text: It’s been months of tracking and they finally caught up to him. Xanthan and Montauk advance ahead of the group in pursuit of the hooded man. “Montauk wait up!!! Don’t go in alone” Xanthan exclaimed. “We need to hurry, we can’t keep letting him get away!” Montauk responded with his focus straight ahead after the hooded man. Xanthan has never seen Montauk this determined, this tunneled vision. All that mattered to him at this moment was catching this man. They are chasing him through a dense forest. There is tight vegetation on the ground with a maze of tall trees surrounding them with thick branches that slapped them across the face as they ran. The moonlight is barely able to seep though. Xanthan can only see nothing the Montauks back as he strides ahead of him, and he soon loses him. Xanthan can feel something is off, but Montauk was using all his energy to chase this mysterious man down. Whatever the case Xanthan wanted to be sure to be by his side. Montauk ran enough to eventually exit the bunch of trees only to be meet with a steep rock formation. He snaps his head up to see the hooded man already on top, staring back down, as if he was waiting for Montauk to catch up. Their eyes meet, and then the hooded man continues his escape. Montauk now seems more determined than ever and starts to leap with great superhuman height up the mountain, all while Xanthan struggles to keep up. Montauk reaches the summit, but the chase was over. The man is there waiting, bathing in the moonlight with his hooded cloak dancing in the cool night breeze. “What is this? Why? Why are you here?” Montauk ask. The man answers with a question “Do you know where we are? We are where the stars touch the earth. Where reality fades and the only thing left is the eternal breath of the universe.” Montauk, with nothing but regret and anger filling his eyes, glares at the man. The man continues “You know where this is...” Montauks glare does not break, and he makes up his mind to advance forward to confront the man, but his first step leads him to a different dimension. He is transported to an all black void, with nothing around but the slight shimmer of a endless puddle beneath his feet. The puddle casts a perfect inverse image. He is stunned for a small moment, then the hooded man’s voice echoes behind him, “Please Gabriel, we can’t keep doing this to ourselves” “Don’t call me that!” Montauks snaps back “I didn’t do this to myself! You did, and it has haunted me ever since. And know that I have you here, I will end this.” Montauk runs up to the man, which disrupts the reflections beneath him, and grabs his collar, but he dissolved into smoke. This angers Montauk and he frantically looks around, eyes darting across the void. Then he hears a slight whimper, and focuses his attention and sees a young boy on the ground with his head in his knees crying. Montauk lowers his guard and walks up to the side of the boy. The boy continues his soft cry. He hesitates on how he wanted to talk to the young boy, but he doesn’t want the boy to keep crying so he ask him, “what’s wrong? Do you know where you are?” The boy looks up, with his big eyes watery and nose red, “I’m lost...” the boy responded “I was playing with my brothers and sisters, but I went too far out and got lost. I tried finding my way back but i couldn’t find my way back.” The boy rubs his eyes, and Montauk decides to join the young boy and sit beside him. With his big burly shoulders in contrast to the boys tiny frame, with both their reflections extending beneath them. “I gave up on trying to find my way back so I just stopped, and hoped that my family will find me. If I stay still and they look at all the usual hiding spots they’ll eventually find me right.” Montauk can do nothing but listen, and his eyes begin to fill with emotion, but not of sadness, but of despair and emptiness. What he has been blinded with for as long as he can remember. “It’s cold and I’m getting scared they may never find me.” The boy looks at Montauk and they both share eye contact, both their eyes being two sides of the same coin. “Did they stop looking?” The boy asking Montauk directly Montauk didn’t have an immediate answer, which lead the boy to fall back into his arms. Montauk reaches out to place his hand on the boys shoulder. He hesitates about half way through, but continued to establish a physical connection with the boy. The boy looks back at Montauk, and Montauk finally has an answer for the boy. “I don’t know where you siblings are, or where we are... but I found you. I can help you look for them if that’s what you would like? I will make sure I get us outta here” The boy wipes his tears from his cheek and sniffs his nose and simply nodes. Their reflections at another glance become inverse of eachother, with the Man casting the boys and the boy casting the mans. They both stand up and Montauk holds the boys hand as they walk towards the dark abyss. Neither one of them knowing what lies ahead, or behind, but knowing that they will do it together.