The Labyrinth of Lonely Souls

by reminiscent-afterthought

[AT] All three of them have lost someone precious. And so the labyrinth calls them - and offers them a shadow of a choice. They can find the voices lost to them and stay, or find a sort of peace and move on.

37. Talking I

The Labyrinth of Lonely Souls
37. Talking I

The girl – it's not the one with the Dobermon, but the one who had run first into the dark maze – takes her hand and Ken finds himself feeling much braver as a result. She's scared; he can feel her shaking. He's still scared too. But now there's light. And there's company. And he can see there's no ghost of Osamu that's going to turn from the kind but strict older brother into something else…

And though he's tired and he wants to fall down again he can continue walking. And though the girl is likely the same, she can continue walking as well. And continues holding his hand with one of hers, and the torch in the other.

She is warm. She is like a temporary… 'older sister.'

She starts, before looking into the distance when he says that aloud. 'I have a younger brother,' she says, finally. 'Half-brother, really. Born after my father remarried. After my mother died.'

He can't imagine his family changing like that and he falls silent. Osamu's absence…seems so small in relation to that.