Every night since the fight against Him long ago...Giygas...I had a dream.
I looked around me to see nothing but snow; an endless plane blanketed in white fantasies, the sky grey, and a soft light emanating through the air, through the deep mist that hung low; cold, so, so cold. It was a silent sanctuary, filled only by my own footprints, where I felt alone and free. I was naked, as I always was in my dreams. Exposed. Afraid. Usually...but I didn't feel like that. It was serene. A quiet place to think. Only...think about what? About my past? Memories seem so scarce from back then, fading into ethereal sepia tones; forgotten, nearly forgotten.
The only thing I could even remember was Paula...oh, Paula. Her blonde hair, curly, soft. Her delicate face, so pale, so innocent. The near-faltering smile, but the sadness in her voice as she whispered a goodbye outside her house...and we parted ways. I had not seen her since then. The day I went to look for her again, not two months later...she was gone. A vacant lot. I asked the people living nearby, but nothing. I was greeted with strange looks and apologetic head-shakes. It was almost as if...as if she had never existed. And even the other two...the other boys who I no longer remember...they didn't remember her.
And so I begin to think and dream. And I wonder if the adventure was even real. And time passes. And I deny everything.
It becomes the only explanation. My mind re-writes what it remembers, and slowly, she stops existing in my mind, along with my travels...my life...my family...She remains only in the farthest reaches of my mind; only some hair, her voice...her soft singing voice, ringing gently out with a simple melody.
And the song comes back to me, pitch by contemplative pitch, slowly, slowly. I remember it, and hum it to myself, and I wait, as silence fills the air, and fills my mind.
"Ness," I heard a girl call from behind, "Ness, is that you?!" Paula.
I turned around, and saw her standing there, her smooth, blonde hair spilling forth the same as it had been so many years ago. She had not changed. Her eyes welled up, running wet with tears, over-flowing, as she ran up to me, burying her head in my chest, "Ness, oh, Ness! I thought I'd never see you again!"
I cried into her head, feeling the cold snow covering her, and whispered words of hope and love to her, so quietly I could not hear them myself, only hoping she could hear and believe them. And suddenly, just as suddenly as she appeared, she was gone.
And I remember that it was only a dream. And that Paula does not exist. Not anymore.
And I continue to live.
