Choice

Sitting on the beach, arms stretched out behind me for support, fingers squished in the sand as I stare out at the rolling waves and crashing ice-caps. The day is slowly becoming cloudy. I am alone. I stand up, uncertain, and gradually wander away from the ocean and into a field of tall grass that stands swaying, beckoning...

Sitting at a picnic table, I blink and look around me. I am inside of a large, cavernous dining hall. The walls are bare except for a giant grandfather clock. I am surrounded by rows and columns of bare picnic tables, with various people that I know and those I do not seated among them. They all look blankly at each other, murmuring quietly, but I cannot hear them. I try to attract someone's attention, or join a conversation, but I am unsuccessful. I am invisible.

Boom. Boom. The grandfather clock strikes, and suddenly I notice an ominous iron gate in the corner of the hall as it begins to slowly slide open, creaking and rattling. I am faced with a choice: run or stay?