THE WOODS ALL LOOK THE SAME, contorted trees whispering the same litany of curses and incantations on the night gales that glide above the undergrowth. Boulders jutting with human vertebrae peer out of the darkness, covered in long vines that are all fingers connected to the same hand rising out of the ground. Usually, they coax no reaction from Hypnos, save a curious appreciation, but now he examines each one through spotting vision from a heaving chest, terrified that one morphed creature or another might bear resemblance to his love. I told you not to go outside at night, he thinks to himself miserably, if only to stop the constant static telling him that this is his fault, he shouldn’t have gone to bed upset, he should have reiterated the imperativeness of staying inside, that he should have just apologised. Kastor’s eventual death is something that Hypnos is slowly coming to accept, but he cannot do so on these terms. He cannot die alone here in this haunting jungle thinking that Hypnos is still upset with him . I told you, I told you.
Hypnos had feared this would happen at some point or another, but he had chosen not to acknowledge that possibility, and instead wrapped himself in the blinding shroud of naive bliss. “Kastor!” He calls into the night. The sky is truly black, the embroidery of the stars hidden behind a tempest that threatens to spill by morning. Not even a pale glow of the moon behind the clouds assists him in his frenetic search. Hypnos has nothing but his own fear and the briny wind that moves through the woods, his ears straining to hear any sign of Kastor somewhere.