The Neitherworld

He falls in darkness.

Tipping back with his eyes closed and trusting the Shades to catch him.

The wind is a soft comfort after the last few days. Weeks. How long has it been? Time has always been odd for him here, where the horizon stretches without end. He no longer feels the cold. In truth, there are days when he feels more at home here than he does topside. Here, the Shades obey him. Here, the landscape crafts itself to his will. Streets form beneath his feet, and paths stretch before him, away from the light. Away from C.R.O.W. and their laws and the life he can’t escape.

Where are you going?

But this, his little shadow, he can never escape, nor would he want to.

“Away.”

A slither of smoke twists up his arm, settling over his shoulders with a familiar not-weight, her voice a pleasing, musical tickle in the back of his mind.

Why?

“Don’t I deserve a break?” He waves a hand, and the darkness splits before him, revealing the low rise of a hill and the barest silhouette of a black tent against a black sky. A safe retreat in the world only he can enter.

Except, that’s not true anymore, is it?

Can we go back? Please? Little Shadow bunches against his neck, her voice taking on the suggestion of a whine. I want to see her again.

He pauses at the edge of the field, glancing at the Shade on his shoulder. “Her?”

Yes! She slithers down his arm, puddling to the ground, where smoke kicks up in a tiny plume. I saw her!

“You did.” He crouches, elbows resting on his knees. The dervish of her excitement brings a smile to his face and he thinks it might be the first time anyone has smiled in here.

She was in here. With you! The tiny shadow slows and coils tight, vibrating with excitement. Can she come back?

“I–” Something like pain, or regret, pinches his chest, and that isn’t right. There’s no pain here. No sorrow or joy, the Neitherworld just is, and that’s how he likes it. Safe and calm and still and empty, except for the Shades that obey his every whim. A place he can come to escape, not feel . “I dinnae ken.”

Why?

“Dinnae think she’s too happy with me.”

Why?

That makes him pause, and in the pause, a new voice echoes through his realm. “Horned God dammit , Darkly, did you fall in again?”

Her! Little Shadow bounces onto his knee, whipping around his arm and whirring onto his shoulders. She’s here. Can we go? Please say we can go. Don’t make me drag you out of here.

And for the first time in its unfathomable existence, a laugh rings out across the Neitherworld. It is sharp and cold, but laughter all the same.

“Ye ken, Little Shadow, I think one of these days you just might manage to do so.”