That One Moment

What? Oh. How I got here, huh? It's… hmm. It'd probably be good for you to hear, actually. A tale of caution, I suppose.

Back before I joined the Serpent's Hand, I was a photographer. I had quite the portfolio— mostly pictures of abandoned factories, animals, and cities. One of my pictures actually got pretty big, uh, this one of a rat that had climbed to the top of a car antenna. People found that one funny.

I lived in a little RV, which I can't say I miss. Driving from place to place, always having new places to photograph and new people to meet. I met all kinds of people— that might've been my favorite part of the whole thing. There was even a guy who collected pipes that I traveled with for a while.

No, no, not like, smoking pipes. He'd go to abandoned buildings and rip out a few of their plumbing pipes for his collection. Said he had a "galvanized steel pipe" from the Titanic once. Interesting hobby.

Anyways, I was always on the road. One day I was in New York City, I think I'd submitted a few photos to some big contest and was heading to the ceremony. I parked pretty far away in an overpriced parking garage and started walking down the busy sidewalk.

It wasn't long before I bumped into a man in a sharp green suit. He looked like he'd seen a ghost and just stared at me.

I muttered out an apology and started to move around him, when he grabbed my arm and spoke.

"Collin…?"

I froze, tugged my arm away, and replied. I didn't even realize how strange it was that he knew my name. "Yes?"

"Is it really you?"

"…yes?"

And with such heartbreak, he quietly asked me, "where have you been?"

I hadn't seen this man before in my life. But he knew me, and I didn't know what to say. I just stared at him with some dumbfounded look on my face.

Then, he grimaced.

He cleared his throat, pulled me over into an alleyway, and began telling me everything.

And as he spouted his nonsense about a version of me that sounded like a complete stranger, every cell in my body was screaming at me to just walk away. Just another deranged man in the city, right? I'd met plenty of those.

But somehow, deep in my heart, I just couldn't shake the feeling that all he was saying was real.

After a few moments of silence, he reached for his wallet and pulled out a very creased polaroid. He and I, glasses raised, smiling and laughing at some party. And in that moment, there was a brief flash of… something. A wonderful place. A place I felt like revisiting.

I never ended up going to that ceremony.

While I don't have all my memories back, I'm learning again. I can't exactly leave or else the Jailors will snatch me up, so I have plenty of time to read all these books. Engross myself in all this place's knowledge. And sometimes, it feels like whatever locked my memories away is losing its grip, slowly but surely. Maybe one day I'll be my true self again.

Be careful out there, alright? Don't become a stranger. Don't become like me. We'll all be waiting for you.

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