Richard looked up.
He saw a tall, dark-haired woman standing by a large tree. Attached to the tree was a tire swing. The woman was wearing a long, black dress, and she seemed to be posing, as if for a picture. She was smiling and gesturing, like she wanted Richard to come to her.
Richard was lying face down, so he tried to push himself up with his arms, but they were too weak. He felt like there was a weight on top of his back, and the harder he tried to get up, the heavier the weight was.
He looked up again. The woman was gesturing more excitedly now. Richard tried just getting to his knees, but even that was impossible.
The woman and the tree began to move away – not like he or the woman was willfully moving away – more like everything was being pulled away from him by an unseen force.
Richard tried more frantically to get up. He quickly gave up and tried to crawl on his belly, but his legs were like lead. The woman and the tree were shrinking rapidly now. He gave one last effort to push himself up, but collapsed miserably. Panting, he strained to lift his head one last time. He saw the woman and the tree shrink into nothing, and disappear.
