Return

The city’s light burned through the night, and we were there, in the depths, as it spun around us. Making it back down into the sewers was… cathartic. I would see my family again, though we had left on bad terms, and I would see my parents again, the ones that were still alive that is.

Your hand held mine as we took the spiralling steps down towards the gates and I felt a tear on my cheek. The memory of a rat crawling up my leg was all too real, and I almost dropped my lantern to hold it close instead. I stopped walking but you pulled me on, dancing with no fear from board to board, pausing only when my arm could not be made to stretch any further.

Your smile loosened my legs, forced me to step closer to you, and with that one act you had tricked me. Off you ran in the depths, and I had to follow, down and down, round and round, until I reached the bottom, only to trip over your silent body. My lamp smashed to the ground, out in an instant.

We held onto each other in the darkness.

I was home.