The only thing standing between me and the OFF switch is the Batter and the Judge, their attention solely on me, waiting for a word.

"Have any regrets, dear Player?" the words slip easily from the Judge's mouth.

I count the twitches of his whiskers and retreat a step from them both, the Judge and the monster, the cat and the Batter, two puppets on a massive board game from which I desperately want to escape once and for all.

"Because this is your handiwork as well," he says, voice devolving into an angry hiss, "You had a hand in this tragedy." The Batter stares wordlessly, and I see monstrous jaws and blank, white eyes between my lashes but I hold onto his familiar face and will the image away. "But this situation can still be salvaged. You can still make things right."

They are both dissatisfied by my silence, but it is the Batter who comes forward and cups his hands around my face like he has so many times. "Player?"

"Where did we go wrong?" I ask, but he only shakes his head. We did not go wrong, he tells me with that gesture, not even once. Not in any of the zones, not in any of the death, not in the reuniting of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, only for it all to melt away into the futile effort it had really been from the beginning. "I believed," I say, holding onto his jersey, breathing him, "I believed in you."

Having a choice in the ending is a cruel joke, whether I decide to set free the empty world or end it. There's no other way for the world to end but in monochrome, in melancholy, in perpetual emptiness.

"It's not over," he says, looking pointedly towards the switch. "Player," he says again, letting go of me, and I fall with nothing to hold onto.

"I can't," I choke, "I can't do it. I can't choose." This is not the ending I wanted.

The ominous silence in the house of the child god tells me I must.

I have played to completion, and now I must see the game through to the end.

I think of the Queen, and her last wish.

"I just want it to be over," I say.

The Judge is disappointed. He is the only one who hasn't given up on this world, the only who can see past the supposed corruption, the only one who will fight for it now. He is the only one who can fight for it now.

"A shame," he murmurs.

It is a shame, I agree with him. I can't watch.

Nothing at all remains; even the red that stains the Batter fades away. There is only the two of us in an empty world, and the Batter is beginning to distort. I look to him-the monster overlaying the savior, both occupying the same space and speaking at the same time, calling me-and I go to him.

The Batter is thankful. His arms wrap around me in gratitude. "It's over," I tell him, "It's over."

He breathes smoke with his last sigh. It hisses from his mouth, falls, fades into white, vanishes as all things do here. My tears disappear before they touch the ground.

"I never want to see you again. Not ever."

He lets go. We approach the switch together and place our hands over top of one another, waiting, holding our breath. What comes next? We know already.

The monster has always been inside of my eyes. I look up at him and I see the Batter, just the Batter. There are many words not spoken, explanations never asked for, answers taken for granted. Words left behind.

"It's over," I say again, reassuring myself. The Batter squeezes my hand.

There is a resounding click in the darkness, and then, nothing, forever.

And finally, here we are at the end.

This was my first foray into this fandom and my first uploaded fanfiction, so it's kind of cool to have seen it through to the end.

I know the ending lacks closure; I hope it captures how some of those who played this ending felt.