Chapter 2: Blue Pill or Red Pill

"So, how did it go? Did your old friend pass your little test yet?"

"Not quite. He has done nothing noteworthy since then. All I did was give him his newfound powers, but he has yet to live up to my expectations. This is nothing out of the ordinary, however. Rae is very lazy, after all."

Two adult-sounding figures could be heard conversing in what looked to be a dense and gloomy room.

Nothing could be seen around them, as the room they were in was extremely dark. It seemed like they were 'open' about what they were currently saying to each other, as noted by the fact that they were the only ones in the room.

"Figures. The Great One always finds a way to surprise us even if he has done absolutely nothing in his worthless life so far."

A familiar entity with a skinny frame gave the other person before them, the one who just spoke, a rather displeased look, yet no hidden malice or anger could be seen or felt from their eyes. Instead, what filled it was that of relief.

"As usual, you seem to hate calling Rae by that name. Though I didn't expect you to swallow your pride and say it properly for once. You've truly grown the entire time I've known you. How adorable," the lanky figure spoke in a joyful mood.

"Shut it! The reason I called him that has absolutely nothing to do with my pride! Okay, maybe it does, but we both know very well who he is."

In an incredulous and seemingly lazy tone, the lanky figure replied, "I believe you."

"Tch!"

Despite the room they were in being entirely unlit, the playful individual could tell that the person before them was blushing in acquiescence. They were enjoying their current conversation before the latter spoke solemnly, seemingly eliminating any sense of insecurities they may have had when conversing just seconds ago.

"So, do we have enough faith in him to let him do what he wants? How do we know that the plan is truly foolproof?"

"We don't," said the skinny one.

"Of course we don't. The so-called Great One can't even plan properly. Classic," The prideful figure shook their head, sounding a little disappointed, "I guess we'll just have to--"

"No. We will continue to do as planned. After all, Rae has yet to pass the 'test' I've set up for him."

"Right. In that case, why don't I finally introduce myself to him? We can't let him do whatever he wants forever."

For the past week, Rae did nothing out of their expectations. Yet, despite respecting him enough to the point of continually referring to him as The Great One, both of them couldn't help but feel somewhat displeased at his lack of action, but this did not deter them in any way.

As they said, Rae was known to be very lazy, but they knew that if and when the situation called for it, Rae would do absolutely anything at his disposal to get the job done.

"Sure. however, as much as you want to greet him, I wouldn't recommend doing it too soon. We should give him more time to prepare for the time being. Any less, and we will end up putting him and ourselves at risk. We must not become conceited."

The 'prideful' one believed the other one who had just spoken without a shadow of a doubt. They knew just how dangerous things would become if they were to fail their respective missions.

"Fine. Hopefully, the Gree- Great One! I hope that the GREAT ONE gives us no issues. If I have to be warier than I need to be just for his sake, then I may as well leave everything up to you. The Lord can only imagine what we might do if we were together."

Silence ensued for a brief moment as the skinny figure was still processing what the prideful individual had said.

"Pfft."

They both were rather serious just now, but the one with the mask could not help themselves. They could barely hold it in before they lost it completely.

"Wait, why are you laughing? I'm confused on what you find so hilarious!"

"Hahaha. Did you not hear what you said. Together? What you two might do if you were… together? Are you perhaps his future lover?" snickered the skinny figure.

"You... you know that's not what I meant! Why are you--"

"No, I think I know exactly what you meant."

"Fine! Believe what you want to believe in. I will not waste my time with your baseless assumptions!"

Rae's 'future lover' was feeling very irritated at the moment, and the skinny entity could feel that their veins were already beginning to convulse. A tense atmosphere surrounded them, and for a brief moment, the skinny one felt a dangerous premonition, not that they were the least bit worried.

"Oh my. Just imagining you two…I'm sorry. I just… Hahahaha."

Though the skinny one wanted to mitigate the situation, they couldn't help but continue laughing.

"Okay, that's it. You're not getting away with this!"

"Oh Rae! Come and help me. What shall I do with your new lover?"

"Come over here, you--"

Time passed as the two figures in what seemed to be inside of a room resembling confinement moved around for hours, with one of them doing nothing but dodging what appeared to be punches infused with unrelenting anger directed at their face, all while playfully laughing the entire time.

Thankfully, the skinny one remained unharmed while the other individual eventually relented, but not without throwing a few crude remarks aimed at the one who had made fun of them being with Rae.

It had practically no effect on their demeanor, and things went relatively smoothly for the most part.

After things calmed down, one of them spoke. It was the skinny individual.

"So, shall we get to work?"

"Don't even talk to me right now."

***

Throughout my life, I've heard many imbeciles call me countless names.

'Fat.'

'Ugly.'

'Fat and Ugly.'

'Pretty. Pretty Ugly.'

'Lazy.'

'Nerd.'

'Worthless.'

'Petty.'

'Shitling.'

And my favorite of them all.

'Big Chungus.'

A seemingly harmless name that has been with me for a while now. Even though it's old, I still can't help but sometimes look back on it with fond memories.

Times were simpler back then, to say the least. As I grew up being a rejected loner, I was pretty comfortable living by myself with practically no one to help me and no one to rely on.

But the thing I hated the most wasn't all the name-calling or all the times I've been insulted and bullied over my actual name. I may have been slightly depressed at one point and have told people a few times to call me by my first name and only my first name just so I could cope a bit better, but to be honest, I held no such grudges over whoever named me this way.

I mean, it's kind of a majestic name, after all, and I quite like it, or at least now I do. It wasn't like that back then, though. At first, I was just fine with it and didn't know what it meant even when I said it out loud as a child, so no one dared to make fun of me in any way, as kids around me were also quite clueless about the name. That is until you start growing up, and people start spreading rumors about you to everyone they meet just because of how your name sounds.

You see, the thing that I truly hated the most was when people threatened to get in my way of living a normal life. If they so much as interrupted me from living peacefully, then I would do anything in my power to 'get rid' of them in some way.

And it has been that way since I started having enough of the bullying. Because of that, no one has been brave enough to call me a pushover in front of my face.

Childhood and teenagehood aside, I'm also what people call petty. Though I knew this was mostly just a byproduct of my desire to live "normally." As long as it didn't interrupt my way of living, I would be willing to overlook anything.

Unfortunately, that is something I had to do very frequently and still do to this day. Too many times have I been warned by officers or threatened by authorities when I was still in school. Even at my workplace, if someone tried to annoy me too much, intentionally or not, I would have been willing to do virtually anything to make them suffer from my petty annoyance.

Thankfully, I've learned over the years that sometimes, it's better to wait things out and let my anger build over time, so I can eventually pay them back even more harshly.

Not that I was some sort of sadomasochist, but I did like to give people time to redeem themselves before handing out punishment if necessary, so in a sense, I was quite the generous person. So when I saw what happened two weeks ago and as I recalled that skinny Aztecan guy appearing before my very room, I couldn't help but question everything.

I hadn't been worried like that about anyone else in my life aside from one other person. Just the way he appeared out of nowhere, and all the weird shit he was saying, calling me names like The Great One or whatever it was.

I initially denied everything and thought of it as just a dream, but no matter what I did, I could never get the incident out of my mind. I only realized it wasn't a dream because I could remember it after two weeks. I have never remembered what happened in any of my dreams for more than a few hours at most after waking up, so I knew that this wasn't something I could just leave alone. And even if I did remember one of my dreams, I couldn't remember any of them half as vividly as that incident.

The events were still a bit hazy in my mind, however. To be honest, I haven't been sleeping soundly ever since. And just when I thought the day couldn't get any worse, especially after having such a good night's rest.

***

Looking up at the ceiling, I couldn't help but frown.

I was currently inside a comfy and compact room with very modern decorations. Sofas filled two ends of the room and in the center of it was a man sitting on a mahogany desk with a few papers, books, and accessories neatly stacked together.

He was someone who appeared to be no more than a decade older than me. Despite his simple attire, I thought he dressed well for the occasion. On his head rested neat, jet-black hair that had been combed along with hazel pupils and a decent look to boot. He had a well-trimmed beard shaped around his lips and square-rimmed glasses to top off his face.

I had just finished recounting my story when suddenly, the man before me spoke in a serious tone.

"So… Mr. Piste. Let me get this straight. You saw an Aztecan barge inside of your apartment, said a few questionable things to you, and that person even referred to you as The Great One? Then, you felt an overwhelming sense of pain and passed out, only to wake up on the floor after a few hours of sleep?"

"Correct."

I spent no time hesitating over my answer. Everything the man said just now was all true. I made sure to leave nothing out, well… maybe aside from the fact that I woke up with my shit in my pants. Now that's not exactly something anyone should be proud of.

"Hmm…"

The man sitting in the center of the room paused to think for a second.

He was my assigned therapist/psychiatrist. He was a doctor who was supposed to care for individuals who may have been suffering from some mental health issues, especially if they were going through tough times.

I was just another one of his patients, and he was just another person in my daily life who could help me through this ordeal. I would be very thankful to him if he succeeded.

I didn't care if I needed to take antidepressants or even antipsychotics. If I could get rid of such intrusive thoughts, I would be willing to become even naïve.

Suddenly, the man before me raised his brows and spoke after pondering over the matter.

"That is indeed a strange predicament. Generally, I would have no issue handing out medications for these incidents, but for now, the only thing I can do, or what you can do, is to let me know if the problem becomes any worse. It doesn't seem like anything else bad has happened within your day-to-day life ever since that so-called incident, so the only way to treat this situation is for me to take a small gamble and see if the issue gets worse from here on out."

"Wait, that's it? That's all I have to do?"

Surprised, the doctor looked at me with semi-baffled eyes and asked me with a somewhat confused look. "Were you expecting me to give you medication over such a matter immediately? From the looks of it, you look more fine than most of my patients who've recounted their experiences to me."

"No, it's just… I didn't know it was that simple, is all."

A look of relief flashed over my face as I closed my eyes and smiled.

My doctor was right. The problem wasn't too troubling, and aside from constantly thinking about the figure and seeing him in one of my most recent dreams, I was doing better than he had expected.

"That being said, you have called the police over this incident, have you not?" the man before me asked with a serious gaze.

Looking at him with a look that matched the solemnity of his eyes, I firmly nodded my head and spoke calmly. "Yes, I even remember telling them everything, but it's been over two weeks, and they still have not found any information regarding the incident."

Because I didn't want my Halloween to get ruined any more than it had already been, I made sure to wait until the next day to call the police. I did permit a few crucial things, like the Aztecan figure calling me by the strange nickname he gave me and the overwhelming pain I suffered.

I was pretty mad that someone would just burst into my house and not tell me anything about the situation that he put me through, so knowing myself, I held a grudge against him-- or at least that's what he appeared to look like.

From what I can remember, it was a bit hard to tell if the person before me was a guy just because of the voice, but regardless, it didn't matter.

Unfortunately, even after two weeks passed and I was getting no new information about him, I sought help at a local organization that specialized in helping folks of all kinds. Initially, I was reluctant to give out more information than I deemed necessary. Still, because I was more desperate this time, I decided to spill just about everything to the man before me.

Time passed for the next three or so minutes, and my therapist wasted no time telling me what we were gonna do to solve the situation. I spent a total of 1 hour in there. If I couldn't find the guy that appeared inside of my apartment that one time on Halloween, then I guess the only thing I could do was to 'get rid' of him in my thoughts.

Eventually, my therapist decided he would prescribe me mood-enhancing medications after thinking about the situation some more.

"These won't solve the issue directly, but they should still help if you're worried. Unless you think you're fine without them."

He gave me a choice over the matter, which was whether I wanted medication or not, and as he did, a sudden scene from a famous Sci-Fi movie replayed in my mind.

'Blue Pill or Red Pill.'

Still one of my favorite movies, in all honesty.

The man continued to convince me in a very persuasive manner, and he even told me that it was okay if I didn't accept his offer. What really got me was when he said to me that he wasn't going to kidnap me or anything by giving me sleeping pills disguised as mood-enhancing pills.

I laughed it off and thought of it as a pretty clever joke. I then took the pills on the way home after our session ended.

Throughout my entire time there, the man was never too curious or acting strange so as to arouse suspicion. In fact, I respected the way he carried himself. He was indeed fit to be a therapist/psychiatrist, after all. His charm was just that godly.

I then popped the pills into my mouth and slugged them down with water as soon as I got home. Of course, I didn't expect much from such supplements, though looking back at the conversation I had with the man before me, I couldn't afford to be too rude and not take his offer.

I then thought about what to do with the remaining time I had.

***

The therapist from before looked at his door, which was closed just a few seconds ago.

He could hear Rae's footsteps very clearly from outside of the room.

Time seemed to slow down as he had a rather pensive but unpleasant look on his face.

Frowning, the man thought about what Rae was still lacking and how much work he needed to put in.

'Naive...'