Elsewhere.

A figure is submerged in water, impossibly far away from everything else. He is suspended there with lights shimmering across his figure. The water imitates those lights close to his body but as the water stretches away, it quickly shifts into a deep black of an unknowable abyss. The figure has shaggy brown hair that shifts slightly in the water, not by a current but by the subtle jerks he makes as he dreams. His head is down towards his chest and his knees are drawn into him. His wings are enormous, wrapping around and crossing in front like a barricade.

There are videos playing around him. He is something like a projector as the videos beam away from him, seeming to stop on an invisible screen, not far away. The videos arc around him in a semicircle. They have the feel of home movies that were shot on an old tape recorder, but instead of originating from a camcorder, they are the perspective of a person. There is no way to tell who the perspective belongs to but they all revolve around the same girl. She has a bright smile that is framed by blonde curls.

She twirls around the perspective in one of the videos. Her bright flowered dress fans out before she breaks into giggles and flees around a tree as the video gives chase. Giggling is a common theme across the home movies and the dreamer’s sleeping space is something of an echo chamber. The images play ahead of him but they also reflect, causing the colors to shift across his still form. There are three things that encase him here; the beaming colors of life, the sounds of joyful laughter, and a third thing that winds through like a dual-fibered thread, holding things together at a seam. One fiber is a profound sadness, while the other is a dread.

One of the videos hums with a soundless intensity as the image starts to sharpen and reach out towards the dreamer. In it, the girl is wearing another flowery dress and she seems to have a nervous reluctance. They both look out over a parking lot as someone calls out an announcement. There are a mixture of military uniforms and dressy clothing scattered around the area. A pair of buses are parked nearby and a stack of green duffel bags are being loaded underneath it. The perspective wraps a camo-sleeved arm around the girl’s neck and the view zooms into the top of her head as they embrace. It pulls back again and the girl looks up, hopeful. “You’ll come back,” the girl says. “Promise, you’ll come back to me.”

A hand rises and brushes a tear away from her cheek. “I promise,” says a voice, “that there’s nothing capable of keeping me away from you.” She nods and leans forward as tears begin to flow more freely. “Hey, hey, you shouldn’t worry. I got you something to keep you company while I’m away.” They separate and the perspective looks down and around to pull a flat white box from a pocket. She looks down at it and wipes at her eye with the underside of her wrist. The box opens towards her and her eyes twinkle. The perspective lifts a golden, heart-shaped pendant from the box. It has two diagonal stripes across it; one a dark pink and the other is a pink that’s almost white. As the girl leans in again, the perspective continues talking as it looks over the top of her head and fastens it around her neck. “I was adamant when I talked to the clerk. I said that I needed something special that will keep my girl company while I’m away. I was assured that this pendant would do the trick and was even told that there was magic inside. Apparently, you’ll think of me anytime you’re close to it.” The voice laughs. “I said, I guess that would have to do.”

“I’ll wear it, always,” she says with a fierce determination.

“Oh, I don’t doubt it,” the voice says, warmly.

“Load up,” commands a voice from the distance.

The two lean in for an embrace and they whisper to one another before the girl nods eagerly under the perspective’s view. The view pulls away and the girl’s outstretched fingertips slide off of another’s as she rests her other hand over both of her hearts.

As the view looks back at her, holes open up in the middle of this projection and many of the ones surrounding it. The images start flickering along with the dreamer’s eyelids. Projectiles zip through the water, striking against his wings like a hammer. Some of the videos start to wink out, retreating back into him. He continues to be jolted, making the water turbulent as the flattening projectiles fall away from him. His eyes begin to flutter and he sees a shadowy object that had gotten kicked up in front of his face, being back lit by a still beaming projection. It sinks back down and rotates in his view. “Remember, you promised,” says the girl from the only remaining video. As his focus trains on the object, the blur begins to subside and he sees the diagonal pink stripes across the pendant. His pupils narrow as his eyes thrust open. His grasp quickly closes around the pendant and a blue light starts to intensify within his wings. The wings swing outward in an eruption of light. The screen rents and the water falls away as the dreamer glares into a new world. There is nothing but blackness and a single strobing light in the distance. He braces his legs against something behind him and hurls himself at that strobing light, a massive maul in tow.