It all started with a kiss from death.

It is the most beautiful feeling, yet so violent; it's the compelling call to stand in the middle of a storm. It is the need to be surrounded by the chaos because perhaps we are tired of being able to control things. It is the want to give up.

The kiss is invisible, yet there are many ways to tell it has happened...

Clue one: The wind. It slowly stirs in a storm- as still as a frozen, fearful child. Though you may see it move, you cannot feel it. You are separate from your sense of touch.

Clue two: The sky. It will seem so dim, so dark- until it fades to the blinding light. The world around you disappears. Though you can hear it, though you can smell, though you know it’s still there, you cannot see it. You are separate from your sense of sight.

Clue three: The river. You hear it flow with more force than ever before, yet still...so gentle. It calms you. It begins to soften, as if thinning as you near the end of the stream. However, it’s not as if you could feel or see if you did move. Those senses are long gone by now. Soon, the river thins so much, you can no longer hear the running water flowing alongside you. Though you know it must still be there, for you can still smell the familiar scent of water against the earth, you cannot hear it. You are separate from your sense of hearing.

Clue four: The faint taste of the atmosphere. Thought you never really noticed it before, with three senses gone, your mind focuses on one of its only remaining hands in knowing the world. You can taste the trees’ fragrance, the grass’ blades, the low clouds’ water, the dust carried in the breeze. You thought it would be difficult to recognize these things, but the mind never forgets it. These tastes are one of the only things you have left. It will preserve it as long as possible. However, it soon fades. The dust no longer sits idly on your tounge. The clouds seem to vaporize away; the grass blades hide; the trees shrink away from existence. Your tongue is not numb; if anything, it’s as if it’s not there at all. Though you know that is illogical and absurd, you cannot taste anything… You are separate from your sense of taste.

Clue five: The flowers. Their once sweet fragrance now turns bitter and sickening. As your last remaining sense, it is stronger than ever. It is violent, yet you hold on. It is all you have left. You smell how the wind changes the air; you smell the heavy atmosphere and all the chemicals and gases mixed in together; you smell the river more than ever, and everything living in it. You smell everything and it overwhelms you. Slowly, you adjust and the scents lessen. You know you should have a headache...but you cannot feel anything...You...cannot smell the flowers anymore...You cannot smell...anything. You are separate from your sense of smell.

Now, you simply are. The world around you has faded…

Or was it you, perhaps, that faded?

How long has it been since you have been separate?

Why has this happened?

What are you doing here?

Where even are you?...

Who… are you?

What is your...name…

Your…

Who…

What…

Where…

When…

Why…

I…

…