I lay in bed as my eyes opened blearily, taking in the empty darkness of my room. Searching blindly for the cause of my wakefulness, I began to hear an unhurried tapping at the door. The house was eerily quiet. The static of sleep faded from my ears, leaving only the steady strikes and the silence. I wondered to myself what it could possibly be, pondering for a few moments the matter of rousing myself from under the covers to investigate. My body began to feel heavier and heavier, and my eyelids slipped ever lower, trying to pull me back to sleep. Distantly I heard the tapping coming to an abrupt halt. The door creaked on its hinges, and light footsteps approached. My eyes slipped shut as I succumbed to my dreams.

I have walked this path a hundred times, a thousand times. The snow begins to fall as it always does, and you look up at the towering trees and smile, as you always do. Your eyes are warm and kind, bright with joy. My feet that have been wandering forward slowly come to a halt. Wisps of snow drift through the air and all sounds are muted by the gray expanse of sky. I will my feet to continue onwards, to take one more step and then another towards you. They stay rooted to the ground, disobedient.

Ah, but you’ve seen something ahead! And you are gesturing at me to follow. I can’t, I try to say. Nothing comes out. I watch your back as it grows smaller and smaller, as your silhouette turns gray and then white.

And now all that is left is snow and silence. The dream concludes as it always has: In a haze of white, cold and solitary.

The air was suffocating; a mixture of heat, smoke, and scattered specks of the past. Fire crackled through the rotting floors and began to creep behind them. She walked steadily towards the entrance, not seeming to mind the firestorm. She stepped on the threshold, pausing for a moment and turning her head to search for him.

He had stopped a few paces from where she stood, hesitant. He stared at her with eyes wide, and perhaps a little afraid. His back felt like it was melting with the heat.

She extended her hand, slowly, as if wary of him startling. Her hand was steady. One shaky step, and then another. One foot in front of the other until his arm was separated from her outstretched fingers by only a whisper. Her hand moved down and folded around his own, and drew him onto the threshold where she stood. Her eyes were brown and flickering orange with the flames. They were fixed on him, asking a question.

A question he could finally answer.

He dipped his head in a trembling nod. The corner of her lips drew upwards in a small smile.

They headed out the door, determined to never look back.

“Tonight will be our last sunset. You will never see me again.”

They sat on a precarious ledge jutting out of a sea-swept cliff. Her hand lay atop his, and the words she spoke were gentle. She turned her her head to face him, only to find his eyes already on her. Her eyes held his gaze for a moment before shying to the sea below, and then to the horizon. Only the sound of the waves crashing filled the silence.

Beside her, his chest heaved as he drew a deep breath.

“I wish you would stay.”

She did not know how to respond, and so said nothing. He tried again, “Can you not stay?”

A question she could answer.

“I cannot — you know I cannot, my love.”

The sun had become a pinprick on the sea, and the sky was fading to gray. Their time together was drawing to a close.