The crust in the man's eyes sealed them shut for the first few moments of his consciousness. In any other circumstances he would have found it rather disgusting, but the more pressing matter on his mind was that he didn't remember falling asleep. He gasped and started breathing faster now, but was met with only the staleness of his breath rebounding from a nearby surface. An enclosed space. The man's arms were weak as he brought them up to his face, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He opened them, but was only greeted with a marginally lighter reception. Pushing his hands out, slowly, he met the warm touch of some sort of box. The texture was glossed and smooth, like...like? Even in his subconscious the man could not think of a description for the surface. Panic bloomed in him. Where was he? [i]Who[/i] was he? Was he going to die? Is this how it ended? He tried to think about everyone who he'd never get to say goodbye to, and was met with no one. He had forgotten. 

The panic was quickly replaced with sorrow. [i]What was the point?[/i] The man lay, murmuring gibberish to himself, as defeatism replaced the air in the vessel. This was how it ended. A quiet part of the man reasoned that if he had no one to lament his loss, it wasn't a true loss. He didn't waste time dwelling on it. He raised his hand to his face, seeing but a faint outline of it. He became suddenly very focussed on the tracing of his hand, moving it towards and away from his face. Perhaps it was his deliriousness. Moving his hand far enough away from his face made it graze the upper surface of the box--a sudden hiss sliced a sliver of light through the darkness. It grew, blinding the man for a second. He arose, and felt a cool wind on his neck. 

He rubbed his face and the rest of the scene came into view -the man was seemingly floating in a large body of deep, blue water. To his left, a huge ivory structure soared into the distance, scraping the sky itself. The man stood, stretching his arms as if he could capture the apex in his hand. Unfortunately for him, this was not possible. The swiftness of his movement coupled with the weakness of his legs sent him crashing down into the water, sending a spray of it into the air. The pit of his stomach lurched--he almost expected a great fall--but was surprised to find himself caught by the skin of the water. A wry smile crept onto his face as he reclined and stretched out in the water, basking in the glow of the sun. He almost felt peaceful like this, despite the fact he couldn't remember himself or where he was. That worry seemed to shrink away - if he was going to die he might as well do it with a little bit of dignity. What he failed to realise, however, was that he was far from dead--and that he wasn't entirely alone.