“I’m worried about you.”

“What do you want?”

“I tried to be a good friend, Katie. As good I could be. I’m no great socialite.”

“No shit.”

“I tried to roll with you, I tried to wait out my confusion. Everything I say is wrong. I want to know what’s happening.”

“Funny, Kyle, because you know exactly what’s happening.”

“Can we pretend like I don’t? This is going to perpetuate itself on the impression that I’m some degenerate.”

“Go away, Kyle. I’m not in the mood for your games.”

“You’re making my case. You think I’m manipulating you. I’m not. I want to help.”

“Why?”

“You know why.”

“I know why you think you should be worried about me.”

“It’s a rational conclusion.”

“Of course. Because it’s best to approach the irrational with rationale.”

“The only response to an insane world is insanity?”

“Is it?”

“I was quoting.”

“Well?”

“I don’t know. You seem to think the world has moved beyond insane. You’ve seemed to move beyond the world entirely.”

“You turn out the lights and you make the world fade away. What am I going to see when I let it in?”

Silence.

“Will you kill the power if I don’t?”

“Whatever you’re involved in, it’s dangerous, Katie.”

“I’m running around with a loaded pistol. Three bullets.”

“Yeah.”

“Put your worries away, I’m fine. Right as rain up in my head here.”

“You don’t think that you need to see someone professional.”

“You think I’m crazy?”

“I think you’re experiencing things that aren’t real, yeah.”

“And you want to help me? This is unbelievable.”

“Your stubborn refusal is what’s unbelievable.”

“Goodbye Kyle.”

“Wait. Stop. Katie, you’ve been going through some weird shit lately, right?”

“Oh. God. How did you know?”

“Sarcasm doesn’t become you.”

Silence.

“Alright, Katie. How do I get through your head on this one.”

“More manipulation. This is great.”

“What if… Okay, weird stuff happening, right? Would it be so weird if I didn’t know anything about it?”

“What?”

“In the face of all else that’s happened, would it be so weird that I don’t know anything about what’s happening?”

“You think that the conversations we’ve had weren’t real? You’re trying to suggest I’m imagining things?”

“Something has to explain a discord between our individual experiences.”

“Isn’t that what you philosophers are all about? Reality?”

“Well, yes, in some respects. Each person’s experience is completely unverifiable, subjective. Each carries their own reality.”

“So there, who’s to say that I’m wrong?”

“Society.”

“I’m not too concerned about society.”

“I can see that. Do you even have food left in the house? When was the last time you were out?”

“Quit trying to change the subject.”

“Or the last time you slept?”

“I’ve come to an understanding with my reality. Why are you so afraid of it?”

“Because you’re embracing it.”

“You want me to turn off the lights, don’t you? You want me to. You’ve been courting me all these weeks and now you want to meet me, don’t you?”

Silence.

“I must be crazy, talking to the shadows. Expecting answer. Worst yet, considering it.”

“Why is it necessary that I’ll wind up in trouble if I embrace what you call crazy, what I call otherworldly?”

“Have you ever heard of things going well for a crazy person?”

“I wouldn’t know. I’ve never seen past the epithet.”

“Not to mention, should what you’re experiencing be real – “

“It is.”

“Sure. Should it be real, you’re dabbling in a darkness far above and far beyond you. That’s not child’s play.”

“So now you’re acknowledging it?”

“No. Just suggesting.”

“Yeah, it’s just you suggesting the furthering of your petty philosophy experiments on me. Your manipulation.”

“Maybe it’s not me who’s doing the manipulating.”

“What do you know about the dark?”

“Nothing. Of course I know nothing. But darkness is dangerous.”

“And people who dive into the dark are crazy.”

“Or dead.”

“We listen to neither.”

“Maybe with good reason.”

You’re calling me a liar?

No. Maybe your perception is just a little off right now. Maybe you’re emotional. Maybe you’re wrong.

Maybe you’re an antisocial scientist.

I wish there was some way to prove that I’m not.

That’s because there isn’t any proof.

And nothing is real unless it is witnessed.

I think it might be best if you leave now.