scylis

it caught me off guard. i used to live here and i should have know better. i used to be good at seeing, at feeling the super storms coming on.

"better get back home," she said, "it's going to get here soon. already been starting up some huge fires out east."

"huh?"

"the fires. out east of here. see?," she points.

i look. and curse. where i thought mountains were. it's all fuzzy and unclear, but it's smoke and fire. black and brown and grey, with orange lighting it up from the southeast. the whole thing rises up and creates peaks and valleys of smoke. i hadn't really noticed it.

"i didn't see it. i thought it was... my brain, it... i saw it in the corner of my eye, and my brain turned it into mountains in my head... i'm used to mountains being there." i curse again.

she snorts a little derisively, as if to say i've gone stupid while i was away. and i stare at it some more, and watch as it careens across the sky with speed like i've never seen before.

"damn, it's moving fast."

"the fires don't move that fast here, you know that," she chides.

"no, i mean the smoke. it's moving really..." i stop as the world flashes and the smoke is just normal puffy thunderclouds and the world seems less hellish for a split second, before it's smoke and fire again. "...fast."

none of this is right. the thunderclouds are what i should be seeing. why did i see mountains here? there's no mountains in Iowa. none of this is right. panic grips me as i wonder if anything i'm seeing is real.

is it?