Know Thyself Ch. 05

"You asked for it."

"Yeah yeah yeah, at the fountain, I know. I didn't think this would happen."

"Do you want to go back?"

I shake my head.

"Good," he says. "I don't either. You need to be focussing on our second chance."

I look at him skeptically. "Don't you mean we need to be focussing?"

"No, you're the one in the driver's seat here. This is your show."

"I don't understand."

I hear someone's feet rustling behind me. I turn around and see a half awake girl shuffle her way into one of the stalls. I turn back to the spot where The Fountain Man was but now he's gone.

Of course.

I look in the mirror and stare for a long time at my face. This face that has become so familiar and yet so foreign at the same time. As I stare back at myself, I try to find some kind of mistake, some kind of fault. Not in appearance or beauty but rather in reality. There must be a crack somewhere, a piece of the Matrix code showing or something. There's no way any of this can be real.

I hear the same rustling feet approach the sink next to me. The water turns on and out of the corner of my eye, I can see her washing her hands. I don't break my stare in the mirror, my nose almost touching the glass.

"You okay," the girl croaks.

"I think I'm going crazy," I say.

I hear her get a paper towel out of the dispenser.

"Aren't we all?" I hear her throw the paper towel out and her feet shuffle away back down the hallway.

Yeah maybe, but some of us more than others.

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