Chapter Twenty-Nine: Home

"So how do we get to the House of Forgiveness?" Tulip asked. "In fact, how did we get here? One moment we were in that freaky stair house-"

"The logistics don't matter," the writer said. "Anything I tell you would be nonsense, since that is how the world here works. Traveling between realms, domains, pocket universes, whatever, its unpredictable and better if none of us question how it happens. Got it?"

Tulip raised an eyebrow. "Sure, you're the boss," she said.

"And as for your first question," the writer said, "there is a simple way to get to the House of Forgiveness. In fact, you've been there before."

"I have?" Tulip said.

"We all have," the writer said. "The House of Forgiveness is the hardest of the Five Mansions, but the easiest to find. It goes by a different name though."

The writer turned to me and he wasn't smiling now. He looked sad and alone, clutching his notebook to the side of his chest.

"Home," he said. "We're going home."

There was no spinning sensation like last time. There was no sensation at all. I didn't feel anything. I didn't see anything. I just opened my eyes.

I woke up.

I was in my bed, in my apartment, in my world. I was home. Of course. I had never left.