A Faded Dream: Jonty Neil (Honourable Mention

written by Jonty Neil, Year 10

As you stand up, the world twists and turns upon itself, spinning infinitely in every direction like fractals on a universal plane. The sight is beautiful and grotesque simultaneously, endless possibilities from endless pathways, immeasurable pasts to immeasurable futures. Limitless presents happen in unison, each one so similar, yet so different. The ghosts of descendants look upon the birth of ancestors, a glimpse of the past but a vision of the future. Everything shifts back and forth, cracking and crumbling yet never breaking. Colours jump and explode, a full spectrum that stretches beyond visible light, a complete grayscale consisting of an entire rainbow. A volley of smells assaults the nostrils, everything from the delightful to the putrid, like a war fought on a two caved mountain. The tongue is bombarded with tastes unobtainable, yet in ready supply. From familiar to unimaginable, the flavours arouse hunger, whilst destroying the appetite. Every sensation attacks from every way possible, charging and retreating. All vision fades, blurred against the perpetual scope of time and space, two separate objects occupying the same state as the fourth dimension. Eternal ringing drowns out the last bond to the real world, an endless loop cycle of every tune, in every key, with every note possible to exist. Every note blends into one melody, a harmony made through the chaotic cacophony of silence. Everything melts, tilting in every degree instantly, but endlessly gradual. A reach for anything to stop the falling is fruitless, as numbness prevents any attempts of steadiness. As the floor is met, the feeling of agony engulfs everything, yet no suffering is felt. As all contact to the world is shut off, the senses shut off one by one, but still sense the wild thoughts of the mind. As everything falls through the endless pull of the void they all fade as what’s left of the eye focuses upon them. Thought is the only company now, drifting endlessly until it too disappears, leaving everything devoid of light, nothing but pure black to accompany what’s left of the dying husk. Through this seemingly reverse entropy everything appears, while infinite others look on through the absolute nothingness of this endless plane. The void becomes emptier as it crowds with nothingness while the singularity of everything fills and overflows. Both presences fade into each other, together and apart. A plague of cleanliness eats at the world from its core, but the world contracts inwards from this redundant oxymoron. This solvable paradox crumbles under pressure, but remains unscathed. The world collapses into itself, broken in its invincibility, before… And then I woke up, the experience nothing but a distant memory, an unborn past waiting somewhere beyond perception.

a burst of colours in a world of grey, a cacophony of sounds in a silent room, a city crowded with emptiness, a waterfall frozen in movement, a blinding light in a sable void, a symphony of silent music, a creature with no mind to think, a motionless world forever moving, a vacuum containing everything, a choir with no voice to sing, a lethargic world of industry, a maelstrom of stillness.

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