The Last Night on Earth (dreamtime)

It's the night of December 20th, 2012. I'm at a huge party in a downtown hotel in my dream city. Everyone I know is there, even people I knew in high school and haven't seen since. I spot MHZ in the crowd at several points, although as usual, he's avoiding me and / or being dragged around by the latest psycho girlfriend who's attached herself to him like a leech. I'm shocked at how badly he's aged.

Midnight is fast approaching, and although the exact time of whatever's going to happen is unknown, midnight is as good a time as any to cut loose. We spill out into the parking lot outside and see that the entire front wall of the hotel (a seamless sheet of mirrored, reinforced glass) has shattered into diamond-like cubes all over the pavement, mixing with the snow and glitter from the partygoers.

In less than 10 seconds, I've got little bits of glass in both of my shoes. In less than 20 seconds, the glass bits have put runs in both of my (outrageously expensive) stockings. I sit down on the hood of an expensive-looking sports car and shake the glass out of my shoes. The hotel employees are hanging up giant sheets of mylar (I assume it's mylar - it's got that sort of shiny quality to it) and trying to keep out a horde of people spilling over from another party in a skeevy strip club / swinger bar down the block. Some cops show up and attempt to stop the incipient orgy in the parking lot.

There's a sudden flash of light, and I think this is it, with a weird thrill of mingled anticipation and dread. But it's just the fireworks starting - starbursts of white and violet and green breaking open the sky and glittering in the windows of the skyscrapers and the broken glass on the pavement. The booming of the fireworks is drowned out by a rushing noise, and I turn to look in the direction of the river and see the water creeping up the banks and hundreds of boats floating past with people crowding the decks and waving at everyone onshore.

S. grabs my hand and grins at me.

"Here comes the flood," he says.