Prompt: Into the woods
There's an old riddle I tell to the folks who come tired to the halfway house.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtHfkDMT4EF
'How far can you walk into a forest?'932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOO84Z3FQ0k
Some of them know the answer, some don't.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDdoWxo7EzP
'Halfway. Now take your rest.'
The Wood of White Nights was my home.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBQHgjXOUnw
It was a place between two places where rarely people had a reason to stay. Two poor towns, farming areas, or so they claimed, because the crops always failed and never the baleful cry of an animal I heard.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpzCZqGnsSK
People had their own reasons for passing by the Halfway House, and I had my own reasons to live there.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWAYXKPBGFD
I suppose, if nothing else, it gave me something to do.
It was a hobby of sorts - I had always had a way of talking to people, and at the Halfway House I could learn about a different life every day. All the sadness and - occasionally - gladness that would lead someone to stay at a dying building in a forest full of dangerous beasts.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ32pjD0zfOt
For some, perhaps they were seeking something. Tales of lost treasure in the Woods, or old friends who stopped returning letters or calls. It's strange, really - the people who were looking for something were lost themselves.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyR6JWHWVtc
The House provided refuge for others, a place where the outside world no longer mattered, a place where time itself failed to keep composure, a place where they could escape the judgements and expectations.
And I suppose that for a while it kept my interest. Lives and stories were precious things and the knowledge of each one was like a temporary high of intimacy - something that I could never have achieved elsewhere.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3eY12BQDAb
But too soon, I learnt that life was like a loop, a pencil retracing the same track over and over again - I met the same people, the same stories, the same tired faces with eyes of broken promise.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIJope1LCFa
There was nowhere else for me then, of course. So I stayed. And with every passing year, I couldn't help but feel that I was looking into the mirror every time I greeted a lost soul into the House. I was running. Away, or to, even I didn't know. But I was running, by staying still.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiNk8uVwUot
You see, runners inevitably hit a brick wall. For them, it was death. For me, it was an old friend who returned as a stranger under a rain-soaked sun.
'Welcome to the Halfway House.'932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUArbpCXw0s
The girl was dripping, and the warm rays of light from the sky had done nothing to dry her. She was English - with those perpetual dimples and perceptive eyes - and her hair was dyed an angel white. She was short - and her complexion said that she couldn't have been any older than twenty seven.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGr3oCoh939
'You must be tired. Sit, please.'932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0mYsbNBe2T
She remained on her feet, and walked up to me.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkDJg5c6yuY
'Do you know how far you can walk into a forest?' I asked her, seeing myself ask myself the same question from the inside of the droplets hanging at her eyelashes.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfR6VZTkqHA
'Halfway, you bastard. It's me.' The moment that tears began running down her cheeks and not just residual rain was misty, like a watercolor - perhaps she was crying before she even entered.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0HV3lYsY0D
'Aria!' I embraced her, but only lightly, conscious of my suit getting wet. 'You're looking younger than I last saw you.'932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfD6QIqztEl
'Please don't give me that bullshit Al, I'm old. I'm too old for all of this.' She let go, and finally sat down. She never liked being told when to do things.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLwOhvsr2J8
'Another one?'932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ5TpezLYa4
'What do you think? Of course it was another one.' She pulled out a few sepia polaroids from her satchel and gave a heavy sigh at them before handing the stack to me.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqHVNF2jQAh
'What was his name?' Aria always picked the ones with the lovely smiles. Here - riding on his back in a park, laughing. Here - him making a mess of the spaghetti. Here - a kiss.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXxGgYm4JTv
'Jacob. Jacob Ryans.'932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmL55X6NB1u
'He's very beautiful. You two look so happy together.' Here - both of them asleep on a couch. Here - a walk on the beach with a white dog.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA293mE7wNr
'Were, Al, we were happy.' She collapsed into an outburst of bodily fluid again. Crying, bleeding, orgasming, I never really got the differences. There's always the pain and the pleasure, and at the extremities, they merge into the one - like a great circle of emotions. 'God, Al, I don't know why I keep doing this to myself.'932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDpJJg3CXj8
'Don't say that. What you do is a good thing. You give these men an extra few years of happiness. You know that all these people would have died if you didn't come into their bodies.' Us Muses could pass into any dying body and grant it with immortality so long as we stayed inside. She was the Aria - the outpour of raw emotion. I was the Allemande - the noble, the detached.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeHQ3grEcpi
'But you know what I took away? Closure. And not having that - that hurts more.'932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCP66IJhRUG
'You can still fix things.'932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOlwz7Zpmzr
'Al, you know I can't do that. I can't tell them, I can't leave them in any way. I loved them all. I love them all.' She took the photos back and took a long look at the one by the beach. 'The dog was called Marbles. You like riddles, Al? Why's the dog called Marbles?'932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw1IlrlH5rn
'You tell me, sis.'932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyGM6bCqlh4
She laughed. 'He's batshit bonkers. But adorable all the same. We got him from the adoption place in - I don't even remember. But he was heard barking from the sewers. His previous owner left him there.' A corner of the English girl's smile appeared and faded just as quickly like an imprint from the past.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIhkzmFT39t
'I just don't know why I keep making the same mistakes.' She folded the photos.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEMJkQ96JQs
'Well, sis, life is like a loop - '932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXCeBAWneAm
'Can you just shut up for once, Al? Not all of your goddamn philosophies are goddamn right. You're stuck here for what you've done, how can you say you know about life?'932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyCPmFmoC3C
I stayed silent. She was in a mood.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq2HNXO6BDi
'It's like a spiral.' She said, suddenly. 'You always think you're heading somewhere but you just keep going round and round. You know the funny thing about spirals?' I didn't interrupt her - it was rhetorical, and I would only frustrate her further. 'You can draw an infinite number of spirals. An infinite number of lives. They get close, but the only place they really touch is at the center, at the end. At the end of them all.'
Having Aria around was always difficult, but I know she did it for me.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPrENVQQmhu
You see - I couldn't actually leave the woods. I had made a mistake, a long time ago. Aria takes photos of the world for me, with an old polaroid that she never found the strength to throw away. After a few decades I had had enough of the cities and mountains and lakes, and I asked if I could just see her life.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzTnrb8GpSM
It was always about the love, for her. I never understood why. But she would purposefully try to find the ones who were in a healthy relationship, the ones whose boyfriends or girlfriends were always by their hospital bed.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIGYo8zfrpe
And once those dying bodies woke again, she would never let those people go, not until she had to leave. She stayed with each one only five, ten years - you see, the bodies don't age once we're inside. To keep us safe, she left before it would become noticeable.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyOcRGAXfan
I suppose I should have thanked her more than I did.
'You're still here.'932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKXf7JJe3iP
It was morning, and Aria was sitting, the English girl, in the dining room. She had never stayed longer than the night before. 'I need a break from it all.' She sighed.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX2H57kuHxR
'You're at the right place.' I took the place beside her. 'The cornflakes are shit.' I reminded her. 'Have the yogurt.'932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKvekGZ7imi
'How did it feel, Al?'932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡolQAfH83oU
'How did what...'932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrMieFmVCuR
'To do what you did. To do that to all those people.'932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMSwTaG7HJR
'Why are you asking me this now?'932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4dEDwmujks
She laid her head into her palms. 'Because nothing has changed.'932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSTSzQqypwy
She didn't want to say it, but I knew what she was thinking. She was tired of being trapped in this world with me.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkdaIozh2z2
'Sis, I'm sorry.'932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtm1J5TnM9u
She looked up, crying again. 'But were you really?'932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡORXbPMJ7wv
I couldn't answer that. One option would be a lie and the other would break her heart.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVgTCGmBiUA
I stood.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlQ5yViLnu9
'I'll go get you some yogurt.'
'Do you ever wish you could die?'932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMdTJMIMLbJ
Aria was slowly retreating into a shroud of depression.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbZO6DGvJt6
'No. There's so much to live for.'932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS33PfdWWGO
'But I've seen it all. There's nothing left.'932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz3bwOhuJLC
'Don't say that.'932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvS0yGdl9Oq
Even I was surprised at how much she cried those few days she stayed at the Halfway House. It bothered me. I never wanted to see her like this.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ62i4oomTvC
And it was only then that I decided to do what I knew was possible several, several years ago.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx8FITOX5fF
'Sis... I can get you out.'932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOT9ExLLPAk
'...what do you mean?'932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRHXlebiL2D
'I can get you out. I can get you back home. But you have to be patient.'932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgikJmIk91i
'...I don't understand.'932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzL0BRynw6D
'Back home, sis. Away from all of this.'932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdEJihhqEuS
'But how?'932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKym0OHLZBU
The tears had stopped and I knew I had made a promise that I couldn't bear to break.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBlidHyU0GT
'You'll understand tomorrow. Sleep on it.'932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwZZ55UF5zg
She turned away again.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVj5znwnUkA
She didn't say thanks - reminding me even now how I had mistreated her before.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOHJ50dRZ1Q
'Remember. You'll have to be patient.'932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlwPy6nNWnL
I wait a few moments for a response before I close her door.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxViSTsqPk9
It was time for me to leave. To run away, to run towards.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCTzZ6mBZCm
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An English girl with hair angel white, kneeled before the gates of her home.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxVIfrZnAAL
'Father?'932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcRpusINPht
'Aria. You know you're not allowed here.'932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0VCmCN9aBv
'It's not Aria.'932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSpC2AjREsS
Muses could go only into dying bodies, of which there were none in the Wood of White Nights, where time itself lay tired.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaZJkPjWlkd
But there had been one - a girl with cancer, who should have died seven years ago, who woke at the brink and came to the woods.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPMzkiH5XG6
'Allemande?'932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAVp2JIZmZB
I could feel him, ready to send me back to the forest in a single spin of the landscape.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1CALxgewn8
'Wait.' I say.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9KEl9TfBYZ
I know what I need to do to make things right. I know what I need to do to pay for my past. I know how to send Aria home.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAIqmAGJFJJ
Because I realized, longer ago than I believed, that I was wrong. Life didn't have a simple shape, an order - life was a mirror, in the corner of the universe, in which you could see eternity, and the reflections of a thousand others -932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGJpzjd3sHY
And so I will suffer the reflection of the suffering I caused.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn5ot6WXOGO
I had been running - not away from the forests in fear, not to the forests in hope of comfort, but to hide from the forests that festered within myself.932Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzuvbNafoGc
And when all the pain finally ends, they will offer me the heavens once again in forgiveness - but I would stay only a moment to say farewell - and return home, to the Halfway House.
