By the lake of sunset yellow

I found unassailable walls in your company; safety from legions of the could-have-been, armed with the stealth of regret and the could-be, armed with the ferocity of discretion. It was an exhilarating bubble of the purest kind of freedom.

Isn't that..?

Yes, that’s him.

Why is he here?

You've read his books, haven’t you? Genius always exacts a price. He walked the tightrope of sanity every time he wrote. The last time he tried to do it on a unicycle juggling elephants.

Do you remember that painting we saw on the sidewalk the last time we met, the kind that makes sense only when seen from one particular vantage? I feel like we stopped moving right there when we were together. Now you’re gone, and I’m alone, speeding away in a car that won’t stop. Life’s become a jumble of colors and lines that makes sense only in memories.

How are you feeling today?

(Silence)

Would you like to talk about her today?

That's all I ever do.

In the darkness, I can tell you, time passes different. Lifetimes in little chunks, served with a generous sprinkle of melancholy and a side of slow poison. Your absence has been my longest night.

He killed her?

Don't just watch the tapes, read his file. This one rarely allows coherence to threaten his insanity.

Now that you're gone the bubble is broken and I’m in a free fall. The world moves towards me at an alarming velocity, and I’m without weight, insubstantial until I’m crushed by it.

She didn't exist. She was in your head.

How does that make her any less real?