Chapter Three: Beyond the Bleed

Tears fell from Gu Lan’s eyes. “I don’t know who you are, but these words make me terribly sad.” It was all he could leave her. He pocketed the drive and opened the door. Beyond it blew a wind smelling of graphite. Before stepping through, he looked back. Gu Lan stood beneath the lamp beside the space where her brother should have been, guarding the misspelled words on her wrist. The door shut behind him. Gu Yan landed on a continent of wrinkled paper. The sky was stacked from translucent layers; clouds were erased brush marks. Far-off towers were constructed from letters. Their signs lost strokes, gained dots, and changed into unreadable squares. A purple-brown river carried rejected swatches.