There was a storm flying black overhead. Its wind consumed the air, taking with it haggard winter leaves. The last survivors of the climate change. Another summer had departed, the sun’s rays falling short again. And in this storm, I saw the sky, and the clear, unabashed remnants. The sons and daughters of the clouds fell upon us with malevolent tenacity. We took shelter from their comforting touch, as they died upon the rocky earth.
Soaking wet, we knew that everything in the world was nothing, without everything else. Shining, drenched, we clamored in a dark cave, and set a fire with hotel matches.
So cold, you used me for warmth, wearing me over you like a blanket. The night shook violently in the weather of its crying master, and we found sleep.
I dreamt:

There was someone in the house, but they ran when I came home and I couldn’t find them. Took a shower for the first time in months. Tried to sleep, but couldn’t. Noticed a white envelope shoved beneath my door, sealed in candle wax, red, like blood. Opened it with a knife. It was a letter, handwritten, signed Anonymous. Read it aloud, but knew I shouldn’t. I didn’t know who might be listening:

    “She’s in great danger. Travel west. Save her.”

There was nothing else.
West, I was supposed to go west.
    I surveyed the sunset as the city dropped behind me in the distance. Stopped for water at a puddle on the side of the road. It tasted like kerosene. Nearly choked. I turned around, and the road was gone. Decided to walk, instead of finding it again.
    It was a pleasant day, but I needed to find water. I went into the forest. I couldn’t hear anything. Something was behind me, but it was always gone when I turned around. Found a lake, shining like a mirror in the sun. Washed my mouth of the taste, and drank deeply, for a long time, until my clothes were wet from dripping water.
    Saw a fish, golden, swimming through its home. It stopped when it saw me, and winked. I did not see this as odd.
I continued on my journey, though I had lost my way, and this forest seemed to enclose me. Where had the road gone? Where was west?
Found a trail frequented by deer, though I saw none at the time. On the trail, I saw a dead fox, flies buzzing around it. I spoke, and it came back to life, scattering the flies.
    Years seemed to pass, and I came upon a clearing. There was a house, white with a red tiled roof. And in it, there was no one, though it felt like something I had known before. There was a bed. Tried to sleep, but couldn’t.
I ate a bowl of grapes. They were fresh, cold.
On the table was a piece of paper. I could not help myself, and so I read it:

Red. It’s all red. A forest of crimson, as if washed over by a sea of blood. The sky shines through. The light, a radiant blue, as it penetrates the canopy above, creating a blue circle on the forest floor. There, at the edge of the forest, a white cloud hangs just above the waterfall. The grass shines green at the foot of the falls, free of the red glow of the forest. Rejoicing, growing ever closer to their god, only to fall short as they wither, and die.

Back outside, I drank water from a well. I saw something in the water, but didn’t investigate. Tried to go back inside, but the door was locked. When I turned around, in the sunlit field in front of me, where the grass grew high at the edges of a waterfall garden, was a woman, shimmering radiantly, as if she were a sun. Her hair was white, and immune to gravity. Stars burned, held captive in her eyes. She beckoned me to her, but I could not move. In an instant, she was there, in front of me.
I did not fear her.
Her breath created frost upon my cheeks. I blinked, and she was gone.
I was back on the road. I could hear a voice in the distance, as if it were floating on the wind.
Suddenly, as if the skies had lost their composure, there was a flood. I tried to swim, but surrendered to the pull, just before I was spit out into the sea. The water was frigid. A lighthouse blinked in the distance.
I was taken in on a ship, nearly dead. Tried to sleep, but couldn’t. I spent many weeks at sea; I could not adapt to the time. It felt like eternity.
Hungry, I waited in the doorway of the galley. The sailors threw me scraps. They threatened me with death.
While they were sleeping, I snuck away in a lifeboat.
Came upon an island.
In the heat of the day, a fresh spring bubbled in a pool, carved by time into the rocks.
I drank. My thirst drove me like a wild animal.
Closed my eyes, and saw planets floating in space. Opened them, and a vast ocean sat churning in front of me. Frustrated, I walked upon the sand, picked up shells, named them, and sacrificed them to the sea.
There, in front of me, stood a house with a palm roof. Inside, there was no one. Somehow, I could feel the memory of this place pounding on the walls of the forgotten, begging to be remembered. Tried to sleep, but couldn’t.
I went for a walk on the beach after sundown. In the moonlight, standing in the surf, I could see an invisible woman. Her skin was empty like the sunless void of space. Her eyes were the infinite depths of the ocean. She beckoned me to the rocks, I dared not move. In an instant, her face was next to mine, and we stared into the void.
For a moment, she was silent.
    “ You called me to your tower, your black towering robes. Yes, I walked there in a night, under dreary overhanging trees. My path was lost. My path was west. There in my eyes, was the slow haze of night, like a black sea had flooded the lands. I ran, so fearful of the night, if only for her permeating black. The menace, who invades and escapes your lungs with her cold fingers. Sending after you her wolves and rain and snow, and fog.
Could have closed my eyes, and walked that night, without ever knowing. And had I, I would surely have found sleep, that comatose sleep she so readily offered me.
The wind blew right through me, my eyes were wet with tears, and my breath muttered curses into the wind. Did you hear them? They were for you, my love. They were for you.
And as the day began to break, my tired, blinded eyes welcomed the sunlight. The black sea receded, the climate began to rise, and I found myself at your doorstep.
You were gone, the tower but a skin to be shed, a shell of your existence. I fell upon the stone floor, and slept, and cried, and waited for your return, but you never came. And in my dreams, I muttered curses into the wind. Did you hear them? They were for you, my love. They were for you.
I could not find you, and in a panic, flung myself into the sea. My skin became like the night sky, my words but a reflection in time. And as my shell was cast against the rocks, I muttered curses into the wind. Did you hear them? They were for you, my love. They were for you.”
I blinked, and she was gone.
…
Awoke to find you missing, the storm had stopped.