Gretchen was sitting on the floor in her house. She leant back against the sofa – everything so familiar and swollen with memories, yet none of it real. What a precarious place to be in, the voice mused. She nodded in agreement – a slight movement – nothing more was required. She noticed the door in the wall ahead of her. That wasn’t normally there but she didn’t suppose it mattered any more. It’s just a door, it can come and go as it pleases, she realised.
She still had page 10 in her hands but as she’d read that now, it simply changed into her laptop. The spinning logo on the screen, which informed her that: “We are configuring your user interface updates – do not switch off your computer”, suddenly changed to “Updates configured – click ‘Finish’ to complete installation”. Gretchen did so and heard the tired whirr as the laptop switched off. The silence was complete and she knew that tonight she would finally sleep. She smiled and then stood up. In three steps, she approached the door and without any hesitation, grabbed the handle. There was no need to be scared of it anymore. She opened it and sighed as the Broken Man turned to face her. He had an expression of such happiness on his face. She reached forward through the doorway and took his hand. Their fingers intertwined, automatically and instinctively positioning themselves into the right form. They were a perfect fit; a perfect match.
‘How quickly did you disappear?’ she asked.
‘Not as fast as you. My vanishing was incremental.’
‘But equally as permanent?’
‘Oh yes, I’m here for good now.’ And with that, he stepped through into the house. The wall appeared again behind him.
‘Will you stay with me?’ she asked.
‘Always.’
The Absence Of Sleep 