rain

It was the first time there had been rain all summer.

It was heralded by lightning flickering in the dark clouds above, casting flashes over the darkening twilit fields. Mom was still inside, bustling about and getting dinner ready. She didn't know that I was standing just outside the door, feeling the humidity hang heavily in the air, almost beading on my skin. I breathed it in, moisture in my throat. The first drops began to fall, sinking into the parched ground, and the plants drank greedily. The wind began to pick up, and what few trees I could see swayed heavily under its push. That hardly mattered now. Even a storm meant rain, and rain meant hope. It was stability and safety.

I stepped outside, and the drizzle became a torrent. I had to push my hair from my eyes, but I smiled. It felt good. My clothes clung to my skin, cold from the pounding wind, but I felt alive. It brought with it a new energy, and growing bolder, I made my way further out into the farmland. I ended up near one of the cornfields a bit away, and through the falling sheets I could see the stalks swaying back and forth. I moved closer, and noticed that one's husk had fallen partially away. I couldn't tell for sure, but in the rush of sensation it looked as if it glittered, like gold.

I didn't see that through the rows, a pair of eyes watched me. The next thing I knew, claws buried into my sides, digging bloody lines in my skin as whatever it was dragged me through.

I never saw what had taken me. All I could comprehend was a mess of color and sound, animal screams and rustling plants filling the air as the brambles from some horrible briar tore at my skin, my clothes torn to shreds. But there was no pain. Only exhaustion as wounds appeared and disappeared, fading in the waist-deep water I was being pulled through. I felt myself go under, and no matter how hard I fought I couldn't surface. Even as the oxygen left my body I never drowned, and became trapped in a limbo of panic and suffocation with no release.

The claws released their hold, and finally I emerged from the water, shivering and naked. But there was no relief. Rain poured down on my head still, though it was warm, and the air became chokingly humid. Looking around, I could see why.

I stood on the edge of a waterfall, pristine water pouring down over its lip down a sheer cliff face. It overlooked a vast rainforest, canopies of cyan and purest green blotting out the ground underneath, with leaves massive enough to be seen even from this height. Only the occasional jutting golden monument broke the verdant sea below, glittering in the sunlight....

Sunlight?

My eyes turned upwards. The sky, except for a single large, blindingly-bright circle, was pitch black. The rain came only from directly above me, and from this view the drops caught the sunlight, scattering like a thousand prisms that projected onto surrounding walls...

Walls... Yes. It was then that I realized that the bright circle was a hole, all that could be seen of the outside world from this enormous cave. Seen from this point of view, more features came to light. The trees abruptly stopped as they met the cavern wall, and as I focused tiny golden lines came to light along the edges. Golden etchings, angular and arcane, formed patterns against the black stone, and enormous dripping stalactites caught their own sunlight.

It was beautiful. But the longer I took in my surroundings, the more that the emptiness began to sink in. Aside from the sound of rain, there was nothing else. No beating wings, no animal cries, no buzzing of insects. Even nearby plants had an unnatural sheen, plastic and silk. It was a jungle without life. Or so I thought.

It may have been better if it stayed that way.