The sky was the colour of misty clouds, but clear and all around. The woman on the beach looked up; all she could see was the blushing sky, the horizon saying goodnight to the sun as it dipped below the dunes. Opposite, the air above the cliffs turned blue in recognition of the bright silver moon peeking over the grassy edge. The feeling in her chest grew into a crescendo as she took in the sheer amount of sky there was, the beauty surrounding her in every direction; this is what she was here for, this is why she was alive still. This feeling, she thought, is the reason that we cling to life, the reason we throw away the logic of its transience and beg to stay here just a bit longer.
On the beach, stretching as far as the eye can see, pools of sea water reflecting the dusk made their way back to their ocean home. The water of high tide rushed over her where she stood, worn out trainers making new marks on the patterns in the sand made by past waves. Water surrounded her, trapping, suffocating, squeezing the life from her. Her lungs begged for air and she struggled for the surface, even as she watched the tiny waves rolling in at leisure to her feet. She took a grounding breath and looked over to the moon side of the earth, where the dusk was rolling in as a ghostly mist, fading together sea, sky and sand as one hazy blue line. A dark figure started to emerge from the haze. The unearthly vision was propelled by the impossible sights around her, the completely beautiful wilderness in which she was submerged. She was the gentle patterns in the sand, she rolled in on the waves over the miles and miles of shore, she drifted into the pastel hues of the sky and danced with the silver moon over the clifftops, chasing the sun into the horizon.
Overtaken, she turned and ran back along the beach, away from the possessive beauty and the inhibiting fear. She took off her shoes, stuffing her socks into the sand-caked trainers and fled across the sea pools, breaking their mirage. Before they had been as portals to a bright light world; now her feet splashed away the specks of light, flinging them into the air to fall back down in her wake. She scrambled up the opposite bank and fled across the sand, running even as her breath sawed through her throat and her calves cried out in agony. The ocean began to chase her home, and she prayed she would outrun it. As the landscape became more familiar, her frantic pace slowed to a walk. The ocean stayed where it belonged, and left her alone. The sky was framed by the brand new buildings just off the beach, and a dog cut through the waves pressed into the sand. She looked back, and that same feeling of gratitude ran through her. This, she thought as she looked at the fading light, this is why I am alive.
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