"You're dead." Those were the words that came out of my mouth as I stared at the man infront of me.
Everytime I enter my apartment he's there at that exact same spot across the room where I always see him.
His clothes were decent, hair neatly combed and he wore shoes from a well known brand.
But beyond his well groomed exterior was something else entirely. He looked so worn out like he just fought a thousand battles with millions of demons and lost.
I'm right, he's dead.
"I know." He replied and gave me one of his famous half smiles. The only type of smile he knows how to do.
"You're fine about that?" I asked.
He shrugged. "Well it's not like I have a choice."
"You do have a choice. Well atleast you did have one." I emphasized the past tense.
He just smiled again. "I guess I did, didn't I?"
"Then why? Why did you choose to be this way? Why did you choose to live in the dark when you can dwell in the light? Why would you want that?" I asked in confusion.
"Want?" He chuckled. "Who said that I wanted this? Just because this is my choice it doesn't mean that I want it."
"Then answer me, why? Why did you choose this?" My tone sounded desperate.
"You really wanna know?" He asked.
I just responded with a nod and waited for him to start talking.
"When you dwell upon the light you dwell upon the things that make life better. You choose to be a positive person and believe that everything has a silver lining. You choose to give all your heart and soul in anything that you do. However, when you excercise this positivity you become naive, guillible, expliotable. You become prey for the wicked which can lead to your demise.
On the other hand, in the dark side you experience the cursed things that life has to offer. When you're in the dark side you choose to live in the shade. The shade of despair, the shade of grief, the shade of anguish and pain. And it is that pain that makes you cunning. It is that pain that works like morphine and numbs the soul that devours the prey. Insanity is your only downfall."
"How do you choose a side if both of them leads to a tragedy?" I asked.
"You don't. You just have to use them both. Combine the dark and the light, balance them and make sure one does not out weigh the other.
If you choose to help someone in need give them all the help that you can give but be sure to check if that person isn't being a parasite that's just sucking out all that you've got.
If you want to be angry about something then it's okay, just make sure that you don't get caught up and corrupted by it.
Balance is all that a man needs to ensure a well lived life."
"I see." I replied. I was silent for a moment and then I decided to speak again.
"But I still don't understand something. If you know all about that stuff then why are you like this?"
"Knowing isn't enough. You can't have the apple if you just stare at it in the ground knowing that it's there and not doing anything about it. You have to pick it up before you can actually enjoy eating it. Knowing matters, but taking up action after is what matters the most."
"Then why aren't you doing anything? Why are you wasting away your life? Why are you acting like a hollow vessel? Why do you act like you're already dead?"
I just blurted out those questions without any hesitation. I'm dying to know why he's acting like this.
Dead silence filled the room.
Once again he gave me a smile.
He's always like this. Smiling even if his life is crumbling into chaos. Putting up a facade to hide the real agenda of his messed up life.
But this time something was different with his smile. It was somewhat devilish and it gave me chills down to my spine.
Then finally, he spoke.
"Why don't you answer that yourself?"
I gave him a confused look.
"Why would I? I'm the one asking you."
He just continued giving me that devilish smile.
My confusion rose up to a higher level that my eyebrows were almost touching each other.
I was about to speak up again but before I could do it I heard knocking sounds at the door.
"Come in."
The door opened and I saw my bestfriend entering.
"Hey dude mind if I hang here for awhile? My mom's killing me with all her scolding back home."
"Why wouldn't she?"
"Ha ha very funny." He gave me a sarcastic look.
"So what's up?" He asked.
"Oh nothing. Just having one of my pep talks." I replied.
He looked at the man across the room and then looked back at me. He let out a sigh.
"You were staring at the miror again right?"
I gave him a half smile. "Yeah."
"Tss. Why did I even ask."
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Thanks for reading!
