It had been quite the long day, and I was lookin' forward to nothin' but quiet and some rest. My emotions had exhausted me, that and the fishin' fun from earlier. We parted ways with Richard and made way back toward a small town in an effort to find an empty house to crash in for the night.

Unfortunately it didn't seem like that was destined to be, as the very first town we came across we ended up findin' a young girl hidin' in one of the houses. Decker seemed to scare her a bit, havin' his gun out and all, and I tried to assure her that we weren't going to harm her. After Decker put his gun away, we were able to learn that her name was Spark, and she was searchin' for her friend named Randall.

It didn't sound like she was so sure this Randall was a friend of hers or not. She wanted to find him, sure, but then made it seem like he may not want to be found. Spark wasn't sure if he was lookin' for her or not, didn't know where he might be, in fact she wasn't clear on most of what she was sayin' at first. But she did admit that she was still a bit scared of us, so it just took her gettin' used to us to open up a bit more. We learned that a close friend of hers had died the previous day and that her home was destroyed. All in all, she's had a rough go of it, poor thing.

Decker askin' her how many times she'd died reminded me that she wasn't just some little girl we had happened upon. She was someone who had already died and didn't quite know it yet. Too young to be in a place like this if you ask me. Too innocent as well. Spark didn't understand the question, and rightfully so, but she was the first to turn the question around on Decker and ask him the same. "Too many to count," was his response.

The night passed quickly, Spark tellin' us about her friend that was killed, and a few others she had met along the way. She believed she was a magnet for trouble, which had me wonderin' what she was doing here, what lesson it was she had to learn in order to move on from this place. She didn't belong here anymore than I believed I did, or Decker, or many of the others we met. Tryin' to wrap my head around all this was exhaustin'.

We offered to escort Spark to the Beacon, the last place she had seen her friend Randall. Along the way there was some interestin' conversation to be had. Started off by learnin' her entire family had been in this place with her; now I'm not sure if that's just somethin' she remembered from before she actually got here, or if her family had died with her and they all ended up here. Not knowin' exactly how all this worked was confusin' me a bit, but I couldn't ask Decker with her around. Seemed like it was important everyone learn of this place on their own, like I had, so I wasn't going to try and explain to her what was really happenin' around here.

Spark had asked me about what I did before comin' to this place, and I filled her in on how I was tryin' to become a singer. She told me a bit about her mother, and about how her mom used to sing to her when she was younger. Spark then asked me if I'd sing for her, but I told her the same thing I told Decker; not much in the mood for singin', as there's little inspiration in this dark place to offer it any beauty such as that.

There was one man Spark made mention to that I wouldn't mind meetin'. Someone named Abbadon, who seemed to enjoy talkin' about angels and demons. To me it sounds like he may be more on the right track than he realizes, though he did suggest to Spark that there were ways to thrive here. Doubtin' that very much given the very nature of where we were and the amount of damned we had run into. Of course rumor had it that Abbadon was dead, but a part of me hoped he hadn't moved on yet, that maybe there was a chance Decker and I weren't the only ones that knew what was really goin' on. Spark said Abbadon also loved to talk in riddles; seems he and Decker would get along quite well.

Turns out Spark had met Mya too, though it was sad to hear she was no longer with her father Benji. Spark didn't know what happened to him, but she said Mya was now a very cold person, even killed someone. Doesn't seem like the nervous, scared little girl we had met not so long ago. Somethin' bad must have happened for her to change so drastically. Decker wanted to know where Mya was now, but Spark wasn't sure. I'd like to believe maybe she found her father, or that the two of them have moved on from this place.

When we finally had a moment alone, I told Decker that I didn't believe someone like Spark belonged in a place like this. He agreed. But that's the sorta questions I still have for him; what would make someone like her end up here? Or me for that matter? I still don't remember how I died, but I can't imagine it bein' in a way so bad that I had to be punished for it or had some lesson to learn from it. The entire time we travelled up to that Beacon, I kept tryin' to figure out what I had done to deserve this, and I still couldn't come up with any answers. Decker said that none of us deserved to be here, and yet here we were. Guess he wasn't done with the riddles.

Mr. Sunny. An odd name for a man in this place, and yet that's who we met on the way to the Beacon. Funnier still was he was some kinda shrink, when his name reminded me more of a preschool teacher. Decker kept callin' him Smiles, Smiley, or Sunshine; not sure if it was on purpose to annoy him or he just couldn't remember the name, but it got me to smile every time he did it. Seems Spark knew Mr. Sunny and his travellin' companions Griff and Tabitha. They had run into each other yesterday while she was on her search for Randall. The three of them walked with us to the Beacon in the hopes of findin' some clue for Spark as to where Randall had gone to.

Unfortunately it seemed like the Beacon was a dead end for poor Spark. Randall wasn't there, and in fact no one was around. The place looked like it had been abandoned, no sign of life anywhere. Kinda sad, thinkin' we'd finally be able to find her friend only to find nothin'. After talkin' to Mr. Sunny some more, Spark felt it would be best to follow him to another camp they'd heard of where some of the Beacon folk had moved on to.

I wished her the best of luck, honestly, because I couldn't imagine havin' to wander this place alone. As I watched over Decker while he took a nap, it occurred to me that even though this place may have been one step closer to Hell or even Heaven, at least I had him by my side. All that I had learned was terrifyin', but a little less so with him around.

Spark got me thinkin' with somethin' she said before she left as well. "Everybody deserves redemption, everybody deserves another chance. And there is hope. Sometimes you just don't when you're lookin' at it." Lookin' at Decker, it all started to make a little more sense. Helpin' him might be my chance at redemption, and that alone gives me hope that one day we will both make it out of here.

It was dark, and I was cold. I felt disorientated and my head was killin' me. I tried to open my eyes but they wouldn't budge, and I felt somethin' warm runnin' down my cheek. My heart was racin' and I could barely breathe, and a sense of despair began to overwhelm me. I couldn't tell if it was real, if it was a dream, but in the distance I heard Decker's voice. "Don't you worry darlin', don't you worry."

And it was only after hearin' his voice that I was able to breathe again. I opened my eyes to the shining sun above me, its warmth envelopin' me and pushin' away the cold. I didn't see Decker anywhere when my eyes could finally focus, but I heard his voice in my head once more. "You can't kill me," he whispered, followed by that laugh of his that faded away into silence.

Whatever had happened to separate us, I don't know the details, but I know for sure that Decker wasn't lyin' when he said we couldn't die. Because I did die, that I'm sure of, just as sure as I am now as to how I died the first time to get to this place. I remembered every last detail. Maybe it took dyin' in this place of Purgatory to know how you originally came to be here. He was tellin' the truth all along.

Decker and I always had a plan in place in case we got separated, so I began my journey home in the hopes that I'd find him there waiting for me. Along the way, I sang the song I had written for him. When we meet again, I'll be happy to sing it to him.