lakes

The first thing he could remember involved a shaft of light and the sudden disappearance of a friend named Thomas.

Shortly after that (perhaps a beer and a half?) another friend went: Poof! Gone.

No one knew what was going on.

‘What’s going on? Where does everyo…’, said his friend Carol, before suffering the same sudden pluckedintooblivion sort of fate.

This went on for days; he and a guy named Larry (who he didn’t really like, but what are you going to do when all your real friends have been disappeared?) tried to figure out what was going on.

There were no windows and they couldn’t get the door open, so instead they just listened at the walls.

Sometimes a disappearance would be preceded by the sound of music: thump, thump, thumping. Sometimes there were pants and screams and moans and a few minutes silence before anyone disappeared.

They tried everything they could to make contact, to get hold of the government — to get some help. But they couldn’t get hold of anyone.
The phone lines were cut. The doors and windows were locked (or none existant). There was no way out…

And fag by fag… straight by straight… everyone he had ever known vanished.

Some screamed, others went quietly; it made no difference. They were gone all the same. Until he was left there… the last one… the sole survivor.
How long was he was in there, sat alone in the dark…?

Three weeks? Three days… How do you keep track of time on your own when you have no watch (or arms to keep one on)?

When it finally — inevitably — happened, he was asleep.

As his head caught fire he was dreaming about swimming in one of the Great Lakes. It didn’t help.
….
A post for my Monday at Designated Dreamers (The Challenge: write a story from the point of view of a cigarette; http://www.designateddreamers.tumblr.com)