Flying Mental

Part I
"Wake up. You're dreaming..." floated down the soft, effeminate voice. She was beautiful, so radiant that he was overcome by her, by his love for her, and by his sudden passion for all things good in the world. Nothing could stop him; he was a snowball of good feeling, getting stronger and stronger until he could stop the world's evils singlehandedly. The emotion spread throughout his body; he felt like he had stepped out from the shadows and felt sunlight for the first time. The immense silence soon began to take hold, and the emotion passed with a gust of wind.

He was left cold, feeling empty, so he began to observe his surroundings. He was in an infinitely large green field- almost too green. Something was odd, besides not being asleep in his bed, as he had been five minutes earlier. A banner proclaiming "4:30AM" in large digital red letters glided across the orange and purple sky, like a silent, friendly space ship.

He was knees deep in it now, whatever "it" might be. He began to explore, since it was imperative he figure out where he was. It was more than imperative; his life depended on it. Who wants to set up camp and then find out there's a white castle over the horizon? He looked at the fields that extended in every direction, and the sudden realization of the infinite overtook him. He desperately fell to the ground, grabbing on to the neon grass until he could shrink his mind down to the point he was standing on. He reconsidered his strategy and decided that he would need supplies, or at least a phone. The vast emptiness of the field around him put things in perspective, and soundly proved the futility of that thought...no, the futility of thought in this god-forsaken place. It was beautiful, in its own way, but certainly god forsaken. There would be no help from anyone else in this place, that was sure. What drives this place? he pondered. Maybe it's hope... hopefully it's hope. He closed his eyes, and with all his physical and mental strength he hoped that he would find a previously unseen pay phone. He turned around quickly, and saw nothing. A feeling of panic and despair overtook him, until he realized that he knew no one who would take a collect call anyway.
Part II
A nightclub had materialized around him, but it was all fuzzy. People with blurred faces pulsated around him to a deep bass beat, which was all he could make out of the music. He looked over in the corner, and saw the pay phone he had been hoping for, shining like a beacon and guiding him through the fog of the people around him. They were like a current, pushing him in every direction but the one he wanted, and he had to fight with everything he had to make any progress. He looked behind him, and saw a clear path to the door. He turned and walked out of the club with an ease that frustrated him.
Part III
As soon as the warm air hit him, he felt calm. What just happened? he wondered....something about a field and a telephone. A giant toilet paper roll with legs jogged by, extolling "It's oh so soft" as it was chased by three floating kids and a man with a cylindrical head, who smelled an awful lot like cheese. A bunch of dogs in cars drove by, shouting something about a giant tree. They were soon followed by a boy on a broomstick, who flew into the night sky without a word. He knew that none of them mattered, that they were just mirrors of himself, but he was tired... tired of the craziness. He just wanted to be happy. He began walking, alone through the night, looking for something familiar.
Part IV
It was a small garden, with Astroturf grass and houseplants everywhere. A blue lawn chair sat in the center, protected from the stadium-grade lighting by a ridiculous red and turquoise plastic umbrella. All around him industrial, urban buildings, rose like giant fortresses, protecting this Walmart Garden of Eden. He sat down, and let his body rest for a bit. He felt himself sinking slowly into the chair, and let the chair embrace him.

He awoke back in his room, but asleep in an armchair. He immediately dove to the ground in pain, desperately looking for money. He needed cash now. He was like an empty shell, and the money would fill it. He could feel the substance leaking out of him, and needed some bills to patch himself up, at least until the end of the week. As he crouched on the floor, looking for cash and slowly bleeding away, a man appeared at the door. All he could make out was the voice, which seemed to come from his head rather than the mouth of the mysterious figure. He desperately asked it Where is my money? The figure responded calmly and matter-of-factly, "It's on the west side of the world." Before he could figure out this cryptic statement, a group of candles that had been put under his desk suddenly lit up, and began to burn at the dark wood of the desk and walls. It was a trap...
Part V
The flames began to tickle him, and slowly turned white and transformed into delicate fingers. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, more of a goddess than a woman. The only way to describe her was to say that she was indescribable; more words just detracted from her beauty. She smiled at him mysteriously, and all emotion, the confusion, the frustration, the stress of living, and the restraints of the material world slowly dissipated. He was slowly opening his eyes for the first time, and world was looking a lot brighter, and a lot more real than ever before. This emotion had at first been just a tiny ray of sunlight, bothering him every once in a while and forcing him to turn his eyes away from it, but now it was like a blue sky, bluer than he had ever remembered it, dotted with stars and completed by the old, crisp moon in the center of the canvas. He saw the people around him, and was gravitated towards them by his attachment to their wellbeing. He saw the path to helping others and living a full and complete life. He reached out and touched her hand, and felt connected, like he had never felt before, to the rest of the world...
Part VI
The loud beeping of his alarm clock awoke him. It was raining outside, pounding at his window like tiny fists, as he got up and tried to find his clock in the gray light of morning. He took a shower, got dressed, ate some cereal, and went off to his job as a gear in the machine.