The Girl’s feet pounded against the ground.

“Keep running…”

The Voice hissed,  

her new friend,

“Don’t stop.”

Thoughts jumbled against the cold burn in her chest and the adrenaline in her legs,

rapidly trying to process

the faces

she’d left behind: 

blurred, 

soft, 

collapsed-

The Voice’s laughter, 

melted

with the rain,  

as her body jerked to a halt.

“What are you doing?” 

IT asked her,

The Girl’s eyes fell downward:

                         A sheer drop,  

off the edge

                      of a

cliff

where the road, so conveniently, stopped.

“I said…”

The Voice continued, as she looked back, panic tracing her features, 

“DON'T. STOP.” 

The Girl looked towards the fall.

The wind burst at her back, carrying her, urging her forward,

towards the end. 

“Poor thing…” 

The Voice murmured low while the rain clattered, 

“To be so young…” 

The earth shook beneath her feet.

Something shrieked high all around her. 

A catastrophic wail that vibrated through the marrow in her bones and the atoms in her dust,

 rattling, 

  ringing.

Yet still, she could hear The Voice, soothing calmy beneath the noise, 

“As the world fills wish Ash,” 

It dizzyed her feet, 

tripping her over, 

beyond 

and into the empty.  

“And Entropy.” 

# 

The Girl’s body 

tossed, 

and twisted,

a rag-doll brought magically to life by the wind. 

Water, 

already disturbed by the rain, 

shattered beneath her back.

Under the surface, 

and in the silence, 

she watched the nighttime clouds  

ripple 

through the shaking pane.

The stars returned, 

blurred,   

and-

#

“What is it?”

Came the rasping hush of an unfamiliar voice,

                       “A human,     

                        you moron, 

                     isn’t it obvious?” 

Went the stilted snark of another.

“Really?" The raspy one questioned, "I thought maybe it was IT.”

Both voices tittered,  

cackling 

with a sound that reminded of things that scuttled and hushed at night.

“I’ve never seen one up close before.”  

Raspy mused.

                    “Are you stupid?”  

                     The Snarky one, snarked.

There was a pause

“...” 

            “...” 

Raspy sighed,

“I suppose, I’ve forgotten a few things.” 

                  “Yes, I suppose you have.” 

                           Snarky snipped. 

“Why is it you think we can’t go back?”  

Raspy's playful tone grew quickly somber.

                      “Dunno.”   

              You could hear the shrug in Snarky's voice.

Raspy shuffled,

“Maybe it has to do with The Boatman?” 

               “Maybe, we should FIND the Boatman.”  

                                 Snarky flattened

“Yes!” 

Raspy’s painful optimism echoed, 

“Oh yes, brilliant, if anyone can get us back it would be…uh-” 

               “I think his name was Tom.” 

“Yes, yes our good friend Tim should be able to-” 

Blood, 

began to beat through The Girl once more.

The Raspy sound panicked,

“It's waking up, what do we do?”

                  “We shut up, is what!” 

“Well-” 

“SHHH”

Her eyes flew open, as the hiss of whispers reached her ears,

darting, 

 waiting to take in the sight of whatever-

                            Nothing.

There was... 

Nothing?

“Hello?!”  

The Girl called, 

cautious, 

taking in her surroundings: 

gray 

and silent.

The Girl’s gaze wandered over what was before her:

a blank room

with blank walls,

and she sat on…

a bed?

Not quite. 

The “bed” seemed to be a piece of shade that was a little higher than the rest of the flat color around it. 

There were a few windows inside what could only be described as a room, but wasn’t.

She pushed herself up, and began to wander, muttering, 

“I could have sworn I heard voices…”

Moving through an outline of white

 onto a path, 

blurry and empty, 

like watercolor. 

As she made her way through the quiet world, 

The Girl saw  

tu 

                      mb

lin 

                                 g 

buildings. 

Remnants of cities 

 crushed

 into a vague concept of what might have been. 

They traced 

with smatterings of white 

and glass.

And 

beneath awnings, eves and casting shadows 

there 

                    crawled

                a 

creeping 

           black.

The city was silent, 

save for

a

Drip

       drop

 . 

. 

. 

drip

drip

. 

. 

. 

patter 

dr 

O 

P 

. 

A gentle, 

unknown 

 splash 

that rang 

throughout the echo world.

Something shuddered past, 

just out of the corner, 

of The Girl’s eye. 

She whirled and cried,

“Hello!” 

Desperate for Something to respond.

Once more, 

Nothing answered, 

but not without voice,

“Hello” 

                                                    The Nothing rasped.

      “What are you doing?”  

                   Another Nothing snarked.

The raspy one introduced itself,

“I’m Tim.”  

     “No, you are not!”  

Snarky huffed,  clearly exasperated. 

Tim protested,

“Well, IT seems nice and I don’t remember my name!” 

             “IT is not nice,” 

       Snarky was quick to admonish, 

             “Now, Shut. Up.” 

“Excuse me!!” 

The Girl cut through their conversation, annoyed. 

“But I’ll have you know, I’m not an IT!”  

Her sound bounced off the city walls, lonely and tining. 

The voices quieted. 

Only the soft, fleeting sound of a whooshing run remained.

One familiar, raspy cackle stayed behind, 

“Oh really,” 

The Nothing egged,

“if you’re not an IT, then what are you?”

“I’m human!” 

The Girl protested with a stamp of her foot.

“Laughable,” 

The Nothing tittered, 

“People are ITs. Simply because they have names doesn’t make them any less an IT.”

             “If I’m an IT!”

She felt her face heat with frustration,

        “Then what are you?”

Laughter 

softly crawled 

up 

the vanished 

walls, 

causing faint shadows to grow, 

as it answered, 

“Nothing.”  

Silence fell.

The Nothings faded.

Their presence no longer skittering 

and chuckling 

in her ears. 

Time passed, 

or it didn’t.

In the stillness she stared, 

unsure of where 

or when 

to go, 

down a  

                crooked

        road 

                                 that marked

          a path

      through 

                               the vague 

                        and 

                  broken 

       city, 

that she was very certain  

had 

                  not 

  been

                      there 

  before. 

Whispers crawled across it, 

and it had been so long since she’d heard a voice,  

any voice,

that she followed the sound. 

like the ring of thin fingers against a thin pane of glass.

An impatient noise that scratched until she took a step towards it, 

and found herself flung across the

t

         w

i

         s

t

         e

d 

path by unseen strings. 

To where a towering creature waited for her: 

It was similar to a man, 

but wasn’t. 

It was much too tall, 

      It;s arms much too long,  

and

It’s eyes glittered 

bright 

and white. 

A quiet 

“humm” 

reverberated against the air around him, though The Man stood rock still. 

“Hello?”

The Girl tilted, curious more than frightened,  

exhausted, 

from her loneliness.

Unease tugged quietly in the back of her mind.  

The hypnotic tapping 

stopped.

The Man looked down at her.

The Girl took a step back.  

His face, 

was suddenly empty 

and smooth, 

like stone made flesh.

The blankness rippled,

     flesh made water.

She gasped,  

her hypnosis broken,

as a grinning mouth rolled into place,

“It’s not nice to stare.” 

The Man rasped, 

while two large eyes rippled to the surface of the skin pool.  

They BUGGED and opened 

wide, 

washed of color.

He slid suddenly towards her and The Girl caved, sprinting from him.

“Curious…”

 His rattled voice tutted as he reached one long, stretching arm to catch her around the scruff of her neck,

“How did you come to Nowhere, Girl?”

She dangled from his crooked arm, which hung her eye-level with The Man.

 Lost in his too large gaze while he spoke,

“A Light such as yours does not belong with such old monsters.” 

She shuddered in his grasp.

“You are bright, too bright, little treasure.”  

His head tilted, curious. 

    “C…Can you Help me?” 

          She squeaked,

before his mouth sank beneath his skin only to be replaced by a new smile, 

wide and thin, 

“Old Monsters do not help treasures.” 

Familiarity scraped across The Girl’s spine 

when his grin came into focus. 

“All lights are treasures," 

The Man explained, 

"and all treasures belong to Someone.” 

The Girl opened her mouth to speak, but her voice cut sharply, when she felt the long arm whip her form helplessly through the air, 

shattering her into the horizon.