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It’s quiet here.
That’s how it’s been, though, so you aren’t too concerned. And Omori, your friend, has always been quiet. You don’t bat an eye at his silence, either. You’re happy he’s here, at least and at last. It had been scary on your own with only these watermelons as company.
You follow Omori, your friend, because as soon as he’s found you, he wordlessly starts leading the way through this maze of watermelons you’ve grown. And you think, This probably means he knows the way out. This doesn’t surprise you if it’s true. Of course your friend Omori should know how to get out of here. If anyone did, it would be him. You’ve always believed in him.
Everything is going to be okay now.
All of your watermelons dotting this shadowed landscape break open at the smallest poke. The slightest provocation. All Omori has to do is reach out and touch one for it to explode. Then watermelon juice splats across the ground with an odd, squelchy sound. The skin of the watermelon cracks apart, split open like there are jagged teeth up and down its sides. Ruptured. You watch, over and over again, as watermelon innards spill out in thick, red, piecey chunks. It bleeds against your toes.
You watch Omori as he pokes and destroys several more watermelons, all right in a row. Touch, burst. Touch, burst. Touch, burst.
You consider asking him if there’s a method to this. If he’s breaking the watermelons in an order or pattern. Maybe there’s something he’s looking for. Maybe there’s a way you could help. Or maybe Omori’s just waiting for something to—
—happen.
And something does.
You’re not sure how. You’re not sure why.
But suddenly, one minute, you’re staring at the back of your friend’s head.
And the next, there’s a 
You’re so glad your friend Omori found you! Wow. You had thought you’d never get down from that spider web. Tight and sticky and—
Everything is going to be okay now.
This is a strange place. The floor is blue. The trees burn neon pink. Reptilian skeletons slither across the sky, and you don’t like to watch them because looking at them reminds you of that tickling feeling running up and down your bare calves as the spiders here decide they want to be your friend. They’re just saying hello, you say. Spiders are much more afraid of you than you are of them.
There sure are a lot of them.
It’s harder to keep calm when they start crawling along your collar. You consider calling out to Omori for help. Maybe he could knock a few off. You don’t know if you want to disturb him, though. He’s frowning; he looks like he’s trying to concentrate. It must be very difficult to find the way out of here; you’re not sure where you are or how you managed to get to this dark, labyrinthian world.
It’s getting harder and harder to keep quiet. You really want to talk. You really want to ask for help. You really—
You really think there’s 
Something important.
The instant you open your mouth to ask for Omori’s help—
—the spiders slip inside your mouth.
They settle on your tongue.
Several fuzzy feet dart down the back of your throat.
don’t.
Oh, there’s Omori! Finally! It’s been lonely all this way up here with only the old treehouse for company. The sky above you is bleak and gray; you wish you had your other friends here, too, to make the loneliness go away. You ask Omori if Aubrey, Kel, and Hero are with him. As usual, he doesn’t answer. He stares into the billowing clouds in the distance.
That’s okay. You ask to go home and you know he’ll take you there. Omori’s your friend. He’s always been your friend for as long as you can remember. Everything is going to be okay now.
The elevator you find is convenient.
Too bad Omori is always so quiet. It would make the long elevator ride back down (up?) to your destination shorter and more enjoyable if your friend Omori talked to you for once. Actually, now that you think about it, you think you have 
anyway. Maybe you can use this opportunity to clear the air? There’s been 
It’s not the first close of the elevator doors on your neck that kills you.
It’s not the moment after your breath has been choked out of you, when you realize you’re stuck because your body never made it out of the elevator.
It’s the second.
You’re lucky that your friend Omori found you. You’ve been hiding in that tree stump for so long, unsure of where to go in this colorless forest, and who might be trustworthy, and how you could ever be safe, but you should feel safe now. Your friend Omori is here. Maybe you can take that raft on the river north and ride out of here together. You can’t wait to see Kel, Hero, and Aubrey again. You’ve missed your friends so much.
Omori is quiet. He barely even looks at you. He brushes past you to head through the clearing.
You ask him if you’ve done something wrong.
The raft wobbles as you both step on to it. At first, you’re afraid you might fall into the water—but then Omori sits down, and the raft goes still. It feels safe enough for you to plop down beside him.
You travel through the first cave okay. And actually, you start to think it’s not so bad: this little river ride.
It’s quiet. But Omori has always been quiet.
Your stomach settles badly, like you ate something recently that didn’t agree with you. But you tell yourself that’s just an effect of this dark wood because it’s so scary and not because there’s 
You tell Omori that you don’t like this place. You confide in him that it doesn’t feel safe here.
You don’t feel safe.
You should feel safe.
Why don’t you feel safe?
Your friend Omori is here. You’re together. Everything is going to be okay.
You ask him if you can talk to him about 
just as the next cavern begins to loom overhead and casts you in heavy shadows.
You don’t see the gleam of a knife, but you feel its cut. Quick and fast. It happens in an instant, and you didn’t think it should be so easy to compare the 
Hey! Omori’s here! This place may seem pretty familiar—all bright and cotton-candy colored like Neighbor’s Room—but there’s something about it that isn’t the same. You’ve been looking through your photo album to pass the time until your friend Omori can find you. You’re so glad he’s here. Really!
He takes you to the swingset. It’s nice to ride it for a bit. This place is still strange and slightly off to you, even though it looks familiar, but at least for one moment, while you’re swinging beside your best friend, you can pretend everything is normal again.
You find Hero first, which is a good sign. Probably. Hero has always been the big older brother of the group, not just to Kel. It’s comforting to see him.
He doesn’t say anything.
That’s okay, you tell yourself. That doesn’t change the fact he’s still happy to see us.
The bridge of red hands he crosses is new.
But that’s fine, you tell yourself again as you sprint around Omori and chase after Hero. Hero walks across the hands with ease, with a confidence that you yourself don’t feel, but you earnestly try to mimic, because if Hero thinks these hands are friends and fine and safe, then they probably are friends. And fine. And safe.
Speaking of your friends—
You find them.
At long last, you’ve found them. Omori did it! He led you home! Hero joins Aubrey and Kel as you greet them. You ask them if they’ve missed you. You offer a good laugh.
It isn’t until they turn to face you that you think something might be wrong.
Kel has several different sport balls by his side. He’s always been the most athletic out of all of you, with his endless, energizer bunny-energy. You’ve always hated having to play dodgeball against him—and when he throws the first ball at you, hitting your shoulder hard enough to bruise, you remember why.
This—
isn’t right.
What’s going on?
Hero blows a whistle. And for the first time, you start to think—
Maybe you’re still in danger. Maybe these aren’t your friends.
Worse: maybe your friends hate you.
You turn to run.
Omori is there. Oh good! Maybe Omori can help you. Maybe Omori can defend you. He’s good at fighting. He has that knife. Why isn’t he pulling it out to defend you?
And then—
You don’t hear the hard crack of Aubrey’s bat colliding with the back of your skull, but you feel it. Just before everything 
It’s cold here.
That’s how it’s been, though, so you aren’t too concerned. And Omori, your friend, has always been a little cold. You don’t bat an eye at the chill of his stare, either. You’re happy he’s here, at least and at last. Maybe he can help cut you down from this shadowy web you’re held in at the forefront of this church in place of an altar. He has that trusty knife of his, doesn’t he? He should be able to save you.
It is really, really cold.
Omori approaches you like he has all the time in the world.
At first, with his black hair, you don’t see him walk down the aisle. You wonder if what you see are moving shadows before you spy the pale gleam of his skin. Relief washes over you. You’re saved! Is Omori surprised to see you here? You’re not sure how to explain this one. You don’t know how you got here.
Omori doesn’t look at you. He seems distracted.
There’s someone else talking to him. From behind him. A stranger you can’t make out because they look indistinguishable from the dark, save for their two bright moons for eyes. You know the instant they step up the stairs towards you because it surprises you. You’re expecting your friend. You’re expecting Omori to reach you first because surely he wants to save you.
Instead, you’re reunited with yourself.
And it’s funny, because you hadn’t been aware there had been another half of you somewhere. You’re reminded: maybe that’s what you were trying to find all along. Your shadow. The shadow you didn’t know about, wandering around without you, just like in Peter Pan. Thankfully, you’ve found it and tied it to your feet again. Thankfully, you have it back.
Is that good? It doesn’t free you. If anything, the darkness grows bigger and thicker and heavier around you after you’re whole again. If anything, it makes your situation worse.
You’re starting to be swallowed up.
It’s getting harder to breathe.
You look up as you hear quiet footsteps on the stairs. Socked feet that should silence all sound except for the way wood creaks under a body’s weight. And you know what that sounds like; you know painfully well—
When you look, you can see your friend. Taking his time to come toward you. But there’s something in his eyes.
You see something—
You’re being swallowed up by that 
By the darkness. You are posed like a sacrifice, offered up to be disposed of—
because this was never really about you in the first place, was it?
You represent something else: that which your friend can’t remember. So you suffer while Omori watches you. All while your friend—
No.
Not your friend.
You remember, now. Just like you remember so many other things. Maybe you remember it all because you have your shadow back. Maybe this means you are now equipped to carry your guilt. Maybe because you no longer have to chase after half-forgotten memories, the copper can settle thick and heavy on your tongue.
There is something dark at the edge of your vision, at the back of your mind. Always there because you’re always sorry. The weight of a body in your hands. The scratch of a rope. You remember, you remember, you remember, you remember—
and that’s when it hits you.
Just before the darkness swallows you while your friend Omori watches on expressionlessly—just until it covers up all of you but your right eye—the idea occurs to you, glimmering 
That’s right.
Your real friend’s name is 