[ WP ] Someone breaks into your house and says , `` You 're my favorite character in the book ! I ca n't let it end the way it did . I 'm going to help you . ''

`` I ca n't let it end this way,'' she repeated. Frozen I stared at her, not quite comprehending what was happening. She stood there, her eyes darkened with numerous shadows, horrors I could n't imagine. 
 
 `` You see, when I wrote the book, I based you off of me,'' she murmured sitting down in my chair, crossing her legs and a staccato rhythm of up and down motion with her right foot, which was on top. An action that was really familiar to me, because that was the same thing I would do when nervous. She bit her lip and looked away, another thing which I always did. 
 
 `` It's a bit weird, you see,'' she uncrossed her legs, leaning slightly forward, the chameleon blue eyes currently a dark grey in the dim-lights of the room, eyes exactly like mine. Who am I going to kid, the woman in front of me was an exact copy of me. 
 
 `` I wrote a book to deal with the dreams and nightmares,'' she said clasping her hands together, and the memories of the last nightmare came flowing back. Where my boyfriend was once again this distorted dark being, of whom I was strangely unafraid, unlike my other dreams of him, `` But it seems that now my life had followed the route I wrote up for you. I am Leanne Rosecrop,'' she pulled out from her carrier bag a book, `` And I've written a book about your adventure in the 50th Century, 23rd Century, your current reality, which is soon going to end, and a place outside of space and time.'' 
 
 The book had the vivid image of my last night's dream where I was whisked away by four people, from my strangely sinister boyfriend, who was called always the King of Matter, his shadows follows us in wisps and twists, after me and my abductors, always a step ahead of us, because wherever light reaches, the darkness has always been there first. 
 
 `` In about three days you're going to make the mistake of your life, and accept the non-reality of the world,'' she said, her face contorted, and she threw the book into the blazing fireplace, the hungry flames licking up at the paper of the book, `` But I did n't want to go! Not there!'' she yelled. `` I do n't want to loop through whatever horrible future the Duplicates are going to put me into, I do n't want to loop through that flat world of white! I wanted to stay where I am!'' she screamed, unshed tears glimmering in the warm light of the fireplace. 
 
 I did n't understand, and yet I did. I could n't comprehend, but for some reason I did. My head began to ache, and I knew I perfectly well understood what she was talking about, even if my consciousness denied any logical connection between her insane rambles, my life and my dreams. 
 
 She gave me a half-smile, `` You ca n't remember it, that's how I made it. Whenever you go back into the past from the 50th century, when they assemble you back together after you have had another breakdown unable to deal with the cybernetic body, with looking at his face but on another being. Each time you wake up sometime now and follow the same route you always did.'' 
 
 My blood ran cold, why was I still standing here, staring at my doppelganger. Why was n't I afraid of her? Was n't seeing your own doppelganger a sure sign of one's death fast approaching? But at the same time, I could n't dare to interrupt her. 
 
 `` Listen, when tonight he comes back, you're going to tell him, that this is exactly where you always wanted to be,'' the lady said. How did she know that I was planning to break up with him, unable to deal with the skepticism and fixed state of mind? `` You're going to tell him, you do n't want to go anywhere, that this is what you've been looking for. Simmering love that will last until your death. THen you do n't have to go anywhere. Not into the future, not into the past.'' 
 
 `` But...'' I began. If she knew what I was thinking, then surely she'd know that I could n't do that. Surely she'd understand that I felt as if I could n't spread my wings. Limited by reality. 
 `` If you do n't do that,'' she smirked, `` Then you will face the same fate as I did.'' 
 
 `` But you said...'' 
 
 `` What I said does n't matter. Time does n't matter. Matter does n't matter. What matters is that you do n't disappear into the cyber-future of the 50th century and that you do n't disappear into the nothingness outside of time and space. What matters is that you stay here and change the future of this planet. Little by little, step by step, the extinction of humanity can be avoided.'' 
 
 `` But I am just me,'' I begged, `` If I'm a character in your book, then I do what you wrote.'' Even if she was the author of the book I was in, even if she was God for me, I was n't up to the task she set out before me. I was running away from him because of the tasks I knew I'd have to take up, to be what he saw in me. To give away freedom for hard work and slow progress. To be human. How could I save the humanity, when I was unwilling to face the world? 
 
 One eyebrow cocked up, a taunting smile on her lips. Oh I knew that look very well. The look I had when I challenged him to something. 
 
 `` Did n't you always wish to be a superhero?'' The question hung in the air. 
 
 `` But you are God and you wrote out my story already!'' I snapped back. 
 
 The lady stood up, coming face to face with me, I could n't feel her breath on my lips, even though her mouth was inches away from mine. `` God is dead, God is gone, long live the new God,'' she whispered and reached out for my cheek. `` My time is running out,'' she said and her hand went through me, even though a mere five minutes ago, she had dragged me back into the house, as material as it got, just as I was about to leave to buy my tickets to India. They were on sale today. 
 
 `` Ask yourself,'' she smirked, `` What would Sailor Moon do, if her God had made the wrong decision and told her to take the right one?'' I froze. It was a low blow, for nothing had shaped me as much as that one silly comic. And of course I could n't really ignore her unspoken challenge. To be better than her. To dare to live. I could never pass up a challenge. 
 
 `` She would stay and make the right decision.'' 
 
 The mirror me smiled widely, her eyes almost manic, `` Well, then I'll be proud of you. You are me, and I am you. But I am the one who followed your path. You can make your own one.'' 
 
 She was gone. Just like that. Disappeared into thin air, and for the first time in my life I felt strangely energized, I felt sad for her, my mirror image, I felt sad for whatever past she had to loop through, was it like an endless repeat of nightmares. But I understood. 
 
 I had always been running away from the eternity breathing down on my neck, but I've been trying to run away into a similar eternity. A crackle came from the fire, the remnants of the book eaten up by the flames. I would ever be able to read what path she had prepared for me, but the path she had given me, she had ended up following through. 
 
 Perhaps it was best not to know it. 
 
 Perhaps she was right. Maybe she was wrong. 
 
 But I did n't want to disappear. I would n't go to India, perhaps in a few years, I'd go there, once I finished up the studies, with him. 
 
 Groaning at the future I set out to achieve, I trudged back to my chair, pulling out the university application papers. He was right, and she was right, you ca n't save the world praying to some unseen deity, even if it's you, in a weird sense. You ca n't save the world by creating more art, more beauty, more music. The world was a material thing and people had material bodies, and they had material needs. 
 
 I guess, I'd become the energy physicist I wanted to become after meeting him. After all, with the new impending energy shortage, someone had to do something. And I might as well help.
