And all of a sudden, she appeared, like something from a dream, a saint, an angel, come to carry him home. It slammed like a horn into his skull, seeing her like this: how many times had he not dreamed of those he had been forced to abandon, and how many times hadn't it wrenched his heart to see them, only to wake and find himself alone in that world were nothing, nothing, made sense? And yet again she stood in his dreams, and yet again it broke his spirit to see the ones he could never reach, never touch. The ghosts of his past come to haunt him again, and as his sad, tired eyes met her own, he wondered if the dead could die again, to truly be at rest.

Nothing mattered anymore. Captured by the brilliant crimson and glowing silver of her eyes, even the red apples seemed dull and lifeless. A breeze smelling of clover tugged at his mane and tail, watering his eyes, but he refused to blink, afraid that she'd disappear if he did. In his chest, his heart ached and yearned, but he was rooted to the spot: cold as ice, and were her roses came near him, they withered and died. Pain reared its ugly head inside again, threatening to choke the very life out of him - just because he couldn't let it out. Overwhelmed, he gave in to the urge, blinked, and she was gone. Like a doe, clad in the pelt of winter and with the wind under her hooves, she bounded away. "Wait!" he cried, his voice raw with desperation, emotion: as if his one hope of salvation was bounding away into the boundaries between life and death. The frigid bubble of air around him shattered as he threw himself into motion. Where she ran, light as the wind and with roses to mark the trail, the earth shuddered under his body and the ground shattered in his wake.

The red led him across the world, but for each step he took, she seemed to take two; as she passed out of his sight, the sun crashed abruptly beyond the horizon in a display as red as blood, before stranding him in darkness. It seemed to have hands, reaching out to stroke him when he passed, grabbing for his legs and clenching its fists around his heart. On a snowy field of roses he stopped, the breath catching in his throat. The world was gray, all color leeched from it, and he could not see which trail was hers. Opening his jaws wide, so wide that he possibly could, he screamed like he had never screamed before - a shrill sound of raw frustration, pain, and fear. He screamed, and the sky shattered just as the world did. As the ground caved in and rifts spitting steam threatened to consume him, a piece of the heavens fell to the ground and where it had been shone a star. Without hesitating, he ran again, bringing the end of the world with him.

And the roses were there again, somehow shining red in the light of the star, spinning, dancing, leaping, forming a path for him to follow. Faster he ran, forcing his legs to work, trying to outrun the destruction chasing him: another piece of the sky fell towards the earth, the reverberation of its impact shuddering up through his legs. He didn't dare look behind him. He didn't dare look at the dark mouths in the ground for fear of slowing.

He even barely looked ahead: all he cared about was following the trail, and only in the last moment did he realize that it led into a cave. A cave full of flowers, with a ghost in it. Forcing his stride to quicken, he thundered into it, somehow sliding to a smooth stop in the matter of a yard, passing through the roses without damaging them; he spun on his haunches, staring out into the world as it fell apart - but the floor of the cave remained whole, the sounds of the destruction muted, the reverberations only faint echoes. He could feel it thrumming up his legs as another section of the ground gave way and fell into nothing, steam hissing up from where it had been. The mountains on the horizon crumbled one by one.

Slowly, he turned to look at her - if she was still there, or if she had run again. As he tried to calm the frantic beating of his heart, the shuddering of his breath, he realized that he was shaking, little tremors rocking him from the inside out.