Mask

He is the type of person who believes talking to himself to be less dangerous than conversing with others. Through this mistaken belief he creates a dialogue that bears him little respect. He does not know this though. This form of self-torture he practices is so subtle that it is beyond his capacity to comprehend. Habitually he constantly insults himself this way. He sentences himself to live alone and unhappy.

This young man, in his practices is rapidly becoming less young by doing so, in a way that is tragic in its wastefulness. He may eat healthy meals. He may walk and bike frequently. He may offer himself to others. He may take certain pride in his appearance. He may be tidy and meticulous with his home and possessions. But he is killing himself.

The frame of his life is minute. With ingenious creativity he fashions himself into this shrinking frame. Until now, he has been able to fit inside. But now, he realises his quandary and starts to devise a scheme that is (to him) intricate and liberating.

He will create a new self. Not as he has done before, where he changes patterns one by one. This kind of evolution is unjustly cruel in its snail pace. But he will do something altogether different. He will destroy himself, utterly, completely. He will turn off his projected image and a supposedly identical replacement will appear.

It will be simple. All he will need to do is will himself out of existence and his replacement will take over. The replacement will be a vibrant, happy young man. People will marvel at the transformation. They will wonder after many years how he changed so suddenly into the person they always wanted. Of course, to this man’s knowledge only, there will be no transformation at all. He will be replaced by an imposter.

The imposter will be a very convincing replica of the old man. A doppelganger so joyous to witness that it wouldn’t bear considering how it came to be. It would be inconceivable to anyone but him that such a thing could happen anyway.

His death and switch to new life takes an instant…

The young man wills his new-self into being, beckoning him to step outside of the old man’s form, leaving him invisible.

The young man watches his new-self walk back down the path from where he came. The old-self feels his presence quickly fade.