Carnival.

         A ray of pale morning light shone on my side as, sole after sole, my feet carried me through a naturally lit and consistently designed elevated passage.

         Glass surrounded the space above and to each side of my body, serving as an arched, lucid covering for the passage, through which light could travel easily.

         The sounds of my shoes against the surface below me carried themselves backwards, to a point previous that at which I had begun.

         I would not dare allow my eyes to turn in hunt of them, of course, as such an action would be nothing more than a simple distraction from my progression towards the other end of the bridge.

         The least thing I needed at the moment was a distraction. After all, I knew very well that such an attempt to turn my head and stray off of my path would only result in a further realization of my enslavement to it.

         I continued walking.

         Sole after sole, footfall after footfall, my legs continued to guide me through the light engulfed passage.

         My head shifted slowly to the right, not due to feelings of curiosity, but in fact almost automatically; robotically. This was where my head was meant to turn at the moment; what my eyes were meant to see.

         My view through the clear walls of the passage, every so often interrupted by a thin, white plastic divider separating one glass panel from another, revealed an endless stretch of cloud-infested sky.

         Beneath me, beneath the pure, untouched, grey marble flooring over which I stood, there was sky. Light, peaceful blue sky stretching in all directions with clouds, almost ghostly in nature, scuttling about within it.

         Above me, I knew, although I did not know quite how I knew, there lay a continuation, a reflection, of the endless sky below.

         As my body continued its gradual progression towards the other end of the bridge, I realized that my head had returned to its original position and my eyes were once again situated to my front.

         “TSIH,” my right sole clapped against the smooth marble floor.

         “Siih-iih-ih-ih,” the echoes responded, noticeably increasing in repetition with each step I took.

         My head began to shift again. Without pause, it tilted upward, then slightly to the right, then in both directions at once.

         For the first time in a long period, my body reached a halt. I stared upward, through the glass covering, at a tall yellow brick structure towering over my passage.

         At first, it seemed that the tower was an extension of the passage, but upon further examination, it became clear that both structures shared a common support.

         Time felt non-existent, yet moments passed and my body remained unmoved. I wondered if this was my destination, where my body had hoped to lead me.

         I couldn’t tell. There was no way of me knowing as long as my head remained in this position and my body remained under its own control.

         I spotted movement on the top of the tower. A figure, a male, stood on its edge. Then, as gracefully and fearlessly as a professional diver, he jumped, head first, off of the tower’s edge and at a downwards angle, towards the roof of the glass passage. In the next instant, the diver met the surface of the roof of the passage.

         I watched, calmly and carelessly, through the transparent ceiling as his face, now seemingly liquid, spread slowly across the curved glass into a continuously growing puddle of thick, oozing flesh.

         His mouth, still perfectly intact, displayed an expression of admirable and almost enviable self-contentment. Although I could not fully understand what he may have been feeling at the moment, I could imagine he felt satisfied; his work for the day completed.

         My legs set back into motion and my body was once again pulled forward. For a short time, my head resisted the tug of my lower body, and my eyes remained fixated on the remnants of the diver, now dripping down the outer sides of the passage. Eventually though, my head twisted and locked itself back into a more natural and relaxed position.

         Now facing forward once more, I realized that my body was now guiding me through a completely new environment. I walked along the center of an empty, faintly lit hallway.

         On either side of my body stood rounded walls, painted a subtle shade of grey and turned a light blue by rays of morning light. Both walls, hardly taller than those in the passage, were completely overrun by closed olive, metal lockers.

         Directly to my front, growing ever nearer as my figure approached it, there lay an opening to an intersecting hallway at which I would have the option to turn either left or right. Of course, the choice was not truly mine, as I, in my conscious being, was in no place to make such a decision.

         At that moment, I heard a loud, distant gasp that could easily have instead been considered a breathless yell. Immediately following the cry, came a very audible crash, which sounded like the slamming of a hollow metal locker; its echo carried throughout an empty hallway.

         This was where I was headed, I was sure. The sound of the crash had felt so very familiar. Almost soothingly familiar, as if it were the only recognizable sound in existence. This, I knew, was where I was meant; where I would be taken.

         My body continued its forward progression through the hallway. When I reached the intersection, I was led to the left.

         As my body curved along the corner, a figure, moving in the opposite direction as I, walked past me; the flesh of their right arm only a few short inches from that of mine. I wanted to turn my head and direct my eyes at the figure, so as to form a feeling of connection between us; to recognize one another as separate beings, a reassurance of our existences.

         My head ignored this wish, however, and my eyes remained fixated forward; focused on reaching my body’s destination.

         Although it had been beyond my realm of sight, I was sure that the figure had given me no less acknowledgment.

         I studied the new hallway that I had now begun to walk through. This hallway was almost identical to the previous hallway, but for the closed doors, the entrances to other spaces, that occasionally interrupted the long, repetitive rows of olive-green lockers that lined its walls.

         My feet twisted my body to the right, then pulled me towards the other side of the hall. I was led through an open door, into a large room that I recognized as a gym.
This understanding, this feeling of having a slight idea where I was, gave me comfort. It assured me that I was in my place; the place where I was meant to be.
Somehow, though, I felt, oddly enough, that I was not to be where I was meant.
But, of course, this was only an irrational thought.

         For, if I were not be where I was meant, what purpose would I have in being at all?
Furthermore, where else would I be, could I possibly be, if I was not where I was meant to be?

         The idea was certainly absurd, and would need to be discarded for my own well being.

         Of course, thinking such thoughts would make no difference. I knew very well, as I had known, that I had no choice in the matter.
I had no control over where my body would next lead me.

         I had, by now, made my way across the gym, to the wall opposite the door through which I had entered.

         Basketball hoops hung from the walls to either of my sides.
I stood motionless against the back wall of the gym.

         One by one, each of my arms reached upward, lifting both of my hands to the first bar on a metal ladder attached to the side of the wall. My hands began to climb the icy ladder, sending a chill through my body with every bar.

         From the top of the ladder, I found myself standing on a narrow metal platform, supported by thick metal cords hung from hooks on the ceiling, with railing to both my right and left. The ceiling stood only a few feet above my head, and, although at different ends of the gym, the basketball hoops hung only a few feet below.

         Cautiously, my right foot stepped forward.

         The thin metal surface below responded with a quivering metallic echo.
My left foot followed, taking the next step, this time less hesitantly than the first.
Again, the platform responded with a metallic echo.

         Foot after foot, my walking turned to a more confident stride.

         Step by intrepid step, my body led me to the other side of the gym; to the side through which I had entered.

         When I reached the wall, I turned to the left and joined another division of the platform which crept along the wall’s side. As the weight of my body was forced against the new platform, it trembled, as if stricken with fear that my weight would be the cause of its surrender.

         I did the same.

         Suddenly, the echoes of my shoes’ intimacy with the flooring of the glass covered passage rushed toward me, from a point beyond where I currently stood.

         Their sounds soaked through my ears, my mouth, my nose, my skin, and each of my pores; flooding my body until it was swollen with them.

         I had traveled backward, to a point previous that at which I had begun. And this, I knew; this, I realized, was where I was meant.

         My figure, now thickened by the hundreds of footsteps that had seeped through my flesh, collapsed through the thin panel of the metal platform over which it had stood.

         I gasped in panic as my body plunged toward the gym’s floor.

         Immediately after my chest hit the paved surface, my body was crushed underneath the weight of the metal panel through which I had fallen.

         My heart slowed to a stop, and darkness flooded the eyes of my mind; nothingness filled my non-existent body.

         A ray of pale morning light intruded the dark void. It was followed by another ray of light, which was followed by yet another. This ray was succeeded by another ray, which was also followed by another. Then there came another, and another, and another, and another, and another....