The apocalypse must have happened.  I dozed off for a moment, and now the world has changed.  I’m sitting on the black hull of some fallen vessel that is mostly submerged in murky water, steaming and choppy, that’s flowing nowhere.  White foam drifts by in aimless patches, soiled by the water’s many contents.  These float by – sodden, shapeless chunks; unidentifiable globs six different shades of brown.  They slowly sink into the opaque depths.  Large white mountains rise from the horizon.  A metallic silver sky, streaked and dulled, looms over everything. 

A shadow moves over the agitated water.  A monster descends from the metallic sky sporting five appendages with multiple joints.  They are attached to a long, creased, pale body extending back beyond sight.  These appendages plunge into the murky depths, and the wave this intrusion raises sweeps me off my perch.  Tossed and tumbled, I resurface, spitting putrid water that tastes of soap, my body covered in grease.  The monster is slowly rising out of the sea, dragging the limp, sodden body of another monster from the depths.  The dingy pink mass sheds water in massive waterfalls that rip open the sea surface and send water droplets the size of beachballs flying into the air for miles.

Another monster descends from the sky, a mirror image of the first.  Before the sea has recovered from the first’s intrusion, the second plunges in as well.  This wave flings me into a mass of debris, soft and putrid, floating like an iceberg.  I climb to the top, hoping I can hold on when the next wave rolls through.  The second monster resurfaces raising the vast black vessel – round, hollow, and open on one end – by a curved protrusion from its side.  Maneuvering the vessel, the monster uses it to scoop away a section of the distant white mountains as if they weren’t even there. 

The two monsters square off in the air and I wait to see two behemoths of the apocalypse clash.  The first monster throws the limp pink carcass over the vessel recovered by the second and tries to grab it.  The remnants of the mountains are spread all over it; some pieces falling into the sea and dissolving into a foamy mass that covers the surface, but the second monster refuses to relinquish the vessel.  Eventually the first monster tires and releases its grip, and the second retreats, still clutching the vessel’s protrusion.  The first monster drops the limp carcass back into the sea; its edges sink slowly back into the depths while its center rises toward the sky. 

A thunderous roar tears the heavy atmosphere in two.  Behind me, a column of scalding water has appeared, descending from the sky.  Its source is unknown, hidden by virtue of extreme height.  The sea boils and bubbles around it, throwing mist into the already humid air.  I can feel the heat of the water as it settles on my skin.  The victorious monster guides the vessel into this column of water, rotating it, splashing water great distances.  My skin blisters as sizeable amounts of water land on me.  The monster tilts the vessel to fill it up…like a…cup? 

I snap out of my daydream, staring at the cup in my hand.  The washcloth is still floating in the dirty water of the gray metal sink.  I shut the faucet off and place the last cup in the dish drainer.  My head is still a little heavy as I dry my hands and walk away. 

“Maybe I should take a break from Lovecraft.”