Overlap

Chapter 98: Language of Telepathy

<Note: This chapter is really long! You've been warned.>

There's a common question I know would appear in the minds of many who may one day come to learn of my secrets. Given everything we know, how can I be 100% certain that Lumina and the Altiri actually exist?

I've not needed to ask myself the question for a long time. I'm certain all of this is real. However, each time I run imaginative simulations in my mind about how a conversation like that might go, I return to one interesting detail; solid evidence. At the end of the day, I want Lumina to be real; my desire for her to exist is so strong, I would refuse to believe any other possibility. Therefore, my certainty is still entirely based on faith alone; this is something I cannot avoid or deny. There's all the chance that I might somehow be completely and totally insane, crazy and delusional. If that is my truth, then I happily accept it anyway. I won't live in a world without Lumina.

In terms of producing evidence of these aliens, all I've had to go on is my personal experiences and exact perceptions. So, if ever I had to tell somebody about this, I would never be able to prove this to them. I'm doomed to a fate of human loneliness no matter what I do.

Even though I feel horrible about it sometimes, there are rare moments where I cave to my own personal doubts. I ask myself, what if I am insane? What if I wanted to be with someone so badly, that I imagined and invented Lumina and the Altiri, while my mind somehow made it more real for me? What if everything going on is all a convenience to keep me going in this world, while the reality is, nothing I want to be real exists? I should never doubt her; I should never doubt the woman I love with all my heart.

But even I'm not immune to the grips of absolute curiosity. I have personal evidence that Lumina exists, but thinking back, all of this is circumstantial at best; nothing about my experiences have been so concrete as to make me eternally certain... That was, until the end of this wild school day. The story I was about to be in for would take me for a wild ride, so I shall begin there.

<03/20/2013 - 14:40 | Cage High School (English), Austell, GA, USA>

"I'm bored. You must have some other stories you can remember." I sat to myself in English class, already ahead of my work. As usual, Lumina kept me company while we tried finding something new to talk about. After all this time, I didn't think she would run out of stories to tell me.

"What am I, a picture book? I don't recall every single detail of the time I spent using clairvoyance. Other stories are just strange bits and pieces I learned."

"I still find it pretty amazing you can just skim the entire earth to see what is going on using your mind. That clairvoyance trick is something special, you know?"

"I wouldn't know anymore. Me and my sisters lost that ability since the moment we purged you."

"So you keep telling me. I feel kind of bad about that. I mean, your sisters should still get something out of the deal."

"They're your sisters in-law too; we're all family now. I'm sure that counts for something."

I wasn't so sure if they would quickly agree with Lumina's sentiment, but hearing her refer to all of us as a new happy family filled me with a warm feeling, something I wasn't too familiar with. At first, I was somewhat confused, having never thought about our relationship that way before, on count of us being in two separate worlds. Even so, Lumina's sisters are my in-laws now; in a way, that makes them my sisters too. Even if they never see it that way, I really do care about them all.

Even though her sisters and I have exchanged far less words between each other than my biological family, I feel closer to them, that I can trust them a lot more. I don't know if I should feel that way or why, but Lumina's words were so comfortable with me. "If you say so..." It was too hard to explain what I felt this time, so I tired changing my background thoughts to a different subject. The first thing that came to mind was my present surroundings of this boring class. Most of it was reading rather than writing, which I didn't enjoy given the choice of books lined up for us this year.