Then I realized Solzy wasn't moving at all. Rather, he was pulling me towards him. He was pulling everything toward him. He stood where the biz board met nothing. I tried to see the expression on his face, but he was facing the nothing. I called to him, but the only sound this place allowed was that of the Bboooooooooom bot.

Little by little the board sailed past Solzy into darkness. Four hundred and thirty three broken <3's flowed across his feet. Then the bones of that tired, stubborn mule I'd never see again. There was nothing to hold on to. I tried to scream again to no avail.

"It's no use," a voice said from no where. I tried to find it, but it was pointless. I was hearing it inside my head.

"You can't save any of it. You can't even save yourself."

Suddenly, I stopped moving. I was caught on a stone sticking up out of the ground. It was the only thing that refused to be moved. I clung to it as biz board passed me by. With horrified eyes, I watched that Bboooooooooom bot get swept away. "Creampieeeeeeee" faded into silence, echoing now only in my memory.

Then it was me and it was him and it was a stubborn piece of stone. The world stopped falling away. Solzy turned to me at last. I still could not see his face. I stood with trembling knees and balled fists.

I asked him why, though I knew he wouldn't answer.

"On whose grave do you stand?" he asked me.

I looked down. There was an engraving I hadn't seen before. My jaw dropped. "It can't be," I thought to myself. "It's impossible.."

"So it is." Solzy said, the voice in my head now just a whisper. "I am sorry, old friend." For a moment, I could see him clearly. His face did not bear the signs of age. There were no wrinkles on his brow, or laugh lines around his mouth. He was soft. He was eternal. He was peace. He gave as wistful a gaze as one could give a slab of stone. And in those eyes that had only reflected back to me my own face, for a second I thought I saw another's. And then it was gone.

"Inside the stone is something very precious. Bring it to me." My eyes lost focus. He turned back around.

I knelt down and examined the stone. The surface was ice cold to the touch. I traced my fingers over the moniker engraved on it and smiled fondly in remembrance. I lifted the stone and was surprised when it opened with hardly any effort. As Solzy had promised, there was something inside.

I pulled it out and examined it. It was a tattered scroll that no one else would have looked twice at. I gasped. Solzy heard me.

"It's not for you; it never was."

In my heart, I knew he was right. Nevertheless, it was still a dream. Something for which many souls before me had fought. Something now this Soul would win. I didn't want to give it to him. I wanted to keep it. I wanted a pen. I wanted a needle to prick my finger. I wanted anything to leave a mark.

I was growing so tired. The world started moving again. The tombstone that had held its ground now faltered. Pieces of it started chipping off, falling toward the edge of nothing. Little by little it fell apart, and then there was nothing keeping me safe.

Slowly I moved toward Solzy. I knew he wouldn't stop me. That wasn't his job, and I wasn't sure I wanted to stay here anyway. As I passed him, he grabbed the scroll. I held onto it as long as I could, as long as it unravelled. Then it stopped. Only the tension kept me there. I stood like that, hanging onto a scroll, one foot dangling into darkness.

He smiled at me a Solzy smile.

And then, with the last pen in the world, I saw him write his name at the bottom of the scroll. It was only after the ink was dry did he let me go.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1933853&forum_id=2\u0026hid=",#20554447)