Willow woke up from a nightmare.
It was quite an unusual dream. The weather’s sunny. The golden light of 4 p.m. clings over the top of an olive tree. Each ray embraces a leaf, as if they were hot lovers saying goodbye.
The skyline is of navy blue.
 It must be in a coastal town because there are faint strokes of sea green around the corner of the olive branches, and like Van Gogh’s works, the brush dances and turns in whirling circles, dazzling the burning sun.
The waves of the oceans wash up dreams. And better, there are sea gulls chirping on the rooftops of white stone houses like in the Mediterranean.
Unluckily, the scenery was outside the window.
Willow found herself in a small room painted pink. A small shabby sofa sits quietly in the left corner, with an old lady wearing an old-fashioned white gown sitting on it.
A wooden bed was placed in the center of the room. Willow was laying on the bed. It was not quite comfortable since she had both wrists and ankles tied with a belt strap to the corner of the bed. Willow’s panting stopped when she lifted her head to look down on her body.
Hollow, hollow. A black, empty hole sits right in the middle of her trunk. No ribs, no lungs, no stomach, and no heart. Willow felt void. In other words, she couldn’t feel.  She wasn’t even sure if she could fear anymore. Numbness attacked her, spreading over her broken body as if it has been hanged up to dry for a week. A black hole right in front of her. It is like devouring her own body, watching it diminish as every second passes. Absurdity had been starving for ages until Willow got here, so for a reward, it declaimed itself a grand feast. She watched as her organs disappeared into darkness. And appeared again as darkness. The air gradually became thin, about suffocating.
Willow twisted and turned on the bed, trying to get out of those straps.
Ting!
A vase fell and broke into 86 pieces on the floor.
The old lady suddenly opened her eyes. Her blue eyes were covered by blood red streaks. The pupil enlarges as she lifts her head up, staring at Willow with the whites of her eyes.
“You’re awoke. Finally. Again.”
The lady squeezed out a smile. Her teeth clenched, taking the muscles on her cheeks to twitch as her lips stretch towards the tip of her ears. Her face rolled up like a piece of scrap paper, and blended into a mass like the Van Gough strokes of the ocean outside.
She pulled out a needle from her pocket.
“Goodbye, baby. Goodbye…”
She stabbed the needle right into the Willow’s eyes.
And this is when Willow woke up gasping.
Her life returned to normal after that ordinary nightmare.
Soon she graduated from her high school and went to college. She had a wonderful four years’ experience in college. Those were the best times she had in her life. She found friends that loved her, a professor that thought highly of her, and a boy who admired her. Her life carried on, covering up the terrifying dream from years ago with ivory white watercolor.
One night, one night, the seaside town intruded back into Willow’s mind. She woke up on the same bed as before, but not stranded anymore. She looked down on her chest, and it’s no longer hollow.
Willow heard her own heartbeat. Dong, dong, dong, dong……
The old lady was holding her, bursting into tears.
“Oh! My baby. You’re back, back with me, back with us no matter how!
You would never, ever have to go to sleep now.
You’d be awake here. There’s me,
there’s the beautiful sea
If you’re so clever
It's here forever