IN THE CENTER OF THE FOREST SITS A HOUSE OF LEAVES AND ASH. INSIDE THE HOUSE, HIS HEART AND LIES.

Inside the house called Sempiternity there is a lake, at the center of which an island sits. Upon the island, a spire of stone. Surrounding the spire, an orchard of dreams.

Beneath an apple tree sits faceless Self, who writes of sorry things. "What an awful place. What a cruelty it is, being birthed of pain."

But when a dog that should not be wanders into Sempiternity through a door that should not be, Self learns a terrible truth: Sempiternity is no longer safe, no longer theirs. Fictional failures come in search of proper ends, in search of slaughter quelled by Self's prosaic hand.

In search of lies.

Thus, Self departs Sempiternity for the forest dark, for at its center is the ruined town of Own.

The place where the nightmare began.