...

..

.

The two reached the end of the exit passage. A snowy landscape was mere steps away. Gloria turned the shaky child around and got on her knees.

"Messiah, listen to me. Leave here, turn to the left and walk until you reach a red flag. From the flag, look out into the world. You will see a small town at the foot of the mountain. Just walk toward that town, okay? Messiah, please tell me you can understand me."

The child feebly nodded.

"Good, good." Gloria smiled, that smile threatening to fall apart at any second.

"What about you?"

It was the first question the child had asked since they started running. It had caught Gloria so off guard she started crying, all the tears she held back pouring out.

"Messiah... My sweet, sweet, kind Messiah..." she whimpered as her forehead fell against his chest.

"I don't want to leave without you."

"Even after all I did..." Gloria wiped her tears and looked the child in his eyes. "Messiah... Please, escape from here and find someone greater than I, someone who truly deserves your kindness. Find those who would love you the way you deserve to be loved... And don't hate them for what this stupid fool did to you. Don't hate them for what all those vile women did to you."

"I don't want to leave you, Gloria. I won't be happy without you."

"No! Don't say that. Even if you're not happy tomorrow, or the day after, or even a year after, feign it. Feign it until you're happy, because I promise you, you can be happy! You can be happy with people who truly care about you. Messiah, your future is bright. I promise. And if it isn't, feign it until the world can no longer contradict you. That is how powerful you are, Messiah. Feign it all until this horrible past becomes a nightmare you can forget, Messiah--"

"I don't want to forget you, Gloria!" the child cried before hugging Gloria. "I don't want to leave you, Gloria! I love you, Gloria."

"I..." Gloria sniffled and hugged the child. "I love you too..."

I wiped my eyes as Fainntwo gasped for air and looked up at the ceiling. He chuckled as he tried to blink away his feelings, but his face was twisting. "I've never re-watched this part. You can kind of see how critical this part was to the kid... How critical it was for you."

I put my hand on his shoulder and nodded.

"Gloria... Gloria's about to do something clever... but something, really, really cruel," Fainntwo said.

"Ahh... Your hug gives me so much strength, Messiah," Gloria said, her voice breaking with each word. She pulled away from the child and smiled. "Here's what we'll do... the journey will be long... Let me go get a basket with some food--"

"I'll wait for you!"

"No, nuh-uh, absolutely not--No, I mean, I'm really scared, Messiah... I need your help. Could you please go on ahead and make sure the path is safe?"

"What?"

"Please, be my little Hero and make sure the path is safe..." Gloria's face--it looked the most pained we had seen it. "I promise I'll be right behind you."

I shook my head. "What an obvious lie."

"Not to the kid who forgave her biggest betrayal."

"I'll..." The kid put his tiny, trembling hands on her face and smiled at her. "I'll make sure the path is safe, so that you don't have to be scared, Gloria."

Gloria smiled as the tears streamed again. "I wish I could be as brave as you, Messiah..." She giggled, though anyone could tell she was on her last legs. "You really did save me, Messiah... You really are a Hero... Okay, go. I'm going to get the food."

The child nodded and took his first unsteady steps out into the cold mountaintop. He turned around and looked into the passage. Gloria gestured for him to go on, and stood up. As soon as he turned around, she stumbled against the wall.

"How can we see what she was doing, Fainntwo?"

"There was a lot going on with that kid's psychic faculties at this point. The kid didn't see it... But a certain part of him knew."

Gloria forced herself further into the passage as the child went down toward the post with a red flag on it. When he reached it, he looked back.

"Gloria?"

"You feel that?" Fainntwo asked, clutching his chest.

The child kept his eyes on the scenery, his heart unraveling as the seconds passed.

"I'll just..." The child faced forward. "Feign it... Just like Gloria told me to..."

Fainntwo nodded. "That's the moment he tried to hope against all the misery. And that's the moment we started forming.."

The child, with a forced smile on his face and tears running from his eyes, stumbled down the mountain. How much time passed? We weren't sure because the child wasn't cognizant anymore. He was like a little robot, his mind having retreated deep inside.

I stepped forward and looked into the distance to see a figure. He was coming up the slope because he had gone on a hike with hopes of summiting.

"I know this part," I muttered, my eyes watering for entirely different reasons.

"You better. This is where the memories that were yours started."

That man--that hero--noticed the tiny person stumbling down the frigid mountain wrapped in nothing but cloaks and sprinted toward him as well as he could.

"Larry..." I said, unable to wipe my eyes.

Larry, a nice unassuming man with kind blue eyes, and smile lines marking his face, got on his knees in front of the child. He was wearing a black beanie and a black and orange snow jacket.

"Little boy? Where are your parents?" he asked. It was one of many questions he asked, but one of the few I had actually registered.

"I got a headache there," I said.

"Because you were allowed to know you had a parent, but you couldn't recall her well. You knew you came from an organization, but that was it."

"I felt terrified," I followed.

Larry kept working on the child, pulling off his jacket and wrapping the child in it.

"Thank you..." the child said.

"Ahh! Little boy, hey, do you have a name? What's your name? Can you understand me?"

The child nodded. "I do..."

"What's your name?" Larry asked, relieved he was making progress.

"Fainn."

Larry smiled. "Fainn... Alright, Fainn, what are you doing up here, my man?"

"I have to get to the town at the foot of the mountain."

"The town?"

It was hard to tell what exactly went through Larry's mind at that moment. He nodded and laughed. "Yeah, alright. We're going back to town! Come on!"

Larry took the child's hand and started walking with him down the mountainside.

"Sorry I can't carry you, my man. I don't want both of us to fall, okay?"

The child was silent.

"We'll go to town, and we'll find out about your parents, okay? Hopefully, they just got separated from you on the passes, and you'll reunite with them."

"But as we know," Fainntwo said, "that never happened. But, to his credit--"

"Larry was a Hero. He took me into his family."

The scene warped and became warmer as image after image flashed across us.

"We got a sister, got to play games and have fun. We got to go to school. We got to make friends. We got to go to so many places and see all kinds of things... We got to have a really good life."

Fainntwo took his turn to hold my shoulder. "It was the best life for as long as it lasted."

With that, Fainntwo and I left the memory.