Prompt: Into the woods
There's an old riddle I tell to the folks who come tired to the halfway house.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg9WdPuKn2p
'How far can you walk into a forest?'839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHzrbkuNRMP
Some of them know the answer, some don't.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1C3Hxi7wxp
'Halfway. Now take your rest.'
The Wood of White Nights was my home.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ73NrZg3UYG
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.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsVvtGKVZ2C
People had their own reasons for passing by the Halfway House, and I had my own reasons to live there.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWV2bTBguWK
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.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSqu6KFfB8I
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.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVpxCMqs0iD
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.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmFkYxFA1QN
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.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIliW17uBX5
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.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxehgHwfaEf
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.'839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDcBNUG3miA
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.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhE1V9co2wA
'You must be tired. Sit, please.'839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPuGpplH8sO
She remained on her feet, and walked up to me.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbGgXjJJipw
'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.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlWYm9RFEH4
'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.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhoZFuecT5E
'Aria!' I embraced her, but only lightly, conscious of my suit getting wet. 'You're looking younger than I last saw you.'839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBmLNmKXWvS
'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.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvMYGASbk3T
'Another one?'839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmnR8Cg8X54
'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.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDfSw8QD1vu
'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.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7sTB7OkDbu
'Jacob. Jacob Ryans.'839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJpurbZopN2
'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.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf1aIDcWqrh
'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.'839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEKid66J00G
'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.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy5kDUqMxYy
'But you know what I took away? Closure. And not having that - that hurts more.'839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwXwSYMJ4Qs
'You can still fix things.'839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8c3RjXnzEg
'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?'839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR5y6ep077X
'You tell me, sis.'839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfUvV8SJ3xp
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.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjPhtBTpF15
'I just don't know why I keep making the same mistakes.' She folded the photos.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWfnAKehQH2
'Well, sis, life is like a loop - '839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa6mGF0IFsY
'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?'839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkUaS8Bgapn
I stayed silent. She was in a mood.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNNWXqI4Otz
'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.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXQ48FihV8U
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.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLQzZ7xUn4x
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.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyvAQShq3YS
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.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRaJMat3al9
I suppose I should have thanked her more than I did.
'You're still here.'839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdl8nr7gcLW
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.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgWNiIYL5aA
'You're at the right place.' I took the place beside her. 'The cornflakes are shit.' I reminded her. 'Have the yogurt.'839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzjlk5e2DSP
'How did it feel, Al?'839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3S5GZnejwQ
'How did what...'839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7GD5u04esF
'To do what you did. To do that to all those people.'839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEQqKwjdjbX
'Why are you asking me this now?'839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ90f2TZG3uA
She laid her head into her palms. 'Because nothing has changed.'839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjjmg0FwKPM
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.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3Bt0Cm19WZ
'Sis, I'm sorry.'839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpD1blc78hH
She looked up, crying again. 'But were you really?'839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoozrfekMtF
I couldn't answer that. One option would be a lie and the other would break her heart.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ7T8ZcHgvt
I stood.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKsPHPUSRsW
'I'll go get you some yogurt.'
'Do you ever wish you could die?'839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhaQOxHTJsP
Aria was slowly retreating into a shroud of depression.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb5dEv5UQcQ
'No. There's so much to live for.'839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGVpUUYwN4I
'But I've seen it all. There's nothing left.'839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHH2pn70xHY
'Don't say that.'839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1aWRE3wSBm
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.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9MmIRFWatK
And it was only then that I decided to do what I knew was possible several, several years ago.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHWJ2SJKq0c
'Sis... I can get you out.'839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTyaxgLu5ds
'...what do you mean?'839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxtu2rsPUzy
'I can get you out. I can get you back home. But you have to be patient.'839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSmyc0SPU5P
'...I don't understand.'839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgnErrAQ3zK
'Back home, sis. Away from all of this.'839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7hrvXX4oDb
'But how?'839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLGPOYoW2aw
The tears had stopped and I knew I had made a promise that I couldn't bear to break.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbfDXaovsGc
'You'll understand tomorrow. Sleep on it.'839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlCCmwXYc5c
She turned away again.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMznBrzUTgt
She didn't say thanks - reminding me even now how I had mistreated her before.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVRX4ENs3JI
'Remember. You'll have to be patient.'839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnL7cmpolhi
I wait a few moments for a response before I close her door.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKMW6AOrZK5
It was time for me to leave. To run away, to run towards.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcE9nb5xIe1
839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgW3MywcvKP
An English girl with hair angel white, kneeled before the gates of her home.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHUtYbpTIIe
'Father?'839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLqueL9KygW
'Aria. You know you're not allowed here.'839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe3ImDJsPMb
'It's not Aria.'839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOnR97Q6ajM
Muses could go only into dying bodies, of which there were none in the Wood of White Nights, where time itself lay tired.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW0xj383Vq7
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.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH0ePgf14tA
'Allemande?'839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6wzMvmxCxL
I could feel him, ready to send me back to the forest in a single spin of the landscape.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8Ix6yTMbKp
'Wait.' I say.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKsnc31lwEP
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.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKH6Ngo7CPm
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 -839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt5x3ksQgy8
And so I will suffer the reflection of the suffering I caused.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKqcyVCJFZ1
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.839Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfEGqu3mZk5
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.
