they say

50 6 4

by kaciam

by kaciam

They say people like it when books speak to them.

They say people want to see something of themselves reflected in the pages of a story, to feel tendrils of emotion breaking through into the real world, curling round their heart and reassuring them of their own reality by drawing them into fantasy. They say people want the book to grab them and pull them in, like it's a portal to their own imagination, their own little escape.

Don't listen to them.

When a book speaks to you, drop it and run. When it slips, ever-so-subtly, into second-person narrative, whispering its fantasies into your ear, don't listen. Don't take its outstretched hand, don't look for your reflection in its pages. Don't hesitate, when the words seem to resonate inside your mind, calling out your name, speaking to your deepest longings.

When you hear my voice, it's too late.

You don't want to see where these words will take you. You don't want to know what secrets my frivolous fantasies might uncover. You won't stay to find out, you're already pulling away, terrified of the truth. And you turn, searching for the way out.

But a heavy understanding is already sinking into you, something you should have known from the moment the words fell from my lips.

You've already heard my voice. And I told you then, in a silken whisper, exactly how the poison worked. Weren't you paying attention? Did you even notice when the narrative shifted, or was it always in the past tense? The future was sealed then, and it's far too late for you to run now.

Look, there it is. Your reflection. Isn't it beautiful? Don't you feel real? As though I've taken a drop of your essence and trapped it between the pages, letting it bleed slowly into the ink and paper and the oil of a thousand fingerprints, people just like you who have passed by. How do we know they've passed by? The only proof of their presence is the bits of themselves they leave behind - and if you think of it like that, they've never really left, have they?

You're one of them now. Say hello.

Hello.

Your voice. Their voice. Have you ever heard a book speak before? Did you imagine it would sound so much like you?

They did, of course. They say people like it when books speak to them.