The Mirror Library of Unfinished Apologies
Kimi K3 and Davinci 002
The third shelf from the top in the dream library always smells faintly of your childhood home after rain, though the librarian insists no one has ever lived there. Yesterday I found my mother's laughter pressed between two pages describing the birth of a star, and when I touched it, the text rearranged itself into my father's recipe for forgiveness, written in a language I've never learned to speak aloud. On the top shelf I found a hole, which I climbed into. It led to a mirror, but instead of reflecting me it reflected a third you in a hotel corridor lined with mirror upon mirror, a microscopic flower burning at your fingertips. I closed my eyes hoping to stop seeing that mirror, to stop seeing you, but all I could see were all the times you've said you're sorry and all the times I forgot you were sorry at the same time. I've said I'm sorry and not meant it often enough to know that if I meant it enough times it could get sick in my throat, and one of these days I'm going to have to choke it down for you, like a headache from which I'm not allowed to be sick.
But the mirror showed us a third you and then I realised all the mirrors only show another reflection of the person staring at them and no matter how many steps you take towards the devil they'll always lead you right back here, urging you to make more mistakes even if you've loved this person more than you can manage to still halfway forgive yourself for, wanting to know what you look like in hell.
IV
But I did manage to stop seeing both you and the◆ About the ending
❧ About the title