Unrequited Sympathy

"What else do you want to do?" Irimena asked herself.

The reply came easier than before, back when she'd just started doing this. She, Krenen, and Afena decided it would be good for her to spend time with her madness, as Krenen had called it, in order to understand it, to appease it by acknowledging it, and to keep it under control.

When she started doing this, she was scandalized and appalled by the many things she found out about herself. Now, however, it was easy to accept everything, and thus, to accept herself.

This time, the answer was very, very dark, and she told herself, "You know you can't do that."

"Why not?" she asked.

"The consequences. Afena would hate you for it."

"And what do we care about her?"

"A lot. You know that."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. So she's the problem, then?"

"No. You're the problem."

"Well, I'm going to be here forever. Unlike her if we do something about it."