The door exploded inward.
Not shattered.
Not destroyed.
Opened.
As though something on the other side had merely become tired of waiting.
Darkness poured out.
Not blackness.
Not shadow.
Laughter.
Joy.
Pure, boundless joy.
The hand that emerged first was human.
Five fingers.
Five nails.
Nothing monstrous.
Nothing unnatural.
Except for the eyes.
Countless eyes.
Tiny ones.
Large ones.
Closed eyes.
Crying eyes.
Laughing eyes.
Thousands of them opened and blinked independently across the skin.
And every single eye was happy.
Not malicious.
Not angry.
Happy.
The Listener screamed.
Not elegantly.
Not like a cosmic being.
Not with dignity.
Like a frightened child.
"NO!"
She wrapped her arms around the girl.
Actually wrapped them around her.
Protectively.
The girl blinked.
"Miss?"
"RUN!"
The girl froze.
"Miss Listener?"
"RUN!"
The hand gripped the broken doorway.
And someone stepped through.
---
Inside the Archive, every monument went dark.
