Phantasmagoria

18-Keru

"May I?" I ask him, he looks as if he'd seen a ghost, I almost laughed.

"I guess. Yeah. Sure."

"You know, there's a library nearby. You wanna go?"

"Yeah. I think so. Sure."

He still looks dazed and a little confused, but he stands up and walks beside me. For a moment, we only hear the crunching of leaves and the distant honking of cars.

"Have you ever wondered how this place looked like a thousand years ago?" I ask him. "It feels weird, don't you think? How we are probably stepping on someone else's deathbed? You know, I like to think that time is a dimension. That everything is simultaneously happening, only in different dimensions. Like for example, that old bench over there," I point at a distance, "I imagine that in another dimension, at that bench sits a young man beside a young woman who are not yet aware of what the future holds for their little love story."

"Time doesn't exist," Dreon says, "Just as how everything else doesn't."

"What do you mean?"

"Capitalism, Power, Religion, Wealth, they don't exist. Nothing is real," he says. His eyes are far, his fist slightly clenched, his brows slightly creased in confusion.

The library was enormous and old. As we entered, the smell of paper and ink welcomed us, as if luring us into hearing their stories. It was quiet too. We sat on a table at the far end of the library, a few books lying on top; Little Women, Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights.

"You're weird today, Drei." I whispered.

It looked as if he wanted to say something but couldn't decide if he should, so I let him be.

He clutched Little Women and started reading as if I wasn't there. Boys. I thought. I sigh as I snatch a book, pretending to read while trying to figure out what's going on in his mind.