"Melancholy"

#0013. Everybody leaves. That is a sad fact. The saddest fact. I have stood on many docks waving at ships departing over the horizon and there I am, alone again. Everybody will board that boat. They will give me parting gifts. Bottle caps. Pieces of string. Letters. So many letters. So many letters stuffed in a box. Everybody leaves. Except Melancholy. He stays nearby. He does tricks. He can somersault. He is good with the puppets. He'll stay. The ships will sink after the crest the horizon.

"All the Things are Things to Fear"

#0014. I have always been afraid. I remember, vividly, just so much fear. Every mile brought new dreadful things. Old cities teeming with death. Lakes and oceans waiting to drown you. Monsters around every corner. The spirits of the world, all the living things that live in the things that are seemingly dead would scream to me. I was at their mercy. I have never conquered a fear. I am their subject. I am a citizen of all fears.

"Fifteen"

#00015. Fifteen. Aspects of Alice. Rain gods. Disciples. Sacred cities. Fives and threes.

"Someone to Watch Over Me"

#0016. They are likely there with you now, but you are too logical to see her. She has been by your side for aeons. She has held your hand. Or held your head underwater. Other people take credit for her footsteps. They are in every nest. They listen to your prayers and too many of your dark thoughts. They will abandon you soon. You forget about them too often. I'm afraid if we forget about them, they will leave us. That doesn't bother you, though.

"Goodbye, You Damned Husks"

#00017. Oh to be the abandoned again. The drowned little girl. The frightening eyeless visage from one watery grave or another. She was afraid of drowning. And now she waits for you, rotten in some box. The last thing you might say to her was that you were sorry. You didn't do the drowning, though. The drowning. Why did you feel like you had to apologize?

"A Reminder About the Nightmare"

#0018. It may follow you around. This is not normal. This is not what you should expect. Demand better. Sleep better. Sleep longer. Let this dissipate. Let this disappear. Once, it might have clung to you in wispy remains. It would shake you by the shoulders. It would beg you for its freedom. It may hold tightly to you. This is not normal. Do not allow this to continue. Demand better.

"A Demon Inside the Cover of Your Favorite Book"

#0019. Listen to the piano clink away atonally. This is to disguise the meaning of the melody. It's there if you listen closer. Under the dissonance. There is a beautiful melody. The Demon in the Book cowers at melody. This is what magic is, for real. It's keeping the wolves at bay with the right song. We were lucky to have stumbled across it. Math is just not as effective and keeping these things locked up in the pages where they belong.