The man walked through the shallows of his own mind, his thoughts preoccupied by the view of the giant shelf that dropped off in front of him, and the image on the edge. A man, lonely, standing still, but shivering. He approached slowly and when the man turned around, he found himself on his knees. It was himself, bent, shivering, and falling into the despair he knew intoxicated his very self. The man looked at him and said, "Look man, look at where you got. You've gone so far, and yet it's still not enough. As there are borders you may never cross. Ones you put up yourself." He smiled. "I will not pretend to be any better, but as the sand drifts from my feet and I start to sink back into the abyss below, I thank you that you have not taken as long as I would have. Oh the irony! I'm talking to myself as if I have been a lonely and delusion driven existence. Ah! But I have, and you know just as well. Because I am you, and you are me." The man winked. The man who walked up to him suddenly burst out into a fit of anger. "Who are you to make decisions for me! I am not you! You are not me! I have decided where I will end up! Not you!" The man only smiled. He said, "Look. Look at how far you've come. This is your end, you chose it for yourself. Even as you speak to me, you are dead, with nobody to bother even burying you." He chuckled. "Ah! But there is the irony. Because no one will care to bury you, as you never cared to bury them, not in your heart, nor even in your brain. Hence why I am here. The only thing you have left to keep you from truly going insane, yourself. You are alone, and that is your own fault, but it is also mine, and we must pay equally." With this, the man turned back toward the dip in the water and watched the sun set over the ethereal plain. Watched it as he slowly slipped through the sand, moving forward, into the abyss he built.