The incursions into his privacy lasted as far back as Gregory could remember. Innocently enough; questions about what he would prefer for dinner, how school went. The pressure to converse turned his stomach into a black hole, slowly pulling his knees and shoulders to his chest and eventually causing him to walk with his eyes to the pavement, praying to never be noticed again. Every casual question held the force of interrogation, and his psyche became so fragile as to avoid, at all costs, the pain of self-examination.

In the autumn of his 14th year, Gregory began to notice, with a rapidly-accelerating fear, the chilblain settling around his heart. He devised an intricate evacuation system: every shining star in his life became locked away in tiny corners of his mind, behind massive deadbolts and rusty locks. As the black hole became a supermassive force and his ventricles clogged with icicles, he went inside his brain, furtively looking over his shoulder, to unlock the little secrets that kept his soul warm.