Today is the first day of the Fall. I can feel it as I smoke the day’s last cigarette on the back step. There is a chill in the air. It’s slowly raining bit fat drops that must weigh a pound a piece. They are coming out of the sky, coming down the mountain, like anvils, thudding into the turning leaves and the saturated ground. I can feel a beast stepping out of the forest, its head peaking out above the tree tops and glaring at me. With every increasingly hurried step towards me, as it comes crashing down the side of the hill and leaps over the Green Building to land in front of me, it is pushing down trees and leaving huge gaping holes in the ground where it's feet impact. And I stare into the abyss.