Ripple
A car accident. Crushed metal and bloody limbs. Clear fluid running from my nose and ears. Bright lights then nothing, only darkness.
I wake up in a room although it appears to be outside. Standing in what looks like purple water. It splashes as I move. There are trees surrounding me. The trunks of all the trees are black and the branches and leaves are white, a stark contrast against the dark trunks. It's hard to tell where the branches end and the leaves begin. The room doesn't end but I can't seem to go any further. It's raining. It sizzles like acid rain, although it isn't. The purple water under my feet stretches for miles but I can't follow it. There's a door in front of me, a stones throw away. I have a strange urge to go to it. Where am I?
The door is startlingly normal. It’s white with boards running up and down in a vertical design. It has a metal doorknob. The doorknob is covered with fingerprints. It's as if, I'm meant to know that a lot of people have touched it. I blink my eyes as the rain drops brush against my eyelashes. The knob once shiny silver is now rusty and covered with black fingerprints. If I look closer, all the fingerprints are different, some large, larger than normal fingers and some no bigger than a mite. I extend my hand to the doorknob then pause. Where will this take me? I can't go anywhere staying here. Moments later, my fingerprints are added to the collection. I walk through the door.
The next room is the same. Black and white trees. Purple water. Purple rain this time also. There are four doors, including the one I recently emerged from. One at each side. The purple rain still goes on forever but it's as if there are invisible walls stopping me from moving from where I stand. Because I can't go past the doors and the doors obviously lead somewhere I realize I need to pick one. But which one? Will they reach different destinations?
I choose the door to my left. Left felt lucky. Again, the same; purple rain, black trees, white leaves. The leaves are falling off the trees now. Floating down and softly hitting the purple water which creates a ripple effect. There are four doors again. I choose the left again. It leads to the same place, the exact same place although different. Again, I choose left. Again, the same room.
Maybe left is unlucky? Maybe it's always leading back to the same place. What if I chose right or straight ahead or back the way I came? If I go back the way I came, will I go back? I have a strange feeling that even though I'm going back, I'll end up in a different place. My mind is telling me to go straight ahead. Going on the straight and narrow will usually equal a successful outcome. Something in the back of my mind tells me that is the best course of action.
The next room. It has become a little different. The trees are completely bare. No leaves, only lonely branches. There are three doors now. I turn around to see that the door I walked through is gone. Is that supposed to scare me? I can never return? Straight ahead I go.
Going straight leads me to an emptier room. Two doors and a lone tree. No branches now. Getting emptier. What happens when there is only one door? One choice. One way. Emptier still?
There are now only two doors. The tree is gone. Only two choices. Left or right. Left or right? I am under the impression that left is unlucky. Right may be unluckier but I don't think so. The purple rain has not stopped rippling since I entered this room. Ripple. Ripple. Ripple.
I press into the right room's doorknob. A terrible feeling sits in the pit of the mind. Left.
The left room is the same again. Two rooms. Although the purple rain is coming down faster. It's not hitting me now but I can see it in the water creating rapid splashes like bullet holes through bloated berry stained flesh. The water level is not increasing although the purple rain is causing the water to turn a darker shade of purple and causing it to ripple like mad. Ripple.
The rippling water turns my attention away from the doors. When my focus returns to the doors there is a man in front of me. He is wearing a mask that only covers his eyes and nose and he has circular silver buttons embedded into his neck. I go to speak but cannot find words. I find words but cannot find speech. He puts his hand up to silence me, even though there is nothing to silence and opens his mouth.
"Make your eternal choice."
His arms twist in an unimaginable fashion. His left arm curls round his back to point to the straight ahead door and his right arm twists to the left door. I walk forward to the door ahead of me now unsure if I am heading for the door straight ahead or on my left. The man has created a thought in my mind. Is this door my final choice? I step through.
This room is completely empty. No doors. No trees. Only purple rain and water. It is raining heavily but there is only one ripple in the water. In the centre. Only one. My eternal choice. I reach down and for the first time, touch the water. Feeling the ripple against my fingertips. A door appears in front of me. With purple fingertips on the doorknob. I glance at my fingers. They are not purple now as I move from the door knob. The ripple is gone. No ripple. Still, I open the door.
Darkness.
