wake up

her dreams were full of broken things: burning buildings, bricks through windows, children without mothers, all activity stomping to the deep rhythm of war beating tirelessly through the city's heavy air. there was nothing to turn to, all the screens had been smashed and the cords had been cut. there was only the sound of machinery and voices. and then, a great rumble came forth from below. the noise was deafening, as the prisoners broke free.

and as soon as the war had begun, it evaporated into the morning air.

at the moment that consciousness hit her as she lay drowning in a pool of sunlight, it was the silence that nearly killed her. the only thing she could hear was the slow steady drip of the minutes, as she faced the prospect of another day in that brilliantly decorated room with the window overlooking the employee parking lot, surrounded by airbrushed photos of impossibly beautiful women, wondering desperately if one day all the lies she produced would give her meaning.