Sometimes it is not our body that shows who we are, nor does our eyes reflect our souls. It is the dream that showcases our truest being, dreams where our consciousness and subconscious are unrestrained. More often, this is where our secrets are held, secrets that should stay hidden.

Here I stand in a dreamscape of wriggling white tendrils, inside a fog throbbing with unseen life. Shadows are cast from unknown sources with vague shapes blotting the sunless sky.

The ground? There is nothing but thin roots carpeting the ground, forever burying the soil under grasping tendrils.

The vision faded and I find myself staring at the ceiling, bare-naked and with delicate arms hugging my chest. Turning to the side, she was sleeping peacefully, her closed eyes fluttering ,and her soft lips lit by the soft morning sun.

I lift her hair to the side, gently caressing her cheeks with gentle touch, afraid it might wake her up. I removed her arms from mine and stood up, tucking her under the blanket.

After doing so, I washed myself and changed clothes before cleaning my teeth and by then she had already got up. Leaving the bathroom, she covered herself with a towel and her wet hair draped along her shoulder.

I smirked “Don’t threaten me with a good time.”

She winked “Oh, look at the tiger.”

“You might find yourself eaten”. I returned

“Someone else might eat me up”

“...”

“Hey! I was just joking!”

After some ‘troubles’, we got ourselves washed again and enjoyed the morning sun on our balcony, savoring it before it got scorching hot.

With sunbathing done, we prepared our breakfast. She cooked banana heart in coconut milk while I fried some fish in vegetable oil. Setting up the table, we helped each other as well, with me getting the table cloth and her wiping it clean of dust.

I took a piece of fried fish with a fork and looked at her while she was enjoying her vegetables.

“You’re beautiful.“

She raised her head with a disapproving gaze. “We’re eating.“

“I know-“ I stopped, hearing the soft tapping on our windows and roof. The sky loomed with dark clouds until the last rays of sunlight are swallowed up by a gloomy veil.

The air dipped with coldness that sent shivers down my skin with each blow of the wind seeping down to my bones.

I sighed “That sucks.”

“Will we still be able to go out today?” She asked.

“I don’t know, I hope so” I replied, dejected.

All of my plans for today will be ruined if the rain doesn’t stop, though, perhaps I can do something about it.

“I’ll get the blanket.”

“Sure.”

She stood from her chair and went to our room, coming back with a pair of blankets, one of which she gave to me.

“You like rain, right?” I raised a question.

She tilted her head, curious “ Yeah? Why?”

“Nothing” I replied with my lips curling into a smile.

Throughout our breakfast, the rain didn’t yield, instead it grew stronger with winds whipping outside our windows. Yen is currently doing the dishes, but even so, I can see a visible fear in her body. Her body stopped for seconds when the sky crackled.

As for me, I am on the couch, covered in a blanket while fidgeting with a small red box, careful not to damage its contents. I can already imagine how I will present it, and she’ll probably say ‘yes.' If not, there is still next year.

Lightnings are flashing bright among the clouds while thunders are booming like broken drums. Persistently this has been going on for a while now, and it is only getting stronger. I’m afraid we may have a storm.

‘Odd’, I thought to myself.

Through the lights I can almost make out a shape swimming through the torrential rain. Smaller shapes are following it, rough like floating stones. It almost felt familiar, then it dawned on me when my eyes sat on a distant rolling fog.

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“You bastard” I almost shouted, but quickly covered my mouth.

I rushed towards the kitchen, grabbing the surprised Yen from her dishes.

“What is going on? You look pale” She asked with worry on her face.

I grabbed her hand. “We need to get out of here.”

She flinched, but didn’t resist. “What do you mean?”

I want to give her an explanation, but the booming sounds on the sky are getting louder along with the crashing and snapping trees. Branches are cracking like bones breaking from their joints. The wind crashed through our windows and shattered them with enough force that some fragments found themselves stuck on the wooden walls.

We ducked to dodge the stray sharps which fortunately didn’t hit us.

“We need to get out of here now!” I immediately shouted.

I dragged her behind me, and she followed despite the shock on her face. We skipped through broken shards on the floor, careful not to step on them. Our running felt like eternity, the door was just a few steps from us and yet it felt like miles away from us. We burst through the door just enough before a large powerful force knocked us down along with pieces of concrete and wood.

I don’t have to look back to know what it was, her terrified scream is enough to set my blood cold and for my heart to jump up my throat.

Where our house should be is a giant insectoid leg stretching past through the rolling fog, and it squirmed with inky black tendrils squirming and crawling on top of each other.

“What is that!” She screamed, her eyes diluted and her hands clawing the mud.

“I...”

I tried, but words couldn’t escape my mouth, nor could I move my body.

A deep and primal fear has overtaken our body and in our horror it moved, sensing the ground with its many tendrils before pulling away, becoming a vague shape in the fog where it joined a shape walking away.

I collapsed to my knees, and she sobbed, holding her head in her hands, uncaring for the mud as tears after tears flowed down her eyes.

“We built that house...” She softly whimpered.

“Shh, it’s going to be alright, we... we have to leave, more might come, we have to hide.”

I crawled to her and hugged her close and brought her head to my chest. I swallowed the fear just enough for me to think and not scream, but for her, it was different. She has seen something terrifying and, beyond reason, she needs time and time is something we don’t have.

We need to leave and go somewhere warm lest we risk hypothermia. Our bodies are drenched, and our clothes are brown with mud. The air crawls all over my body with bone-chilling fingers.

I helped her up before hugging her close, holding her hand in fear she might disappear from my sight.

The wind is threatening to lift us, and it is a struggle to move through the mud. Yen is slowly recovering from fear, enough to walk on her own. She grabbed my hand in a grip that almost hurt, but I let her be.

The fog has caught up with us, blurring our visions in white emptiness. Thankfully, we know the path by mind. We walked this path to town for years. Fallen trees marked our path, uprooted and with twisted branches exposing the white wood beneath.

Seconds passed as if they are hours with each steps having us fight with the wind and freezing temperature. We held on to each other for what little warmth we can get, but even so our bodies continue to shake and shiver.

“Hey” I spoke, nudging her.

“...” She didn’t give any reply, staring silently at our path.

I sighed, and we continued until we saw the shape of buildings within the fog. Our steps quickened, then halted. There we stood, before destroyed houses and corpses littering the road within their own pool of blood.

I quickly covered her head away from the sight. She didn’t resist, but she was trembling within my arms. Perhaps it is the cold or the fact that our body is drenched, but I know enough to differentiate tears from rain.

“Shhhh, it’s going to be alright, everything is going to be alright”

I softly console her, rubbing her wet hair.

“They’re dead... they are dead!”

“I know, but we need to keep moving, we can’t be out here.”

Letting her head free, she looked up at me with tearful eyes almost hallowed, empty, and completely terrified.

She nodded.

We moved along the debris, trying to ignore the blood all around us and their faces permanently frozen in fear. It was total bloodshed, everything was broken, cars were thrown on the road and trees speared through many of the houses.

The air is thick in iron intermingled with the scent of soil, constantly reminding us of our suffering. Every house is a hope, until we saw just how broken they are. Staying in them won’t be different from standing under the rain.

So many familiar faces we have to walk through, people that were happy yesterday and now they are nothing but cold corpses. It tugged at my heart, I want to stop and give them farewells, but I can’t, ‘we’ can’t.

A horrendous boom rang out, and the ground shook with dust. Off in the distance, we saw a giant shadow looming above broken skyscrapers, trampling them with its many legs. Easily they fell apart, burying everything below them in concrete.

It howled as it topple more, smashing its many legs and tearing through them. No, not just one, behind it are similar shapes. All of them are doing the same, toying with us.

It felt hopeless, that something like that existed out there. I want to deny it, but it is here, the nightmares haunting me at night. It is truly here. Will guns even work? This is not fantasy where they show swords that can magically cut armours. Swords can’t cut armour nor can they cut stones, neither can they defend us from...those.

“Let’s go”

I pulled her along, breaking her away from the scene. She stared away from it, but even so, I can still see tangible fear within her eyes.

The wind is stabbing us with thousands of sharp ice, each droplets of rain slashing our skin like sharp blades piercing through our bones.

Eventually, we found a house that was not too damaged. Whether the occupants are still inside or not, we no longer care. We are cold and we need a shelter.

Walking through the broken gate and opening the door, we found ourselves before a wary family of four, each with weapons ready to hit us. Seeing that we are humans, the eased up, but still they have knives pointed at us.

I raised my hands. “ We just want shelter, we will leave after the rain”

Hope is evident within my voice because I truly am. Still they held their knives against us.

“Look, just let her inside and I can stay out-“ before I can finish, the lady lowered her knife “ Come in”

I bowed deep “Thank you”

We went in and the door closed behind us.