400 Word Challenge for the word "Apparition."
The world dances.
Sunlight pierces the leafy veil above. Trunks bend and stretch, swaying like a kaleidoscope. Branches extend and pull apart, morphing into a thousand more branches. A thousand more roots crawl across his rolling path in jerky, uneven phases.
The grass spreads and stretches. Trees hue into burning colors-sunlight, shadow, blood. The roots have blocked his next step. The red has devoured the familiar path. His world is full of everything, and yet nothing. Nothing is the same.
A bullet of pain in his chest. Is it really his heart? Is this really him anymore?
The steely fingers on his false arm click weakly together, allowing him to distinguish it from his real appendage for a moment. They both feel the same-without life-giving blood.
The claw is on his left arm… or is it?
Which arm is his left?
Crimson eyes flicker at the nothingness desperately. The sunlight streams blood. The roots become dead veins. The trees pulse to the drum of his fading heart.
Green swirls among the sanguinary pools. Pressure jerks him forward, ripping into his chest like the bullets that have passed his heart.
He teeters on the edge of a red void. Green above. Green below. Trees have become arteries. Roots have become veins. Logic falters. Direction dies. Gravity becomes irrelevant.
Green. Red. Green. Red. Green. Red…
Red…
The vortex of death funnels the green away. Bloody darkness comes.
Pressure against his cheek. He lies among the veins now as they wrap his body like chains. The arteries lose their strength.
His legs are useless. Arms are pinned. The veins bind all. A long appendage lays against his shoulder, prepared to encircle the neck.
Not a vein.
Fingers warm his deadened cheek. The veins loosen their hold enough for him to breathe.
It's alright… Her brilliance is bearable compared to the gory light, yet she is as fearsome as death.
Green eyes.
Not who he expected.
Green…
The veins begin to feel more like comforting arms. The light filters purity.
Red. Green. Red. Green. Green. Green.
Green…
She squeezes his right hand. His real one. And he feels human again.
You can close your eyes… if you want to.
He does.