Chapter Eleven : 

The City That Fell / 

Hundreds of cows were treading down the road that ran in front of my house. I wondered how this could get any weirder, but then I saw that they were wearing clothes, shoes, hats, etc. I rolled my eyes.

"Keep rolling your eyes, maybe you'll find a brain back there," A cow in a glittery yellow blouse said as she passed by me. It made me uncomfortable that the cows had human eyes and teeth. When most of them had run past,I stopped the few at the end of the herd. "What's going on?" I asked them. "Why the rush?" 

The biggest of them, wearing a tan checkered flannel and brown cowboy hat, walked up to me. "Our town's fallin' apart," He stated in a deep southern accent. The other cows nodded in agreement. He pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his shirt pocket, lit one, and took a long drag. "What's your town called?" I questioned. "Priest River," He told me, blowing out a generous cloud of smoke. It stung my eyes and burned in my nose. "S'not too far from here." All the other cows nodded their heads in unison.

One cow in a little pink dress chewed her gum nervously, giving a sideways glance towards Dolion. "The ground started crackin', an' then buildin's an' houses an' everythin' was fallin' into the cracks. Ya need to be careful. Consider ya'self warned." She said in a clear voice, looking directly at me when she said the last part. 

"Where are you off to now?" I asked them. "We got some family 'bout a day's walk away," The cigarette-smoking cow told me. "Okay," I said. "You all take care." "Will do," replied a cow wearing a blue T shirt with flowers embroidered on it. Then they hurried to catch up with the others, and as they soon disappeared over the road, the rumbling stopped. 

"Maybe it's a good thing we didn't make it to another nearby town," I remarked to Dolion, who had stood beside me the entire time. "You're right," It agreed. 

"I've also been thinking," I said. "That I've been spending too much time examining surface problems, outside issues and answers, instead of searching inside. What else is in that prophecy book?" Dolion handed it to me, and we went into the house. 

I spent about an hour reading it, not because it was a long book but because I didn't want to overlook something important. I did notice that a few pages were torn out and missing. "Where are these pages?" I asked Dolion. "I'm not sure," It replied, its voice sugary sweet. "You've read this book before. Do you remember what the pages were about?" It shook its head, sending shining white hair cascading down its shoulders. "Okay," I commented. 

Although it was helpful reading the book ( it filled in some more details about the inevitable chaos that would happen in the human world, and information on the creatures and beings that would spill in from other realms ), it didn't tell me what I should do to help everyone. I was beyond sick of seeing empty streets, houses filled with near-dead people, the hollow eyes of my parents. But what was stranger than the dead-alive humans, or that I'm supposed to save them all, was the fact that... I felt more than okay in this bizarre world. 

I mean, it's beautiful. The ginormous psychedelic flowers, the extraordinary stars and moons and suns that reside in the sky, the abnormally colored everything, and how it over all seemed like someone took reality and turned it upside down and inside out. If I consistently thought about it, or tried to understand it entirely, my mind would turn into a waterfall of infinite hues and pour out of my head. 

After eating dinner, I took a shower, changed into fuzzy PJ's, and brushed my teeth. My alarm clock read 7 P.M., and I decided that I would go to sleep even though it was a bit early. Outside my window, a beautiful and sorrowful hum spilled from the forest. Before laying down, I looked out the window and into the trees. Their dark blue leaves shifted into a deep purple coloration, and swayed in the wind. My ears seemed to come alive in this erratic noise, I felt pain and confusion and alone... A few black feathers swirled out from the trees, through the endless and darkening sky.

In bed, I pulled the covers over my head and hoped that I'd fall asleep quickly.