I stood in the middle of the street listening to the sounds of the world existing around me. It wasn't a busy street and no cars were coming. To be completely honest, I'm not sure what I was doing there other than just being there. The drainage ditches to either side of the street were trickling slowly and I could hear some insect noises in the tall grass beyond the water. The land was a mix of open grass prairies and wooded areas with no hills. I could see for miles in any direction that wasn't too densely clogged by trees.
It was about the time that I realized I didn't know where I was going that she appeared. She had an umbrella and handed it to me and pulled out a parasol for herself. We started walking slowly down the street toward my home and after a few moments of silence she looked over and said, "It won't be long now. It's too late to change course." I glanced at her and nodded. We continued down the winding path and I was contemplating how she knew it was going to rain. The sky was clear and there was nothing but sunshine above, but clearly she didn't bring me an umbrella for no reason.
As we got within a few hundred feet of my driveway I started hearing a sound unlike anything I had ever heard before. I looked at her and she just smiled. I started trying to place the sound or figure out what could make a noise like this. I stood there for a moment as the noise grew louder and more distinguished. It was a wailing high pitched screech, which I can only describe as what I would imagine it sounds like when a living thing is ripped apart limb from limb. I looked back at her and still smiling she said, "I told you." I looked up past her head and the top of a dead tree was swaying unnaturally. It became clear that something wasn't right. I started to run.
The path to the house from the street seemed to go on forever, but as I ran I watched that tree top finally explode into a frenzy of tiny pieces. Is this a tornado? I quickly realized that the sky overhead had been filled with streaks of black smoke and watching it as I ran, meteors began flying past and striking trees and houses. I kept running for some reason convinced that I would be safe if I made it back inside. I could hear her laughing the whole time I ran as if it was all some cosmic joke to her. I looked back and saw her twirling her parasol and watching the meteors fly overhead as she laughed. I locked the door behind me as soon as I got inside and continued to hear both the laughter and howling sound of the meteors.
I decided it was best to wake myself up now. I pulled out of that layer of the dream, but I stopped short of waking myself up. I thought about it for a few moments and decided that I wasn't done dreaming. I thought about a few places I would like to go and before settling on any of them I decided to just let myself be pulled where the dreams wanted to take me. I was back, but I wasn't in the house this time. I was standing beside her holding my umbrella and her with her parasol watching the world crumble around us. She looked at me and smiled again, "Did you get tired of running?" I just looked at her and said, "I just decided that whatever happens next, I'd rather be home." She extended her arm and we started walking down the street together. So what if the world is falling down around us, we've already been through hell alone.
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