Quiet. Empty stillness. Calm.
I opened my eyes to the feeling of nothing, the sky overhead pale blue. Not the usual bright, endless blue I was used to. This sky seemed washed out, a ghost of itself, even the small, puffy clouds that drifted overhead faintly transparent.
It took me a minute to process where I was, the feeling of grass under my hands, my head, the warmth of the ground, uneven in places. Emotion, too, was washed like an echo of what used to be. The faint scents of summer, though as pastel as the rest of the world seemed. When I sat up it was slowly, on the edge of confusion as I tried to understand where I was. Why I was.