compendium

prologue

this is the way the world ends 

One: We're happy.

Two: We pretend that we're happy.

Three: That makes it real.

Four: I've somehow managed to die and bury myself in the same dirt as him and then rise up six days later and breathe lungs of mud and decay damp enough to smother fires even in this world, even in this place.

Five: I've somehow managed to not set myself on fire from my fingernails to the ends of my hair. I've somehow managed to keep one foot ankle-deep in the tides. I've somehow managed to stay balanced on the offset scale. Heaven knows even the best soul is much heavier than the feather. We used to watch a crime fighting show where one killer burned the fingerprints right off of his victims fingers. The flames burnt the forests but the fires burnt the fingerprints right off the earth.

Six: When I was little, my parents were worried because I didn't start talking until I was two. Truth was, I could talk, I just didn't, because I had nothing worthwhile to say and I knew people wouldn't listen to me anyway. When I said my first word in front of people they sent me to a speech therapist, who told me I needed to say six true things before breakfast.

Seven: There's no room for following rules anymore.

Eight: We're happy, I swear.