"You need to sleep," repeated Blake.

"How can I sleep? How dare I to lay comfortably, while Nitha doesn't have that choice? Can you imagine what it must feel like to be captured by life-threatening danger? For months! If she is alive, she's probably praying for death by now. Believe me when I say I've tried, but it just isn't possible to get her out of my head! Wherever I go, whatever I do, she is always there with me, in the back of my head, at the bottom of my heart, and in every part of my soul. I'm not naive enough to miss the probability that she is gone. I've counted the odds at least a million times. The chances of her being somewhere out there are indistinguishable from zero."

Blake was called for breakfast and had to interrupt Finn's discharge.

"I'm sorry that I have to go, but let's meet at the cabin in forty-five minutes."

"I'm busy," lied Finn, quite obviously.

"You owe me. Besides, I have something I need to show you—in person," he emphasized.

"Fine."

The program closed and Finn was left alone. His headache grew stronger and every time he blinked, his eyes wished to stay shut. They were too heavy and felt drier than the surface of Venus. Finn sank into his chair and rested his body. 

Shadows underneath his eyes had shifted to purple, his hair was wild, and his legs felt worn out. The clock on his screen showed 8:32, which allowed Finn to de-stress for a couple of minutes before heading back up to the cabin. As he stared at his frozen screen his eyelids slowly closed.

Prior to his body falling into weightlessness, he heard a female giggle and was restless at last. After turning around in his chair he discovered his room unchanged. That giggle had appeared so near, so real, he could have sworn he heard it coming from the corner of his room. It couldn't have been unnoticed if someone had entered his room, so he fell back into his chair and asked himself if he had gone mad.

"Turn around," echoed a voice, so angelic it couldn't be mistaken.

Finn jumped up to find himself in sustained solitary. He had heard it clearly that time, no doubt was left to think it wasn't her. His eyes inspected his desolated room until a photo on the nightstand kept them locked for good. It was a picture of him and his girlfriend. They looked still happy then. 

Finn touched the bracelet on his arm. He never took it off, not to shower, not to sleep, not ever. It was a gift he had received from her two years earlier, and nothing in his possession meant more to him than that braided black bracelet. Nausea swirled unrestrained in his empty stomach.

"I need fresh air," was his way of admitting to Blake's statement; Finn was clearly sleep-deprived.

As he arrived at the cabin there was no sign of his friend, so Finn planned to continue the search inside. The roof over the porch was supported by four wooden pillars and provided some shade on this tropical day. For the first time the door was locked, so Finn stepped aside and called out Blake's name, without a response.

"Finn," spoke a female voice softly.

His body was paralyzed with hair standing up on his arms and legs. It was the same voice that had tittered earlier—heavenly soothing, and incredibly surreal. From the corner of his eyes, Finn spotted a silhouette standing in the frame of the now widely open door. 

Despite his rigid eyes being unable to peek, Finn already knew who was standing behind him. He felt it with every inch of his frozen body. A pair of serene fingers touched his shoulder and freed him from deadness. Immediately he fixed her with a gaze. A short blonde stood before him, allowing less than one foot of space between the two.

Her hair, falling along her right shoulder like a golden waterfall, reflected the sun and let her appear as the brightest worldly being. A slender waist, streaming down from her bust, as smoothly as a gravitating leaf in the middle of October. 

The flatness of her stomach to the bends of her hips reminiscent of the idea of perfection. Skin, as flawless as a water drop, so pastel, and yet divine. The fullness of her lips and the cute shape of her faultless nose brought unburied memories. This beauty— this dreamlike beauty, it was unutterable, mesmerizing, and far beyond. In Finn's words, it was out of this world.

She made him firmly believe in the possibility of perfection, the possibility of how good someone can look from the complexity of her tragic uniqueness to the tiniest simplicity of her hand's movement when she tugged a loose strand of hair behind one ear. 

And the one thing that made her so unimaginably attractive, was by far her eyes. Those eyes guarded the colors of blue superior to nature and glinted more elegance than Aurora Borealis on a cold winter night.

"Nitha," was all that Finn was capable of saying.

She smiled, contagiously, and took his breath away.

With the last grain of air in his lungs, he exhaled the words "Oh my god," then fell into her arms. He was much taller than her and swirled his arms around her body in fear of watching her disappear again. A hug that lasted an eternity would still have felt by far too quick. 

Finn didn't want to let her go, but he couldn't help himself; he challenged faith and overcame what held him back to deserve one glimpse at her image. He could barely speak and had a smile that was uncontrolled.

"I've missed you so much!"

"I missed you, too."

"Oh my god," he repeated in the loss of words, "It's so good to hear your voice!"

Nitha's smile had withered like a flower that was already past its prime. He placed one hand on her cheek, the other hand was holding hers, like precious hope. Her head was tilted down and she'd closed her eyes.

Under her breath she begged, "Please don't leave me."

"Never!" With the purpose of manifesting his devotion, Finn pressed Nitha's hand on his chest, on his heart, and allowed her to feel his sincere love. He shook his head no and spoke with solemnity, "I will never leave you."

Nitha rose her look and with her hand, she felt Finn's heart beat faster as their eyes collided. His eyes were blue like hers but much less bright. Their blue spoke quotes and couldn't hide his feelings, nor his suffering. 

One could feel the pain he felt, when looking at his tired, wretchedly unhappy eyes, that was at least until that moment because his soul awoke a spark which lit the fire in his heart. It burned wild, returning the light in his eyes, and at length, the storm inside his mind had passed.

"I brought you a gift," she pointed past Finn's shoulder. "Turn around."

The same words he had heard her say before, in his room. Finn did as she said and perceived something bizarre. The steps he had walked to get up to the cabin were marked by death. It was a path of brown grass, broken leaves, lifeless roots, and washed-out color, up to where his feet were standing. 

Finn and the presence of death were parted by a flower. Its splendorous colors told Finn it was still alive, the blossoms were sky blue and in its center dwelled a yellow sun. The flower hadn't been there when Finn had arrived a few moments ago, but until now it had grown tall, and it bloomed vigorously.

"What does this mean?" Finn desired to look at Nitha to organize the mess in his brain, but the heartbreaking misfortune was that she had left. Nitha had vanished, leaving Finn all alone.

His heart kicked his chest, and with this heavy thump remaining, Finn snapped an incredulous gasp and found himself sitting in the chair by his desk. His eyes wide open, blood rushing through his body, stunned he observed the clammy palm of his hands.

"Was it all just a dream?"