The sky was illuminated with cosmic dust and a barrage of shooting stars. A divine war ensued above the foothills of white clouds radiated by the sun. It was daytime, yet when I looked up it seemed the heavens were all too eager to show themselves, for the sky was alive as if it were nighttime, and still the sun glowed, and the clouds moved, and the students drifted through this dreamscape; and all on the same campus that I remember so vividly. My high school.

I fell in step beside students walking to lunch. In the middle of the courtyard there was a statue of a lone wolf standing proud beside a pond; its turquoise fur hard and tarnished.

My legs moved themselves while my thoughts wandered elsewhere, seemingly floating around the whole campus as the monotone conversations became drowned out by my musings.

Dude, that’s so cool. Then laughter like a monkey. I know, right?

And it went on unceasingly like this. Somehow I had sat through all of it at lunch, not truly caring for a single utterance.

Man, that sucks. That’s crazy, though …

Not hearing the conversation, I said, “That is crazy.” The words fell from my lips like feathers, and were gusted away. My responses never went beyond the boundaries of their own words; I found it to be too much effort for little to no reward.

The bell sounded; a blacksmiths hammer ringing a thousand times without so much as a drop of sweat.

That afternoon, bright as it was and strangely alive with the night sky, was still dismal. The air I breathed seemed to me my dreams instead, going in and out of me so quickly I could not grasp them.

I followed behind three of my friends. One of them was Samantha. I remember her quite vividly because I thought of her constantly; a petty thought of attraction that distracted even more petty thoughts. Her hair was black as a new moon and her skin contrasted that color beautifully, so much so I thought if I touched her arm the skin might dip beneath it as a cream.

That’s crazy, isn’t it? she asked my friends. Another riveting topic, I was sure.

“Yea, that’s crazy,” I muttered. She didn’t hear me. Black as her hair was it seemed grey, now. Bright as her eyes were the light fluttered back into the cosmos where it belonged, and I was left wondering how it all could get bleaker, somehow, stuck in this state of observation where even the most extraordinary feats are explainable by mundane words.

We crossed the courtyard through a stone path shadowed by a dozen palm trees. They rose higher than I recalled before, stretching into the clouds. One of their heads caught fire from a stray astroid. The sun penetrated through the branches in such a way that the beams moved as curtains when I went through them, bending and twisting until folding back into their place, wavering gently in winds I could see like lines of music, but winding and uncontrollable.

They did not notice.

Bro, that is just insane, one of them commented.

“It is insane,” I confirmed automatically.

Sounds of other students were only mumbles. The world continued to revolve as if we were only feet from space; its stars, its breathtaking and airless expanse. My feet scraped over the stonework. A meteor passed right over a classroom and curled up excitedly into the air until fizzling to death quite audibly. Overhead, a star erupted and the ground rumbled with the vibrations.

With the stars explosion was another flurry of cosmic dust to sprinkle the air. I put my hand through one of the clouds and cleared it like fog from my face. The vivid colors spotted me until I became an abstract artist’s canvas. None of them noticed.

My friends were within arm’s reach with me at their heels. They were talking of something beyond superficial, so far outside of thinking that it seemed as obvious and plain as a dying yard of grass.

My head looked to the heavens instead. I could not listen.

We went down a flight of outdoor steps, into another floor with more classrooms and a library. Everyone was walking normally …

Until a shriek came from one I did not know, and it echoed until I’m sure the whole world had heard it. A girl’s screech at the front of the crowd.

My friends hurried to the noise, and I followed slowly with an impassive expression. Wind the color of silver came from my right and enveloped my body, so much that I was held there for a moment, until I continued. In my peripherals two planets were waltzing, and stars complemented them with sprightly dances.

My friends pushed through backpacks and baggy sweatshirts, stray hairs and wide eyes until they reached the small space the crowd had left empty.

Samantha covered her mouth with her hands, and the two other friends of mine looked only for a moment before staring away into the crowd. They all cursed incessantly and said things that I didn’t hear clearly. Time was singing away, and I could scarcely see it all unfold before me.

A subtle curiosity came from in me; a ghost just materializing.

I drifted through them all, until I stood right there in front of the library with them, Samantha doubled over and shaking.

I saw it: my body, sprawled on the concrete. My dark hair had the grace to cover my unclosed eyes, though my lips were parted and there was blood coming from my ear. Besides the mangled spine I seemed peaceful, at rest. I glanced up at the roof of the building, then back down to something I couldn’t call ‘me’ anymore.

Oh my god, someone said, that is just crazy.

“That is crazy,” I muttered.

Though no one heard.