I was going to live forever
and travel to some distant stars
walk across the crowded world
and swim every kind of ocean
I wouldn't say never
I wouldn't burn out 
fade away like all the others
when their moment's in the sun
their day is done.
I would stay strong and true
and love above all else
try to remain who I am
as the sky rains blue
My body would stay as I
age was for someone else
I thought I would live forever
I would live forever
live forever
forever

Christmas 2013 bought me one of the best presents I have ever received, well at least that year. It was a box of Rory's Story Dice, consisting of 9 dice with various pictures on each face. Roll the dice and you get imagery that may form a story.
For fun I decided to ask my friends to write me a story and as each one said that they were in, I presented them with an image of the dice and gave them 3 minutes to write their section before another picked up the story. The results, to say the least, were rather powerful considering the story has been written by a large disparate group of friends, from varied backgrounds...

Their efforts has left me wondering what is left to tell in this story, to ask what is next?

R.E
Suddenly I was wide awake. My heart was racing – what was this noise? 
After a while of listening I got up and walked through the house, expecting behind each corner a burglar, but nothing, it all looked normal. I checked the clock, it was 2:49am. 
It took me a bit to notice, that the indicator for the seconds wasn’t moving, are the batteries empty already? I decided to turn on the TV only to find the picture was frozen. Sweat started to take over. I opened the door and listen, but all was quite, it was like the world had come to a halt.

C.L
I felt a sweat come over me as I laid alone in my bed, my breathing became shallower as I tried not to make a sound. It was like my hearing had magnified everything from the trees blowing in the wind, the cats fighting in the alley two 3 houses down and that annoying blow fly buzzing around my window sill. 
I realized how stupid this was, and how I have worked myself in to such a state when what I really needed was to go to sleep.

K.B
So many things on my mind, things I try to push to the back, try to ignore. Is the world frozen or is it me that's frozen. I awake and it's a new day the sun is shining thru the blinds into my eyes the cat is

S.J
It's not the first time I've done this. Every night, I'm on a knife's edge. I feel shaken, unstable, a rudderless ship, a broken compass. Like a simple roll of the dice will send me either into pain and darkness, or a peaceful happy life. It wasn't always like this. I handed over any sense of control of my life the day I began running. The day I chose deceit and hiding over honesty and an open life. I will never forget the moment I handed over what I would realise was the most valuable thing I possessed.

C.L
But today was different.. my cat was staring at me, I stared at him back. We had this connection, a feeling that I have never had with him before. If this were a story you would have expected there to be a wizard with powerful magic, that this wizard could put my past behind me and I would live happily ever after

K.S
"Happily ever after" I thought with a faint bitterness. "If only, the magic was real and I was not burdened with these secrets" Sliding off my bed, I broke eye contact with the cat and drifted down the hallway. My hair had decided to go to a disco without me,and had frozen in strange limp shapes, that some generous people would call cow licks.
I needed a plan, something to aid me, to let it all go but I had nothing.
The wind ground past the house, trying to gouge it's way in.

P.Z
Uhm. ET Phone Home?

K.N
This voices from the man in my home whisper to me about Et and to phone home, does he not know what is out there, i have asked him many times to leave my spirit alone but still he haunts me.
The galaxy is full of stars and places unknown, everything has stood still at this point in time, nothing is aligned ...... The cat is meowing at me..... I'm looking straight at night sky ..... Something isn't right.... Oh god help me... I promise this time I won't sin again, just make this stop

M.S
The branches of the tree called out to me . beckoning me back into a time where I was not afraid to climb amongst her strong twining limbs . My palms felt clammy and my knees buckled as I pulled myself slowly up into her tangled mass of prickly rough ladder like arms. I felt the breeze whistling lightly through her leaves and as I looked upward through the speckled light oozing between her leaves I COULD see it just out of my reach . My heart was pounding as I stretched up but my once agile arms could not reach . Nervously I held on with all of my strength , my bare feet slipping along her gnarled old branches unable to grip where once before I could have scaled her canopy in the blink of an eye . Slowly and nervously I reached out along her limb and felt my weight sway her branch as I reached toward that one fat ripe mulberry

C.L
As that mulberry hit my tongue I felt the juice fill my mouth, it was the sweetest berry I have ever tAsted. I needed more! I climbed the tree. One branch at a time I worked my way to the top. The higher I climbed the clearer my head felt. My worries seemed to disappear slowly. I felt I was on top of the world. I could see my house, the street, almost the whole
Town.

E.T
A strange sensation came over me as that juicy sweetness traveled down my throat. My limbs began to tingle and a lightness of spirit and of body took me over. The branches of the mulberry tree shook slightly as my body lifted into the air and took flight. Perhaps I should have been terrified, but I wasn't. I looked in the direction of my house, wondering if anyone had noticed I was gone, but the windows were still dark, and I knew I had plenty of time to play. Throughout the early morning hours, I danced, dove and drifted through the sky. As the sun began to rise higher in the sky, a light rain fell, and a rainbow appeared. Never before had I been presented with such an opportunity to look for that elusive pot of gold...

J.S
Then the dull thump of return was unmistakeable. Falling, falling back into my body. The tingling in my fingers turned to aching, throbbing. Suddenly present in my soft morning flesh as I lay, refusing to open my eyes. Breathing slowly, inhaling the scent of solitary white rose lying beside me on the empty pillow.

The question is, who is next, what part of this story will they write. As they do I plan to add to this post and allow my friends to grow this story, to follow it's paths and just enjoy.

Thanks SB....

I sat up slowly, still feeling a little dizzy from half-shaken sleep and the sensation of falling in the dream. A dream? Is that what it was? If felt so much more real. Licking my lips, i could still taste the mulberry juice. Hmm, maybe not just a dream after all. But what? Of course I had to find out, but how would I start searching? The answer was obvious: go to the mulberry tree. The next question - should I bring the cat?

Tears to be spent in exchange

for the limitless rain

Chasing tracks of a runaway train

Always heading downwards

Always moving along

Nothing could ever

Feel the same

I wanted to say it better

And leave you with no doubt

For my words were icy hammers

For the truth will be out

And when you are broken

on my hearts brittle anvil

Will you love me more

Tomorrow?

Or will my clumsy blows

cause you to fade