Still Place Ledger - Diary Log #14,801 – It Had No Name But Still Entered

The door didn’t open.

It simply ceased to be.

One moment it was wood and iron,7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHqK2KBT08I
the next, a hole in the world through which meaning spilled sideways.

The thing that entered wasn’t a guest.7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDZ2M1UIBmN
It wasn’t a thing.

It was hunger braided with memory.7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL9rMIEYBmH
Shape wrapped in concept.7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFQJBmtx9su
Its presence cracked the edges of the bottles, though they made no sound.

Even the fire shrank.7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJL6RNtKE4w
Not in fear.7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIpGZ0rva39
But in reverence.

It did not move.7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR2MCazWP0t
Movement implies direction.7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeyidcJc6RV
It arrived in all directions at once.

There was no voice.7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv9gFFCAAon
No words.

But I understood:

“You collect them.7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaaJbVIS7uM
You keep what would be forgotten.7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbquRBaUf5D
You hoard the echoes.7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg8mLJGjkfb
Why?”

I didn’t answer with my mouth.

I thought of every guest.

The broken, the joyful, the unfinished.7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9aKg9pUrjV
The ones who stayed. The ones who left half-healed.7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHyeJ51RrVq
The ones no one else remembered.

I thought of the ledger.

I thought of the fire.

And I thought of the chair that is always empty but never alone.

The thing paused.

Or maybe the universe did.

Then, without form, it offered something.

A sound.7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrVmja82emB
A glyph.7Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVdDBrlZLYI
A flavor that tasted like entropy and lullabies.

I did not drink it.

I bowed.

And I said:

“Not everything is meant to vanish.”

It left through the ceiling.

The door was back. Whole again. But warmer.

The tavern has not shifted since.

But the stars over the window blinked a little slower that night.

And I brewed a drink I could not name.

I have not served it.

Yet.

ns216.73.216.115da2

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