The End Of Everything

Norin awoke in a world of light. She was floating with clouds, the wisps billowing softly under an unseen, unfelt wind. A torrent of thoughts flooded her:

'Where am I?' 'How did I get here?' 'Why am I here?'

She spent a few moments contemplating these thoughts, trying to find answers in this unknown place, before  finally drawing her questions to a close with a familiar and cold thought.

I am alone.

She sat in silence, the creeping of despair slowly but surely making its way up her spine, engulfing her as she stifled a silent sob.

'You are not alone.'

The voice was familiar, encompassing this strange world with an aura of recognition; suddenly, she was alone no longer. She looked up, and there stood Visage. He was dressed in his usual set of leather, his cloak wrapped around his shoulders, just like every other time Norin had come to see him; but unlike the usual appearance, this time he was dressed in completely white. Norin also noticed that he appeared slightly transparent, and he glowed with a faint outline in this world of light.

'You're not alone, not this time.'

'I'm dreaming.', Norin stated, her voice soft with the realisation of where she was.

'Yes, you are.'

'Are you real?'

'I am.'

Still stifling back tears, Norin raised herself up so that she came face to face with Visage. Strangely, in this dream world, Norin found herself to be the same height as Visage, and the two stood alone, twin figures left forgotten in an ever-changing cloudscape. Her lips quivered, her eyes like starlight as the tears she'd been holding back began to escape from her best attempts at holding them back.

'I'm afraid,' she whispered, the first of many tears finally finding their way down her cheek.

She didn't know what to say, what to think, what to feel. All her questions suddenly rushed back to her, questions she was sure Visage could answer for her.

'Why am I here?'

'You know why.'

With just that answer, all her questions vanished. Those words were all Norin needed to understand.

This was her final goodbye.

'I'm going to die.'

Visage turned, looking into the distance, into nothingness, and released a deep sigh.

'Yes, you are.'

Norin couldn't hold the tears any longer. She'd always known that her end would come, and she'd spent every day of her life preparing for this. All the ties that would have bound her to the world, she'd cut. All the friends she could've made, she'd pushed away; but now that she was here, at the final horizon, she was terrified. Her breathing became heavy as tears fell from her eyes, each one a crystalline drop that glimmered with other-worldly beauty , falling into the infinity that lay below them, below the clouds that they stood upon, a fantasy that could only exist in a dream.

'I've always known that this day would come, where I'd wake up and realise that this was the day I'd die.'

Visage stepped forward, and took Norin's hands in his. It was something, Norin realised, that he'd never done. In all the time that he'd watched over her, he'd never touched her.

'I'm afraid, Visage. I'm afraid to die, I'm afraid that no one will remember me, but above all else, I'm afraid that I'm going to die alone.'

'You are not alone. This time, I will be with you, every step of the way. I promise.'

Looking up, into Visage's eyes, Norin saw something that astonished her. Here, in this world where only the two of them existed, where she stood with this omnipresent being, she saw that Visage himself had begun to cry.

'I'm afraid too', said Visage, in a low tone, a tone of resignation, of reluctance.

In a heartbeat, Norin moved into Visage's arms, and there they stood in a final embrace. Though this was a dream, Norin knew that this moment was real. They held one another in a few moments of silence.

'What's going to happen?'

'Our fates are all intertwined. You, Malek, and I.'

Visage gave another deep sigh. Norin felt his chest rise and ebb with the breath, and although she couldn't hear his heartbeat, she  could feel it in his arms, in his being, like a rhythm to a cosmic song.

'When you die, then so shall I.'

'And Malek?'

'He shall ascend back to where he wants to be; in the darkness of the night, so that he will be able to spread his influence to all those who dare to dream.'

'He wants to die.'

'Yes. As it is said, tragedy comes in threes; but one man's woe is another man's wish. The King wants to return to his realm of Madness.'

'And what about us?'

There was another moment of silence, yet again, before Visage answered.

'I have the answers to many things in this universe, but the answer to that is not one of them.'

Left with another question unanswered, Norin closed her eyes, trying to find solace in the rhythm of Visage's presence. She inhaled cool air into her lungs, scentless.

'I understand.'

The light that engulfed this dreamland had changed colour, fading from that of midday to dusk, the clouds that they'd been standing on slowly dissipating into thin sheets that revealed nothingness beneath.

'It's time to go', whispered Visage, as he tightened his arms around Norin one last time.

'Goodnight, Sleepwalker.'

With a quiet whimper, Norin reciprocated the embrace.

'Goodnight, Wanderer.'

The dusk soon became night, and all light faded from her dreamscape. Norin drifted into the nothingness yet to come.