[ WP ] Begin and end your story with this sentence : `` And yet , the city remained . ''

And yet the city remained… The city of my dreams, the once proud Carcosa. Oh sweet and decrepit Carcosa! Sing to me your aria of death and decay! As I walked the cobblestone streets, I felt eyes upon me and heard whispering voices from the darkened windows, but I saw not a soul. How everything hides in Carcosa. The buildings lining the street seemed to me things menacing and alive causing me to quicken my step. On the horizon the twin suns hung low above the black Lake Hali. Their dull light glinting off the still water below. A heavy air clung to everything. It was thick to breathe and hinted of something earthy and overripe. The city slow hummed with a strange energy that cloyed at the senses. It tickled at the base of my skull and would surely drive me mad, but not before my audience with the King in Yellow. This I vowed. 
 
 For hours I walked the streets towards great Hastur Hall where the King in Yellow sat upon his golden throne. As dusk descended upon the city and the black stars appeared in the sky, a weariness came over me and I sat for a moment on a bench in an empty square. I closed my eyes and dreamed of Cassilda walking the marbled floors of Hastur in her long brocade gown. How such an angel could be mired in the sins of man! Oh how I longed to see the King in Yellow and gaze upon the pallid mask. I dreamt of the once proud city of Carcosa, which, now, in all of its faded glory seemed to creep up upon the shores of the black lake Hali in a deadened embrace. It was a thing alive and unnatural. 
 
 For how long I slumbered on that bench, I do not know. I was woken in the darkness by the sounds of footsteps and the tapping of a scepter on stone. And there he was, the King in Yellow come to meet his loyal subject who had traveled so far. Around him languidly danced the fair Cassilda and Camille. Thin as death they were. Oh how my heart leapt to see this mighty trio. To be in the presence of the King in Yellow. As the King came closer his tattered robes swirled with a life of their own and enveloped me. When he lifted his silken pallid mask and revealed his eyes that were not eyes, I could not help but look… For what man would not want to plumb the depths of Yhtill forever? And yet the city remained. 

