You're Dead To Me || ᴛʜᴇ ᴏᴜᴛꜱɪᴅᴇʀꜱ

Happy House

Malkovich Burbank...

I can still remember our exchange last night. With my wife, Meryl. at late night.

I know that feeling, when it's like everything's slipping away.

"Let me get you some help, Malko," said Meryl. "You're not well." She's playing with that sympathetic look on her face. I blankly stare at her before I ask, "why do you wanna have a baby with me?"

Her eyebrows slightly furrow in a guilty silence. "You can't stand me." I then state, knowingly, she'll defend herself. Typically, predictably.

"That's not true!" She scoed. She turns around, I look away, assuming the discussion will fade. But no. She picks up some powdered cocoa, "Why don't you let me fix you some of this new mococoa drink? All natural cocoa beans from the upper slopes of a mountain in Nicaragua, no articial sweeteners!" She clearly forces a smile.

And just like that, I'm immensely discomforted. Worse than before.

I turn around, looking out the dark window. Paranoia haunts me, but at this point I don't think it's a sense of paranoia, I'm not paranoid. is is just primal human instinct. And this is not normal.

"What are you talking about? Who are you talking to?" I get up out of my chair and face her, looking into her worried eyes, that forced smile still plastered on her face.

"What's happening?!" I feel myself start to lose it as I walk toward her, she warily wanders around the kitchen-island, still facing me. "What does this have to do with anything? Tell me what's HAPPENING!" I raise my voice in command, she flinches.

"You're having a nervous breakdown, that's what's happening!" She backs up near the counter, placing her hands there to ease herself, her nerves clearly in a bundle.

"You're part of this, aren't you?" My voice soens, my tone shis more accusingly. A cunning look established on my face. I shake my head, with a sly smile, I know I've got her figured out now. But she's still playing the innocent part. "Part of what?" Her hands scatter onto the counter until they make contact with a sharp knife.

She holds it up to me, I quickly inch back away. "Malkovich, you are scaring me!" "Meryl?" We warily move, circling around, "you're scaring me, Meryl. What are you gonna do?"

I swiftly move to where she was, nearly against the counter and she backs away uickly, the knife still being held upright.

"Dice me? Slice me to a peel? There are so . . . many . . . CHOICES!"

I grab her wrist and pull her in, she lets out a choked cry. I wrap my arm around her lower neck, placed rmly on her chest so she's forced to stay in place. I make sure I'm not choking her, just making sure she stays in place as I grab the knife from her.

"Do something!" She cries out, I immediately freeze. Did she just speak to something, someone unbeknownst to me?

"What?" I whisper, "what'd you say?" The knife lowers, I keep it at a fair distance away from her. But suddenly it isn't one of my concerns now. My grip loosens, she lets go, her hand is locked in mine.

"Nothing, I didn't say anything!" She has that same smile as she had before, she takes me to another room, particularly the living room.

My eyes dart in all directions, anxious to nd something that I can't see. "I didn't say anything!" "NO, you were talking to somebody!" "I wasn't, Malkovich!"

She's about to reach the doorknob that leads to outside when suddenly I pin her to the wall. I realize the knife is still in my hand. "No," she shuts her eyes tightly.

"Don't ignore me, talk to me!" I demand. "I don't know anything, I wasn't saying anything I swear! Please stop!" She begs, someone abruptly knocks on the door.

I pull Meryl close to me, pointing the knife in the direction of the door, which I know is unlocked. Crap, Meryl unlocked it before she could even touch the knob.

My co-worker and close friend, Ennis, opened the door, he called my name. "Malko?" He nds Meryl and I in this circumstance, utterly distressed. At least I am.

Relief washes over Meryl as she sees Ennis. She goes up to him and embraces him, "oh, thank God!" She sobs.

My eyes dilate. My trembling hands are brought upon my face. I'm not sure what to think of it right now, I only know how I feel. Disgusted, horried. By my own actions. No, by what's been happening. I know it, I know. I'm the only conscious mind. is can't be happening.

"How does anyone expect me to carry on under these conditions?! It's unprofessional!" She continues to cry, gasping for air also. Ennis shushes her, looking over her shoulder, straight into my eyes.

A new world is brought upon me. One I never even knew existed.

I spent some nights at Ennis' house aer that, I knew Meryl didn't trust me. Even though she said she knows me well enough, and that she wants to help, I don't believe it. Besides, I'm uncomfortable. I just hope Ennis isn't, or at least, he still sees me as a person.

The other night I had a dream, it was Ennis and I on the pier, looking over the waves of the ocean at night.

"You know, Malkovich," he started. "If everyone wasn't real, then that would mean even I wouldn't be real." He smiled at me, I realize he has a point.

If it all isn't real, then that would mean my best friend I've known since middle school, went all throughout high school and college with, spent years upon years with, isn't a real person.

But he could be gone. He can snap out of existence anytime, and who knows if anyone would even remember him? Maybe for a mere second. But other than that, it'd be like he was never here in the first place.

I sighed, looking down at the waves. As my doubt grew stronger, so did the waves. ey thrashed and crashed into each other loudly. The surface of the water quickly began rising, I looked into the distance and I could see water piled up like a tsunami.

That's when I got up, on the wood barrier a few feet above water, then I jumped into it. It was cold and the ocean swallowed me, the waves crashed above me. They were drowning me themselves, pulling me towards the Earth's core.

Then I finally woke up, shivering in Ennis' room.