Prompt: Into the woods
There's an old riddle I tell to the folks who come tired to the halfway house.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsjMc0b4xjh
'How far can you walk into a forest?'1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMX9V4s7kfN
Some of them know the answer, some don't.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvQD4YpKIrH
'Halfway. Now take your rest.'
The Wood of White Nights was my home.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmTMWGyT9VX
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.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2bGD7Mh1Mb
People had their own reasons for passing by the Halfway House, and I had my own reasons to live there.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZUSI13q3lY
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.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhYPptTKwMR
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.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTp6hL72Udn
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.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnc3y8DLIj0
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.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJIbfRqbtzZ
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.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaz5utgTskp
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.'1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5HNqc0NP5F
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.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAihEGIrnB1
'You must be tired. Sit, please.'1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqfT471fzCR
She remained on her feet, and walked up to me.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8PKTtmrOTx
'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.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn0k8lYGLvG
'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.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhprEloMOYj
'Aria!' I embraced her, but only lightly, conscious of my suit getting wet. 'You're looking younger than I last saw you.'1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡETw84lQs04
'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.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF2kI5UoVPh
'Another one?'1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfcXz5MDl6c
'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.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmkEYFg63tc
'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.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXOJgP8yhlA
'Jacob. Jacob Ryans.'1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbJul22lQMP
'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.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpwuGHIjFwS
'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.'1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpa0UlATQQX
'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.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRoMN0nmGWp
'But you know what I took away? Closure. And not having that - that hurts more.'1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmPPi7N29CJ
'You can still fix things.'1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUtIkeK1Sxz
'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?'1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVjGZVZgsRA
'You tell me, sis.'1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdo6mKMlkd0
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.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgKSz1Iut9C
'I just don't know why I keep making the same mistakes.' She folded the photos.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnF3rw9rYJy
'Well, sis, life is like a loop - '1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv92DDWxdHP
'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?'1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF4FVHsUqJT
I stayed silent. She was in a mood.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn7V1LtC6QM
'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.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyw5JJErPGJ
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.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9YyIfVwFQi
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.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQVyPqZxwd5
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.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr4ytNgd5vO
I suppose I should have thanked her more than I did.
'You're still here.'1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCunX4AL4K1
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.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrjTULBeGiL
'You're at the right place.' I took the place beside her. 'The cornflakes are shit.' I reminded her. 'Have the yogurt.'1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrlaMbGrEnJ
'How did it feel, Al?'1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPwBbTXkQfZ
'How did what...'1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfRGSPF1Xau
'To do what you did. To do that to all those people.'1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOrnJvHQerk
'Why are you asking me this now?'1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0iujxOa3yD
She laid her head into her palms. 'Because nothing has changed.'1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL74ea98OUL
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.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXmEkS3TLgB
'Sis, I'm sorry.'1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1U7ucPpaG2
She looked up, crying again. 'But were you really?'1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr1aklUjLI0
I couldn't answer that. One option would be a lie and the other would break her heart.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgZ1T8Fvt2Q
I stood.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6RO91JCqTY
'I'll go get you some yogurt.'
'Do you ever wish you could die?'1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTVQRvZGoTp
Aria was slowly retreating into a shroud of depression.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3gS5qq28cl
'No. There's so much to live for.'1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHKDuazlbrw
'But I've seen it all. There's nothing left.'1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGPzLOafI4s
'Don't say that.'1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsODhwQl9WB
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.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5T7ZwrrN67
And it was only then that I decided to do what I knew was possible several, several years ago.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9hLEqRwlpn
'Sis... I can get you out.'1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQe9PuOs2Ej
'...what do you mean?'1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvIcu4DPi6H
'I can get you out. I can get you back home. But you have to be patient.'1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ71SQjBVdaG
'...I don't understand.'1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv207jJ5cQb
'Back home, sis. Away from all of this.'1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN7rZJ4ZadD
'But how?'1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMICKFtIsK3
The tears had stopped and I knew I had made a promise that I couldn't bear to break.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV92k2VA8R6
'You'll understand tomorrow. Sleep on it.'1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOLAJP1iHfl
She turned away again.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn8ECpoYyFp
She didn't say thanks - reminding me even now how I had mistreated her before.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCnVb0I9dD0
'Remember. You'll have to be patient.'1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlB19L7WPPa
I wait a few moments for a response before I close her door.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCfskTDYhnZ
It was time for me to leave. To run away, to run towards.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBChb41mX4A
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An English girl with hair angel white, kneeled before the gates of her home.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHXekDHXjgR
'Father?'1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjUFyJNSdXz
'Aria. You know you're not allowed here.'1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡohpqhgCwkG
'It's not Aria.'1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCPXLVOFik9
Muses could go only into dying bodies, of which there were none in the Wood of White Nights, where time itself lay tired.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjhMKAXYPRN
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.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2OYq5j0eNS
'Allemande?'1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAXgm7yxHNG
I could feel him, ready to send me back to the forest in a single spin of the landscape.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAPaFUFV1Ap
'Wait.' I say.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDuGKyfPTea
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.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTVMsgQ6RKV
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 -1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7koCs33irL
And so I will suffer the reflection of the suffering I caused.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm2XiNI64bj
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.1024Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm35uPFBv0T
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.
