Ty felt pressure under his feet. He was now standing. The fog of light began to clear, and his body faded back into view. He blinked at the ugliness of his new surroundings.

A dark, restless steel grey sky extended to infinity in all directions, overcast with black clouds. Lonely thunder from distant lightning rolled over Ty. The ground was perfectly flat, perfectly smooth, and extended unbroken to the horizon in all directions.

Its surface was an immense mural. Below his feet, Ty saw the men of the ancient civilization that had created Siona. They were paintings of light and happiness: Grassy picnics, sunsets glowing off of gentle faces, even men with disheveled hair with the sides of their faces pressed into a pillow, one eye open and smiling mildly. They were all painted from a first person perspective.

Ty realized he was looking at Siona’s memories of these men. He did not feel jealous – after all, they had all rejected her – but he did begin to feel immensely lonely in the desolate place. Looking up from the morose canvas below him, Ty saw Siona a short way in the distance. She had not been there before.

Ty tried to call out to her, felt his vocal cords strain, but heard nothing as if he were deaf. “Now I know what’s going on.” He thought to himself. “This is a nightmare. I’m starting to share Siona’s feelings, from the joining. That’s probably her here with me, having the same nightmare.”

Siona’s back was to Ty and she seemed to be staring at the ground and sobbing. Ty knew what was wrong; he knew she was sad at these memories, and he knew he was the cure. A desire welled up in Ty so great that he could barely restrain himself to a jog toward her: a desire to comfort her with the promise of new, warmer memories. Ones she would never have to sob over.

As he approached, his jog slowed to a walk. Ty found himself looking at the paintings on the ground. Their theme was changing as he approached the blue figure standing in the middle of this desolate place. They began to show men’s backs, waving as they left forever. Men with human wives, men with children, both viewed though keyholes or ventilation grating.

He was now within a dozen feet of Siona. The murals swirled in a whirlpool, with her at the center. They showed unspeakable death, mutilated bodies of children and fathers and wives. Siona stood, sobbing, at the center of a spiral of blood.

Ty rejected the obvious implication immediately. “Siona wasn’t a part of this… that was Taka. She would never do anything like this. I know her. I know her.” He said to himself. Still, he hesitated in approaching her. Siona looked over her shoulder and saw him before he could finish his thought.

She turned to face him, a look of immense grief on her face. Ty’s worry melted and he held out his arms to embrace her. Then he noticed the jagged X carved into her abdomen, crossing just above her diamond shaped navel. A sheen of tears ran from it, curtaining her lower body.

Ty dropped his arms, but did not draw back. He tried to ask her what was wrong, but his voice was still muted.

Siona approached him. Her body was graceful and angelic as ever, but as she stepped toward him she would spasm randomly, her frame jumping and twitching like a static-ridden television signal. Her body flickered with flecks of solid black during the spasms.

Her face was now inches from Ty’s.

“I will have to kill you, Ty.” She spoke in a low, gentle, loving tone. The tone a mother might use to tell an infant that it was time for bed.

“You know that. In the end I was able to hide nothing from you.” She gestured at the endless landscape with her arms. “This is not my nightmare, Ty. It’s yours. You know what I’ve seen, and you know that I cannot let this happen to me again. I wish I could change it all, I wish I could take it all back and just be happy, but I can’t, Ty. What’s done is done. Love has hurt me so badly… so badly…”

“There can be no secrets between us any longer. You will have to die.”

Ty did not blanch or try to cry out or even blink. Not even when another spasm shook her entire shape, jittering into a black mockery of Taka inches from his face. He only stood staring intently at her, and she stared back.

Ty lifted his arms again and hugged Siona tight to his chest. He felt her breasts squeeze into his chest and the hideous crack in her stomach press against him, soaking him with tears. For a long time, her arms only hung limp.

Ty placed his hand behind her head and brought it against his neck, against his jugular with its life blood beating regularly – his pulse was not raised. He stroked her hair absently.

After some time, Siona began to sob again. She brought her hands up slowly behind Ty. Ty felt her palms rest on his back, as light and vital as small birds.

But the abominable fresco below the couple remained. Ty stared at the mutilated bodies of men that Siona had loved and the women they had left Siona for. Siona hugged Ty back and cried openly into his shoulder. White light filled Ty’s vision again, and his dream ended.