[Now entirely locked out of Illumination Antiques, a solemn and visually unkempt Albert Lamplight sits on the curbside adjacent to the store – as far as he’s allowed to go. In his hand, a familiar artifact that has brought him to a crossroads of uncertainty.]
“I… should be happy, right?”
[Of course, there’s no one around to respond to Albert.]
“Nobody thought I could get through Jinx, especially her – but I did. At the dawn of Red Snow, my treasured pen is back in my possession, and she saw what a motivated Lamplight is capable of!!”
[His voice echoes into the darkness.]
“I should be ecstatic and yet – here I am. Just a lowly storeowner who let a bunch of muscle get the best of him. And, even when all of it initially happened, I just… stood there and took it. I let them take away everything from me and didn’t raise a blasted fingah!”
[Albert kicks a couple of stones in front of him to let out the anger – but this illusion of anger was just despair in disguise.]
“I showed them my weaknesses before my strengths because I was scared – and even though I sit here fresh off the victory that I needed, and she needed to see, I still – sit here. On this lonely curb, stranded like a helpless street animal, staring at everything that belongs to me.”
[Albert lets out a deep sigh and shakes his head.]
“I’ve spent too long waiting for things to happen for me though – expecting that the next passerby would always pick me up. Perhaps one would say that I happily took on Gemini to accompany me along this strange adventure – and perhaps they’re right. Truth is? I’m a lonely man in a big place, and there was comfort in her leadership.”
“But this leadership was nothing but a farce – a way in.”
“I should be happy because I have this back.” [Lamplight stares at the pen.] “But I’ve won nothing and here I sit – in a state of limbo.”
[Albert looks up at the state of his store – dark, abandoned, dead.]
“You are that limbo, Gemini.”
“You hold everything that I am – everything that I could ever be – in a state of suspended animation. With that kind of control, you become the decision-maker of my destiny. With just three smacks of the mat, you take over a legacy that was never intended to be taken over.”
[Albert looks down with a sigh, shaking his head.]
“With that kind of control, you can also manipulate it into whatever you want it to be – everything and absolutely anything that my store wasn’t intended for!”
[Albert, now a little bit more determination, gets back to his feet.]
“And that’s why I can’t allow you to keep being that limbo in my life, Gemini.”
“As badly as you want to find your way further into my everything, there are just some things you cannot have because…”
[Albert takes a pause, before he starts to move closer to the Illumination Antiques. His fear, seemingly gone for the moment. Once he reaches the gateline, he stops again.]
“Because… I should be happy.”
“And, I will be.”