Okay, this story was written for Tomahawk 3.0's contest. Yep, the aliens are back. But not attacking Tokyo this time. Nope, America. To be specifically, NYC. To be show-offy, the Melting Pot.

The dreams are basically their fears in a basic manifested form, and taken to an extreme level. The fears will make sense later on.

P.S. Silvana's dream is inspired by a painting I'm working on entitled 'Where Did All the Flowers Go?' Enjoy…

Prologue: Dreaming

Silvana was racing, racing, racing. To what, she didn't know. Away from what, she didn't know. All she knew was it was dark, and she was scared. Where did the light go? She had at the beginning been standing in a field of flowers. What happened to the flowers? What happened to the life?

The dark tunnel ended into a lifeless valley of bare dirt. The sky was overcast, the ground barren of any life at all. It was all gray, just gray.

She fell to her knees. Lifeless, it was all so lifeless. It hurt her heart, seeing such a desolate place.

She saw spots of water on the dry dirt in front of her. Tears, her tears.

"Where?" she whispered, "Where did all the flowers go?"

Eira didn't know what to think. It was hot, burning, burning hot!

She had been making a snowman, when the snowy groundcover began to melt. Suddenly it was a desert. A dry, hot, burning –burning!- desert!

She swallowed in discomfort. Her alarm grew as she realized how dry her mouth and throat were. She couldn't swallow, the dry air was choking her.

She couldn't breath!

It was too, too, burning, burning hot! Her throat closed, she struggled for breath like a fish out of water.

'Strange,' she thought hysterically, 'I never was much of a swimmer.'

Her vision grew black for lack of oxygen and extreme amount of heat. She fell, still convulsing in the desperate attempt to clear her airways. Suddenly she could see no longer…

Evadne danced through the rain like a carefree child, jumping in puddles and laughing gaily. She had not a care in the world.

But something was wrong. Terribly, terribly wrong!

Not rain at all! Fire! It was fire falling from those clouds! Burning her skin and leaving black scorches on her clothes.

Shelter! She needed to find shelter!

She looked about wildly, but the shop-lined avenue she had previously been standing on had given way to bare, smooth rock.

Her hair caught, then her clothes. She was burning alive!
Water! She had to get water to stop this mad burning! But there was no water!

The smell of burnt hair and wool caught in her nose, as she screamed, hoping that if she were loud enough, it would all go away.

Kenna had never been a swimmer. She wasn't even a water sign. Her name even meant 'fire', or something of the like.

So what was she doing in the middle of the ocean?

Swimming, apparently.

It felt as if she'd been swimming for hours upon hours. Her muscles burned, her arms and legs ached, and her back felt as if it would feel better snapped in half and pulled out with a wire.

All she could see was blue. Dark blue water met light blue sky at the horizon, 360 degrees around.

Slowly, she found she was just getting too tired. She couldn't keep swimming much longer. Her muscles were giving in.

She sunk slowly under the surface, water filling her mouth and nose.

Lower she sunk, toward the inky black depths. The sun shone on the water, and for a moment, it looked beautiful.

'At least I'll be seeing this when I go,' she thought desolately, her lungs burning in protest. She couldn't take it. She needed air.

Though she knew she was under water, she had to open her mouth. And in doing so, choked, and gagged, and suffocated on the water that filled her lungs.

'Hope I'm missed,' she thought as she slowly drifted out of awareness.

Angelique did not like the dark. Not one bit. And it was dark here. Very dark.

Where'd the light go?

Wait, there it was, all the way down there.

Another tunnel?

She started running towards the light, her logical half praying to get there quickly, sarcastic side praying it wasn't a train.

It didn't seem to get any bigger, no matter how fast she ran. And ran, and ran.

Wait, she was a little closer now. Just a little closer.

Almost there.

But, just as she reached the light, it flickered, and went out, leaving her in total and complete darkness.

"Gee, this is swell," she muttered.