An epilogue in which the author finally shows her face.

      Or, the bad ending.

It was dark and everything was shattered.

"Where am I?"

And when Wilbur's vision cleared, everything was still dark.

"What the fuck-"

"Shit."

Schlatt was next to him, coughing. He lay his head back, hitting it against the black floor. If it even was a floor.

It was nothing.

"FUCK!"

Wilbur looked down. There was still a hole in his stomach. Wilbur would scream if he wasn't so tired, he would've screamed. But he was too.... Empty for that. He could accept anything at this point, really.

"Don't you want to fucking attack me or something?" Wilbur turned his head towards the beer-stained Schlatt. "Fucking kill me?"

"What the fuck is this place?"

"Where people like us go to rot." Schlatt tapped his fingers on the void floor. His scars glistened with blood still. "Because we're not fucking worth to keep alive anymore."

"Oh." was all Wilbur could say.

Schlatt sucked in a breath, thinking.

"I'm fucking back. Back again."

Waves crashed down on top of him, the weights on his chest.

Schlatt shook himself. "Where the fuck is my booze? I need to feel numb again."

Wilbur heard an echo off in the distance. He turned his head towards it.

A figure was walking towards them.

It was a girl.

And she seemed like god.

"Oh, fucking hell." Schlatt threw his hands up in outrage. "OH HERE WE GO AGAIN!"

The girl stopped in front of them. She looked expressionless, her white mask covering her eyes. Wings shone light from her back, blocking out what she looked like.

Schlatt stood up, shaking. "LOOK WHO IT IS! LOOK WHO IT FUCKING IS! LOOK WHO FINALLY DECIDED TO SHOW UP!"

"GO TO FUCKING HELL!"

Schlatt screamed as loud as he could, he screamed so the heavens could hear him, so that she could hear him.

"GO TO FUCKING HELL YOU MONSTER! YOU ABSOLUTE BITCH!"

Wilbur didn't know what was going on. It seemed to him that Schlatt was screaming at god.

"Schlatt if you didn't want to end back up here, why did you drink so much?" There was a shake in her voice, and it was quiet. So much quieter. "Why did you drink so much?"

"BECAUSE EVERYWHERE I GO IS FUCKING HELL! FUCKING HELL THERE, FUCKING HELL HERE!" Schlatt screamed because he was so angry, so angry at her. "TELL ME WHERE IS THE FUCKING HAPPY IN THIS STORY?"

"Well," She inhaled shakily. "I guess you learned that the hard way, didn't you?"

"HOW-" Wilbur realized Schlatt was crying. He had never seemed the type. "HOW COULD YOU DO THAT? HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO PEOPLE WITHOUT FEELING FUCKING ANYTHING?"

Still expressionless. "I get that you're angry-"

"I'M NOT ANGRY! I'M IN PAIN!" Schlatt roared, holding his stomach. "YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO FUCKING LOVE ME! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO LOVE HIM, YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO LOVE THINGS YOU'VE CREATED!"

"Schlatt, I can make it go away if you want." She tried to smile, and it wavered. "With a flick of a pen, I can make it go away if you want-"

"IT'S SO MUCH FUCKING DIFFERENT WHEN YOU'RE LIVING THROUGH IT, RESA, THEY'RE NOT JUST FUCKING PAWNS!" 

The girl seemed frozen to the spot.

"Take off that fucking mask."

"No."

"TAKE IT OFF RIGHT NOW, TAKE IT OFF SO EVERYONE CAN SEE HOW MUCH OF A FUCKING MONSTER YOU ARE!"

"I don't want to." Another shaky breath in. "I don't want to see how much of a fucking monster I am."

"Well, too bad. Because everyone's going to see it eventually."

And Schlatt reached forward and the mask crumbled in his hand.

And the light disappeared and the wing dissipated.

And there was just a girl with tears on her cheeks.

"Do you see how much of a fucking monster you are now?" Schlatt clenched his fists, looking at her in the eye. "Do you feel now?"

"No one wants to see this, Schlatt." She glanced over at Wilbur nervously, unable to look Schlatt in the eye. "This is not.... entertaining. "

"My pain was fucking entertaining to you. His pain was." Schlatt spread his arms, gesturing to everything around him. "Now you see what it feels to be read, but not seen."

"No one wants to see this, Schlatt!" Tears streaked down her cheeks, and she tried desperately to wipe them away. "So let's just fucking end it, ok?"

"You don't get to do that." Schlatt shook with rage. "You don't get to fucking do that."

"I feel so fucking numb because of you." Schlatt's chest heaved with emotion. "I can not live and I can not die and I CAN'T FUCKING FEEL A THING! I CAN'T FEEL ANYTHING! I WANT IT TO STOP!"

"THEN I'LL MAKE IT STOP THEN!" She screamed back. "I'LL MAKE IT STOP IF YOU WANT IT SO BAD!"

"DO YOU SEE WHAT I MEAN?" Schlatt roared. "YOU WANT TO FUCKING FIX YOUR PROBLEMS SO QUICKLY AND NEVER THINK ABOUT ANYONE ELSE! I FUCKING HATE YOU!"

"IF YOU HATE IT SO BAD, THEN SLEEP!"

Wilbur watched as a flash of purple light pulsed from her hand.

Schlatt fell to the ground.

The girl fell to her knees with him.

She cradled her head in her hands as the tears seeped out.

And then she reached out her hand, and she touched Schlatt's cheek. She tried to keep her voice steady as she forced out words.

"You don't know how much I would give for me to sleep too." A tear plopped on the nonexistent floor. "I'm sorry."

"You really are a monster."

She looked at Schlatt.

"I know."

She covered her face with her hands."Trust me, I know."

"God, I'm so fucked up."

"Me too."

"God." She looked at Wilbur, laughing sadly. It sounded like choked sobs. "Why am I even still fucking talking? You've been through so much more. I've been through absolutely nothing but my fucking mind."

"You did this to me."

"I know."

"You did this to all of us."

"I know."

"I'm fucking bitter."

"I know."

"God." She laid down next to Schlatt, letting the bitterness and resentment and anger and sadness sink on top of her. Wilbur laid down next to her too. They felt the waves crash over them.

She laughed. "I'm so fucking overdramatic, aren't I?"

"Yes, you are."

"And I'm a total piece of shit." She laughed and she was choking. "I hate myself so much."

They both stared at the black void above them. Wilbur could feel the darkness pile up to his throat, and he no longer cared what he said as long as he let the bitterness out.

"I want to fucking die." Her tears boiled over the edge. "I just want to be dead."

"Too late." And through all of that, Wilbur just felt numb. He felt empty. "We're already fucking dead."

"No one wants to see this."

"You're right."

"Does it get better?"

"No."

"But let's keep pretending."

And then Wilbur was sitting on a hard bench, color lost from his life.

And he watched as the trains passed by, mixing the blue and the red and the white, cold and alone. Echoes of other universes crisscrossed the lines, he wondered if in some of them he ended up happy. 

He wondered if in some of them he was alone. 

The writer would give him pain in any story she wrote. 

Empty. 

And he waited. 

The End.