d y s t o p i a

I once met someone who said that he had been to an ineffable place.

He said it defied any ability to comprehend it.

Sights and sounds emerged from an abyss of darkness without rhyme or reason.

Sudden bursts of light seemed to have a nature of their own.

He formed the impression that they were communicating with him.

Their intentions seemed sinister and he was afraid.

Light and color only appeared as indifference and pain.

But there were other forces at work too.

Soft, ambient tones merged together in seemless fashion.

Then he saw a reflection of his face, frozen with a look of terror.

But it was only there for a second before he was surrounded by shapes and pixels again.

A burst of flame brighter than the brightest light and hotter than the hottest sun.

Warping, buzzing, screeching sounds and the crackling of electricity.

Endless landscapes of depth and weight and color.

It felt like he was navigating inside a living being with living beings inside it.

Images and symbols of dread and delight... of competing energies and passionate struggles.

Then he saw a hand steadily holding a light far away in the distance, signaling escape.

He followed it out and when he returned to reality a single word echoed in his head.

Dystopia.