I do not know how long it took; time no longer had any meaning, but this shadow finally succeeded.
I could see how it happened, although it did not ask me any direct questions about my situation. It was patiently crossing off every other possibility, slowly tightening the noose around my neck, giving me no space to lie or shift the blame.
This feeling… as if there was nothing I could do to free myself from this trap, almost drove me insane, and there was nothing I could do but watch this black hand slowly close around the truth… and finally it was here.
"How strange…This morning… there is a strangeness on this morning," the shadow says, the sliding features going still for the first time. "There is a scar, the same hours, worn smooth. Tell me." The compulsion sharpens, reaches deeper than it has reached, down past the channels and the crystallized core, down toward the thing only the fox and I have ever carried. "How many times have you seen this morning?"
