The Box Has Twelve Sides: Thirteen Curious Tales to Delight and Disturb

INSIDE

IT SURE IS LONELY in here.

Not lonely enough.

Oh, yeah. I forgot. You like it all by yourself, don't you?

It's better than putting up with your shit.

My crap? You're one to talk. My crap is every bit your crap as well.

You're pitiful. You aren't even man enough to curse.

How does cursing prove I'm a man?

Well, if you had a pair, you'd know what I was talking about.

Balls or brains. What's mine is yours.

Don't confuse me with facts.

Facts? Let's go over those 'facts'.

Your version of them, at least.

Fact One: You're stuck in here with me, like it or not.

That would be not.

Fact Two: You're insane.

I'm insane? If I'm insane then you are too.

Fact Three: Whatever happens to one of us happens to the other.

Unless I get to you first.

And what would you do?

Shut you up for starters.

You can't shut me up. You know it and that drives you crazy. Well... crazier, that is.

You think you're funny, don't you?

Of course I am. Just ask me.

I don't know which of us is more screwed in the head. You, Mr. Goodie Two-Shoes. Or me, the one who sees it like it really is.

Like it really is, huh? Oh, do tell.

If it weren't for me, we'd still be stuck lobbying for whatever bullshit cause that needed us.

A political gun for hire. A necessary cog in the wheel even here in the 'enlightened' 21st century. We were an integral part of the plan.

More like an insignificant part of the plan.

Well, it's better than the alternative.

Than my alternative? One where our name will be famous forever?

Don't you mean infamous?

What's the difference? Either way, we will be remembered.

Yes, we would be. But for all the wrong reasons.

Wrong reasons? By giving hope to the hopeless?

You mean lying to the masses.

By showing how to live by example?

More like putting up a front to fool everyone into thinking we are someone we aren't?

People look up to us. They admire me.

Every bit as much as I am ashamed of you.

You're just making it worse.

How?

By fighting me. By constantly talking in my head.

I'm the voice of reason.