[ WP ] I want you to close your eyes and pretend everything 's alright .

I look into her eyes. Slight wrinkles surround them, but her face seems young, so she seems almost timeless. Her skin a soft cream color, slightly tanned. I could stare into her deep hazel eyes for an eternity, but she is waiting for me to do as instructed. 
 
 “ I want you to close your eyes, ” she repeats. “ I want you to close your eyes and pretend everything ’ s alright. ” 
 
 I hesitate for a moment, but then I reach my hands out across the table. She puts her hands in mine, gives me a reassuring look, and I take a deep breath. I gaze into her sparkling eyes one last time, before closing my own. 
 
 At first, everything is black against my eyelids. I can not see anything, and my mind is blank. I can hear my heartbeat and the faint rush of blood in my ears. I wait calmly for it to happen as it has so many times in the past. I squeeze Amara ’ s hands, trying to feel for something else, to let her know I ’ m still with her. 
 
 Suddenly I see a faint dot of light in the distance. I know it really is not actually far away; it is just an illusion against my eyelids, but the light is approaching rapidly, growing larger and brighter. It is almost like a burning, very powerful flame, but not one of life and power, but of destruction and death. 
 
 It is happening again, and before I can react, I am completely surrounded by the light. I open my eyes, or at least I think I do, but I am no longer with Amara. I sit at her dining table, but all around me, her house is in ruins. The air burns with an acrid odor, and it is unbearably hot. To my right, an entire portion of her house has been reduced to a pile of rubble, brick, and broken wood. 
 
 Screams and cries fill the air, and I feel my throat close up when I hear the sound of a small girl screaming in the distance suddenly cut off by a loud, echoing bang. I don ’ t need to see it to know what it is. 
 
 Somehow I muster the strength to rise from the chair and table, which buckle and collapse as soon as I stand. I carefully trudge out of what was once Amara ’ s front porch. Books, papers, and dishes lay strewn across the floor and onto the porch. I notice everything is bathed in a slightly orange tinge, and when I look up, I see the sky is a deep reddish orange, the smoke rising from all around the city chokes the air and gives it this forbidding shade. 
 
 I manage to make my way onto the sidewalk, but it is no better. Houses all around have crumbled. Amara ’ s neighborhood is on a hill, and far in the distance, I can see what was once the downtown and business districts. Skyscrapers falling or collapsed against one another. The sun setting behind them, giving the scene a bloody appearance. 
 
 I stay there, standing frozen, just watching. This is happening right now, and there is nothing I can do to stop any of it, but simply stare. 
 Something grabs me from behind at the hem of my shirt, and I whirl around. A small girl, carrying her brother, a large wooden splinter in his small chest. A man turns the corner and points his gun at the girl. 
 
 I spur into action and out of my stupor, pulling the girl and boy behind me as the shot rings in the air. 
 
 I open my eyes, sobbing. Amara lets go of my hands and moves close to me to console me, but I can not be consoled. That boy and girl will perish, and there is nothing I could do to help them. Amara holds me, but I will have no more of this. I just want to be alone. I tell Amara goodbye, and then pry her off me. 
 
 At first, she doesn ’ t seem to realize what I am doing, but as I walk to kitchen counter and grab a knife, she screams, lunging at me, but I drag the blade across my throat. Searing pain fills my entire body, and I begin to choke, unable to breathe as blood fills my airway. 
 
 Amara kneels over me, holding a towel to my throat, sending more waves of pain down my body. She manages to choke out “ close your eyes and pretend everything is alright. Next time…Next time, please try to make it work. ” 
 
 She plants a kiss on my forehead, and I close my eyes. I see the light coming towards me, and engulfing me. When I open them, I am standing at a busy intersection. It is loud, and voices fill the air. 
 
 I am in a most certainly in a downtown of some city, but all the signs are in a language I do not recognize. I sigh, and look into my pockets. Some spare change of a currency I have never seen before and some sort of electronic device. It ’ s time for me to start from the bottom once again, and find the next person who can help me traverse the dimensions. Hopefully next time, I won ’ t be thrown into such a violent place that can cause me to act so rashly. I feel a brick of guilt weighing down on me, as I acted without consideration of Amara's feelings, but I think about the girl and boy I could not protect. What good is this ability if I can not help people? And really, Amara was just one person. It's not like this has n't happened before. Who knows? Maybe this time I can settle down without visions or without moving between dimensions, but I suppose that is only wishful thinking.
