the fall

They were falling,into a shapeless, colorless, soundless void. He couldn't see nor hear her but he knew she was there, falling with him into the nothingness. They fell for hours, days, years, centuries. and then, he woke up. Sweating, crying, confused and lost, he reached for the light switch. It wasn't there. That was when he remembered where he was, and that she was there with him. The shades were down, and no light came from the outside. Above her alarm clock, one of those new hologram models, the time rotated slowly, 04:04, the only thing he could see in the dark bedroom. He found his communication gauntlet on the bedside table and put it on. The light yellow light showed him she was sleeping, calmly. His clock was, as usual, 5 minutes ahead, 04h10m now showing in the LCD screen. He got up, and using the small light, found his way till the bathroom. He remembered her flatmate just after passing by the room's door on the way back, dressed in socks only. He went back into her room, fumbled on his trousers pocket until he found the battered pack. Three left. He shrugged, tomorrow, no, later today, he'd get more. Taking one out, he sat on the floor, a ashtray next to him, the wall behind his back, and he smoked.
The nightmare forgotten he got back into bed, cautious not to wake her. He gently put the communicator back on the bed table and waited for it's light to go out before closing his eyes again. The hologram now rotated a 04:20, and his eyes focused on the red numbers while closing. He kept seeing the numbers even after being deep asleep. He woke up hours after with a gentle kiss on his shoulder, her lips inviting him to wake up and continue what had begun late last night. "I had a horrible nightmare" - she said - "help me forget it". He replies something, still not awake. Only after, both lying on their backs, his hand playing with her hair, did he say "I had a nightmare too. We were falling into the darkness. For what seemed like forever." She looked at him, a weird look in her eyes "Did I speak about my dream in my sleep? That was exactly what I dreamt to. You heard the voices?" Now it's his turn to look at her with weirdness in his eyes "I heard nothing. It was as void of sound as of sight." She is getting up, looking for clean underwear in the drawers, and talking back "Well, yes, it was all dark and silent, until I hit the ground. I felt no pain, no nothing."
"I never did hit the floor. I woke up when I was about to it, or just after. I'm surprised I didn't wake you up."
"When I'm tired I can sleep through a volcano erupting. And I was pretty tired last night" - she winced at him, a naughty smile in her lips - "Any way, after I stopped falling, I found myself emerged in darkness, and, as if very far away, I heard a voice. Too faint to understand what it was saying at first, but it came closer. It sounded like it was reading from a book, in monotonous voice." - Her voice turned to a dry tone as she quoted the dream - "From darkness you came, to darkness you shall go. From nothing you were created, into nothing you shall be turned. From the void came your soul, to the void it shall return" - she was dressed by now, sitting at the feet of the bed, a unlit cigarette in her mouth. He reached for his lighter, still where he'd left it, in the bed side table. The room was light only by the small lamp on her side of the bed, the shutters still pulled down. She got up, walking to the window, now smoking, and continued -"That wasn't even the worst part of the dream. The worst part was when the voice, that now seemed to be whispering on my ear, said that I would never wake up, I was forever stuck in the dream since I started falling. Silly right?" - she asks, pulling the blinders up to reveal darkness outside. The hologram numbers now shone a red 11:47 yet outside the window there was no light. Only a black void.
He runs to the door that connected the room to the rest of the house, opens it, relieved to see that the living room is still there. But there too the windows look to the void. He's still dressed in socks only, but that doesn't stop him. He takes a few seconds to unlock the door, and she's now next to him. The door lead to nothing. Nothing but a black void. He screams, but the sound goes nowhere. She puts a foot outside the door, but he pulls her in - "Wait!" They go to the other side of the house. Her flatmate wont answer his room's door, so she opens it : there is nothing there. The bathroom is there, since he went there. The kitchen isn't. She runs back to her room and returns with a book in her hands - "I never liked this damned book"
"I gave it to you, remember?"
"Yeah, well, sorry. At least it will be useful now."
She opens the door once again, and drops the book. It disappears in the black void as soon as it leaves her hand. No sound ever comes to their ears. Eventually he closes the door, and with his arms around her shoulders, takes her back to bed - "I only have two more cigs. Damn" - he hugs her, and pretends not to notice her tears. At the same time he promises her that next time he wakes up from a bad dream he's going to the kitchen, so that there is food when he wakes up. She laughs, a half-hearted laughter only. "It's all your fault, I don't know how or why, but it is." - He shrugs, mutters a 'maybe' and falls silent again. "We are asleep, right?" he asks. She has no answer for him, and we wasn't expecting one "So let's wake up! Slap me. Slap me hard." She slaps him, without any strength at all. "Harder!" She does it again, and again, until his face is red, and tears of pain roll down his cheeks - "Stop! It's no use."
She takes off her clothes again, goes under the bedsheets and curls in a ball. He stays there, looking at her, waiting for her to fall into the sweet oblivion of dreams again. A hour of silence later he calls her, in a low voice. She says nothing, so he gets up of bed, grabs her in his arms, and walks to the front door. He kisses her lips gently and jumps.
They were falling...