[08A] - A Sacrifice to the Gods

The silhouette of a boy was hidden in the shadows above the dune, it was a dark shape that seemed strangely familiar. The fright left me on the defensive, I held the GPS as if it were a weapon and pointed it into the darkness.

- You're the one who was pretending to be Hayden! - I accused standing up regardless of the lack of balance due to the inclination.

My legs wobbled and my breathing was labored. Hayden aimed the flashlight and the white light covered the boy. For an instant, my heart stopped. I looked at Hayden who was also amazed.

They were the same person. The resemblance was strange, unsettling, equal, and distinct at the same time. They had the same intense eyes and red lips with a smile always ready to form. They were identical, but they gave off a different air. Hayden looked nice, sweet, and lovable. That other Hayden, on the other hand, had mystery and arrogance hidden behind his blue eyes. But what really clashed was the voice, the two were physically identical, yet they had voices that made them look like the same character voiced by different people.

I took a deep breath looking for a non-existent inner peace.

- Who are you? - my wide eyes admired Hayden's mirror.

My feet wanted to get closer, but I felt Hayden's hand hold me. He didn't trust that boy. I looked at him noticing his distress. I felt the weight he was carrying as he looked at himself. Hayden questioned his existence before that boy.

- Who am I? - the boy said in an almost musical tone. The disappointment was clear in his voice - I thought you would never forget, after all, you materialized me ...

Without being able to avoid it, I delighted in the harmony he created with those few words. The voice was not Hayden's but it made me feel the same nostalgia that I felt with my Hayden.

- Who are you? - Hayden repeated restlessly.

"I usually introduce myself as Nate, but I also answer for the original Hayden or Ågaris, but that only she can use," he was pointing at me.

My bewilderment became astonished. Did he hear Hayden? I looked at where Hayden was standing next to me and how the boy was staring at him. Could he see it? It was not possible!

- What are you looking at? - I asked fearfully for the answer.

- Your friend ... - he pointed naturally.

- Can you see him? - he said with a shaky voice and tears reaching his eyes.

Drops of water ran down my panicked cheeks bordering on a psychotic break.

- Yes I Can.

I laughed with suffering. What should I think? How could any real person see what was on my mind? It was not possible. That boy couldn't be real, it was the only explanation. He was just another hallucination. The tears were falling with intensity.

"You're not crazy," the boy said as if he knew my thoughts, which made it even worse.

He approached taking tissue from the pocket of his shorts and wiped my tears away. The gesture startled me. Like Hayden, his touch was real, but I no longer knew what was real.

"You are not real," I thought aloud.

I closed my eyes, unable to absorb those words.

- We all are, you just need to understand.

- You can't be real and see him - he said in a panic - You can't, can't, can't, can't ...

- I can, you're just looking at it the wrong way - he said making me dive into the oceans I kept in my eyes.

I was devastated. At that moment, any trace of the person I went to disappear. The end, finite. I was a doll that shattered porcelain on the floor, pieces of me scattered everywhere. No glue would be able to fix me, not even the greatest experts would solve the puzzle I had become.

I watched him walk towards Hayden.

"Magnificent," he said, rolling Hayden as he would a statue on display. "You screwed up, but still, magnificent." You have exceeded any expectations, not that it is a compliment.

Hayden said nothing, but his discomfort was clear. He took a cornered step back.

- You are not crazy, you could not be, yet you lack the overrated normality. Do not envy any human for that - the boy turned to me.

I was unable to understand it, to say whether it was real or not. I don't think I would ever be able to. I no longer knew what 'real' meant.

- Why are you here? - Hayden said taking that question out of my mind.

- I told you. I need a thought, I think it couldn't have been clearer - the blue in his eyes seemed to spark as if a fire was burning inside - But I promise to give it back, I also promise that everything will end, it's only up to you to find the only question that really it matters. One that I wasn't asked to do, but that I need you to answer.

- Why are you doing this to her - Hayden held the boy by the shirt with aggression that I never imagined existed inside him - What is your purpose? Don't you see you're hurting her?

My reaction was one of inertia. I couldn't interfere. Tiredness was growing inside me.

- The purpose is the questions, questions that she would never ask if everything did not go out of the ordinary. Questions that would never answer. Answers that would never become you. You, my dear Hayden, are one of the purposes we didn't even imagine we had.

- Stop it! - I shouted, my voice breaking - You are not real! You are a delusion in my head.

- You wouldn't have the ability to create someone like me, you shouldn't even be able to create someone like him. I think it's Darwin who should be thanking you.

I fall to my knees with my heavy body. That extreme tiredness had spread to every muscle in my body, it was difficult to breathe.

- What do you mean by creating? - I asked.

- I mean you need to remember what you're really capable of ...

Before his sentence ended, I was lying on the floor. My eyes can't keep open, the air barely fills my lungs. I lost consciousness in a fog and before everything went black I heard the muffled thud against the floor. Hayden!