Pictures

I'm reading a magazine. Actually reading is incorrect as there are no words in the magazine. I assume the entire contents are full page splash advertisements. Most of the advertisements are for cigarettes or TV shows. I find that both are working on me, but in different ways.

In the past three years I have only bought one pack of cigarettes, but the desire is constantly inside me, the advertisements are whipping the desire into a frenzy. I could sneak out and buy cigarettes without anyone knowing, but I'd feel guilty deceiving my friends, plus what if one of them caught me. That would be terrible. I reach down into my backpack and look for some cigarettes, just in case I'd forgotten about some I'd stashed away in a corner or something. I knew I wouldn't find any, it had been at least six months since I'd had a physical pack on me, but there they were. Five cigarettes in a crumpled box, relatively undamaged. The urge to smoke was like the urge to procreate, a raw, primal instinct that demanded to be satisfied. Just as overwhelming was the sense of debasement. "How could I be so weak to harm myself in such a way? Did I have any self-control at all?" I couldn't find a lighter, so with mixed feelings I turned back to the magazine.

One particular actress appeared in several advertisements. She was a supporting actress in a very popular show about Vampires. The show was so popular because they used real vampires. She wasn't a vampire, but I considered her the character with the most influence. She was strong and independent and stood up for her rights and human rights, but she also stood up for vampire rights and often acted as a mediator between humans and vampires. Physically, she was fit, she would definitely be in the top three best looking woman in a room, depending on the room. She could have been a part time model. However, the photographer was skilled, and I'm a sucker for muted color photography --The red blood standing out on the vampires, of course -- and she became a dream.

I could feel the softness of her lips as I explored with shocked fingers. Her breath was hot and sweet, as if she had just drank a soda. We hugged and I could feel her hair catching in my beard, feel her hands press into my back. What a thrill to be in her embrace! What a treat to look into her eyes and see them looking into mine. To think my eyes could be as perplexing as hers! Such absurdity! It was nice to be close to her. I'm suddenly aware of how wonder this must look to outside observers. Myself practically blending into my preternaturally white suit, and her contrasting sharply with her similarly white garments. What a lovely juxtaposition. Serenity washes over me, and I am at peace.

The Bluest Sky

Alex and I were traveling to meet up with one of my old friends, Jenny, and her fiancé. Cars and motorized transportation are sparse and many roads are overgrown with wild grass and other prairie vegetation. The great plain states or what used to be the great plain states are beautiful and probably look most like what they did before man found them. All the farm land quickly reverted back to nature. The weather was perfect for the entirety of our five hundred mile journey on foot. A smattering of clouds provided us some shade in the day and allowed the heat to escape at night.

Alex was not a good traveling companion, he never had anything to say, never started conversations, never had ideas about foraging. I didn't like him after the first day, I'm fine with taciturn companions, but he wasn't doing anything to help us. He seemed lazy and uninterested in finding Jenny. I was excited to see Jenny, I hadn't seen her in a long time, and was thrilled when I found out she had survived whatever had happened.

The journey was long, and I forgot my traveling companions name, day after day we walked in silence, ate what I found, and slept under the stars. The weather was the same everyday, perfect. The sky was amazing, the bluest sky I'd ever seen, everyday I swear it got more blue, everyday it was best I'd ever seen. I think the clouds did it, the clouds were pure white, contrasting with the blue. Rich, bright, solid blue, it didn't make sense how it could be such a deep blue but also so bright. A platonic blue sky, dotted with bleached white cotton clouds.

I knew we were getting close because of all the dirt roads. Jenny and her neighbors had built roads along the most traveled pathways. The dirt was loose, but the roads were better than nothing, and proved to be a useful guide in the worst spots.

Finally we reached Jenny's house: a dilapidated farm house painted a faded sky blue, with holes in the roof, and a broken bench swing amongst the rotting colonial wood columns. She rushed out to greet us. Our customary bear hug lasted longer than usual. How many of our friends had died? I had not met her fiancé yet, and he watched us from the porch. Jenny introduced him as Alexia. I thought this sounded very familiar, and tried to introduce my traveling companion, but his name escaped my mind. My mind kept churning, struggling to find the name of the person that just spent weeks traveling with me across country. I failed to recall the name but it remained on the tip of my tongue.

Jenny and Alexia had a beat up, old Ford pickup truck. Keeping true to the color scheme, the truck was a medium shade of blue, like a well used pair of dark jeans. Joy riding around the loose dirt roads was exhilarating: wind in my face, warm sunny day, beautiful blue sky, Jenny pushing the truck to its tipping point. Alexia, Alex, and I road in the bed. Alexia cracking jokes, and yelling to Jenny when she drifted around particularly worrisome corners. Alex, still being withdrawn, sat expressionless and slid around the bed like a sack of potatoes.

After the truck ride, we retire to the undulating hills surrounding Jenny's house. We lie down in the soft grass and stare at the perfect blue sky.

Lost Cruise Ship

The cruise ship was large enough that the stormy seas did not produce a noticeable rock. The sea was roiling but the skies were clear and the sun was too bright as usual. Hurley and I were enjoying walking around the deck with very dark sunglasses on. Everyone was enjoying themselves and most passengers where in bright summer ware. Kate was wearing a nice blue summer dress and a large sun hat with sunglasses. Nobody was bothering with shoes as the carpet/astroturf was soft underfoot, warmed to a nice temperature in the noon day light. The mood was calm and people chatted quietly as they enjoyed, lemonade and ice tea. No plastic on this cruise, glasses sweat the same as people.

Pillars

When darkness had spread across the land...

Work had gotten out an hour before but it wasn't quite dinner time yet. Business at the grocery market was slow for the time of day. The lighting was inadequate and made shoppers uneasy. Not that it mattered much, everything made people uneasy in these times. An unmentionable horror had spread across the land. I was about to find out first hand. The north wall was suddenly ripped from the store, exposing only blackness, instead of the movie theater across the street. A giant malformed hand extended from the gaping maw and wrapped its disfigured digits around me. A similar hand grabbed a young girl, much younger than me. Our eyes met, her resolve told me that we would survive this, my worldliness told her that if there was a way to survive it we could find it.

The hands set us down in a large cave. The wall stretched far above our heads and faded into blackness before the ceiling became discernible. I also saw no light sources but I see could fifty feet in any direction before blackness crept into the hall and then eventually dominated. The stoney walls and earthen floor had a warm and comfortable touch to them. To my left I noticed the girl also exploring her new surroundings. I nodded with approval, and went back to inspecting my portion of the walls. On one side of the cave was rough and looked natural, the other was smooth and as it extended into the blackness slightly curved away from us. I noticed that there were three paths before us. The closest approximation of their orientation would be a "T" intersection one might find driving. The rough wall making the top of the "T", so that the underside of the top and the trunk of the "T" was comprised of smooth walls. She finally broke the silence and asked me how we should get out of here. I didn't trust the smooth walls so she picked a way to follow the top of the "T" in the direction closest to her. I started walking but met an unseen barrier before I caught up to her. She turned around and came back to ask me why I wasn't following her. I told her I couldn't go any further so she tried to grab my hand and drag me along but the unseen barrier prevented her from doing so.

The hands grabbed us again and set us down in a large elliptical room. Maybe three hundred feet long and one hundred feet wide. These are order of magnitude estimates at best since two incredibly large pillars were at the foci of the ellipse. One pillar was fiery red and emitting wave after wave of intense heat. The other was a glacial blue and was blasting waves of icy cold air at the same periodicity. The waves were reflected by the walls of the ellipse, getting amplified and reflected before meeting in the middle and dissipating each other. We were placed in the intersection of the major and minor axis of the ellipse and were surround by a vortex of elemental fury every ten minutes or so when the waves met. Either end of the major axis was unaffected by the opposite pillar so one end was molten and the other frozen. The girl and I marveled at this enormous heat engine, which I assumed powered the Earth in some manner. The perfect timing of the pillars energy release was astounding even the tiniest difference would cause one pillar to eventually overpower the other. Fire and Ice surrounded us in a violent futile battle for supremacy.

Texas Baby Snachers

The indoor pool is semi-dark. There is no natural light, and the artificial lights are high overhead and underpowered. There are lights in the pool as well, it feels as though I'm swimming at night. The blue tint is relaxing and people are conversing in soft mummers. There are a lot of people in the pool area but it doesn't feel crowded.

I feel terrible, I'm forgetting to do something here in Texas. I'm somehow letting everyone at the pool down, all of Texas maybe. I swim to the edge and hastily pull myself out of the pool. I don't bother drying off or changing and walk out to my car.

The sun is too bright as I exit the gym. I'm driving back to Michigan, all in one go, no stopping for anything. The temperature is fine in my car but it should be too hot, even with the windows down. I drive out of Texas, through Oklahoma, and into Missouri. I've been driving six hours without stopping, even for gas. Halfway through Missouri I realize that I left my phone back at the Texas gym. I turn around and drive back to the gym. I don't stop for gas on the way back, and the sun is still high in the sky even though I've been driving for over 12 hours.

Everyone is still at the pool. A couple of my friends are happy to see me, others greet me with disgust, they tell me I should have stayed gone. I ignore my critics and try to relax in the pool. It's L-shaped and it's deep everywhere, over 7 feet at it's shallowest. Two girls my age are trying to kick off one side of the L and coast to the other side of the L without surfacing. They come very close to accomplishing their goal, and I decide to give it a shot.

I take a deep breath, push myself down as far as I can and push off. I easily make the other wall, and turn around underwater and kick off again. It's exhilarating and I perform the exercise multiple times. Relishing the burn in my lungs and how my leg muscles coil and release energy. The sensation in my thighs is particularity odd, and I figure it's why I can cross the distance so easily.

After exhausting my legs, I aimlessly float around the pool. My phone rings so I hope out of the pool, towel off and answer my phone. My father is calling. One of our family friends had their youngest child kidnapped while on a walk to Dairy Queen. As we are both detectives we decide to fly out to their Texas ranch and find their missing baby.

The family meets us at the airport, the mother and father are crying, their baby daughter has been kidnapped, or so they think, by their next door neighbors. Both families have over five children and dad remarks that they could do with one less kid, but it does not placate the distraught couple. I remind him that they are family friends and that detectives love a good mystery.

We drive over to their neighbors house and kids are running around everywhere. It is mayhem at this rundown two-story farmhouse. The porch is grey and dilapidated but has several antique gasoline pumps. My father inquires where, where the pumps were acquired and if any of them are for sale. Sadly none are for sale but we're invited to inspect them. As we peruse the outside of each pump we talk with the neighbors. They are nice, genuine people, and we're all getting along famously. I'm hoping that they didn't kidnap our friends daughter, but I'm keeping my eyes peeled. I notice that one of the skins on the middle pump are ajar. My father being a consummate collector values the pump mechanism inside each unit, as complete pumps fetch more at auctions. I open the pump and discover it's covered in cobwebs. While not unusual to find animal dwellings inside these old pumps these webs are unnaturally thick and almost completely cover the pump's innards.

I notice the web shutter, something has been caught in this monstrous web, some poor animal has fallen into the web. Then we heard the crying. The baby was caught in the web!! We all clawed at the web, trying to free the child, but the preternatural web would not yield. Not only was the baby caught in the web it was also encased in a small jeweled sarcophagus. A small rubber mallet has proven useful in a variety of situations so my father always brings it with him on investigations. He hammered from the bottom and I pulled from the top and after five minutes of working the sarcophagus we finally wrenched it free. Somehow the baby was fine, whatever beast wove the web was nowhere to be found, so we all shared in the merriment of the moment.

I had to be going though, I was needed at the soccer tryouts in England. I flew to Manchester and suited up for tryouts as a goalie for Man U. The fist part of the tryouts were similar to the end stages for Legends of the Hidden Temple. There was an obstacle course with random pieces of a bicycle were scattered and needed to be assembled before moving on to the next challenges. Tryouts groups consisted of teams of five, a goalie, two defenders, and two forwards. My team completed out bicycle and I moved on to goalie qualifying. The forwards had to dribble the ball down a hillside slalom course before shooting on me. I dove to stop the first shot.

Lost Rock Band

The tropical sun beats down on our bare skin, the tatters of clothing barely cling to our bodies and leave little to the imagination. I can feel my skin getting burned, I won't last long on this unforgiving island. If the sun doesn't cook us alive the minotaur will make quick work of the five of us. Luckily night approaches as we make our way inland, one of the girls twists her ankle on the rocky terrain. The beautiful red sandstone crumbles often under our weight, even more so now that we're carrying Amy. The stars start to show when we find a sunken circular pit. The steep sides are unnavigable but the pit is full of many large boulders that provide access. In the middle of the pit, all the Rock Band instruments are set up on a especially large and flat boulder. There is no TV, or video game counsel, and all the wires from the instruments lead into the boulder. We have to leave Amy at the cliffs edge to explore the pit, she helps guild us toward the center. We reach the middle as the sun disappears, and only twilight remains. Our other female companion takes lead vocals, I play lead guitar and the other two guys play drum and bass. I feel out of place, being the only overweight person in an otherwise fit, and attractive band. We proceed to play three or four epic rock songs that I've never heard. If I were a musician I feel like I could have captured these songs and then shared them with the world, but alas they are lost in my dream state. As we finish the last song the rock we've been playing on begins glowing and starts shaking. We frantically scramble out of the pit with Amy screaming directions at us from the pit's edge. The rocks shift, rearrange, disappear under the earth, new rocks are forced up, and the minotaur is on his way. We can hear him crashing through the tropical forest just east of us. We dash south, back to the beaches, Steve carrying Amy. Even though the island has shifted we have to find the pit again, avoid the minotaur, and play the Rock Band instruments, otherwise the island will be destroyed.
It's warm, the stars dominate the sky, the ocean is just loud enough to say hello, we sleep on red rocks.

Silent Hill Soccer

Wandering through a dilapidated hospital with a small group of friends. We all had different weapons, myself wielding a handgun. A sense of urgency, and hyper awareness on the cusp of panic coursed through the group. My heart hurt in my chest it was beating so fast. Having survived the horrors of the previous night, made anticipating the next ones that much worse. Stumbling from room to room, finding nothing but abandoned hospital equipment, corpses, and dead monsters, the tension built, always waiting for the other boot to fall, but it never came.

We found our way outside, and saw a huge structure looming in the distance. The twilight giving away the building's profile against the darkening sky. Being outside calms the group, and we all take a moment to catch our breath. The street lamps come on, sodium buzzing in our ears and illuminating the disrepair on a two-lane highway. Scattering to navigate the large pot-holes and uneven surfaces, we resemble a search party more than a survival group. The structure grows faster than I anticipated and soon we discover that the structure is a football stadium.

Cautiously walking past the broken wrought-iron gate, we enter the crumbling stadium. The field is brown and moss covered, but still level and the two soccer goals still have the majority of their tattered nets. The field is soft and spongy, and the seats are inaccessible as they are raised at least 12 feet above the field. While I notice no lights the open air stadium seems too bright for what is now night. Even the full moon cannot explain the full illumination. Two teams come out from the locker room. The University of Michigan men's soccer team and some other nameless university. Fans appear in the stands but attendance is low and the stands appear largely empty. The teams have changed into Hockey jerseys with the nameless U in Detroit Red Wing jerseys and Michigan is some other pro hockey jersey, the same brown green colors found on the field. Nameless U scores in the first minute of play. I'm torn between cheering for the Wings jersey and cheering for my alma mater. Making up my mind, I cheer for Michigan as they streak down the field and almost score.

Our group decides that we need to get off of the sidelines and into the stands. We exit through the tunnel with the broken gate and are walking around the stadium's perimeter. The night is warm and the moon is beautiful.