through the dragon's stomach

i wandered blindly through the dragon's stomach, and i realized suddenly that i could no longer feel my arms or legs or

oh god.

i was falling suddenly. my feet did not exist, nor did the stomach of the void in which i stood.

i know now what hell looks like, though i could not see just as i could not hear or smell or feel or be.

It is eons before I stop falling.

When I emerge, I see him. Fossil Type-CREMATOR the Blind King the Jack of Shadows the Blind Man.

"You have confronted the Father," the Blind Man says. "Oblivion has consumed you, and you have emerged. You are reborn."

"Bullshit," I reply.

The Blind Man studies me. "Interesting. You refuse your own reincarnation."

"You think your Joseph Campbell horseshit is going to work on me? That's not how it works, not even in his made-up, reductive fucking Hero's Journey monomyth. The hero has to let themself be consumed by oblivion. They have to make peace with it- to realize that they're one with the universe or whatever."

The Blind Man laughs. "Have you forgotten so soon? You were the one who made this all happen. We are parts of you. Parts of your story. What happens to you happens because you chose it. Do you truly think you can externalize blame onto us simply because we are the parts of yourself you do not want to see?"

He tilts his head.

"You know, Bryn, you have all the tools you need to stop this from happening to you. You are one with the universe. Every story is a mirror, and the author is always the one reflected."