The Holder of Unrequited Love

Whenever you live now, dare yourself to go on a journey. You must go back to the house of a long-forgotten love. If the door is locked, break it down. If there are people living there, do not answer their enraged inquiries of why you have broken into the house. Simply walk straight to the living room or the place you understand to be the center of the house. If the place is now torn down, stand in the center of the ground where it once stood.

You will feel wind on your face. Do not attempt to shield yourself; if you do, the wind will turn to any one of the five elements. It all depends on you. Close your eyes and wait for the wind to subside. When it does, open your eyes. The house will be intact, albeit devoid of life. Seek the bedroom of your first love. If you move to any other room before going straight to her room, you will never escape, and you will discover those that dwell there now. The Object will be out of your reach.

If you reach the room, knock on the door and say, "I'm here to see something, that's all." If silence remains, you're doomed; the next step will make you fall into a catatonic state of melancholic despair, lying motionless on the floor for eternity. You'd best kill yourself while you still have the chance.

But if she responds with anything, even "Leave me alone!", you must enter. You are one step closer to your goal. She will be standing there as you have always remembered her in your fantasies, your dreams, your memories. She will ask you what you want to see. If your silence lasts longer than five seconds, you have failed. Right after she asks this, you must ask the question, "What other path could have been chosen?"

She will get angry with you, saying that there was nothing that could have happened between the two of you. This will fill you with sadness. Keep repeating the question, and each time she replies with, "Nothing could have happened," but continue to say it louder. Eventually, she will stop and shed a single tear. She will then tell you tales of all the unrequited love ever felt amongst humans, countless stories of tear-streaked grins and hopeless wishes on star-soaked nights: every longing look passed, every trembling, heaving chest. You will grow sick with the weight of thousands of burnt love letters pressing into your stomach, yearning to be read. As the heat grows and scorches your soul, you will want more than anything to end all of this pain - but whatever you may feel upon hearing these accounts, keep a firm resolve.

Next, you must stare at her eyes. You will simultaneously want and recoil from her gaze, but your eyes must not leave hers for a time until she deems. Flames will then engulf both of you. The house will follow suit. All that you will see are the flames. Do not move or relinquish your stare at her eyes. Pain will come to you if you do either of those acts, followed by death and the flames' consumption of your soul. If you hold resolute, pain will spare you and the flames will burn the illusion away; only her body will remain. When there is nothing but blackness around you, you must then look at the black beneath your feet. You must keep yourself from thinking that it is a bottomless pit; if you do, you will fall until you die be it starvation or madness, whichever takes hold first.

She is now bare as she walks up to you. If she whispers in your ear, "We were never meant to be," you're safe. If she says anything but that, or stays silent, you're done for. She will rip out your heart either way. What determines if you can go on is if you stay intact. If you crumble when she rips your heart away, you're done. But if you stand bleeding from your chest, you must endure the pain for a little while longer. The reward is coming.

You must look at her body. She will then pull a small ring from a wound in her abdomen. You remember this wound from the old days. She will put it in your hands and then she'll close your fingers around it. Once she does this, you must shut your eyes. If you are lucky when you open them you will stand in your own room, holding the ring. Although you now know all the roads you could have and can now take to make your love possible, you won't be able to. You can only think about it as you continue your search.

The ring is Object 559 of 2538. Sometimes, the pain is the reward.