The door didn’t open.
It simply ceased to be.
One moment it was wood and iron,30Please respect copyright.PENANAb3PEwgaUR6
the next, a hole in the world through which meaning spilled sideways.
The thing that entered wasn’t a guest.30Please respect copyright.PENANAD1K0GJj45l
It wasn’t a thing.
It was hunger braided with memory.30Please respect copyright.PENANAx765Nw0u8y
Shape wrapped in concept.30Please respect copyright.PENANA15YMLypUZe
Its presence cracked the edges of the bottles, though they made no sound.
Even the fire shrank.30Please respect copyright.PENANARDMQS3ih0D
Not in fear.30Please respect copyright.PENANAFJ55uJEyxA
But in reverence.
It did not move.30Please respect copyright.PENANA8z7hf9xz76
Movement implies direction.30Please respect copyright.PENANA5am7f4J3X8
It arrived in all directions at once.
There was no voice.30Please respect copyright.PENANAbs61hf96rn
No words.
But I understood:
“You collect them.30Please respect copyright.PENANAICM3kPnos8
You keep what would be forgotten.30Please respect copyright.PENANAHbtoXaKDLq
You hoard the echoes.30Please respect copyright.PENANA4DZP3AaKUf
Why?”
I didn’t answer with my mouth.
I thought of every guest.
The broken, the joyful, the unfinished.30Please respect copyright.PENANAlu9PthB6IP
The ones who stayed. The ones who left half-healed.30Please respect copyright.PENANA3axuXh7MiM
The ones no one else remembered.
I thought of the ledger.
I thought of the fire.
And I thought of the chair that is always empty but never alone.
The thing paused.
Or maybe the universe did.
Then, without form, it offered something.
A sound.30Please respect copyright.PENANAtliOlhuvVY
A glyph.30Please respect copyright.PENANArwyxmwVK7n
A flavor that tasted like entropy and lullabies.
I did not drink it.
I bowed.
And I said:
“Not everything is meant to vanish.”
It left through the ceiling.
The door was back. Whole again. But warmer.
The tavern has not shifted since.
But the stars over the window blinked a little slower that night.
And I brewed a drink I could not name.
I have not served it.
Yet.
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