Having placed the tiny strip of paper on his tongue he flops back and smiles. Far off in the distance he can hear the music playing. Far off in the distance he can smell the flowers growing. Far off in the distance he can hear her speak.

“Awake.”

His eyes smash open like the shutters in a hurricane. He can hardly hear himself think over the sound of the wind racing past him. He was falling. Falling to somewhere. Falling to forever. He opened his mouth to scream, screamed so hard his mouth practically came unhinged. Inexplicably, no sound came forth, only the trickle of light. The light was faint as it poured off into the distance, coalescing to form a sphere. After many minutes, months, millennia, the sphere had begun to shine more brightly allowing him to see the world around him. He could see the greens of the walls as they whipped by him and the faint whiteness of the nothingness above him and the cool blue iron of the ground quickly approaching.

Again, he opened his eyes.