Feardorcha

This one is young. The young ones go so very quickly.

"Hello? Why are you in the dark, guy?" that young arrogant man asks, one arm slung over the back of his chair. The person on the outside of the spotlight does not answer, "Hellooo? Am I in here alone?"

I will be the one asking questions. Surely they explained this to you outside?

"Yeah, yeah, just start."

Who are you?

"I'm Coty Careen, twenty-two years old, blonde haired, blue eyed, and quite sexy if I might add."

I did not ask your name. I asked, "Who are you?"

"Huh?"

Who are you?

"I don't understand. My name is who I am..."

Is it?

"Yes."

Why?

"Why what?"

Why is your name who you are?

"It's pretty obvious, I think. Without a name, no one would know who you are. And the more people who know you name, the more famous you are."

Is being famous all that important to you?

"Yeah, without it I'd be a nobody."

A nobody?

"Yeah, yeah! A nobody like one of those bums you see littering the sidewalk with their filth infested..."

Do you know their names?

"No, why should I?"

If I heard correctly, you just said that without a name, no one knows who you are.

"Exactly."

You know who the homeless are, even without knowing their names.

"Well... well, yeah, but..."

I repeat. Who are you?

"I'm... I'm..."

Is this question too difficult for you?

"No! Just ask something else so I can think of a good answer later on..."

Are you lying?

"Why would I be...?"

Are you trying to avoid the subject by changing it?

"Of course not..."

Are you lying?

"I said no!"

Are you lying?

"Shut up! Stop asking that!"

Why?

"Why? Why? Why what?!"

Why are you angry?

"I'm not angry! Who says I'm angry?! Did I say I was angry?!"

Are you frustrated?

"Yes!"

Why are you frustrated?

"Because you keep repeating yourself!"

I repeat myself because you don't answer me.

"I answer you!"

Are you scared?

"What?"

Are you scared because you are in the dark?

"I'll admit it's creepy, but I'm not scared."

What is creepy?

"Talking into the dark, not knowing who I'm talking to."

You know who I am.

"Feardorcha, right? I have to have a face to a name, or else I can't..."

Are you saying that you need not just a name, but a face as well?

"That's exactly what I'm saying... Oh, I see what you're getting at. Alright, I'll admit that earlier name thing was kinda stupid. Let me say this: You know someone by knowing their face and their name. But, you can also know someone by just their face. But you can't know someone just by knowing their name."

Why?

"That's just the way of the world."

Do you know that for a fact, or are you just going by what others have told you?

"I... I... I know that as a fact!"

Why?

"Because that's just how it works!"

How what works?

"Everything!"

What is everything?

"All the stuff around you! You, me, this chair, the spotlight; everything!"

Not the darkness?

"The darkness is real too."

But aren't you afraid of the dark?

"Of what might be in it, but not it itself..."

Don't people make believe that which they don't like doesn't exist?

"I've seen people do that, yeah..."

Do you do that?

"Never."

Are you sure?

"I... I don't know..."

Do I intimidate you?

"Yes."

Why?

"Because..."

If I don't have face, then I don't really exist. How can you be intimidated by what doesn't exist?

"You exist..."

Are you sure?

"I'm... not..."

If you can't see my face, how can I truly exist?

Coty's face molted, turning horribly red as he jumped out of his chair. He turned and picked up his chair, raising it over his head.

What are you doing?

"Making you real!" he shrieked, and he tossed the chair upwards to the spotlight. The objects crashed, screeching at contact. The chair fell down to earth again in the far corner. The spotlight spun wildly about the room. The light eventually spilled onto the other figure in the room, and Coty gasped, "You... You're a freak!"

Why am I a freak?

The spolight began to settle down, aiming toward the middle of the room, and not on either of it's occupants, "Why? Why are you a freak? Just look at you! At your face! No wonder you're doing this fucked up interview shit! No one else would hire such a monstrosity!"

Is a pleasing appearence really that important to people?

"Yes! The most important thing!"

Haven't people said to look deeper than skin?

"They lie! They all lie! Just to give themselves a feeling of self-righteousness! People are shallow, and don't bother looking below the skin!"

Is this the human nature?

"Yes! Yes, this is the human nature!" Coty laughed, insane. Like so many before him, his mind had snapped long ago. The truth is just too muchfor humans, it seems. What a sad existance. Several men in white coats came barging through the doorway, one holding up a large needle. They dragged Coty away, and the whole way he laughed, and laughed, and laughed.

I ask one last time.

Who are you?