every now and then, katansya stutters a little bit. she shudders when she mutters something under her breath about her missing wedding ring, or how her locks of hair are just a little bit too out of control for her to take care of anymore. bearing news like that over your head makes you just like that -- lost and helpless. katansya gave up a long time ago, and the poor girl still roams about!<br><br>

and here i am, standing at the top of the velvet stairwell. it's all red velvet, or, more accurately a grim wine velvet with light cast on it from who-knows-where. the bronze railings look like they were patterned in an ancient embroidery. the atmosphere ties together in the corner with a sprawly bromeliad plant. the entire place is a little ridiculous, but the thing we should least ignore here is the pool of blood inching away, spreading step by step by step down the flight going downward.<br><br>

i'm still holding katansya really tightly, i realize. i'd hate to let her just leave like that. i lick off the remaining turbulence on her cerulean shirt dress. it's really ugly, but i don't tell her that. instead, i offer to lead her down. it's funny, really. if you look down from here, the staircase spirals down infinitely. it loops around and around and around and around.<br><br>

you've clogged the drainage. that's what the man in the tracksuit tells me when i run into him two floors below.<br><br>

i think that's what he said. i forgot to listen to him too carefully. he touches my shoulder for a second, and i get mad. he doesn't follow me, and nor does he question me about katansya's wound. terrible. i almost wish he probed for answers, but things are better off this way.<br><br>

oh, look. it's ran. yeah but the caw yeah but the fizzy yeah but is what i hear, but i'm sure those weren't the words he meant to convey. i hand him katansya's unconscious body--just like that. he turns her eyelids and whispers something. the words flow out slowly.<br><br>

an opening has always remained before me, and its perfect jaggedness corners my despair--right in the middle of it. gray, black, gray, black. it repeats forever, squaring inward. i hold onto my locket very tightly.