The pathway was dark, and gave me an odd and indescribable paranoia. Josh and I exited quietly, joined by ten to fifteen other Banditos. We left, using a door labeled Real East. "That's weird,"  I thought, I'd seen another door labeled East, but it was leading north. I mentally cursed myself for that paranoid mentality. The more I thought about it, though, the more it really bothered me. My legs started to get heavy the longer we walked, but I concealed it. We neared the mouth of the cave, and I began to recognize the scenery. The sun peeked through a few clouds, and it was overwhelmingly bright. I began to notice how sweaty all of us were, after walking through an enclosed space with literal sticks of fire. Josh was leading us, and walking really fast. Nadia, the girl behind me noticed before that I'd removed my yellow tape. She'd replaced it with new tape and told me not to take it off again. I don't know why she cared. I'd nearly pushed her out a window, to break up a fight between her and a really pretty blonde. Why did we have to care? If I wanted to get dragged back, why couldn't I? When we finally got off the trail, we were walking through two-foot-deep water, shivering and tired. Nadia must have noticed, because she told me "we're almost there," and proceeded trying not too trip. "She doesn't belong here," I thought. "She's too kind." After another half-hour of walking, we reached a camp of other Banditos, and joined them. They all had a strange aura of happiness, and welcomed us. They gave us more tape, and helped us with everything we needed. Jenna, the leader of the Banditos, was one of the most beautiful people I'd ever seen in my life. I don't know why she seemed like someone I could get with. She was way too good for me. For some reason she looked really familiar, like a best friend from elementary school or something. Josh must have been watching me or something, because he came over and sat next to me, his hand on my shoulder. "You okay," he asked, looking genuinely concerned. "I'm a Bandito," I responded, "I'm never ever okay. None of us are." He looked puzzled. "Well, then what is making you less okay than usual?" I stared at the place where the fire was slowly taking over the ground, little by little. "Don't want to get into it," I mumbled, thinking about every reason I was here, and not living in the real world. Josh looked me up and down. "You never talk about it," Josh said, his voice seemed hurt. "Don't have to talk about it, I said, obviously apathetic. "I can solve my own problems." "Then why were you locked in that room for months?" He thought he could take that route. "I'm here now," I said, finally looking at him. He looked away. Obviously I'd won, so I returned to my stupid fake bliss. I even went to the extent of faking wanting to talk to people. I talked about everything I could, not even daring to mention rules and reasons. People asked me about music, so of course they dragged me into playing, pulling Josh along. I had to cater their needs. God forbid us being rude and getting dragged out, by a literal noose, by a Bishop. This place was worse than neon, the Nicolas Bourbaki statue, and how did nobody notice that? Did they all think this? Did they even care? We had more rules here than in the city, and somehow this was a safe haven? I wanted to go back, but Josh seemed so much happier. I would do this for him. Why should I go back, and make him suffer?

In city, I feel my spirit is contained.

I'm sorry this is taking so long, but school is terrible.