Prompt: Into the woods
There's an old riddle I tell to the folks who come tired to the halfway house.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMYYUuVBm3f
'How far can you walk into a forest?'920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGCmRBLGCxj
Some of them know the answer, some don't.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaunTC3yXyc
'Halfway. Now take your rest.'
The Wood of White Nights was my home.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7oo9fcrKKa
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.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn9P06ZMeB5
People had their own reasons for passing by the Halfway House, and I had my own reasons to live there.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB4ObkdCtIu
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.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwAqY0Y9E3r
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.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡheBzZ6whsW
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.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqduxVplLhe
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.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuLXu9P6QuT
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.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCnzu3kL7xH
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.'920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxhXAIof0PR
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.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMRMWUyFaui
'You must be tired. Sit, please.'920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9RTbzJOnrw
She remained on her feet, and walked up to me.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSuaNe7CzL5
'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.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRxMne2AeHT
'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.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMaB6296The
'Aria!' I embraced her, but only lightly, conscious of my suit getting wet. 'You're looking younger than I last saw you.'920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ36Tn3QnxNE
'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.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡItXAcxV7HT
'Another one?'920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv4AhMt0RIf
'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.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpFDDRWv3gV
'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.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmfi8gS1Icz
'Jacob. Jacob Ryans.'920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWyhjVXa89M
'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.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK8OaUN7JHN
'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.'920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL751sF8pPN
'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.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCCecXsn2zN
'But you know what I took away? Closure. And not having that - that hurts more.'920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo1HPo6igf7
'You can still fix things.'920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZipsOsDURV
'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?'920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgmScoK8bD1
'You tell me, sis.'920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA4qis4u0V4
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.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaCFFHrulzs
'I just don't know why I keep making the same mistakes.' She folded the photos.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3k7pqtTKZV
'Well, sis, life is like a loop - '920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAGaM0Vf0Lz
'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?'920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDtk6yGYiZY
I stayed silent. She was in a mood.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDMXllCqPzn
'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.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKyixeNtN9M
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.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyjT2vNPJvX
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.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMSkrfPXZaq
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.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIktcyXYFsY
I suppose I should have thanked her more than I did.
'You're still here.'920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmmUaR054w1
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.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZk7ZMrLsW4
'You're at the right place.' I took the place beside her. 'The cornflakes are shit.' I reminded her. 'Have the yogurt.'920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY14roM7Se2
'How did it feel, Al?'920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5RTRyxFDXo
'How did what...'920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9Y0sN46GS4
'To do what you did. To do that to all those people.'920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡytxepAL4B2
'Why are you asking me this now?'920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡioKtEM1dpO
She laid her head into her palms. 'Because nothing has changed.'920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFwgLOwswZb
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.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZRDpiJLRdM
'Sis, I'm sorry.'920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx2yaDacsSC
She looked up, crying again. 'But were you really?'920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5zryboYZa3
I couldn't answer that. One option would be a lie and the other would break her heart.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiXlg9BrFuB
I stood.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUi9bsgzhAK
'I'll go get you some yogurt.'
'Do you ever wish you could die?'920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ56Bt8P56rH
Aria was slowly retreating into a shroud of depression.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNZyPg0vmkK
'No. There's so much to live for.'920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7BXr0sF86o
'But I've seen it all. There's nothing left.'920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQrEMvwerZe
'Don't say that.'920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEU5ww432hJ
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.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ76ALFJyHca
And it was only then that I decided to do what I knew was possible several, several years ago.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYor05GSS3q
'Sis... I can get you out.'920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0zAXPLoHM7
'...what do you mean?'920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmEuYzxBwFh
'I can get you out. I can get you back home. But you have to be patient.'920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMUSGo8ShBI
'...I don't understand.'920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbSxR9h2vw0
'Back home, sis. Away from all of this.'920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb4S1tKoJa4
'But how?'920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjbF4oBlIHl
The tears had stopped and I knew I had made a promise that I couldn't bear to break.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEieLoBE81L
'You'll understand tomorrow. Sleep on it.'920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMT98yGdNrD
She turned away again.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjNwgTsINQS
She didn't say thanks - reminding me even now how I had mistreated her before.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRSdlSEMkkC
'Remember. You'll have to be patient.'920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdFsHZ8cVMQ
I wait a few moments for a response before I close her door.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZXzPyMch8k
It was time for me to leave. To run away, to run towards.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzGIIeIfCOG
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An English girl with hair angel white, kneeled before the gates of her home.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRfAKmoSvzc
'Father?'920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhXX1eGdts2
'Aria. You know you're not allowed here.'920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCzqLint3Ln
'It's not Aria.'920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj1mIaPXFvB
Muses could go only into dying bodies, of which there were none in the Wood of White Nights, where time itself lay tired.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu1IFQ1bAkR
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.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5Au3x5UiTT
'Allemande?'920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlFLGPlI3xh
I could feel him, ready to send me back to the forest in a single spin of the landscape.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW5I23ifo5e
'Wait.' I say.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmSjjj2aYw3
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.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTXQ1AaD3fr
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 -920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0N3QUeLfUc
And so I will suffer the reflection of the suffering I caused.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBE2lUQyd66
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.920Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWPlevlBC5P
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.
