Her eyelids resisted, as if gummy lashes had tangled during sleep and now strained against her efforts to unlock them. Using more force, she enlisted the help from her eyebrows, twisting them higher onto her forehead. When that failed to succeed, she wriggled and squiggled her nose, nostrils doing facial gymnastics to come to her rescue. All attempts proved futile and frustration set in. Had she fallen asleep with that goeey mascara on again? The party must have raged into the wee hours of the morning, and sheer exhaustion had wiped the event clean from her mind. For the life of her, she couldn't recall getting home, getting into bed - nothing. The last thing she remembered was pulling Evelyn up onto the table with her, both of them hilariously dancing wildly, fueling the frivoloties and frenzy of the New Year's Eve bash!

"Oh. Wait. Did I...Did I lose my balance? I think..." - snapshots of the scene pulsed immediately.

• ankle twisting
• hand darting out for balance
• scrap of fabric tearing from Evie's blouse - oh! that will cost a mint to fix!
• a sharp cracking sound, followed by several thuds, blood rushing to ears, pumping, then fading.
• hush. peace.

And now rebellious eyes that wouldn't open on command. Damn those shoes! After that last song, she had sworn she would kick her feet free, and continue the party barefoot. Those sky-high heels had been forced upon her at the behest of Evie, always prodding her to be dripping in haute couture. She had always been more comfortable being the girl-next door. Fashion had never been her passion; and now those stilettos were probably going to be the death of her!

_Literally

The voice was soft, tender, amused. It should have startled her! But the delicate, rumbling laughter soothed her in the oddest way. Did she know the voice? Yes, the filmy thread of remembrance danced and teased. As she fiddled to grasp and pull it near, it slipped and slid from her, tantalizing her, calling her, luring her further into the recesses of her mind. She felt herself falling blissfully into a sea of hundreds of thousands of memories, deliciously enveloping her, flashing the best moments of her life. Slowly, she began to realized the sound of that warm timbre was not from a particular moment, but had subtly permeated every recollection, every impression of her life from behind the scenes - from conception til...

~Yes, from conception til now.~

"Now?" she questioned, inside her mind.

~Hm. Yes, Alyssa. Now.~

The response was immediate and calm. Apparently, "now" was indeed what she thought "now" was, else - how could thoughts be heard? And that would make the Owner of the voice....

_Him.

"Him," she said the word and heard it amplified audibly with waves of love around her. So, yes, the heels had been the literal death of her. She giggled. He giggled too. She never thought death would be a laughing matter, and yet here she was, beyond the veil, peals of laughter celebrating with Him over her untimely demise.

"Why can't I open my eyes?"

~You can. When you're ready. You've had quite a journey.~

"Far?"

~In a sense. The metaphysical concepts are very different for the human brain.~

"But I have a human brain."

~No, actually you have something new.~

At hearing this, Alyssa felt something shift beneath her. She felt like she was floating, yet falling. Her limbs shot out, on reflex, clawing at the air.

~Nothing has changed except your understanding. When you're ready to open your eyes, don't be alarmed. Simply observe and absorb.~

"I'm scared."

~Trust Me.~

She had heard those words all her life, from family, friends, employers, teachers, politicians, doctors, even repairmen. Every time they were spoken, they came with an immediate impulse to push back and refuse to give her faith to them. But He? He was different. She wanted to trust Him, knew it was right - and necessary- and the very next step of eternity.

Without any pretense or buildup, she snapped open her eyes. Always one to rip off the band-aid, that part of her personality had followed her into the infinite realms. Surrounding her was nothing. Not something, not a few things, not edges or walls or limitations - but simply, unexplainably nothing. It was impossible to explain, let alone understand, but she followed His instructions to observe and absorb.

He smiled. She couldn't actually see Him, but she felt His smile permeating her being.

~Very good. What you see is for you.~

She didn't understand, but didn't interrupt. She was gleaning direction from each word and sipping knowledge from every syllable.

~I've found that asking people to begin forming their new reality is much too complex of a task. They become frozen with the unlimited possibilities before them, and no matter how many times they are reassured that they can indeed change every single thing, as many times as they like, they remain fixed, paralyzed - simply stuck. Shall I give you a place to begin?~

Her pupils continued to dilate and contract like the lens of a camera trying to auto-focus on multiple, non-existant subjects. Anxious to welcome sweet relief from the overwhelming weight of nothingness, she responded quickly.

"Yes please!"

Laughing, He offered an olive branch. ~What's your favorite fruit?~

The unexpected question grounded her. Blueberries No sooner had the thought formed, than blue and white clouds swirled from the nothingness. Structure and swirls reached from the abyss, helping to bring form and fuction to her fantasy. Blueberries, thousands - no millions of blueberries were forming in clusters around her, collecting into the corners of the scene that she was apparently painting with her thoughts.

"This is wild," she said in a hushed whisper, filled with wonder.

~Just wait. There's more.~ These were some of His favorite moments with each of the newest imports-become-native. Watching how every being embraced this special ability allowed Him to experience the awe from their eyes, every time. ~Choose a place to enjoy them. Someplace safe, cozy, a retreat. Someplace where your heart can always find comfort and rest.~

The place from my dreams she imagined, as she conjured.

Once again, pieces came together; an invisible Artist splashing color and form with unseen brushes. As the images came into view, she marveled at the detail. The metal gleamed, the marble shone - even the light streamed towards her, warming skin that she wasn't entirely sure even existed anymore.

~It's beautiful~

She beamed with pride at His appreciation of her meager suggestions to the process. "Thank you,"

_But?

"Well," she burst into a fit of giggles. "but ...I made the blueberries disappear!" Her giggles were contagious, causing Him to dissolve into His own explosion of laughter. "And, I do love it! It's always been a place I wanted to build when - well, when I was down there. But now it looks too modern, and too perfect."

~You're the architect, and the designer and the interior decorator. The painter, and the builder and the mistress of detail. Delight yourself in the expression of your joy!~

Instantly, the scene faded before her eyes and formed an adjusted scene, closer to what she was now conceiving - a bit of fairy tale cottage meets modern cozy, comfort. Without much effort, she brought forth a new reality. Was it reality? She didn't know, she would ask. Before she could form the words, the answer came.

~Do YOU believe it's real?"~

"I do. I think it's more real than anything I've ever hoped, dreamed, or imagined."

_This.

Satisfied with that, she indulged further, fine tuning the appliances, sweeping up blueberries, adding more light, shaping more windows. This was so much fun, but would it get old?

_No.

She sighed with relief. Remembering back to earlier times, she had often wondered if eternity would become boring, perfection and paradise becoming less so over ... time?

_No.

Alyssa loved that this constant communication was effortless and intimate. One might think that it would be an intrusion of privacy, but it wasn't. It might have felt that way back-down-there, but this was the most natural and sweet form of prayer she had ever been delighted to enjoy. She offered her next creation with another thought - I think it's finished, wanna see?

~I'll always love to.~

She showed off her masterpiece, and could feel His glowing valuation. While the finest details adjusted into perspective, He explained how in this "realm", there were more private spaces that required a warm introduction, communal spaces that invited joint artistry, and hidden gems that He secretly placed all over the vast matrix, begging to be hunted down and shared. Alyssa soaked up as much as she could in these very first moments of eternity, but the immenseness overwhelmed her. Sensing that she was approaching her temporary limits, He brought her back to the tangible environment around her.

~I noticed that your cottage is missing two very important things.~

Eager to get things "right" on her first... well, day? - she sought His counsel, ready to add in whatever was suggested. "I'm ready."

~ Number one - you.~

She skipped like a child, becoming part of the scene with pure delight, full of joy and light. "Fixed! And the second thing?"

~Lots more blueberries.~

The End

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What a challenge this post was! For the final DREEM-WOTW post for the year, @samsmith1971 challenged us to use a combination of at least 3 prompts from the previous prompts used in the year! The post will be submitted into DreemPort this coming Tuesday (so if you're joining in, you do the same - as that is the day submissions are entered!) Deadline is 4pm PST! The prompts were:

sanctuary, time, distant, blank, and illusion

I specifically decided to NOT use any of the words SPECIFICALLY in the post, but instead hinted at their presence and their influence throughout. If you look carefully, you'll see them all displayed in this piece!

I also had the urge to try to tie in @theinkwell 's prompt of TRUST, and direction of "setting the scene". You WILL find the word "trust" here, and I hope I inspired your imagination to see,smell, taste, and feel the setting being crafted around you!

Thanks for this challenge @samsmith1971, @jayna and all of @theinkwell crew!!! It was so fun, and seems to be one of my favorite subject to write about (making it almost effortless to do!)

Image sources:

All images belong to me, and I had an absolute BLAST designing ALL the images using my word prompts with Midjourney AI bot. I've had so much fun with this bot, that I actually uopgraded to the $30/month version (Heaven help me! LOL) For the first time ever, I asked the bot to continue to develop the scene with the same subject - it was tricky, but VERY satisfying to "illustrate" ths story! I gotta say - for people who don't have the money to pay professional illustrators, my goodness! What an incredible opportunity for authors to use their own skill in using word prompts to bring the story to life with images created painstakingly with a bot! hehe (It took me about 90 minutes to write the story, and about 3 times that to create the images - but it was well worth it!!! LOL) I'm so pleased with how this sincerely brought images in my mind to reality. I felt just like Alyssa!!!