Books: An Abridged Existence (excerpt)

A beeping noise goes off in the near distance. He hears feet running in a nearby hall. The feet run by the door to the room he is in, followed by legs, torsos, arms, and finally heads of doctors. The feet, legs, torsos, arms, and heads rejoin after they run past the room a second time. The nurses enter the room and put the man back on the bed. The nurses strap the man to the bed, and leave. The man is immobilized, and cannot move his arms, legs, or head.

A pinprick. He becomes groggy, and his eyes close.

The sun sinks slowly below the waves upon the sea. The waves break upon the sandy shoreline. The sky grows from blue, to pink, to red, to a dark blue. Stars begin dotting the sky, the moon is covered by a cloud. A man lies under the sand upon the golden beach. Only his head is above the fine grains of sand. A crab crawls sideways across his face. The man cannot move his arms or legs; the sand is covering them. There is no sound other than the sound of the waves washing themselves upon the shore, and returning to the dark blue ocean. The man tries to move his arms, but fails.

A bright object falls from the sky, leaving a bright red streak in its path, before bursting into several fragments in the sky, each leaving a similar red trail similar to that of the parent. A fish jumps out of the tides and onto the sand. It flops around on the sand until another wave washes ashore and carries it back to sea.

The color of the sky fades to black. The stars fade away. The man lost self awareness.