Paradise - Short story

Bird song is the most beautiful sound in the universe. Sweet vibrations that echo through the air before flooding into your brain, calming any stress or anxieties as they talk amongst themselves but are generous enough to share their secrets with you, always including you in their own personal world even when those around you will not.

You smile as the water from the nearby waterfall trickles down and over the tips of the leafs and fall to the floor, a shining trail following behind. Your fingers trace along that stream until they glimmer just as much as the foliage and you happily lick the pure, clean liquid, the coolness spreading down your throat, quenching any thirst you may have succumbed to while the warm, but not unpleasant, sun beats down on your face.

Walking through the trees, your eyes are attracted to the vibrant colours that edge the vegetation and wave at you gently in the small breeze that, too, moves your hair with it. You peer past those free locks of hair and head on over to your favourite pool, your approach is cautious on the rocks but you bounce down freely once you've overcome the steeper, more slippery rocks that scatter the path and mark the borders before the wilderness that spreads as far as your eye can see and then further. It's an outstretch of pure freedom. A home for many exotic, beautiful creatures, many of which have never been discovered by scientists but you have been privileged to observe.

The shimmering water reflects the light that filters through those jade leaves, dappling the floor and the pool laps around your legs as you slowly make your way in. Soon you're up to your shoulders and you relax, closing your eyes and sinking under. Your thoughts escape you as all that fills your senses is the calm of your surroundings.

Suddenly, all that is disrupted.

A pressure if felt on your shoulders and the top of your head too. Pushing and pushing with no sign of stopping. You struggle, adrenaline surging through your body as you attempt to swim to the surface but to no avail. All that surrounds you now is black. A never ending darkness.

Your breathing slows as your eyes flicker shut. The sounds are gone and so is the beauty.
Abruptly, your eyes snap open. Gasping, you stare around only to find something disappointing.

Four walls. All white. All sterile.

Your freedom, and your paradise, is gone once more.