Prompt: Into the woods
There's an old riddle I tell to the folks who come tired to the halfway house.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrLHsGEPE4W
'How far can you walk into a forest?'829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5s4pvhMdWV
Some of them know the answer, some don't.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ34ISGJsATt
'Halfway. Now take your rest.'
The Wood of White Nights was my home.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT8uymeiDk5
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.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtoA2IbHZDi
People had their own reasons for passing by the Halfway House, and I had my own reasons to live there.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrna0AFYvf4
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.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZVcbkWATHo
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.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMHaaqYIYjF
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.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsSBY3GcFqg
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.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡubLYfdsced
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.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUOZO19q5HJ
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.'829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyYvEutCvRx
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.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2Yhlj8QoG7
'You must be tired. Sit, please.'829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC10j0hxpu2
She remained on her feet, and walked up to me.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQd6vQrvQm5
'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.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi9rEjShD2v
'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.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMBH84zdkic
'Aria!' I embraced her, but only lightly, conscious of my suit getting wet. 'You're looking younger than I last saw you.'829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn890Sx4hiQ
'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.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyx9qVPpEVb
'Another one?'829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm8MYbS4Pwx
'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.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPxj1XLhXmB
'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.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ48anu3Kqke
'Jacob. Jacob Ryans.'829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡittCAHmaMc
'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.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZIyiCdVvOV
'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.'829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM30GDoxMva
'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.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRWQ3SJqbqP
'But you know what I took away? Closure. And not having that - that hurts more.'829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc3Gx6SPqJB
'You can still fix things.'829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhSMJqO9qbs
'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?'829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdzUheuEkbX
'You tell me, sis.'829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfUqkmRQ9Vq
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.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3mkjLDdvNs
'I just don't know why I keep making the same mistakes.' She folded the photos.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvNXqExWazN
'Well, sis, life is like a loop - '829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsaw20Mllzx
'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?'829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmUKoXbQvzK
I stayed silent. She was in a mood.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPyfiLONF3a
'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.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡieZgfqSUSZ
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.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡswIjfbUUE5
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.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7vN9Kpl4zQ
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.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJuGMElNriq
I suppose I should have thanked her more than I did.
'You're still here.'829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqM3bo9yCnF
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.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD3A6bTYrZd
'You're at the right place.' I took the place beside her. 'The cornflakes are shit.' I reminded her. 'Have the yogurt.'829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjC8WBqxXac
'How did it feel, Al?'829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEKewuoZeYc
'How did what...'829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ36Kn09ej9f
'To do what you did. To do that to all those people.'829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPoW5BPe45h
'Why are you asking me this now?'829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIDpU3iPcfe
She laid her head into her palms. 'Because nothing has changed.'829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNqD7fX5oH1
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.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe27ZRO1j6E
'Sis, I'm sorry.'829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡALuOaOkICM
She looked up, crying again. 'But were you really?'829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMRcW6eMYTs
I couldn't answer that. One option would be a lie and the other would break her heart.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeuaebRvWnN
I stood.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrxovntJq47
'I'll go get you some yogurt.'
'Do you ever wish you could die?'829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡclnM3AMeWx
Aria was slowly retreating into a shroud of depression.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDtIDbPKscW
'No. There's so much to live for.'829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu14a7N5pIf
'But I've seen it all. There's nothing left.'829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM59Q8FE8cP
'Don't say that.'829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTT9ma97axu
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.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIG2APcXDNM
And it was only then that I decided to do what I knew was possible several, several years ago.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFQnQBelu9G
'Sis... I can get you out.'829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2Ql2DfRmaQ
'...what do you mean?'829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt4PXbQ2dCO
'I can get you out. I can get you back home. But you have to be patient.'829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcvkytGD0XI
'...I don't understand.'829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqW6CtvIoxz
'Back home, sis. Away from all of this.'829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsEHHrBBUX9
'But how?'829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRbs7tBdLDU
The tears had stopped and I knew I had made a promise that I couldn't bear to break.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzdnqTy3C6x
'You'll understand tomorrow. Sleep on it.'829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLpjBFWuOJx
She turned away again.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdORQ72cci0
She didn't say thanks - reminding me even now how I had mistreated her before.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKDpLnYV4GR
'Remember. You'll have to be patient.'829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzYceWA6lA8
I wait a few moments for a response before I close her door.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlcZCttKwjd
It was time for me to leave. To run away, to run towards.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDoFTlbfHMz
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An English girl with hair angel white, kneeled before the gates of her home.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG0ngQJ4mVx
'Father?'829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqyszgUIM1v
'Aria. You know you're not allowed here.'829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzjt1fLDtKj
'It's not Aria.'829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyADqdWumM7
Muses could go only into dying bodies, of which there were none in the Wood of White Nights, where time itself lay tired.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFkC2hZ7hs0
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.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCCIrDzQLvH
'Allemande?'829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvT3GvXGuVL
I could feel him, ready to send me back to the forest in a single spin of the landscape.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjt1iGpVsbQ
'Wait.' I say.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlC9nNYOKSG
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.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIKnpCB1xi4
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 -829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHbr7JSUiQd
And so I will suffer the reflection of the suffering I caused.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBp48a398ba
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.829Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE8R7nlj7GP
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.
