I was dreaming.

From a far distance something wailed into the darkness. It wasn't human. It wasn't a cry...maybe a caw.

Everything swirled and hazed around me like a scene set in slow motion; a space full of smoke...fog.

What was I doing here again? Had I found my body in such an existential crisis that my soul wandered lost through foggy expanses of blackness every time I welcomed slumber?

And I was alone. I was always alone.

A second screeched loudly this time to the right and my body spun so quickly the world of this fantasy swirled wildly like fog in a wind.

And then there it was. A shadow. It was a shadow of something...some thing the height of a man, all one shade of black.

A black shadow against the milky atmosphere. The caw was near but this figure was far. I didn't feel gravity as my feet stepped forward. Petrified in a sudden iciness of a frozen abyss, nothing moved. As my body involuntarily progressed it's steps, the figure emerged more clearly, however.

Gray as ash with hair like a crows feather's, it was a man. His head bent low, his body unmoving, he wasn't human. Something strange about the ashen figure with hands and skin dry like old parchment and cold as death. There was something else...a sound almost as soft as a whisper.

It was a patter...something against sand...a dripping...pat...pat...pat.

As my foot stepped once more closer, the figure's stillness gave away a darker detail. The sound of a drip came protruded from this figures chest, something long and thick, rough like bark...wooden.

And then I noticed. A dark little drop fall from the protrusion and land in a small puddle at the figure's feet.

The world spun wildly as everything became clear. The deep copper smell of life...of blood filled the senses.

"Hello?"

And then rose that icy stare once more.