Part Two:
The whimpering had now completed its metamorphosis into full-blown sobbing.
“They said these new pills would stop the criticisms! Lies. All lies. Guess they think a freak like me can’t handle the truth.”
A hand snuck in and wiped some of the solution off of “my” face. The hand then smacked the mirror and proceeded to scrub away at the layers of obscurants. Just when I thought the plot twists had stopped; I was brought to silence once an intelligible reflection had shown. The janitor. He had just been hired a few months prior. I’m not sure how he had gotten the job; no one had ever heard him speak even a single word. A constant look of terror had always occupied the space on his face and probably had a moment earlier before it was supplanted by the sorrow I now witnessed.
I may not have known how I had gotten there, but it became clear to me what needed to be done. Following the wisdom of the stoic Epictetus, I resolved to accept my bizarre fate and act out the role to the best of my conscious ability.
“Fred, stop crying! Those things I was just saying, they weren’t about you!”
“How can that be? If these voices are being manufactured by my brain then the content of their speech must clearly be the manifestations of subconscious insecurities!”
“Listen man, I don’t know about all that. What I do know is that I’m not like the other voices. I was once a sentient human being like yourself.”
“Seriously? That’s what the last one told me. Jesus, I’m unoriginal too.”
“You don’t need to believe me. Regardless, you can’t keep going on like this. You could be doing so much more than sitting here cleaning with your tears.”
“Yeah? Like what.”
“Are those car keys I see on that pair of briefs over there? Let’s go for a nice little drive to the mall.”
~~~~ Part three coming soon!