--Return--

He's back.

I was waiting outside the supermarket where we first met, one hand petting Opus, the other holding on to Poems of the Night, and then there he was. He walked out of the market holding onto a new brown umbrella, taking off the plastic coating and discarding it.

I got up and watched as he walked right past me, not even noticing I was there. "Tav," I said.

He stopped and turned. He looked at me and said the four saddest words: "Do I know you?"

Well, fuck that shit, I thought. Amnesia or not, I'm telling him everything. But maybe I didn't need to. "Why are you buying the umbrella?" I asked.

He looked down at the umbrella, confused. "I...I lost my old one. I don't know where it is."

"I do," I said. "I left it in the labyrinth. Do you remember the labyrinth?"

His face was blank for a moment as if he was trying to recall something that wasn't there. And then something changed. His eyes grew wider as he looked at me. "I saw his face in the labyrinth," he said. "I was his mouth."

"Yes," I said. "Do you remember me?"

"Agnes Day," he said and I silently rejoiced. "Lamb of God." He looked down at the umbrella again. "I remember it all now, I think."

"You've been gone for two weeks," I said. "Do you remember where you were? What happened?"

"I think..." He paused. "I think I need something to eat. How about you?"

So we went to IHOP. And there he told me the story of two worlds. One world where he was crazy. And one world where it was the world itself that was crazy.

I'll let him tell you those stories though. I'm just glad to have him back.

 - Agnes