They say sin began with the taste of an apple, but what brought about the bite?

Oh, it's all very well and good to blame it on the serpent, to blame it on the woman, to blame it on God's interesting grasp of reverse psychology, but this isn't the root of the problem. No, it starts with curiosity.

What am I missing? What don't I know? What knowledge could I have, if I just... take... one... bite?

Part One:  Alice

It started with an email, but it could have been a letter, a note passed in class, a message written in a bathroom stall. The fact that it was an email was incidental.

Leon had woken up that morning with a splitting headache. It was one of those days where the sky is filled with low-hanging gray clouds and people are filled with a subtle despair, which is harder to forget than mere depression. It was the sort of morning that all a person can hope for is a quiet breakfast, maybe a little coffee, and, with any luck at all, a resurfacing of one's most comfortable pants.

"Shit," Leon cursed quietly as he stepped out of bed and into something wet and sticky. He looked down and shuddered, glad that his stomach was empty and he couldn't add to the puddle of vomit. No more drinking for me, he promised himself.

He rubbed his eyes and went in search for paper towel, pausing to turn on his computer as he went. His roommate was nowhere to be found; of course, Tim usually spent the night at his girlfriend's apartment, anyway. Leon had been thinking about getting an apartment of his own next year instead of trying to live in the dorms. It was cheaper to use campus housing but Leon would have preferred some distance from his fellow students.  Not to mention having the freedom to actually paint the walls; the nasty yellow color Housing had chosen was looking particularly bad this morning.  He really needed to get some posters.

The computer beeped cheerfully behind him as he knelt to clean up his mess. The party hadn't even been that fun. Leon had spent most of his time sitting on a couch in the middle of a crowd of dancing people, downing beer after beer, wondering where the hell Sarah had disappeared to. It had taken him almost all night to realize that she hadn't shown up in the first place because she had a paper due.

"Fucking papers," he muttered, standing up and pitching the paper towel in the garbage. He'd take it out later.

Leon yawned and sat down at his desk, looking around for a comb to get his shaggy brown hair out of his face as he checked his mail. He wasn't expecting anything, so he was surprised to find something in his inbox.

"What is this?" he murmured. The subject heading was "A gift." It could be spam, but Leon clicked it anyway. Curiouser and curiouser, he thought, grinning slightly.

"A gift for you," the message read. There was an attachment- a picture? Leon frowned and brought it up, waiting for the picture to load.

It was an old-fashioned angel, one of the classic ones in old paintings, with large white wings outspread and golden curls around a sweet, smiling face. The eyes were closed, but as Leon watched, they slowly opened and blinked at him.

"The hell?" he said, laughing slightly. The bright blue eyes blinked again before closing, leaving the picture still. Leon wondered who this Soulitude11 was that had sent it. Maybe Sarah took a break from writing and saw it, decided to send it, he thought, smiling and preparing to reply. Then he froze.

Leon wasn't a computer genius by any means, but he did know that it was files with a .gif on the end that moved. This file was .jpg.

"What is this?" he said again. He tried refreshing the image, closing it and reloading it, but it didn't move again. The angel remained stationary.

It continued to bother him all the way to class.

"Hey!" Sarah called, waving to him from the front of the lecture hall. Leon nodded at her, trying to make his way through the milling throngs of college students. Sarah laughed as he rolled his eyes in exasperation, unable to get around a group of girls who were talking excitedly about some party.  The aisle wasn’t big enough for their impromptu pow-wow and for traffic, which meant Leon had to almost climb over them.  Why couldn’t they sit down and start chattering?

"Glad to see you made it through alive," Sarah said as Leon plopped down next to her, stretching his legs out. She tucked a loose strand of her reddish brown hair behind her ear and leaned forward to kiss his cheek.

"Got your paper done?" Leon stole her glasses despite her protests and placed them on his own nose, looking around the room. "Your sight isn't all that bad."

"I know. And yes, I got the paper done, after which I passed out," Sarah answered. She got out her notebook as the professor walked in and held out her hand patiently. Leon grinned and waited until she glared at him with fierce brown eyes before he handed the glasses back. "You're such a punk."

"I don't know what you're talking about," he denied, sitting back and preparing to doze through class. Sarah tisked next to him, but Leon didn't really care. She should know by now that he didn't take notes and still got decent grades. Of course, to Sarah, a B wasn't good enough.

The room started to quiet as the professor brought out his notes, although there was still a dull roar.  At least most of the students had found seats and not many were lined up along the dull white walls.  Sarah’s attention was focused on the platform, her hand already poised to take notes.

Professor Jenne, a short white-haired old man, started to speak. "Today we're going to look into the writings of Octavo Paz-"

Leon drifted off after making a mental note to read the book. The Labyrinth of Solitude, he thought muzzily. Call it the labyrinth of soulitude-

"Sarah," he whispered, leaning towards her. She frowned at him. "Did you send me an email? A picture?"

"No," she hissed back before furiously writing notes again. Leon sat back, confused again.

All right, he thought. What weirdo would have sent me a mysterious, trick email?

The answer was obvious. Leon shook his head and smiled. Neil. That bastard.

He turned to seek out the familiar blonde hair, probably spiked up and messy as anything because Neil had been partying last night, too, and preferred sleep over brushing his hair any day. Leon wouldn't be too surprised if Neil had skipped class today.

But no, there he was, slumped in the back and sleeping. Leon had to hide his face in his hands for a minute to keep from laughing: Neil had brought his pillow with him and had a tape recorder out on his desk. The girl next to him was equally amused; she winked at Leon when he looked back again and smiled widely.

"Flirting?" Sarah asked in a deceptively soft voice. Leon turned to her, smiling innocently.

"Naw, just laughing at Neil," he whispered. "Check it out; Sleeping Beauty's in the back."

Sarah shook her head and laughed, but kept up with her note-taking. Leon wondered what she would do if he stole her pen, then thought about the punch that had earned him last week. Sarah looked like a skinny little white girl, but she punched like a boxer.

"-said that the Mexicans felt an indifference towards life because of the indifference they had for death-"

Leon rolled his eyes. He would probably have to listen to Neil's tape once exams rolled around, but for now he was bored stiff. He looked around blankly, ignoring the lecture that Sarah seemed to find quite fascinating, and settled his gaze on the window.

There was a crow, a huge one, sitting on the sill and staring in the room.

Leon sat up straight, trying to get a clearer view of the window, but the crow chose that moment to fly off. Leon bit his lip, worry and even fear welling up within him before he shook off the eerie feeling.

What the hell was that about? God, I must be overtired.

"Would you stop that?" Sarah whispered next to him. She was glaring at him. "Some of us are trying to pay attention."

"Sorry," he whispered back, slight irritation in his voice. Like it was his fault.

The professor managed to speed-talk his way to the end of his lecture, barely getting his last points in before everyone started packing up. Sarah threw her stuff into her backpack and jumped up, waiting very impatiently for Leon to stand.

"Come on; I've got to get to class," she said, grabbing his arm and dragging him up the aisle. "Some of us didn't design our schedules to maximize our laziness."

"Who are you calling lazy?" Leon demanded, tugging on her ponytail affectionately. "I just wanted to have plenty of time to study; that's all."

"Right." Sarah looked up and waved enthusiastically. "Hey, Neil!"

The sleeper in the back row finally lifted his head, blinking large brown eyes their way. "What happened?"

"Class is over, idiot," Leon said, grabbing Neil's tape recorder and turning it off. "Thanks, it's a lovely gift and I-"

"Thief!  Thief!" Neil yelled, jumping up and throwing his pillow at a random classmate. Leon handed the recorder back and the pillow was whipped back shortly after, and Neil accompanied them to the door.

"I have to get to class, so I'll see you at lunch?" Sarah said questioningly, looking at Leon with raised eyebrows. Leon nodded an affirmative and she pulled his head down for a kiss before running off.

"Hey, where's my kiss?" Neil yelled after her. She just waved back at him, laughing. "Looks like all you're all I've got, Leon, baby."

"You don't even have that," Leon said easily. "Don't you have another class to get to?"

"You wound me." Neil started walking with Leon down the hill, crossing over the grass to avoid the groups of students on the sidewalk.  Leon shivered and pulled his coat closed, crunching over the dead leaves.  Neil pulled out his sunglasses, shielding his eyes from the too-bright glare of the sun.

"Not yet, but it could come to that." Leon remembered the email suddenly. "Hey, did you send me a picture? Online?"

"What?" Neil stopped to think. "Leon, I'm not your porn supplier."

"It wasn't porn. It was an angel."

"You aren't serious. Somebody's sending you angel porn?"

"It wasn't porn!"

"What's got you all upset?" Neil asked, laughing at him. "What was in this picture that's bugging you so bad?"

Leon sighed. "Never mind. You didn't send it."

"Aw, come on! Tell me what it was!" Neil wheedled. He smiled at Leon winningly. "I'll keep it a secret and everything!"

"You are such an idiot." Leon yawned and grabbed Neil's wrist, checking his watch. "You're going to be late."

"Fuck." Neil hefted his book bag and tape recorder, then turned to point his finger at Leon threateningly. "You'll tell me, yet! I'll get you at lunch!"

"Get to class!" Leon yelled back, already turning away to walk back to his dorm. He walked with his head down, thinking about who could have sent the creepy email. Then his thoughts were interrupted as the oppressive silence was shattered by the cawing of a crow.

"What the hell?" The whole hill was deserted. On any given day, at any given time, there were at least ten students walking up or down the hill, as it was one of the best shortcuts that the campus had to offer. Leon stopped and looked around, confused. He couldn't even hear cars or voices from anywhere else.

The wind picked up suddenly and someone laughed quietly. Leon whirled and saw a short, black-haired boy standing by one of the huge oak trees up the hill a ways. The boy grinned, baring sharp incisors, and winked one bright blue eye.

"Hey!" Leon called, but the boy disappeared. Leon's mind insisted that he had just hidden behind the tree or something. People don't disappear.

Then what about everyone on the hill?

They were back. Leon jumped as a girl brushed against him, murmuring an apology. He blinked and stared at the crowds of students suddenly back on the sidewalk, talking and laughing unconcernedly.

I need to take a nap, Leon thought. And maybe some medication.

"Sorry I'm late," Sarah gasped, throwing herself into the booth next to Leon. He grunted, moving over and taking his tray with him.  He and Neil had managed to snag the booth ten minutes before.  Usually the Commons were crowded this time of day as it was one of the cheapest places to eat that looked like a restaurant rather than a cafeteria, and no tables could be found.  Leon considered them lucky that this booth had been open.

"You could've called," Neil accused, posing dramatically. "We were so worried about you!"

"Shut up, slacker," Sarah replied. "I stopped to talk to the professor about our paper-"

"You're ruining our lunch with all this academic talk," Neil interrupted. "And I was just about to crack Leon like an egg!"

"What are you doing to him?" Sarah turned to Leon, who was calmly eating his cheeseburger and ignoring them both. The sounds of students chattering away and his friends' good-natured bantering was a comforting thing and he wasn't going to spoil it by thinking about the strange things that had been happening lately.

"Our baby is growing up," Neil said sadly. "He's signed up to get angel porn online."

"It wasn't porn!" Leon said loudly. Sarah started laughing next to him and reached out to steal some of his fries.

"Then what was it?" Neil persisted.

"It was just a picture, all right? I just wanted to know who had sent it." Leon pouted at his tray until he realized that he was pouting and frowned.

"Oh, that email thing?" Sarah asked. "Is that what's bothering you guys?"

"It's not bothering me-" Leon started, but he was interrupted as Sarah stood up, waving wildly.

"Jeff! Jeff, wait up!" She turned to Leon and hugged him quickly. "I gotta catch Jeff; we're working on a project for Spanish-"

"Yeah, yeah, get moving, Supergirl," Neil said, gesturing with his milk carton. "Don't let your fish get away."

"See you later, then!" she called, running to catch up with the tall brunette entering the line.  It would be a while before he got out; the line stretched back almost to the door.  Leon sighed, leaning back and watching Sarah.

"Wait, why are you upset now?" Neil asked, crushing the milk carton. "She's just being all study-happy 'cause midterms are coming up."

"She's study-happy all the time," Leon muttered. He looked out the window and his thoughts returned to the crow, then the incident on the hill. Life is just way too messed up lately, he thought.

He looked at Neil, who was frowning. Neil wasn't very good at dealing with depression, as he didn't know it as anything other than a passing acquaintance while being very drunk.

"She's a little hyper, but come on, Leon! That's what you like about her!" he argued.

"Look, I gotta go study, all right?" Leon stood up, shrugged his coat on and picked up his tray. "See you later?"

"All right," Neil said. "But I'm not convinced."

"Convinced?"

"That it wasn't porn."

Leon laughed, his mood brightening considerably. He shook his head at Neil and went to drop his tray off.

The library was quiet.  This was a usual phenomenon.  It was also nearly deserted.  This wasn’t as usual.

College library had a ton of study areas, all placed strategically within the maze of shelves.  It was well-lit, warm, comfortable, and a favorite study place for most students on campus.  Plus, the librarians usually kept to the first floor.  Leon walked up to the third and took a seat by the low tables near the windows.

Neil’s right.  Why is this whole thing with Sarah bothering me so much?  I care about her, but…  Leon sighed.  Sometimes I get the feeling that she doesn’t care as much about me.  That I’m just convenient, or something.  Which is stupid, but there it is.

He pulled his Biology textbook out of his backpack, getting ready to be lost in the wonders of the workings of cells, when a small piece of paper fell out.  It was a scrap of notebook paper, folded over once.  Leon looked at it for a moment, confused, but reached out and picked it up.

“Do you want to know a secret?” it read in plain black ink.  The writing was half-print, half-cursive, and rather small and cramped.  It wasn’t like anyone’s writing that he knew.  Leon read it again, then turned it over to check again if any name had been written on the front or back.  There was nothing, so he turned the note back over and swore in shock.

The note now read, “There are none so blind as those who refuse to see.”

No, Leon thought.  It didn’t say that.  It didn’t say this.  What the hell is going on?

There was a soft sound behind him.  Leon turned and saw the boy from earlier on the hill standing half-hidden by a far shelf, smiling like a fiend.  The boy grinned even wider when Leon looked directly at him and he tilted his head, black hair falling into his eyes, and beckoned to Leon with one black-polished nail.  Then he disappeared into the shelves.

“Wait!” Leon called, standing up and trying to cram his book and the note into his backpack quickly.  “Wait up!”

He slung the pack over his shoulder and ran towards the shelf, not pausing to think about what he was doing.  The boy was already at the far end of the shelving, moving quickly and quietly despite the chain looping down from his baggy black jeans.  The boy turned to smile and beckon at him again before heading towards the stairs.

Leon followed, reaching the stairs and leaning down to look at the boy, who was already at the bottom.  He waved up at Leon and went outside.  Leon swore and ran down the stairs, jumping the last few and throwing the door open.  There the boy was, walking briskly up the hill across the street and not looking back.

Where the hell is he going?  And isn’t he cold?  Leon thought.  The boy was only wearing a black shirt.  It may have been long sleeved, but it was still tight and couldn’t be very warm.

“Hey, will you wait up?” he tried again, but the boy only turned and beckoned, still smiling, before walking into the small park up the hill.  Leon ran after him, still swearing.

The boy was standing by a bench, his back to Leon.  His hands were in his pockets and he looked for all the world as if he was simply watching the leaves change color.  Leon walked forward and sat on the bench next to him, waiting for the boy to speak.

“Isn’t it strange how men seem to think they’re invulnerable?” the boy asked.  His voice was a pleasant, almost drawling tenor.  “A woman would have thought twice about following anyone to a secluded area.  But you did so without fear.”  He turned and Leon was surprised at the intensity of the boy’s blue eyes.  “You’re a curious one, aren’t you.”

“Who are you?” Leon asked.

The boy smiled, showing his sharp incisors again.  “Shouldn’t you introduce yourself first?”

“I’m Leon-“

“I know,” the boy interrupted smoothly.  Leon suppressed his urge to snap “Then why did you ask?”

“I’m Meek.  I’m pleased to finally meet you,” he said, holding out his hand to shake.  Leon shook it cautiously.

“What is this all about?” Leon demanded.  Meek looked up at the sky for a moment, then moved to sit next to Leon.

“You read the note,” he said, almost questioning.  Leon nodded, fuming slightly.  He still wanted to know what was up with that.

Meek leaned back.  “You got the email, as well?”

“You sent that?”

“I did.”  Meek placed his elbow on the armrest, leaning sideways to watch Leon’s face.  “I take it you enjoyed it?”

Leon couldn’t answer; he was too confused.  Meek grinned.

“Did you ever think about reality?” he asked, crossing his right leg over the left.

Leon frowned.  “What do you mean?”

“Reality.  What is it?  How much of it depends on how people define it?”  Leon shook his head and Meek continued, undaunted.  “Are there levels of reality?  If the top is what all people see, then the next what a smaller amount believe to be possible, then on and on until you get to that level where everything is possible, but no one sees it, because no one believes it?”

“I’m not sure I follow you,” Leon said slowly.

Meek sighed.  “I’ve been showing you this.  People don’t disappear, pictures don’t move, notes don’t change-“

“But they did!” Leon interrupted.

“I know they did.  You know they did.  But no one else would believe that, would they?”  Meek leaned closer.  “Maybe, if you were able to show them, they still wouldn’t believe it, and so they wouldn’t see it.  They’d explain it away in their minds.  Get it?”

Leon thought about it, but the argument seemed sound.  Maybe if he had had more time, he could have thought up an opposition, but the idea was interesting.

“Okay,” he said.

“So, you saw these things.  You see into the deeper levels of reality, as we’re calling it.”  Meek looked at Leon appraisingly.  “It’s kind of like drugs, don’t you think?”

“Are you saying that you drugged me?”

“No, no!” Meek laughed.  “I’m saying that it’s like drugs.  You’ve reached a sort of… altered consciousness.  Drugs do that, right?  Like LSD, for instance.  Even caffeine, in quantity, gets you into an artificial state.  But this isn’t artificial.  This is just a deeper reality.”

“I’m not exactly sure what you mean,” Leon said, edging away from that blue gaze.  Meek’s eyes were like little diamonds.

“Do you want to see what I’m talking about?” Meek offered.  “I can show you.”

This is getting crazy.  Leon stood up.  “No thanks.  I’ve got to get moving-“

“Don’t you want to know how I can do this?” Meek asked before he disappeared.  Leon swore loudly and then jumped when Meek tapped his shoulder.

“How in the hell-?” he gasped.

“I can show you,” Meek said sweetly, crossing his arms over his chest, looking almost vulnerable in that moment.  “If you want me to.”

He’s so small, Leon thought fuzzily.  He’s shorter than me, skinnier than just about anyone I know; how can someone like this hurt me?  What have I got to be worried about?

There was no question about it; he was intrigued.

Meek seemed to have realized this; he was smiling widely and showing off those wickedly sharp teeth again.  “I’ll meet you at your room tonight.”

“You know where it is?” Leon asked.

“Of course I know,” Meek laughed before walking away.  Leon watched him go, still confused.  But his curiosity wasn’t letting him go.

Levels of reality, he mused.  How deep can I go?

A darker thought flitted through his mind before being lost.  How far can I fall?

“Yeah?” Leon said, picking up the phone.  He had just gotten into the reading for Global Cultures tomorrow, too.

“What’s up?” Neil asked, his voice sounding small and lost.  “Still upset?”

“No, I’m better,” Leon said, leaning back in his chair.  He tossed The Labyrinth of Solitude on his desk and muted the TV.  “Sorry for freaking out at you.”

“Don’t worry about it.  Hey, did you find out who sent you angel porn yet?”

“It’s not porn!” Leon shouted over Neil’s laughter.  “And yes, I did.”

“Really?”  Neil sounded surprised.  “Since when have you become a sleuth?”

“Who uses a word like sleuth anymore?” Leon demanded.  “No, just another classmate.  He was being weird.”

“Ah, you have a male admirer who compares your beauty to that of the angels,” Neil said wisely.  Leon rolled his eyes.  “It seems I have competition!”

“I thought Sarah was your competition.”

“She’s my nemesis,” Neil corrected.  “This new male admirer is my competition.”

“I’m sure he’d be flattered to know that,” Leon said, laughing despite himself.  “Now can I get back to my homework?”

“You’re doing homework?”  Neil sounded horrified.  “God, what have they done to you?”

“Shove it.  I gotta go.”

“See you tomorrow then.”

“Bye,” Leon said just as Neil’s line clicked.  He wondered briefly if Neil had been upset by Leon’s brusqueness before dismissing that thought as stupid.  Neil never got upset with him.

“Shit,” he said then, staring at the book.  There was no way he was going to get back into it; Meek should be showing up any time now and it wasn’t that interesting anyway.  Leon got up and stretched, deciding to use the bathroom in an effort to stave off boredom for a few more seconds.

When he got back, Meek was lounging next to the door.  Leon was rather startled to see him there.  Meek’s strange ethereal quality didn’t mesh with the plain white walls of the dorm hallway.  The boy looked like some strange creature caught in a dull cage.

“Hey,” Meek greeted him, miming tipping his hat to Leon.  Leon opened the door and invited Meek in, reminding himself again how small and skinny the other boy was.  He was starting to feel nervous for no real reason at all.

Except for the whole weird nature of our conversation earlier.  And the talk about drugs.  Why am I hanging out with this guy?

Meek sat on his bed, looking even stranger and wilder compared to these dull surroundings.  Leon found himself wishing again for a brightly colored poster or something to hang on his walls to break the monotony of the room.

“Sit down,” Meek said, smiling sweetly.  “Don’t be so nervy.”

“I’m not nervy,” Leon retorted weakly, sitting down at his desk again.  Meek got up and locked the door, making Leon start to protest.

“Oh, shut up,” Meek ordered.  He looked at Leon darkly.  “You don’t want someone barging in without warning, do you?  I’d’ve thought you were a rather private guy.”

That much was true, but Leon wasn’t going to admit it.  “Why don’t I want someone barging in?”

“Because this isn’t the sort of thing you want interrupted,” Meek answered, grinning.  “Relax, Leon.  I’m not going to hurt you.”

“I still don’t understand exactly what’s going on, here,” Leon said.  “I’m not going to do any drugs-“

“I wouldn’t ask you to,” Meek said, his voice betraying his disappointment.  “Really, I was hoping you had understood at least some of what I was saying before.”

Leon couldn’t reply to that.  Meek didn’t seem to expect him to, because he simply walked forward and turned the lights off.

“What are you doing?” Leon yelled.  Meek laughed somewhere in the darkness.  Leon jumped up and looked around wildly, but there was no light anywhere.  There wasn’t even any sliver of illumination from the windows.

“Turn it back on, then,” Meek invited from far away.  Leon reached for the switch, groping around in the dark, but he felt nothing- nothing at all.  He couldn’t even find his chair.

“Where- what is going on?” he demanded, swinging around.  There was nothing!  He couldn’t find the desk, the wall; a dorm room isn’t that big, and he couldn’t find a single thing in the darkness.

Suddenly the light was back, and Leon found himself standing right next to his desk, in easy reaching distance of just about everything on his side of the room.  He stared blankly at Meek, who was at the light and standing less than a foot from him.

“Are you all right?” Meek asked, not looking concerned in the slightest.  There was a gleam in his eyes that spoke of mischief.

“What just happened?” Leon asked slowly.  “The room was gone.  I couldn’t find anything-“

“We were in a different place once the light was off,” Meek answered.  He sounded like he was trying to suppress his laughter.  “There was nothing for you to find.”

“No,” Leon said, reaching out and grabbing his chair, touching his desk, looking around and noting exactly where everything and anything was.  “We’re here, in my room.  We were here when the lights went off and we were here when they went on-“

“When the lights were off, we were someplace else,” Meek interrupted.  He was grinning openly now.  “Do you want to test that again?”

“No!”  The thought of going back to that empty darkness was more than he could take.  “No, I don’t.”

“Then trust me.”  Meek moved closer and wrapped his arms around Leon’s waist, making Leon shiver suddenly and try to back away.  “It’s all a part of these reality levels.  You can move from place to place much more quickly.”

“You aren’t making sense,” Leon argued, still trying to back away from the boy.  Meek let him go, but wouldn’t stand much farther away.  “Look, we’re in this room.  We didn’t go anywhere when the light went off; that doesn’t make sense!”

“Then turn the light off and show me that we’re in the same place,” Meek said.

Leon gritted his teeth and reached out, flipping the light switch.  The absolute darkness was back, and once again there was nothing there.

Terror engulfed him.  It was one thing to be thrown into this surprised and unknowing, but now he knew there was nothing around him and he knew that this was totally impossible and his heart was thudding so loudly and so quickly that he was sure he was about to have a heart attack.

“Calm down, Leon,” Meek said suddenly, right in front of him.  Leon reached out and there was a warm, living body, and he grabbed hold of Meek in order to stave off his impending hysteria.  “Calm down.  We’ll just turn the light back on.”

“Where’s the switch?” Leon demanded, hearing the shakiness in his own voice.  The light suddenly clicked on and he was holding Meek tightly.  He let go of the boy quickly, backing up into his desk and clutching the edge.  He couldn’t take it.  He just couldn’t take it.

Meek moved closer, now seeming truly concerned.  “Leon, it won’t come back.  The dark will just be the dark, now.  I promise.”

“Why was it anything else in the first place?” he demanded hoarsely.  The thought of that nothingness never finding him again was wonderful, shining, and just totally lovely.

“I had to show you something.  You wanted to know,” Meek said, his voice gentle and soothing.  “And now you do.  Reality isn’t what everyone says it is, Leon.  It’s so much more.”

“I don’t understand any of this,” Leon whispered, barely noticing when Meek’s hands came to rest on his shoulders.

“That’s all right,” the boy promised him.  “I’ll teach you.”

Meek pushed him down on the chair, kneeling in front of him and staring up into his eyes.  “The world isn’t real to you until you acknowledge it.”

Leon shook his head.  “No.  There’s real, and then there’s fantasy-“

“If everyone believes a fantasy then it’s real.”

“But-“

“If everyone is blind, then those with sight live in a fantasy.”

“But everyone isn’t blind!”

Meek rested his hands on Leon’s knees.  “You’ve already seen what they can’t.  A child might be able to see that the dark contains another country, but you aren’t a child.”

Leon just shook his head, his mind trying to balk.

“Do you ever wonder if Adam and Eve had such troubles after biting that apple?” Meek asked, rising slightly and leaning closer.  “If they couldn’t believe the world they knew after they found wisdom?  If they thought they were crazy?”

“Meek-“ Leon stopped; his throat was dry and his voice little more than a croak.  Meek’s eyelids lowered and he tilted his head back to look up at Leon.

“None of this matters if you won’t open your eyes and accept it,” he whispered.  Leon’s breathing was harsh.  Meek nipped at his shirt near his navel and smiled lazily up at Leon’s face.  “None of this means anything unless you realize that yes, these things are impossible, but they still happened.” 

Leon could feel his whole face burning.  He tried to close his legs but Meek was kneeling between, still looking at him through his long eyelashes.

“After that, I’ll teach how to make the impossible, possible.”  Meek’s hand moved up and covered his groin, making Leon gasp out loud and hook his legs around the chair legs to keep himself from arching up into that touch.  His hands grasped and tightened on the chair seat.

Someone knocked loudly on the door.  “Wake up, Leon, you bastard!  I left my key!  Put the homework down and open this goddamn door!”

It was Tim.  Leon cursed and blessed him in one thought and slumped back into his chair as Meek stood, looking coldly at the door.

“I’ll see you around,” he said, winking at Leon and grinning slyly.  Then he disappeared.

Leon shook his head, trying to clear his mind as Tim continued to pound on the door, swearing and cajoling.

“Open up, you bastard!”

Leon stood up shakily and went to open the door, suddenly very glad that Tim was here.  His roommate, rather than sharing the sentiment, barged past him in a blur of red hair and started talking a mile a minute about how he was going to stay at his girlfriend’s and be back in the morning but he was bringing his key this time.

I’m going to have to sleep in here alone, Leon realized, his blood turning to ice.  Tim was already heading out the door, calling goodbye and slamming it shut behind him.  The silence in his wake was cold and dark.

“I’m not staying in this room alone tonight,” he said aloud, trying to break the oppressive quiet.  Then he realized that talking to himself just made him more nervous about his impending insanity, so he decided to call Sarah and invite her over to watch movies.

“Yeah?” Sarah snapped, picking up the phone in the midst of the first ring.

“Hey,” Leon answered, taken aback.  “What’s wrong?”

“I have to finish this paper tonight.  Look, I can’t talk now.  See you tomorrow?”  Before Leon could answer, Sarah hung up on him.

“Love you too,” he said, stunned.  The dial tone rang in his ears and Leon frowned.

I’ll call Neil, then, he decided.

“Yeah?” Neil asked, sounding bored.  Leon thanked whatever gods were listening for Neil being home that night.  Usually he was out partying until two.

“Hey, it’s me,” he said.

“My new angel porn supplier?”

“Would you drop that?” Leon snapped.  “Seriously.”

“All right, all right,” Neil laughed.  “What’s up?”

“Want to come over and watch movies?  Tim’s out with his girlfriend-“

“His ho, you mean.  I’ve seen that girl.”

“Well?  Do you want to?”  Leon tried not to laugh.  It was true; Lisa did look like a hooker.

“Sure!  Why the hell not?  I’ll bring some movies and be up there in like five minutes.”  Neil yawned.  “We all know you have no good movies.”

“You only like stoner movies.”

“Are there any other kinds?  Be right up,” Neil said, then hung up.  Leon put the phone down with a sigh and a smile.  He might have to be subjected to Neil’s strange sense of humor all night, but at least he wasn’t going to be alone in the dark.