Prompt: Into the woods
There's an old riddle I tell to the folks who come tired to the halfway house.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRIZEe0LX5s
'How far can you walk into a forest?'657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrCNJZ5vkaM
Some of them know the answer, some don't.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEAeXx77yVe
'Halfway. Now take your rest.'
The Wood of White Nights was my home.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcvEgQS1Jtn
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.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7Ahkx8wfzw
People had their own reasons for passing by the Halfway House, and I had my own reasons to live there.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8sflKuhaYm
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.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ43x10NbJDK
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.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2rGGTHvhON
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.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy61XwBMDWS
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.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVJZrYNIYpP
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.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqDVc6vQpwv
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.'657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx0WcbKjKou
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.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOxgbAbBTjq
'You must be tired. Sit, please.'657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ5Viwpd4X1
She remained on her feet, and walked up to me.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI6oCb8w1vZ
'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.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXHvehUsRdm
'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.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1zLj52Wzdc
'Aria!' I embraced her, but only lightly, conscious of my suit getting wet. 'You're looking younger than I last saw you.'657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5yAFTTXPX5
'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.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOJYxfGSbz3
'Another one?'657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtluwVXXRgb
'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.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr5xTmfDveP
'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.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡih2vsk3b2x
'Jacob. Jacob Ryans.'657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL0LJSkQvpU
'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.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHM4qYUn5Xz
'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.'657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ9ciFwX9EL
'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.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuP27len4Zp
'But you know what I took away? Closure. And not having that - that hurts more.'657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6vsLwOvamM
'You can still fix things.'657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlS4GcWlJag
'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?'657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFQmPwvYTpN
'You tell me, sis.'657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8w0jnx6LCN
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.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzWMRRo3VWa
'I just don't know why I keep making the same mistakes.' She folded the photos.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSnOBPUhMGk
'Well, sis, life is like a loop - '657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3xXMA8GfvM
'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?'657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPxGSgQdkTY
I stayed silent. She was in a mood.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGfmgSJLYpt
'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.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6fd6KpgCk9
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.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkYKBD2z403
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.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpw5AC1tsEO
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.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUVn9wzmVVv
I suppose I should have thanked her more than I did.
'You're still here.'657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqpgOc0kZVx
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.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJdBNiIC4z7
'You're at the right place.' I took the place beside her. 'The cornflakes are shit.' I reminded her. 'Have the yogurt.'657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6N9mmUuAIK
'How did it feel, Al?'657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBYFUMosRd9
'How did what...'657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4wABii0wtm
'To do what you did. To do that to all those people.'657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAFAYYPRqHY
'Why are you asking me this now?'657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqUf643XrFz
She laid her head into her palms. 'Because nothing has changed.'657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcCgwtegx4M
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.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGDi2Ism1RT
'Sis, I'm sorry.'657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwNWdu9u7sa
She looked up, crying again. 'But were you really?'657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKBTWg2cnxl
I couldn't answer that. One option would be a lie and the other would break her heart.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5Jq0WUp23a
I stood.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHwYCrXLf1O
'I'll go get you some yogurt.'
'Do you ever wish you could die?'657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA0im6ubrak
Aria was slowly retreating into a shroud of depression.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4Ih94IjkED
'No. There's so much to live for.'657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7ZNVU1xaPu
'But I've seen it all. There's nothing left.'657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡULmshZ45p9
'Don't say that.'657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ2pWJXPKzB
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.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkPAfEL3oVT
And it was only then that I decided to do what I knew was possible several, several years ago.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmBtJEwgRUC
'Sis... I can get you out.'657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaJA3HDvD4N
'...what do you mean?'657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg0Jijci1Ft
'I can get you out. I can get you back home. But you have to be patient.'657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMcfs3RXd4y
'...I don't understand.'657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDtJbNrdDCP
'Back home, sis. Away from all of this.'657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeWuoXeCgsF
'But how?'657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC2iHNFycvC
The tears had stopped and I knew I had made a promise that I couldn't bear to break.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKGPov7HXL7
'You'll understand tomorrow. Sleep on it.'657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSksqifha4o
She turned away again.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ62yf06F3tA
She didn't say thanks - reminding me even now how I had mistreated her before.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡszjwSQhX72
'Remember. You'll have to be patient.'657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZJapQmw41F
I wait a few moments for a response before I close her door.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsanAXbE61n
It was time for me to leave. To run away, to run towards.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAKeUDM9g6U
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An English girl with hair angel white, kneeled before the gates of her home.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtvbtsUuJPU
'Father?'657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZoh7efZWm8
'Aria. You know you're not allowed here.'657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLGD6yfUU8j
'It's not Aria.'657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnlYds1hfWR
Muses could go only into dying bodies, of which there were none in the Wood of White Nights, where time itself lay tired.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg3JGREvv8b
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.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIreG9aTE4q
'Allemande?'657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ698jLwM4nW
I could feel him, ready to send me back to the forest in a single spin of the landscape.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcAGcMb9768
'Wait.' I say.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl8l5Vqyrwf
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.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhNYExi9PFV
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 -657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ62dj4zZftP
And so I will suffer the reflection of the suffering I caused.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ66gEYKEO7V
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.657Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW1YaAi4yoT
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.
and then Add to home screen.