Behind her eyelids, the world was the warmest, glowing sunset. There were the richest tones of deep orange, highlights of paler orange, and memories of gentle yellows.
All-encompassing, embracing and utterly peaceful.
As she breathed it all in admiringly, a tiny black butterfly fluttered at the edges of her vision, dancing and moving as through trying to stay out of sight.
She tried to follow it by moving her head, and then just her eyes. The butterfly danced and sparked as it tried to stay out of sight, darting around and around the sunset light.
A tiny, fragile, black silhouette against orange.
A long beep from the machine on her arm startled her into opening her eyes.
Fluorescent light glared down at her from walls the colour of pale sick. She looked down at the regulation blue blanket over her body, squinting against the harshness and confused at the sudden disappearance of the gentle sunset colours.
The beeps, hums and hisses of machines, the clicks and taps of footfalls, and the burble of low, impersonal voices all rushed at her in a wave of cold noise. Pushing the warmth far away.
Slowly, she leant back into slippery pillows, a rush of goosebumps spraying uncomfortably across her outstretched arm still gripped by the beeping machine.
She closed her eyes again. And tried to find the warmth of the sunset and the little black butterfly.
Backstory: we all see things behind our eyelids, right? Right? Or maybe it’s just me. The illustration is mine too – done in the autodesk sketchbook app, and noodled with slightly in photoshop express app.
Ree-Imagined Worlds 
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