Tap. Click. Explanation. Repeat. Tap. Click. Explanation. Repeat.

The projector’s display was taken up by a presentation. Its white background strained the eye as I struggled to read the text shown to me. Bold red text recited information for the upcoming quiz like gospel while black text added supplementary details. Everything I read repeated out loud to me in a tone that made me feel like I was expected to have an elementary level of reading comprehension. Another tap of something being pointed to on the slide. Another click of the mouse as we moved onto the next. Another long winded yet somehow unclear description of what I saw. Another tap on the screen as if the image would provide any more understanding.

Class tends to bring dull moments to my feet. It's not always boring, but today the words drag instead of catching on my brain. A lecture fills the small room, overflowing with words but shallow in meaning. I have heard it before in more ways than I could count. In the back of my mind a voice chimes that not everyone has. A gentle reminder that not everything is for me. I hear soft clacking from the computers of other students as my brain claws for any sort of stimulus. The dim room illuminated by the projector and computer screens doesn’t offer much. By now my gaze has long since hazed over and sounds have begun to dull. The droning of fans, computer and ventilation alike, filling out the space in my mind like a fog.

And so, my thoughts start to drift, as they often do. A glint of gold catches my mind's eye. It's gaze follows the trail. Ichor. Splattered against the floor and trailing down a towering figure. It almost glows in the darkness, lit from synthetic blue light of dazzling wings. The wings stretched splayed outward at their full span, making the already looming figure seem monumental in stature. Glowing, those near angelic features appeared almost transparent. There was no certainty whether touching them would have you phase through like a hologram or if they were plush and soft as down. Feathers lay scattered across the floor, almost ghostly in nature. The winged being is adorned in armor of white and gold, making it hard to tell what on the armor is trim, and what is blood.

The room feels like it should be silent. Chilled air bringing a stillness to it. A cathedral hall. Something divine.

It isn't.

Instead, a whirring noise fills it. The mechanical blades of a fan. Sharp snaps of mechanisms clicking into place and shifting. The dark hall feels alive with electricity. A static undertone which while just as sterile was piercingly contrary to its nature. The clicking grew louder, yet the figure did not move. It’s broad form only hovered there, dripping with the slick ichor that painted it.

Was the clicking its own? What else could it be? The sounds droned on. Their sharp beats begin to layer over themselves as it plays in multitudes. As if from multiple points in space all at once. Irregular and out of place.

I blink, and with my hand tucked under my chin, I come to realize the clicking was that of the keyboards filling the room. The pronounced lack of the instructors voice striking me with the understanding that work time had started. The imagery is nothing more than a drifting thought to fill the boredom. I pull my elbow back and rest my hands on the keys of my computer, gaze now steadied on the task ahead. In the back of my mind, I tuck the dream away for later. Letting it rest alongside a myriad of creative ideas that came and left like tides. The itch of my illustrative drive latching onto the thought.

For now though, the interesting portion of class had begun, and as quickly as the gold had first glinted in my mind, it was gone.