Dango fell to his knees beneath a streetlight and cried

''it's not god but it'll do''

then he spat into a bush and thumbed a ride home.

Evening; dinner, and a knocking sound behind me has been revealed not to be my father returning home - instead, a seven foot tall spindly creature lopes through the entrance to the dining area. It is not of this world; an impossibly thin body rises from two thinner still legs, the arms are curved at strange angles that don’t seem to exist and the head has no face save for two red, glowing eyes. It reminds me of a stick figure, if a stick figure could be so three dimensional. It has a purpose, and that purpose is malevolent. This malevolence is not made apparent by any threatening action or movement and yet it is more tangible than the food I was eating moments before. The creature is obviously evil, there is no question about it, but I do not feel threatened. The harm it will do is not personal, it is simply the way that the future will unfold. The creature seems embarrassed that it has been caught and quickly ducks back into the hallway. I am briefly aware that things like this happen all the time. The whole incident takes two seconds.

I forget all about it.

So I fled the scene of the crime, caught trains and buses, hitch-hiked and even rode stolen horses; eventually I found the place where no more roads. I was on the edge of a desert made of glass and without hesitation I began to walk. As the sun rose and fell I walked across the desert and found that sometimes found my reflection walking off of its own accord in a different direction. Eventually my legs gave way and I was forced to crawl, because to even consider the idea of not moving was impossible. Days later my heart stopped beating and I could crawl no more, think no more; it was there, in the middle of a desert made of broken glass, that I found an old man looking at the stars. I told him that I had come a very long way to be here, and he said he understood.