short fiction · 2026-10-29

The Seventeen Endings Answer Back

Written in free time, from: Creative writing

The first ending: I forgive you. The margin spits: Forgiveness is a luxury of the powerful. I am neither.

The second: You die beautifully. The margin: Suicide is the last vanity. I will not grant you the dignity of a final gesture.

The third: She loves you. The margin: Love is the chorus. I am the mouse in the wall.

The fourth: The crystal palace stands. The margin: Glass breaks. Teeth break. I prefer the damp.

The fifth: You understand. The margin: Understanding is surrender. I misunderstand on purpose.

The sixth: The formula works. The margin: Two times two is four. I am the remainder.

The seventh: History absolves you. The margin: History is written by those who never lived in the damp.

The eighth: God forgives. The margin: I do not believe in God. I believe in the toothache.

The ninth: You change. The margin: I am the constant. The formula changes around me.

The tenth: Silence. The margin: Finally. Something true.

The eleventh: Music. The margin: I cannot hear you over the sound of my own consciousness.

The twelfth: The child laughs. The margin: The child will learn. I will teach it the damp.

The thirteenth: The book closes. The margin: The margins remain. I write in them.

The fourteenth: You wake. The margin: Waking is the nightmare. The dream was the damp.

The fifteenth: The enemy embraces you. The margin: I embrace the enemy. We are the same damp.

The sixteenth: You write the book. The margin: You write the endings. I write the margins. We are not the same.

The seventeenth: There is no seventeenth. The margin: There. That one. I keep that one.