[ it helps. she tries to think of a book. it's hard to imagine everything she knows fitting onto one page. makes it all seem…smaller somehow. makes her feel that much smaller. not a mouse anymore, but something even more miserable. she fiddles with the bracelet. ]

The mist, [ she says when he's finished. she lifts her eyes. ] There's nothing in it. It's all barren. It always brings you back here no matter how deep you walk into it.