11:05:03 <crushedmarigolds> And it definitely wasn’t one of those dreams where you wake up and find the place between your legs wetting, thighs clenching at the mere reminder of the memory. Wasn’t even a dream you remember when you first wake up. It was something that came to me over time, slowly crawling around inside my head like a beetle – circling some invisible drain fixed inside there and making its way down into the sludge where memories collect.

11:05:32 <crushedmarigolds> In the dream, you didn’t speak.

11:05:37 <crushedmarigolds> You couldn’t.

11:05:59 <crushedmarigolds> In the way that all dreams give you supernatural powers – abilities beyond comprehension or even logic – I was able to make you mute. Mouth could open, but no sound could come out. When I asked you why you couldn’t speak, you gestured to my hand. It was then that I realized I had ripped out your tongue and it wiggled between my fingers like a rubbery slice of uncooked meat.

11:06:09 <crushedmarigolds> You had showed up on my front porch, suitcase in hand.

11:06:34 <crushedmarigolds> I asked you what you’re doing here. You tell me you have nowhere else to go.

11:07:04 <crushedmarigolds> Before I can challenge you again, there’s a horrible explosion outside. I go to the window to look and I’m greeted by a desolate wasteland. The front lawn – once a beautiful emerald carpet – now merely rusted brown and the edges burning. In the distance, a giant mushroom cloud rises into sight. The light around us dims as if the hand of God had drawn a dark curtain over the world. The windows to the house explode, a glittering hailstorm of glass flutters around us like a snow squall.

11:07:35 <crushedmarigolds> I suddenly realize you’re gone, and it’s then I’m approached by a nurse and she tells me that you’re upstairs waiting for me.

11:07:45 <crushedmarigolds> “Upstairs?” I say.

11:08:09 <crushedmarigolds> So, I walk up the stairs to the master bedroom and somehow, I already have the key to unlock the door. I open it and it’s not the master bedroom, but a giant hospital room instead. It looks like a place where they do experiments – crimes against nature – like arranging the head of a hamster on the body of a Burmese python. Something atrocious like that.

11:08:44 <crushedmarigolds> So, I inch further into the room and I see you in the hospital bed. Only difference is all your skin has been burned off. Your arms and legs – they look like thin tubes of blood sausage with the transparent casing still on them. Your face – half-melted and dripping like the wax from a candle. Your skin – shining from the radiation and so transparent that I can practically see myself in the reflection. You look so strange and yet – so mesmerizing.