I lay barely awake in my bed.



I hear my watch ticking from across the room. Normally silent, every click is now an Earth-shattering earthquake... And as my eyes start to close, the ticks come slower. Dragging steadily together and blending into something no longer quite a tick, but more akin to a rattle. As I lay there in darkness, pondering slightly upon the newfound sound, my eyes just barely open, I see a wondrous thing. My arm is vibrating, and it's beginning to dematerialize, little bits of it flaking off and floating up to the ceiling, sticking there like blobs of pudding on a Cafetorium roof... Larger and larger parts break off, flesh, fat, muscle, veins, bone, all peeling away and flying... Elsewhere. "Much like my mind" I think, my thoughts no longer content to rattle around my head, choosing instead to fill my room and echo about it like the rattling of my watch... And my eyelids close upon this thought, dragging with them a curtain of light, obscuring my nonexistent arm, blinding me temporarily...



I awake with a start, the world around me hazy and formless. As my thoughts fill my head... Fill the space around me, the formless mass begins to take shape, spinning and coalescing into gigantic spires of swirling silver, and a thought of you rattles out upon the walls, a thought of your voice... Spirals of silver, that's how I described it. And then you are here, besides me, staring up at the peaks that I created, whispering in my ear, the words booming across the world, "Will you climb with me?"



"Yes, of course I will." I reply.



The beginning of our ascent is tough, the thoughts surrounding me like a cold and bitter wind: "This is madness, you won't be here when we reach the top."



"Yes, of course I will," you retort.



As we reached the middle, the thoughts began to warm me, caressing my skin like a big fat comforter, protecting me against the bitterness I found below. I look beside me, and you are still there, still climbing up with me. At times during our journey, you disappear, becoming obscured by a fog, by my fog, the one of my ambitions, my doubts, my insecurities, my fears, my greed, my hidden lusts, but you always appeared out of it, smiling. Your form always came out clearly on the other side.



My hands grasp at the wall of this silver spiraling spire, my fingers passing into it, causing ripples on the surface as if it were a lake in the mellow summer...



"Reminds me of you..." my thoughts blaring across the world, meant to be a whisper to myself, transmuted into a scream for attention.



"Does it?" you ask, slyly. "And why would that be?"



"Because I'm getting inside, and you don't even realize it... Causing little tiny waves on your surface that you try to hide, but can't quite manage to..."



You smiled at that, and we kept climbing. Soon, the atmosphere grew thick and heavy, hot and damp like I imagine the rain forests must be.



"The rain means nothing." you said.



"Nothing," I agreed.



We pressed on, scaling the spire, growing nearer to what we had both decided was our destination. Up until we spotted it, we weren't quite so certain, but now that we were getting closer, we could smell the sickly sweet aroma that envelopes that place.



"Shall we keep going?" I asked, breathless from the climb.



Keeping your composure, you replied simply, "No, I think we're ok right here."



I was not content. I continued to climb the tower, prodding you closer to the top, dragging you, lifting your broken spirits, for the journey to get to the bottom of this particular tower had been tough.



"Let's keep going," I whispered to you.



"No, this place is safe."



I was still unhappy. I thought to myself: "But we've come so far, why not climb the last 20 feet? Why cling to the walls, dangling? Falling from a thousand feet and falling from nine-hundred eighty feet are very much the same!"



My thoughts spilled out, and you heard them quite clearly. The air around us felt like that of mid-January, but reminded me more of late Spring, as the beautiful things start to bloom.



"Let's go just a bit further. We are so close, now."



You hesitated for just a moment.



"Ok, we'll try it."



I was relieved. No longer would I have to cling to the side of this beautiful shining tower, but soon I would be able to stand tall on top of it. We climbed the last 20 feet together, inseparable.



Our hands met each other as we grasped the edge.



Our fingers interlaced as we pulled ourselves up.



Our eyes locked on each other's as we sat there, atop the spire.



Our lips locked together as we triumphed over our climb.



My lips parted, and I whispered, "I love you," as it gently poured rain.



Yours parted soon after that, and responded, "I love you, too."



And I looked into your eyes for a long time, and I was happy. I was truly happy.