All places are alike, and every earth is fit for burial.

This one contains massive spoilers for December onwards. It’s also an alternative look at the ending of the game, if everything went horribly wrong.

The title is taken from the 31 Days theme for February 17, 2008.

Adachi realizes, not for the first time, that the main danger of doing what he has been doing for the duration of the year is that once you’ve started diving low, you can’t help but keep going lower. It’s the reverse to attempting to reach all new heights, like trying to top whatever nasty shit you’ve tried with even nastier shit, trying to make yourself reach a point where you could see the underbelly of everything and feel nothing but an odd twitch at the edge of your mouth, the kind you get before you need to yawn. Massively.

This latest trip, however, came pretty damned close to making him happy. There was something sweet, really sweet, about watching those brats just on the edge of the Fold, picking them off one by one in the dark corners of the TV world, crushing the survivors when they finally came to face him. He saved Doujima’s brat, of course, for last, and didn’t bother landing the killing blow. Wrapped him up nice and tight in yellow tape, mouth wedged open, screaming ‘CAUTION’ without sound. Blindfolding, though, isn’t an option. It’s so much better when they can see everything you’re doing. It’s so much nicer, seeing tears fill those eyes when you move in close, press in deep, and shove, and shove, and shove.

Doujima comes to mind, just briefly, as Adachi breaks a finger/teases the tip of that cock, feels the smaller body beneath him shudder and writhe in his grip. He wonders, as he licks the salt off the skin just at the nape of Souji’s neck and hears the crisp crinkle of the police tape as the other strains against it, if the old man would kill to be a part of this one. He always thought the sucker was a little too fruity for his own good.