You need to get out of here too, Tim. Maybe she can help you with what you're looking for and get us all out of here for good. If not, well, at least she'll be good company. But she shouldn't stay here long either.

Maybe I'm wrong, but Polaris seems opposed to the darkness, and the bad things that the darkness brings. Maybe anyone who's not working with the darkness is potentially useful to her, so she just reaches out. Or maybe she just likes you. [ He offers a half smile but it's his tone that sounds lighter and a little happier for just a second. ]

Making things brighter, making the darkness less... dark. Jesse could explain it all a lot better. That's probably another reason why you should meet her.

[ Alan just stands there quietly while Tim ponders his question. He watches the sheriff glancing back at the crazy board, watching and waiting as Tim processes the question and forms an answer.

Part of him thinks Tim wouldn't have gotten as lost in the darkness as he has. He'd think it through, looking for the different possibilities and angles and take what looks like the most straightforward one. He probably wouldn't have created so many loops and turns for himself. Not that it matters, as thinking in theoreticals doesn't change Alan's present reality. ]

Yeah, that all sounds right. The genre, though... is it my genre or the genre that the story wants? I'm not really a horror writer, you know? The story is a horror story but I wouldn't write it that way.

[ He pauses and rubs his forehead. ]

Maybe it needs to be a horror story in order for it to work, but... what if it didn't? It doesn't matter, because that's the story we have, but what if it was a thriller adventure story instead?

I don't know. There's no point in speculating about it, really. I just have to work with what I have.