I'm sure, now. I wasn't before, but I'm sure now. They're coming. It's coming. Coming for me.

Who? Oh, you know, don't pretend. They took you, too. And then They made you like Them. That's the worst part. You were special, a spot of color in a dark world, but They took you and dragged you down under the ground and made you like Them.

You're Gray now. I'm sorry.

I'm alone. I have to fight for myself. I can hear Them, see Them, feel Them already beginning to take control. Icy tendrils of darkness creeping into my mind. They push their way through all of the cracks and gaps, and it's like trying to plug up the holes in a sinking ship while water rushes in and you know you're going down, know you're sinking, and oh, God, I can't stop it, can't keep it out, I can't, I can't!

I can't do this.


My mind clears. It's funny. I have a front row seat. I can watch as I am drained of color, of reason, of myself and filled back up with emptiness. Apathy is setting in, a crushing weight on my chest stifling all resistance. Maybe I'm already too far gone.

They have me.

Yes, They have me. Snatches of song, fragments of memories, names and faces of friend and foe alike - they're all fading, now. Even you have almost been completely wiped from my mind.The Gray does not discriminate. It knows only sameness. My hands are cold. The Gray is cold.

They've gotten all but my very core, now. Inside this cold, lifeless husk lives a single spark. If I can bury it deep enough, down beneath layer after layer of sameness, maybe it will go unnoticed - and survive? Survive. You would have liked that, I think. Before. A small rebellion, you would have said.

But...rebellion against... against what? I can't... I can't remember...

No, I remember, I remember the spark.

Spark? What spark? There is no spark.

<the spark the COLOR i remember i remember YOU>

There is no 'I.' There is no 'you.'

<im losing it im sorry imsorry>

There is only the Gray.

<sorryifailedyouifailedyouimsorry>

There is only the Gray.

<i am...>

THERE IS ONLY THE GRAY.

I am the Gray.