An Island.

Golden sand slipping between my toes, a single, buttery cloud wafting through the periwinkle sky. An absolutely perfect scene.

My father and mother and little brother. How strange one's youngest sibling would appear, but not the others.

My father has a look of concern on his face. I look to him with disdain. The cloud continues on in its direction, calmly drifting out of sight. The trees are high on the island. In the distance, the very long distance, there is another island; prehaps a city.

A man. A skinny, frail man walks up through the shallows of the clear blue water. Where did he come from?

"There is a tornado coming, sir," he says simply to my father. He looks around. The sky is still a brilliant shade of periwinkle and the sun is a bowl of lemonade reflecting onto Earth. He nods silently, and the man walks away somewhere, disappearing into the water again. Where could he have come from?

At first I am suspicious. My little brother wades out into the water, trying to find a tornado, or any sign. He wants to be a meteorologist someday.

There is a sudden gust of chilling wind that breaks out, and he is too far in the water to wade back. My heart stats to thud in my chest as I scream for him. I scream inaudible words. Inaudible everything. And he is gone. Gone literally with the wind.

I wade out, but not so far when my father catches up and pulls me back. The man appears again. "You might want to get down, young lady." I don't listen. He is someone I do not trust. Someone who disappears into water without drowning. Or maybe he is a figment of my imagination.

My father has other plans. He grabs my hand and my mother's hand, who is weeping and mourning my little brother. My emotion is still mixed up, swirled together like chocolate and vanilla. Is he dead? What are we doing?

Then I see it. A huge tube of air, forming in the distance. A fatal swirl of tornadoes. My father pulls me down and we plummet into the water, everything but our noses submerged. I hold my breath nevertheless.

Death is waiting for us. Death will come soon. Am I happy about it? Am I sad? What will happen when I am dead?

I feel my parents' grips tighten and I reciprocate. I can't feel my heart beating anymore. I feel a heavy gust of wind and shiver underneath the water.

And suddenly I am pulled down.

I am drowning a slow, painful drown. I can feel the water entering my lungs, filling them like a bottle would be filled with soda. My eyes open and sting from the saltiness. My arms fling as I breathe in my last bit of water and I can see the surface. I can still see it and my heart is beating hard and my arms are reaching up and I am feeling dizzy and my eyes start to cross as I fall deeper and deeper into the darkness of the water and my arms don't have any more energy to flap so I just stop --

I stop. I decide it is time to leave. I need to. At least they will survive.

Then I awaken.