. The girl was no fool, she knew that in a place like this, she could get easily dehydrated and die. She knew how important rest was in order to not hallucinate.

Thinking better of wandering the great desert aimlessly, she crouched down into the sand and started to dig until she felt the cool substance slide though her fingers. She dug a resting spot the size of a dog bed, and the depth of a small closet, and slowly drifted to sleep.

When she awoke, she found purple insects crawling over her with bags of chips and fresh fruits just dangling in front of her nose. Although she suspected that she was hallucinating, she couldn’t argue with the fact of how hungry she was, so she grabbed one of the weird creatures and removed a plum from its grasp.

She could actually taste the plum’s sour skin and sweet insides. It was the best thing she had ever tasted, and she wanted more, more, more. Only when she reached to grab another, she discovered that the bugs were no longer there. And the beautiful fruit that she had eaten before had now tasted like the roughness of the sand that lay below her.

The girl couldn’t believe herself. How could she have fallen for such a trick like that? Frustrated, she threw herself upwards and started to walk again.

Where was she going? She did not know. All she knew was that she had to get away. Had to get away from all the purple bugs and the awful fruits that tasted like sand. Had to get away from all the nasty tricks that she pulled on herself. Had to-wait. Tricks? Tricks that she had pulled on herself? Only, the girl now knew that all of this was one big trick. A big trick that her reflection had pulled.

She had to get out. Had to get away. She couldn’t even remember her old life, couldn’t remember what her favorite food tasted like, she couldn’t even remember her name-But, what was her name? Surely she had one? Surely, if she remembered it, she could go home?

The girl struggled to remember her mother and father, the artwork that she had always drew. She struggled to remember the oceans that she would draw her mother, and the sunsets that she had drawn her father. She wanted to remember, but she couldn’t. All she knew, was that she was dying. Slowly, but surely. And she was never going to see her parents again, never going to draw the beautiful ocean that she was obsessed with, and was never going to be able to live her life. She knew this now, but if she only gave up hope sooner. Maybe then, could she have stopped remembering how pathetic her life truly was. All she wanted to do was die. She wanted to die, because the reason that she was here in this beautifully quiet paradise, was because of herself. She had banished herself here, and she would die here. For she thought that if she isolated herself, she would experience peace.

What the girl did not know, was that by isolating herself, she was slowly starting to kill herself. Slowly, every day. And by the time she realized it, it was too late.

The girl just layed there on the black sand, wondering if she would ever see the ocean again. She started to twirl her blue hair, and close her eyes.

When the girl slept, her hair started to wrap around herself, and the body that had once covered the dark sand, had transfromed into a beautiful ocean that had covered the desert. And after that, the girl never woke up again, and the black sand that was there before, had turned pale. Once again, the life had returned to her world, as she was finally happy.