The sun rises, the world turns, and life goes on.

Things change, but the more they do the more they stay exactly the same.

The sun's rays strike me in the face, forcing me awake. I sigh and bring my hand to my face, rubbing my eyes before throwing both arms haphazardly at the ground. I shake my head before pressing my palms to the cement under me and pushing myself up to my feet. My back's stiff and I can hardly keep myself standing on my wobbly legs, stumbling forward and running face first into one of the brick walls lining the alley I fell asleep in last night.

"Nice one," I hear Kim's voice whisper in the back of my head. Her voice as cold as always.

I try to regain my bearings, an exercise in futility. I fall flat on my ass and try to block out Kim's snickering. Then, my thoughts flash back to the visions. My dreams.

In them, I'm walking alone. Truly alone. No voices, nothing. Just me, and the desolate remains of the world. The barren hulls of collapsed buildings line the new roads, though none of them have been traveled in quite a long time. Each footstep crushes shards of glass and embeds them in my bare feet. Each footstep causes me to wince, but still I press on. I don't even think about why I'm doing this, I just go forward. Like I have no control over where I'm going anyway, so why even bother thinking about it? The burned out shells of cars block these debris stained roads a few feet ahead of me. My feet ache and bleed and I continue on, uncaring. Every step forward brings me closer to the cars and for some reason that's where I want to be. I shoot a glance down at my feet and see the blood smearing across the glass buried pavement. After a while, I forget everything. Until I run into the rusted side of one of the cars. It scrapes against my skin, though luckily it doesn't draw any blood. Without warning, my hands press against the top of the car and I pull myself up. It's there, standing atop the car, hearing it creak under my weight, that I see everything. All across the horizon, everything is exactly the same as where I came from. Burned out and deserted. I truly am alone. The last man in the world.

And then I wake up.

"Beautiful story, Neil. Real inspiring stuff. But, let's get back to reality. Where you're kinda sleeping in an alley in Miami. Can we get back there, please?"

"Cunt," I mutter to my dead girlfriend.

"Rude!"

I roll my eyes and force myself to stand once again. I lean against the wall, rubbing my temples. I'm forgetting something, I know it.

Oh shit, right.

Mini Morbid.

I shudder at the thought of that midget freak. Of all the things Heyman could've done to fuck with me, giving me a match with an itty bitty fucking hellspawn was the first thing on his agenda. Why do I even show up when he asks me to help him, again? Oh right, the ten dollar checks. All about the benjamins.

"Whore."

And then there's Kim. It's hard enough being a fucking homeless guy, let alone one being haunted by the spiteful ghost of his ex-girlfriend.

However, that bit of self pity has to wait! I feel someone tapping on my shoulder. I spin around to see who it is and get greeted with the awkward face of some teenage wreck. He adjusts his collar while clearing his throat before stammering out a simple question:

"A-are you Ne-neil Capra?"

To which I nod.

"Mis-Mister Heyman wants you at the a-arena."

I shrug my shoulders and point towards the end of the alley, where I see a beat up, baby blue Toyota Camry.

"That yours?"

"Y-yeah."

I chuckle, cracking my neck.

"Let's go."

"Getting into cars with strangers, Neil? Tsk tsk."

"Oh shut up."

"I didn't s-say anything!"

"Not you!"

He jumps, taken aback by that statement. Then, without another word he leads the way to his car. I settle into the back seat and buckle my seat belt as he turns the key and the car sputters to life. Resting my head against the headrest, I feel my eyes get heavy and fall shut.

And once again, here I am. Standing alone amidst the nothing. The great big nothing. Ruins and desolation as far as the eye can see, and here I am. Never thought I'd withstand the rest of the world, but I'm here and no one else is. That's somewhat of an accomplishment I think. The rusted roof of the car digs into my bleeding soles and a sharp, twisted bit of metal stabs me in the heel. It's kind of funny, actually. Last man alive and I'm probably gonna go down from something like Lockjaw. I let out a scream and fall to my knees as the reality of the situation strikes me. Just as my luck would have it, I skin my knee on the way down and now have even more sources of pain to deal with. I grab the ankle of the foot with the car sticking out and tug as hard as I can to dislodge it, to no avail. My foot is soaked in black. I think it's my blood. My head falls back and I feel my eyelids getting heavy. My eyes close on their own accord and in the pitch blackness I can see a face.

Kim's.

Hideous and deformed, but her's nonetheless.

Her black hair thin, brittle, twisted into knots and matted across her skull, barely hanging on. Her face grey and cadaverous, pocked with black marks. Her eyes sunken in and black. Her nose rotted and hanging by only a single strand of dead flesh. Her lips chapped and oozing yellow pus. Her teeth crooked and rotted inside out.

Unmistakably her, however.

"Did you think you were really alone, Neil?" she asks; her voice gravelly and guttural.

"Well, did you?"

My eyes snap open and I lurch forward until the seat belt forces me back. The driver jumps damn near out of his skin.

"Y-you okay?"

I sigh.

"Yeah, just peachy."