The music creeps gently into my ears, pouring itself over my eardrums like warm oil.

I keep my eyes closed, listening to the chords and gentle melodies echo gracefully from the stone flags that pave my surroundings, and the glass canopy that shelters me from the inky black skies above. The gentle burbles and trickles of water from the pool in the centre of the enclave mix with the rich musical notes, soothing away any and all of the troubles that, moments ago, encroached on my mind.
My body is warm; a balmy current of air flows over me, almost too subtle to notice but despite my sense of deep relaxation, my sense are simultaneously soothed and heightened.

I open my eyes and look upwards. There is no light save for that inside the pool. Crystal blue light ripples across the glass canopy, an oblong of serene calm that diffuses outwards into the black of the night sky, providing the perfect visual complement to the aural atmosphere.
Beyond the glass walls that surround us, curving from the roof to meet the sandstone flags, there is nothing but night. It feels oddly comforting but I wonder if it would feel so were the barrier not there. It is a fleeting thought of contemplation which passes quickly.

Closing my eyes again, I stretch my arms outward, feeling as though I am drifting slowly on a current of warm air towards the earth. My hand touches another; her skin is soft and warm as always and I gently feel the outline of her hand and wrist. She is with me again. Though I cannot see her, I feel her smile.

Minutes pass, or perhaps just seconds. Time blurs, it is a meaningless frippery in this place, and I have no need nor want for its presence.

Eventually we rise, walking past the rippling, crystal-blue waters and emerge from the warm glass enclave into the night.
The air is cool and refreshing, not biting but a contrasting complement to the warm air within. We step to the edge of the building we are atop of and look downwards.

Below are the lights and noise of a busy city. Within the lights and noise are the complications, the problems, the challenges and the people of my life. I long to be there but simultaneously never want to return. I would stay here forever if I could.
I reach for my companion, but she is gone, melted away into the night sky. The enclave is receeding from view and soon I can barely make out its soothing blue light, and the gentle music that soothed me is now silent.

That place is not real, the sensations it evokes nothing but a dream. The woman is not mine to hold, the feelings forever cursed to lie entombed and locked away for none to see.

I close my eyes again, knowing that when I re-open them I will be back in a room a million miles away from that place, that person, that wonderful sense that nothing really matters …

Inspired by Leftfield: Melt

^That one was just to annoy Clare, who probably doesn’t actually care in the slightest

I uploaded pretty much all of the scribblings I’ve done over the years that are Matrix-based, over on the right-hand side.

Funny really, when I was writing them and posting them to people who were really passionate about that sort of thing, I felt great. Yet putting them up here gives me a dark sense of foreboding and fear. Probably because someone’s gonna slate them with absolutely no tact whatsoever, but sometimes you gotta take a risk or two
It was actually a huge pain in the arse trying to get them on here in the first place. The Wordpress uploader wouldn’t work, so I found a fix, and applied it. It worked for the first 11, then failed again. But like all IT Technicians, when a problem presents itself and you can’t find a fix, just force your way around the bastard.

So I did, and now they’re all up