"Come find me."

The ghost of a girl called through a haze in the dreamlike landscape. Her call echoed through the halls of upside down stairs and purple trees, nonsensical architecture and unnatural nature. She lay in the bottom of this place, her blonde hair like a sunflower at a distance waved from Rien's perspective. She was maybe farther than she had ever been.

"Come find me."

She repeated, with desperation, her voice cracking in fear. She was maybe too far to be found now, and yet through his ears her voice rattled; loud enough now to shake his ear drums.

"Come find me!"

Her voice shrieked and was stained with red like wine, the color pouring through Rien's eyes. She was close, closer than he had thought, just like their childhood she hadn't changed, but she had never cried so, the face of a young girl, the Mariana Rien had known had her face contorted into hopeless fear, her eyes bulged with broken vessels of blood pooling into them and her mouth hung wide, her voice now hoarse.

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"Rien, come find me."

She was quiet. She was now close. Her face was no longer a child's, nor did it portray any emotion. Her soft peach skin had turned to stone, her eyes like metal stabbed through Rien's and he felt an overwhelming pressure accumulate atop his shoulders.

"Come find me, I am still here, though I cannot be saved."

The words echoed as Rien bolted from his sleep. The sun had yet to crest the eastern mountains, and reflecting in the moon's light a single crimson leaf fell to the dirt road aside Rien. Autumn had finally set in.