A small story that's been brewing in my mind for some time, looking for any advice to improve.
It’s been, gods how long has it been? A year? No, more, a year and a few months, but some nights I still remember it as vividly as that one. The stale, calm air, the complete lack of the sounds a forest like that would normally have, no crickets chirped, no owls hunted, nothing moved, until I arrived.
A night, just like most others, I lay in my bed, sleep escaping me, the sins and trauma of my past haunting me, their memories droning in my mind like thousands of swarming locusts, then silence. I rise to find myself near my father’s home, the one I grew up in and not far from me, my dog, whom I had lost a few short months earlier, waiting for me, as he always did. I call to him, though my words fail me, yet he knows, and approaches anyway. I feel his fur, soft and full, not his warmth. He left it behind.
I sit and I play with him for some time, though I do not feel any pass, until he leaves me, walking out of the yard towards the driveway. I follow, calling to him, my words like lead weight in my chest, stopping before they can escape, before anything can disrupt the peace, the silence, the slumber of the dead. I followed him, quickly reaching the street as he disappears through the thicket on the other side. The neighbors house had been replaced with thick, foggy woods, devoid of all colors but browns and beiges. I look to the left and right, the street goes on as far as I can see, lined with the same thick forest. I look up, to the night, where the Ladies of the Moon and Night have their nightly dance. There, in the land of no sky, where the earth touches the abyss, I see everything. The brilliant colors of the Night, streaks of yellow, green, teal, blue, purple, and red dance above me, backed by the inky darkness, the void where only the stars, too numerous for any to count, shed light. The Moon, too, hung above me, larger than I had ever seen her, as if I could travel through the briars and reach her by the time she touched the earth. Beyond them, where the Night had left after chasing the Moon to her perch, just above the trees, was nothing, Abyss, Infinity. Despite the seeming nothingness I understand, more than I ever have before. It all made sense. I collapse, falling to my knees, burying my face in the grass beneath me, I weep. Not for sadness, nor rage, nor any emotion, rather, I have found peace, and thus, I weep. Everything makes sense, and just as quickly as I arrived, I left. I once more sit in my room, the sound returns, and I weep.
A piece of me was left behind in that place, whether I left it willingly or it was taken I cannot say, but I am of the dead now, just as I am of the living. I do not walk between, rather I walk both. When my mortal half reaches its end and I once more return to that place, I will be whole again.