Dusk is upside down. The light comes from below, and the dark rides on it like a sea of algae in the diver’s view, the nightshade drifting on the dense surface above. An orange blue glow swims along the skyline roofs, under a blanket of black silence, clearly waiting for its moment to weep privately in the dark. Ink blot clouds punctuate the sky like blotches of age on skin. Nomadic wisps migrate like herds, moving off in advance of oblivion. The air is soaking up the last of the day, full now like a sponge perched over the city, gently pulling like the last precious tug of a kiss, bursting slow into a shambles of color.

I want to go out. I don’t know why the color and texture of night draw me like crowds at a cafe. I feel, for a moment, like I am allowed to be me. I am soft, wide-eyed, open, and yet passionate and intense, and still yet assertive, witted, dominant and agile. I’m hungry. I want to go out. I wonder if anyone else is looking up, disheveled in the day’s dying breath.

The weather is perfect. Usually, Asher doesn’t care about the weather. He never brings it up, and never complains. Being too cold or too hot is for other people; Asher compensates.

Today, though, you can reach up and touch the clouds. The buildings are swimming in them. Black, purple, grey, and furious, rolling in like foot soldiers of the storm. Asher loves it. He must go out. Even if it’s a tornado, he has to go out. He’s leaving… now.

Asher turned a few times, and stretched in his sleep, clutching the pillow, and going from fetal position to back and back to fetal. Someone was there, occasionally watching him toss, and knowing it was time again, at last. Twilight, and Asher was waking up. He felt her brushing past his leg hanging off the bed, touching his hair for a moment. Dusk, and he opened his eyes, he was the sole body in the room. And it was an ordinary room, ordinary sheets, with the cool air pouring in hard – the only way he can sleep – and the sound of the ceiling fan was like a metronome. But she hadn’t left. He’d have known that much, if he thought about it in the front of his brain. But she stayed in the softer parts of his mind, like a suggestion, and he flexed and felt strong. Dark, and the moon was half in shadow. He was himself, and he stood up and went out.