the second

as he stood there, at those bone arches, gazing into the orb which had been such a happy sight until now, tears fell from his eyes, and he fell to his knees... he couldn't even bring himself to care anymore , not about the reward, or about anything at all, really. he realized now that the reader didn't care, not about adam, not about berthold, Alexander, or even Adramalech, and not about him, either. The happy ending he was searching for did not exist, he found that out an hour ago, when Adramalech died, there was no point anymore. they had come all this way.... he shouldn't have been so pushy, so anxious to enter the labyrinth, Adramalech didn't even want to go in... he just kneeled there and sobbed for a while.

those once beautiful, exciting, and even relieving archways now felt so empty, so dark. he brought his attention to the orb which once glowed a beautiful golden hue, but now blood dropped down and turned its streams black, andrew was really gone, actually dead.

the orb smiled warmly at him and congratulated him on completing the story, as usual, but then it did something strange and out of character, it smiled more, it seemed more sinister, maybe more like it found something funny, and it began to say, "you know, you could've saved him... well, them." it put emphasis on the word them, then took a deep breath and continued speaking, "if you had tried just a little harder, had a little bit more compassion, but, I get it, you were afraid. but I would not be saying this at all if it was just that, but really, you just didn't care that much about them, you were angry when they died, but you didn't do much to stop their deaths, did you? they were only characters, right?" it took a deep and somewhat shaky breath, before letting a few tears of blood drip from itself, and said, "what if I told you that they weren't just characters?" He knew he was hallucinating, but he remembered now, and his eyes slightly widened, a faint memory of a group of people coming into his mind. he began clutching his head, trying to alleviate the headache, and defend himself from what he might hear next. then the eye-like orb spoke to him again, saying, "I'm sure you remember Adam? it would be quite sad if you didn't, considering how kind he was to you, your mind is free now after all. or Alexander? I seem to remember he always wanted you to work out with him, always wanted to help you, he even stood up for you a few times, I wonder if you regret not spending more time with him now. and Berthold? you always shared some of your lunch with him because his parents never cared enough to make him a good home lunch. remember them, remember who they were." it put a significant emphasis on the word were, sneering at him a little. his eyes widened even more, his body shaking, he lost his balance and fell to his back. he started to remember the mental state of some of them, remembered how long they had been gone. 'I killed my closest friends' he thought as-

"yes, yes you did, and they still remembered you too. man, it must hurt to finally see the person you had been wanting too see, and then them ask who you were. oh, and it wouldn't be very hard to remember, if you had actually cared. just a tiny bit of investigation and you wouldve remembered, well, I guess it's too late now."

The vision faded, and he could see the orb talking to him about the reward for this one, a bright yellow just like always. Finally, he couldn't handle himself anymore, the guilt, the anger, the hopelessness, it was too much. he walked over to the decorative suit of armor, placed his hands on its sturdy shoulders, jumped, and impaled himself on the slightly blunted spear, twisting himself deeper into it and making sure to hit the vital arteries.

his last sight was the orb transforming into 'the reader' and saying to some unseen entity, "another failure... too bad." who was he talking to?