It Went On

There was a young man who was lost and couldn't find his way to the town of Soute. All he could see for miles were trees and a trail that went on and on. Famished and tired, he was desperate for directions so that he could eat a nice bowl of soup and sleep on a comfortable bed. To his miraculous surprise, he saw a small cottage, isolated from civilization. He ran frantically towards it. He banged on the door, but there was no answer. He banged again, this time much louder. But again, there was no answer. He then did something he would not normally do. But this was not a normal situation, and these were not normal circumstances. The door was not locked, so he opened it.
"Hello", he said as walked into the house. There was a woman cooking, and a man sitting at the table reading a newspaper and drinking something out of a mug. He closed the door behind him because he was cold.

"I'm very sorry to be barging into your house," he continued, "but I'm looking for directions to the town of Soute. I was wondering…."

He then stopped. The woman continued stirring something on the burner with a concentrated expression on her face, and the man's eyes continued to be focused on the newspaper that he was reading. Neither of them even glanced at the young man who walked into their house.
"Hello? Can you hear me?" he asked with a much louder voice.
But neither of them turned to his direction to acknowledge his presence.
He walked over towards the woman.

"Hello, ma'am. Can you please help me?"
Despite the young man being a few centimeters away from her face, she continued to stir something on the stove and did not even look away, as if there was not a person breathing next to her.

Upon further examination, the young man noticed that the woman was stirring nothing. There was a pot on stove, but there was nothing in it at all.

He walked over towards the man.

"Hello, sir. Can you please help me?"

But the man said nothing.  

Upon further examination, the young man noticed that the man was reading nothing. There was a newspaper in his hand, but there was no writing on it. And the mug on the table that he would bring towards his mouth every once and awhile had nothing in it either, and there was no indication that there had been anything in it at all, as the mug was very clean.
The young man was beginning to get scared, so he ran towards the door. To his surprise, the door would not open, no matter how hard he tried. It was as if it was locked from the outside. After no avail, he then decided to grab whatever he could to throw towards the door, but nothing could break it. It was as if the door was made out of steel.

Anxiously, the young man ran towards the kitchen and attempted to open the windows, but all to no avail. He then attempted to break the glass, but he couldn't. It was as if the window was made from an unbreakable material. He then walked up the stairs. To his left was the bedroom, and beside that was the bathroom. He walked down the hallway to the bedroom and attempted to break the window, but again he could not. The young man lay on the bed with his hands covering his face. He had exhausted all the possibilities and could not think anymore. After sitting on the bed for a couple of a minutes or maybe an hour (he couldn't tell), he went down the stairs, hoping that there was a solution that he did not think of yet. The woman was no longer stirring a non-existing substance, but now she was sweeping the clean floor. She was concentrating extensively.  The man was still reading a blank newspaper and sipping a non-existing substance.

"Help me!" He screamed as loud as he could. But there was no response.
His stomach rumbled. He was so hungry that it hurt. He walked towards the kitchen and opened the refrigerator, but there was nothing in there.  

Soon enough, the sky outside was black. The man and the woman walked up the stairs. Their facial expressions were blank. Curiously, the young man followed them. They both inserted their legs into their bed, one by one. And then they turned off their lamps on both of their night tables at the same time.

The young man was feeling very ill. His whole body was breaking down, and each day he felt sicker and sicker. Each day the woman would stir the non-existing substance and the man would read the non-existing newspaper and sip the non-existing coffee. With no water or energy, the young man eventually faded to oblivion. But life went on. The woman would cook and clean, and the man would read and drink. Life went on.