Dangerous Liaisons.

Moira : I have always felt a presence which seemed like another part of myself...people thought me strange, so I never spoke of it. Lately though, I have felt the other's stronger pull on my soul...he keeps calling to me. I sleep and dream of Him.

Yet he does not seem like a nightmare, I am certain of it.

But he is ME - and I am, somehow, Him.

One of us seems sane, yet mad...the other mad - yet sane. Hope in all that is holy, that the twain should not meet. I feel an ominous wind blowing through my spirit.

Him - the Other's thoughts in my head: In my dimly lit room, shadows crawl upon the walls, whispering secrets only the darkness and I can understand. The air is thick with the scent of decay, a reminder of the neglect that had taken hold of the once grand mansion which is my mind.

In the center of the room, I sit hunched over a desk, my fingers trembling as they clutch a pen. Who is it that whispers so...I see shapes and ghosts in my mirror.

Moira: I think he is mad.

His name is---Somehow, he seems to be ME. Yet, I cannot seem to recall myself as the form of a male. It cannot be, for I am certainly of the gender, female! He sits over there, the man teetering on the brink. His name is Madness! He inhabits that other world outside of my psyche.

Somehow, deep within me, I know that Madness had always been a solitary figure, preferring the company of his books and thoughts to that of other people. But recently, something had changed. It started with the whispers. At first, they were barely audible, like the rustling of leaves in the wind. But as the days passed, they grew louder, more insistent, until they were all that he could hear.

He was hearing my voice, I could only hear his thoughts.

I whispered of dark things, of secrets buried deep within the walls of the mansion. I told him of another occupant, another version of him - existing outside of himself.

I had become an Epistolary narrator observing the parallel lives

Madness tried to ignore the voices, to drown them out with the sound of his own voice, but it was no use. The whispers were relentless, and they were driving him to the edge.

As the days turned into weeks, his grip on reality began to slip. He started seeing things that weren't there, shadows that moved on their own, faces in the mirrors that weren't his own. He stopped sleeping, afraid of what he might see if he closed his eyes. The whispers grew louder, more, horrid and annoying - demanding - until they were all that he could hear.

One night, as the moon cast an eerie glow over the room, he finally gave in. He picked up the pen and began to write, his hand moving of its own accord. The words flowed from him like a torrent, dark and twisted, a reflection of the madness that had taken hold of his mind. Other wrote of the whispers, of the faces in the mirrors. He wrote of the shadow that haunted him, and of the terrible fate that must await him.

As he wrote, the whispers grew louder, more insistent, until they were a deafening roar. Other's hand moved faster, the pen scratching furiously across the paper. H wrote until his fingers bled, until the ink ran dry, until there was nothing left to write.

And then, as suddenly as they had started, the whispers stopped. The room fell silent, the shadows still. Other looked down at the pages before him, covered in his own blood and ink. He had written his own descent into madness, a blood soaked witness to the darkness that had consumed him.

With a final, shuddering breath, he collapsed onto the desk, his mind finally at peace.

Moira - peering through the mirror

.....What had I done. I had driven him mad by my insistence on becoming his friend and confidante...How can I now hope to appease my own guilt.

Long ago, I had discovered how to use the mirror as a portal. To visit him in his other world. But his mind could not grasp the duality of such an unthinkable happenstance.

My female form blended with the Other. We are both the same, but not.

.....

Oh...woe is me. For his mind mansion now stood silent...still.

I stood in the mirror, softly calling out to him.

HIM

"Am I dead, are you devil or angel? It has been a very long time since I remember hearing silence". He pants out loud.

Moira

"You are very much alive, I see the way they treat you here, I have been trying to warn you of my existence, but our minds cannot grasp the duality of it together. We must try to save US...to free ourselves".

HIM (Laughing maniacally)

Hahahahahahahahahahah. Let's chew them up and spit them out.

Now Moira the Narrator observes

Perhaps the mansion itself is rejoicing, for it seems that the madness was gaining yet another victim. And in the darkness, the whispers waited, ready to claim their next prey.

Jailers within the institution which houses OTHER are rudely awaked by the insistent bellowing laugh of the inmate.

"Open cell 66, hurry! Bring the straight jacket, it seems The Martian may have hurt himself again, flying off to Mars. He may need the shock treatment".

The guards at the Akkram Insane Asylum sprang to life, they had been dozing off in the brief and rare quiet of the night.

"Are you sure, she/he, whatever, may be more dangerous this time". The female guard said.

"I don't know, you never know with the mad cracker either raging or becoming dead quiet". The guard laughed raucously, shaking his head, pitying the poor mad cuss.

Moira

They have trespassed into his mansion again. Why do they keep invading his privacy. I waited until they sat him up.

Then I emerged from the mirror.

Other grabbed the neck of the wicked Jenna, and squeezed tight. Turning my head, I sank my teeth into Cliff's neck and bit down real hard. Amidst the screams of the guards, the other ghosts in the cells started yelling in their different states of craziness, a beautiful cacophony of awful musical insanity.

The whispers started again. Our mansion was ready for more victims.

HIM and Moira headed to the mirror as more guards came running.

In our lucid moments, clarity overcomes us. It encourages us to elucidate and illuminate. To cross between the dimensions to visit our twin parallel selves.

The strange thing is that I am quite sane when in my original world. But as soon as I enter His world...I become a raging demon. In his world he is as mad as the Hatter.

Maybe now that I have taken him through the mirror. Both of us now in your world - are you prepared for what happens next?

Will you think us both insane?