MISGUIDED BY DARKNESS Azure DasGupta Sweat emerged from the peaks of my skin like a cup overflowing with water. As I gracefully drift into unconsciousness, I began to hear a loud, aggressive yet soothing sound. Boom. Boom. Boom. One. two. One. two. It repeated. That sound mysteriously breathed life into my body. The powerful drums surged through my being and I instantaneously felt every piece, part, and particle inside of me dance.
Then suddenly, a peaceful hypnosis awakened me. While my eyes stared wide open, I was still mysteriously blind. The things that I imagined were much more complex than the simple images and objects my mind had recorded. So what was I seeing? In the midst of the mysterious black vacuum of fluid particles, I began to notice a small speckle of light as small as chia seed. As I squinted my blind eyes closer, the speck grew bigger and bigger. The light sucked in the darkness like a whirlpool in the middle of the ocean. The more the light grew, the more my body felt empty. It was as if I was apart of the darkness being stolen by the light. Before I could deduce a logical explanation of the anomalies, the light fully submerged the deep space. Where was I now? I could only see the impressions of odd shapes. No shadows existed, only light. As I floated in the bleak flood of intense light, I noticed a noise. It wasn't the calming drum cadence from earlier. This new sound was familiar as if I've heard it in my memories. Loud, crashing noises. What was it? Then, a loud swoosh flooded my ears. I opened my eyes. I witnessed the unimaginable. I saw myself lying lifeless on the side of the road. I appeared to be smiling enjoying the view until the noises began. Boom. Boom. The bomb exploded in the
15