Prompt: Into the woods
There's an old riddle I tell to the folks who come tired to the halfway house.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7vgZZDO9hN
'How far can you walk into a forest?'817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH0mwbBcuKu
Some of them know the answer, some don't.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHlbZvmCrCP
'Halfway. Now take your rest.'
The Wood of White Nights was my home.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnFvA5IkS1y
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.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj9lsvp12YH
People had their own reasons for passing by the Halfway House, and I had my own reasons to live there.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2sajTwCexr
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.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6XzWmdm1Yu
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.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡozRkaibANp
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.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ98S5UOmGdv
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.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr9U8weihIm
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.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡob9djrIZQW
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.'817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxANlEmCslu
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.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0nJAod0izY
'You must be tired. Sit, please.'817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiYkp0pBJjT
She remained on her feet, and walked up to me.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJFgsPElYWj
'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.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPmN104J4nw
'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.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsocXiESPDM
'Aria!' I embraced her, but only lightly, conscious of my suit getting wet. 'You're looking younger than I last saw you.'817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4i6ritr31a
'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.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4Mh061cFzf
'Another one?'817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1xQX4EwAUs
'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.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbnUNtyFYwM
'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.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsmUQgtiHO5
'Jacob. Jacob Ryans.'817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdcnFldeAI9
'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.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡozox2aNkFO
'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.'817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZcr5Hp85oj
'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.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9tl7uPO2KR
'But you know what I took away? Closure. And not having that - that hurts more.'817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcuDj9egwT7
'You can still fix things.'817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeqHw7e1x0e
'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?'817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9HgQw2u1uq
'You tell me, sis.'817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1TA56dO6yq
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.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxzegIFTmhN
'I just don't know why I keep making the same mistakes.' She folded the photos.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEwuYzoQKEf
'Well, sis, life is like a loop - '817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7VVYh2BgRY
'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?'817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiImVP57FPz
I stayed silent. She was in a mood.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXRv5eLjTmK
'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.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6LEWI1WuHH
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.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDwms6Dy7Lx
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.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlGVueQRmk6
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.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy9ViMBChWZ
I suppose I should have thanked her more than I did.
'You're still here.'817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1ttps4cnFA
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.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbYHcHY6ffG
'You're at the right place.' I took the place beside her. 'The cornflakes are shit.' I reminded her. 'Have the yogurt.'817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8hpM0uha3z
'How did it feel, Al?'817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL4AR7WBWAM
'How did what...'817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRTsLP0cXcL
'To do what you did. To do that to all those people.'817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVl39u9fsqN
'Why are you asking me this now?'817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdftbNRsv3l
She laid her head into her palms. 'Because nothing has changed.'817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQsjwvqmR9Z
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.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHgsVpYiX9M
'Sis, I'm sorry.'817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrwCsAucwtx
She looked up, crying again. 'But were you really?'817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYtiqaMw8Bb
I couldn't answer that. One option would be a lie and the other would break her heart.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡavZ3GnM0wf
I stood.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8cynNTkDVt
'I'll go get you some yogurt.'
'Do you ever wish you could die?'817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMzw0REu3l9
Aria was slowly retreating into a shroud of depression.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmS8GovXq3P
'No. There's so much to live for.'817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuZ6LH3wirP
'But I've seen it all. There's nothing left.'817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBtyEIsDAtS
'Don't say that.'817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmgnmle1Ect
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.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaXLniGNE34
And it was only then that I decided to do what I knew was possible several, several years ago.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGbWmhqZ95Q
'Sis... I can get you out.'817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWwQvV7ZMEn
'...what do you mean?'817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwHT7CTYRIg
'I can get you out. I can get you back home. But you have to be patient.'817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWNJzYP7bKD
'...I don't understand.'817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp8yMvGfuwf
'Back home, sis. Away from all of this.'817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH6HT7fvelO
'But how?'817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4DvXrCMxYB
The tears had stopped and I knew I had made a promise that I couldn't bear to break.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7dOt5fAE7E
'You'll understand tomorrow. Sleep on it.'817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq7cCk7qAgi
She turned away again.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRBjviEJzhK
She didn't say thanks - reminding me even now how I had mistreated her before.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNqRAphkWKo
'Remember. You'll have to be patient.'817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS94OUlAiNN
I wait a few moments for a response before I close her door.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGZUZsW17kG
It was time for me to leave. To run away, to run towards.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡukznWexrt3
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An English girl with hair angel white, kneeled before the gates of her home.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS8zORu3T0r
'Father?'817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOMnmBWpknT
'Aria. You know you're not allowed here.'817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJFLS0PSMy6
'It's not Aria.'817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCvOA50WpvI
Muses could go only into dying bodies, of which there were none in the Wood of White Nights, where time itself lay tired.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbGltSmxXSP
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.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcaLQJ4gRsy
'Allemande?'817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2kHP9RirXO
I could feel him, ready to send me back to the forest in a single spin of the landscape.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzZQ5lirXzS
'Wait.' I say.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6BVizdnNYZ
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.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0zZ9RmzNzE
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 -817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkpCeRoQhsa
And so I will suffer the reflection of the suffering I caused.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ34PytSPLU3
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.817Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFYMzZsZoDt
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.
