Flash! Friday: Prompt #32

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P.S. Have you checked out my recent guest post on Silent Rejections?

 And, it's Friday! This round of Flash! Friday requires 250 words +/- 25 on this prompt:

Passing Time

The ground pressed against him each time his lungs expanded. Clouds floated languidly above him, framed by the perfect rectangle of the silent courtyard’s buildings.  Light glinted off a smattering of window panes.  A single attic window broke the symmetry.  A diagonal slant in one corner drew his attention next. 

Jay closed his eyes.  A graying replica of the walled-in expanse above him echoed in his mind.  He focused on drawing in a clean breath. 

Maria… Flashes of her sensual lips and electrifying eyes replaced the innocent clouds.  He could melt away into her smile.  

Jay dug his fingers into the patchy grass below him and raised his eyelids.  The picture had changed.  The rest of his life could be spent watching new images, framed by the rooftops, appear between blinks.  

He had to move.

Determined, he pushed his torso up, clenching fists in the earth. Starbursts colored the picture above him as the walls faded.  This wasn’t right.  His shoulders dropped the few inches back to the ground, and blackness covered the sky. 

Children’s shouts forced his eyelids open again.  A smeared face appeared in the picture.  A blink later it had disappeared. 

He couldn’t stay there.  

His hands flattened against the ground, ready to lift.  Shaking muscles strained to raise his torso.  His palm slipped in the stickiness that had seeped out of him as clouds had danced in and out of his vision.

Jay slumped to the blood-coated ground.  

Maria…

(243 words)