The Great Dying

I check on the gun every day now. For some reason, I keep thinking that it's not going to be there when I look, but it always is. I still don't know who sent it to me or why.

I had another dream.

I was standing on a beach looking out into the waves. It was dark, but it wasn't night. I looked up into the sky and saw ashes. They were falling like snowflakes.

I turned from the water and saw a volcano. Lava poured from it, erupting in leaps and bursts. I knew I should have been worried, but I wasn't.

The man in the gray suit was looking up at the volcano as well. "Where are we now?" I asked.

"Around two hundred and fifty million years ago," he said. "It's a period called the Great Dying. Over ninety percent of all life on this planet perished."

"Was it another asteroid?"

"Is that all you take away?" he asked. "Was it something outside that entered and destroyed nearly all things? Or was it what was within? The asteroid facilitated one extinction event, but not all. This planet is not as stable as you think. It is constantly shifting, constantly destroying and rebuilding itself."

"I'm dreaming, aren't I?"

He turned to look at me and as the volcano burst, he said, "A dream is something built from your memories, your experiences. Did you ever experience an extinction, Elizabeth?"

"Who are you?"

He placed his hat onto his head and said, "I have witnessed untold extinctions, but I do not dream. I have seen the birth and death of stars and the formation and dissipation of worlds. I have seen all those things and will see them again and again. I am in all places, at all times. Dreams are for those with memories, but I have none. Who needs to remember if you never leave?"

"Who are you?" I asked again.

He stepped forward. "When I told you the asteroid was a bullet, what did you think? Did you think about what that meant? Did you try to understand? Or, perhaps, did you ask yourself: who fired it?"

I looked into his eyes then and I saw a vast universe, and I started to cry. When I woke up, I was still crying, but I wiped the tears from my eyes and got up.

I realized that was stuff on my pillow. I wiped it away with my hand, wondering how it go so dusty, but then I took another look and saw that it wasn't dust at all.

It was ash.