every step you take sends you further down the rabbit hole

until the slope is so steep you can't stop your momentum

you're composed. you're calm. you're at ease, of course; you're fine.

you're a liar.

the further down you go, the darker it gets

deep, dark, dirty, until you're trapped in a tight vertical grave

grubs squirm against your skin and mud squelches between your toes

yet you still utter the same words

you're fine.

no one would understand you even if you told them

how could anyone on the surface understand the way you can't even move?

arms and legs pinned on all sides by walls of earth

water trickling down to the bottom

it's at your knees, now.

soon you'll have no choice but to slip further down, to be further trapped in the crevice you keep digging

the sides are too steep and too slick to climb back out

and even if there was a handhold, you can't see a thing

the water has picked up.

you're fine.

your waist is damp, now

a dull pain in your bones, one you remember too well

there's a worm wriggling along your shoulder. nothing to be done now, you're resigned to your fate

you're fine.

the earth shudders as the water reaches your chin, and you don't even lift your head to pretend like you want to breathe

the water is cold as ice but you don't have the room to even shiver

you're going to drown here in silence.

and you're fine.

as the muddy water pours down over you, a sharp pain shoots from your arm

it must have been a rock jutting out against your wedged body, and you struggle instinctively

suddenly the ground gives way beneath you and you are falling, tumbling down into the deep darkness below

you're wet and cold and filthy

you're fine.

crimson runs down your body alongside the grit and grime

you stumble to your feet

there's a light in the distance.

as you stagger towards it, you see pedestals of pure white, lit only by spotlights far out of view

the marble melts, like sidewalk chalk in the rain

your footsteps mean nothing in the void, this emptiness between worlds

there is no sound.

a ship in a bottle atop one pedestal

weathered and torn, with ragged sails

this brief clarity is strange to you

"the liar wins again."

you whirl to find the source of the voice

this place is empty still.

yet you can feel the presence at the back of your mind

"did you think i was gone?"

a chill down your spine

you know that tone.

you're fine.

piercing eyes are nowhere near you, no strangeness to be seen

you've kept your hands off the pedestals this time, no fingerprints to be left behind

you even managed to walk this far without leaving a single bloodstain

perfecting the lie time after time, to person after person

using each new soul to leap further up to the surface, despite the fact that it just kept getting steeper

perhaps you were never going up

perhaps you were never fine.