Autumn was whispering. It blew down the streets in October gusts, ripping the rusted leaves from the trees. it kissed the paths and streets with November rain, and touched the houses of the old village of Wintershade, North Devon, with iced fingers. The old house rested alone and unkempt at the end of a dirt drive, surrounded by wise old stiff trees and hints of farewell in the air. Nikki Freeman walked up the drive, uncertain of her steps, battling against the elements. It was the note that drew her, it captured her; though she knew not how. Stephen was on her mind, she thought of him as she stood there, his half cock smile, the grey hair, thinning, his body rounded...they were friends nothing more; he was a clever man, far too clever for his own good she thought...but this note...she held it tightly in her hand.

Nikki knocked on Stephens door, but was met with silence. She stroked her blonde from her face. Her green eyes narrowed. Her soft lips parted.-He should be here- once again she looked at the crumpled note in her hands, undecided about her actions, wether or not she should even be here. She looked down and read the note again...

This is hard...painful and difficult; because I don’t open up. Opening up means I have to allow you in; and if I let you in, I am vulnerable. I’m scared...you know scared? I doubt you do. You smile that beautiful, bewitching smile, and when you do your eyes light up, and you fill a room with you. Your funny too. Funny and charming and beautiful, altogether whole. An opposite to this splintered self. I have come to believe in alternate universes, where a more complete me manages to connect with you. It’s just that it’s not this universe and it’s not me, with you. That is the problem don’t you see?

An entire universe has separated us, and I can’t put it right...and I want to, desperately want to, so I say goodbye.

... part of her couldn’t believe it. After all, why would he write this? She thought she knew him; but after reading this, she realised she didn’t know him at all. She looked up at the house, and then the world rocked with a thundering crack. The floor shook and cracked.

She stepped away making enough space between the house and her as possible. The sky rolled in black, lightning cracked and it’s echoes rolled away in waves, as a rain drop upon water. She looked up at the sky and then the house, as the wind rolled in and around it, pulling the masonry apart, cracking and splintering windows, shuddering the stones. A mist and a green iridescent light rose from the soil and wrapped around the house, blocking it from view. A sound, coming from the house, the ground and the very air she breathed, made he gasp and fall to her knees. The house shimmered and twisted in on of itself in a veil of half light, before vanishing into the night.

Nikki stood alone on the drive, the note crumpled in her hand. She looked around her, not knowing why she was there,unsure of herself, scared. Then she looked down at the price of crumpled paper in her hand, and it was blank.