The Gaze, The Vision, The Sight

by Emily Teng                                                                                  

The gaze, people all directly turning to me. Thousands and millions of people I feel. My vision went blurry, my face is burning. The gaze seems like thousand miles of sunlight, the cheekbones sitting on my face lightening into dull red, and then bright red. The force of the gaze is pushing me down and down. At the end, I am pressed on the ground. My body sinking into the soil slowly. 'What a relief' I thought consciously closing my eyes.  

'You don't deserve! You don't earn!'  The screams and shouting went on for a longtime.   When I opened it again, the people had disappeared. Not only the people, the sand, the soil and stones all had turned, changed into liquid. I was floating. Why are the others all gone? 'Oh, probably because I'm different.' I probe my head into the water, the taste of salt came straight towards my tongue and down into my throat. The water is clear, clear enough that I sort of can see the bottom of it. Waves seemed to be pushing me up and down. A little voice mumbled beside my ear --- you're in the Atlantic Ocean! I was so frightened that I was splashing, flailing my legs as hard as possible. I tried to not move so I could keep afloat. 

The sun was slowly going down. The clouds painted the sky orange and then was sprayed with yellow. The sea level became clearer and clearer with the contrast of the sky. Birds flashing through the sky so fast that I could not see the true shape of them. After an hour, the view of the sea level darkened.  The whole environment around me magically grew pitch black. I was trying not to breath. Feeling alone, but I was glad that I escaped from the gaze of people. Suddenly, a tiny light came far away from the sea. It grew bigger and bigger.  When it came close enough to see its shape, I gazed at it for a long time. A huge ship made of blue metal wrapped with white lines, the side of it written- FREEDOM