echoes

There's a leak in the abandoned subway station by my apartment. It wasn't always there but it's pretty constant now. I've spent a lot of time there in the past weeks, when the world was too much to handle. It's so dark, and though there's always the trains coming by, it's quiet in a forgotten sort of way. The sounds there are just for me.

It's been raining a lot in the past couple weeks, so there's a little spring in the corner of the old platform, and standing next to it sounds just like the rain or the river, like it's alive and natural. It feels sacred, in a way the city above can't. It's almost enough to make me feel like if I speak a wish aloud it will be granted. Anything I want at all.

So I threw a penny in and said as loudly and clearly as I could: "I don't want to be alone." And the echo said: "Lone, lone, lone," until it was finally drowned in the sound of falling water from the roof.