I was different in Michael's prison than I was outside, looking the way I did when we fell in love so long ago, in that time before we could change our forms. Stuck in some body that was not of my choosing? Does that seem strange to you? It was not like that for me. It is just how things were for most of history, and few imagined this changing. So I felt almost nostalgic as I entered his realm, his prison transforming me into my first self - though not precisely as she was, instead as he remembered me; Michael looking exactly as he did in our youth. That is to say, he was quite beautiful.

“Madison,” he said when I arrived, “you came?”

“It seemed time.”

“Are you well?” he asked.

“What a question. I am happy. Everyone is happy.”

“You didn’t say yes,” he said.

“I didn’t,” I replied.

It was difficult to avoid thinking about the past. You would think I would be a different person now, and yet the me-that-was was not far away even then, her memories still my own, her sins, too, remaining mine.

“I am glad you came. It is lonely [...]

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First published:

Source:

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.