I dug.
That was the only thing I could do.
No matter how many times the walls closed in, no matter how many times the path disappeared right in front of me, I kept digging.
There was no sky above me. No ground beneath me. No sense of direction.
Only something that refused to let me through.
And so I dug.
At some point, I stopped feeling my hands.
I remember the moment my nails broke. The dull snap, one after another.
Then the skin tore.
Then the flesh.
Then the bone.
But even that didn't matter.
Time passed.
Or maybe it didn't.
It was hard to tell.
I kept Thinking.
Dying.
Thinking again.
Watching everything fall apart, over and over, until even despair became routine.
"Never forgive, never forget."
At first, it was just a thought.
Something I repeated to myself so I wouldn't lose focus.
So I wouldn't forget the resentment I bore.
But somewhere along the way…
It stopped feeling like my own voice.
Before, everything was compressed.
Only my mind endured it.
I didn't hunger.
I didn't thirst.
I didn't even need to breathe.
I could sleep.
But I chose not to.
Because If I did...
I would never wake up again.
And if I never woke up...
I might really forget.
"…Let me stop him. There is still time."
That voice.
Calm. Steady. Unwavering.
It never changed, no matter how many times I heard it.
No matter how many times everything ended.
"If we don't stop him now… everything will be lost."
Lost.
The word echoed strangely in my mind.
After everything I had seen… everything I had watched crumble and disappear—
What was there left to lose?
"Never forgive, never forget."
The words came again.
Heavier.
Like something pressing against my thoughts.
For a moment… I hesitated.
Just for a moment.
Because beneath his voice...
I heard something else.
Something he never showed before.
Desperation.
Silence followed.
A long, suffocating silence.
And in that silence, I realized something.
Nothing had changed.
Not really.
No matter how many times he said it.
No matter how many times I tried.
It always ended the same way.
The walls would close in.
The world would burn.
Nothing will change.
"Never forgive, never forget."
The words settled into me.
Not as a reminder.
But as a conclusion.
So I answered.
"…Then let it all burn."