3 SQUARE

As the snake undulated unseen towards Alex, tongue flicking the air, the atmosphere turned unbearably hot—as if boiling—and the scenery vanished again, in a burst.  

Snow was falling like it was in the quiet, regularly looping background of an animated image.  Kyu was on a bridge, sitting on the dark leather upholstery of a therapist’s couch.  A line of children walked in uniform order past him.  They were all busy looking down at the phones in their hands.  

“Have a seat, sometimes people find it helpful when they can talk about their issues to someone who—”

A child stepped clean off the edge of the bridge. 

Kyu felt horror spread through his mind.  The children continued their march like parts in an assembly line with a suddenly ending conveyor belt, plummeting.

At once Kyu perceived an image of the entire globe, with people staring into screens.  He saw a white snake stabbing out of every screen, gutting through people’s torsos and connecting them all along his endless body, as beads being gathered on a bouncing string.

And Kyu felt himself falling.  The bridge spanned above in the slow snow, a white helmet tumbling.

[The Dream has shattered.  

As the reader you must now restart at the 1-Square,

Unless you have acquired The Memory of Love, in which case rebirth at the 0 Square.]