The sunlight was too intense. The light hitting the thick, velvet curtains covering Jimmy's room couldn't penetrate the heavy barrier, creating only a dull orange glow that made his eyes ache.

He tossed and turned. The coarse wool blanket tangled around his limbs. He didn't want to be awake. Being awake meant having to think, and thinking was like a tedious, endless maze that led nowhere. A heavy, dull weight pressed down on his chest, as if a bag of wet cement were slowly hardening inside him.

He saw the months-old letters sitting on the bedside table. He didn't even need to check them. He just hated everything.

Jimmy felt a faint sense of anxiety. He stared at a crack in the ceiling. It looked like a claw. He focused on the dark line, tracing the crack with his eyes to ignore the old letters.

Jimmy closed his eyes. He wanted to disappear into the mattress, into the dark, quiet concrete floor. The future was as dark as a cave.

He reached out and picked up a letter. A drop of ink had fallen on a piece of paper where he had started to write to Guest but stopped. Jimmy let out a low groan and flipped the letter over under the bed. It fell with a fluttering sound. He pulled the blanket over his head, retreating deeper into his own dark sanctuary. He didn't even have the strength to be the sun. He barely had the strength to be a shadow.

Sigh.

I missed her. Guest. No, I didn't want to see her. It's just futility. She can't come back. She became a goddess. It might have been the best thing in her life, but for Jimmy, it was the worst experience of his. Guest left him behind. Without a single word.