IT NEVER TRULY ENDS.

what is this place, anyway?

why did you bring me here?

this is it? this is what you've been talking about this whole time?

i'm not sure where we are.

do you have any idea where this is?

does anything look familiar to you?

i could have sworn we came this way.

we've been walking in circles.

should we split up or keep moving?

do you have any idea where we are?

this isn't good. this doesn't look familiar.

that's the third time we've passed that tree.

bit dark in here, isn't it?

are you sure you know where we're going?

what did i just step into?

should we press on?

i have a feeling we're not in kansas anymore.

i thought you said you knew where to go.

where are you taking me?

if we just sit right here and wait, someone will come looking for us.

have you ever been here before?

you seem familiar with this place.

i don't recognize anything.

i knew we made a wrong turn back there.

you've been leading us in circles.

this isn't my street.

that house doesn't look familiar.

do you have a map?

we're already lost. i'm not planning on getting even more lost.

maybe we should ask for directions.

i don't think we should have come here.

my phone's dead. do you have service?

we could try retracing our steps.

could you help me try and figure out where we are?

oh my god. we're going to die out here.

quick! look for familiar landmarks.

i've never been here before.

oh no. i'm staying right here and waiting for help.

is this the place you've been talking about?

so... where is here?

of course. just my luck. i get lost with you of all people.

how much longer do we have to walk?

are we almost there?

you couldn't find your way out of a paper bag.

you should have trusted me with the directions.

this seems like some kind of underground passage.

where does this door lead to?

we've been walking for hours.

oh great. we're lost.

i'll see if i can get a good view from up there.

i don't think we should be here.

maybe we could try calling for help.

i don't want us to get separated out here.

it'll get dark soon.

we're going to die out here, aren't we.

i'll just sit here and wait for my impending doom.

the last thing i wanted to do was get lost with you.

“Stop telling me what to do.”

“I don’t need you micromanaging me.”

“You think every choice I make is wrong.”

“That wasn’t your choice to decide for me…”

“Stop ordering me around like I’m your servant!”

“Nothing I do is ever good enough for you, is it?”

“I should be allowed to make my own decisions.”

“Is it fun for you? Nitpicking every little thing I do?”

“Do I have to ask permission to do anything, now?”

“I don’t need you hovering over my shoulder like that.”

“It’s my life. Why am I not allowed to have any say in it?”

“Why should I do anything if you’re just gonna criticize it?”

“You’re not my mother/father/parent. So, stop acting like it.”

“I don’t have to listen to you. I can decide things for myself.”

“Okay, I’m an adult. Stop telling me what to do like I’m a child.”

“Why do you do this? Why can’t you just let me have any say?”

“Oh my god! ‘(Name) do this! (Name) do that!’ Please, just let me live.”

“So, what? Damned if I do, damned if I don’t. What more do you want from me?”

“ You think I don’t know of family ? ” William wheezes, and it feels like hacking a lung up. “ Ev — everything — g— I did was for family. ”

That’s how he chooses to remember it anyway. Whether it’s true, whether it is entirely true, he no longer knows nor cares. A springlock buried in his lower left side ticks tighter closed, and he would have screamed, so giggles instead.

most people forgot, but she didn't. that loss echoes into every wall that could see it, feel it. the agony burns deep in everything it touches. she may not have been there to witness what happened, but in death, she felt it all. she felt everyone else's pain. even his, but his did not matter to her. his pain is deserved.

head cranes to the other side, bones in her neck popping like rusted joints to a doll. the stench of old iron still present. it all still feels so dry.