I climbed the mountain that sloped downwards, where my youth and sincerity evaporated from my body like the city was a stove. As I wandered higher and higher through the labyrinth, my soul fell lower and lower.

I peered into rooms where countless youths had ensnared themselves, but when none of us knew it. They had been drawn in within the walls, impregnated with false hopes and aspirations. Away from the gardens of youth, they were given free reign of themselves and all fell down just the ways they were meant to.

//

At the top, at the end of innumerable hallways and staircases, was not what I had hoped to find.