AUGURY
I'M WALKING HOME, but the journey forces me to wade across a river. A narrow, submerged beam serves as my only path. The muddy water laps just over the tops of my shoes. It feels familiar, as though I’ve taken this route before.
The river stretches wide—maybe six hundred yards—but up ahead, the current quickens. Whitecaps churn in the distance. Is it safe to continue? I hesitate. I have no life jacket, nothing to cling to if the water takes me. The decision presses upon me. Should I risk it?
No. The current is too swift.
Just as I turn back, the wind howls to life behind me. The river swells. Waves crest, rising higher and higher. The sky blackens with unnatural speed. A furious gale roars, driving me toward shelter.
I stumble upon a cottage—or at least, it seems to be one. Once inside, the illusion shatters. The interior feels more like the lobby of a corporate skyscraper—sterile, humming with low voices and muted concern. People mill about, unsettled by the sudden storm. I scan the room, searching for a television, a news report, any explanation.
Through the glass, I glimpse the world outside. Visibility is zero—everything obscured by a writhing black wind. Then, just as abruptly as it began, the chaos ceases.
A deep, unnatural quiet settles over everything.
I step closer to the window. The sky has cleared, but something lingers in its depths. A grotesque formation looms overhead—churning black clouds, contorted into a nightmarish wall. But as I stare, I realize it’s not a cloud at all.
It’s something else.
It drifts silently, an immense, charred form—a zeppelin-like rabbit, floating above the city like a monstrous parade balloon. Its exoskeleton is scorched, cracked. Around its right eye, a cavernous hole gapes, leaking tendrils of smoke or debris into the air.
A grotesque insect. A burnt effigy of something once alive.
The people on the streets below stand frozen, staring skyward in silent horror. The thing hangs motionless against the now-pristine blue, its presence thick with unspoken menace.
An oppressive stillness blankets everything.
Dread seeps into my bones.
And then—
I wake.
The feeling lingers.
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