And as I gaze into the fire, I realize what I have missed. The flakes of ash come down upon me and mesmerize me. They want to take me away from this place. The wind blows them upward, spiraling into infinity. The voices in the background slowly fade into the darkness of the night and the radio goes mute. The bottles at my feet are gone and the scenery is changing.
I look to my left first, nothing is the same. Everyone is gone. The garden has changed. Tiles have replaced the almost withered grass and a brick cylindrical construction has taken away the scorched dark earth where the basket of fire used to be. The walls of the garden have gone as well, all there is, is an infinity of plains. I stand up from my former wooden bench which has changed into a log and I look for a landmark. In the distance, I see a small figure, wearing a blue dress. She's dancing in the field, between butterflies and through the forget-me-nots. I go closer and sit near the bank of a small river. I watch her from a distance, she notices me and sits down near me.
-"It's been a while hasn't it..." She says with the smile I've always remembered.
"I've missed you. You know I wanted to talk to you for a while but..."
-"I know, we live in different worlds."
"I have so much to tell you, so much I want to tell you..."
And throughout the night, the moon was our safeguard. Our light in the darkness that I had missed for so long. We talked like we used to do. Which I had missed so dearly. We talked about the most important things. Yet I felt as if everything had been said.
"Where exactly are we?" I asked in a quiet voice.
-"They don't have a name for this place. They call this many things, I've always found The Asylum to be a suitable name.
People come here to recover, when they're done with the world for a bit. To shake off the crazyness that people mark them with. This is a place where everything is possible."
"Is this...real?"
-"Does that truly matter?" She said, and I knew it didn't.
"You're right. But why are you different here than you are in the real world?"
-"This world is not like yours. It's ours..."
And when she said that, I felt the ground weaken under me. As if it were falling apart.
-"Time to go, I guess." She whispered. She looked at me with the eyes which I had missed for so long.
"How do I get back here?" Trying not to sound desperate.
-"I'll come for you when you need me, I promise." She said, waved goodbye as everything went grey.
And as if nothing had happened, I had a bottle of beer in my hand and I was looking at her. She looks back at me. I went on talking about whatever I was saying when the world changed the first time. She smiled and looked at the fire, as did I.
Omnes hore vulnerant, ultima hore necat. 1/4
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