Chapter 28: You Are My Only Proof

At that time, the androgynous Michael moved away from the mirror he was standing in front of, turning his graceful body to look toward Elliot, who had also summoned an androgynous form as well.. The two stood staring at each other in silence, each directing their gaze into the other’s eyes.

Their eyes met for fleeting moments; and although it did not exceed a few counted seconds, for the very first time since they met, for a simple instant, they felt as if they did not recognize each other at all..

It was truly difficult for two normal human beings to accept the turning of their life paths by a full one hundred and eighty degrees.. rather a complete reversal that swept away almost everything!

Yet they did not need a longer time to recognize each other; they only needed to see their form reflected clearly in the eyes of the person standing right before them.

In a way.. everything around them had indeed changed, even more than just everything! But they were now more certain than ever of being the exact same two people after that moment;

Because what defines identity is not the place, the time, or the form they are in,

For as long as there was resistance and that spirit refusing to succumb, this is the true touchstone that grants identity and existence, not the body or the form at all!

The two did not continue exchanging looks for long; rather, each soon averted their eyes from the other after a suspicious, warm feeling crept into them.. a feeling as though each was looking directly into the bare soul of their companion without covers or masks, and this feeling involved an uncomfortable amount of unease.

At that moment, Elliot moved with composed steps toward the wooden table in the suite, where the suspicious waxy pills supposed to be consumed were placed.

Elliot picked up the two pills carefully with his index fingers and thumbs, then flicked his hand in the air to throw one of them toward Michael; the waxy pill landed precisely between the palms of Michael, who was standing in his spot freezing in terror, swallowing his saliva with difficulty while cold sweat moved like a snail over the pores of his smooth androgynous face.

Michael raised the sleeves of his robe, which had become loose and wide after losing a large portion of his muscular build, and wiped his wet forehead with them while saying in a shaky tone:

"This.. well, it is an extremely strange feeling! I think we.. I don’t know, Elliot, we have become different.. completely different! And we now have a strange readiness to do things that were absolutely impossible for us to even think of committing if we were in our previous entity.."

When the androgynous Elliot heard these words coming from Michael’s lips, a faint smile surrounded by mystery was drawn on his features. Perhaps they had indeed changed, but there was one certainty that granted Elliot serenity amid this absurd chaos..

"The whole world has changed, Michael.."

The androgynous Elliot took slow, measured steps toward Michael standing in his position, proceeding to whisper in a deep tone:

"Everything melts and dissipates, my friend.. everything! I no longer own my toys, I no longer own my phone, and my family.. my family, Michael, is no longer present by my side and I know nothing about them!.. Do you comprehend the magnitude of this loss?"

Elliot narrowed the distance separating them further, and continued with his eyes shining with a burning glint:

"Is this not worthy of driving us completely insane?! Is it not enough to blow up our minds and souls?! Who on earth are you if everything around you has changed and vanished? What is the guarantee that your cursed previous life was not mere nonsense and illusions crafted by this miserable world?!"

Elliot was now extremely close to Michael, who remained motionless and steady in his place:

"But the only thing, Michael, that has not changed.. is you! You have not changed at all, my friend.. you are the only remaining true, fixed proof for me, you are the only evidence that I am the cursed Elliot Miles!"

In a moment of overwhelming emotion, Elliot gripped the collar of Michael’s robe firmly and pulled him sharply toward himself, bringing their faces suspiciously and astonishingly close:

"And the only proof.. that I succeed in surviving.. Yes, I will get out of this dark hell no matter what it costs me and no matter what prices I pay!.. Please, Michael.. do not turn out to be just another illusion!"

Elliot’s palm quivered while gripping the fabric, and his voice rose in a serious tone that shook the corners of the room, before his outbreak suddenly calmed down as he looked at Michael’s staring face and his mouth open in astonishment.

Elliot loosened his grip and stepped back two paces, then headed toward the wine bottle resting beside the wooden fruit plate.

With firm strength, he used the knife to extract the cork stopper from the neck of the dark red liquid bottle.. there were already two glasses made of glass present in the room.. then Elliot poured smoothly to fill part of the glass cup, then repeated the same process with the other cup.

Elliot carried the two cups and walked steadily toward Michael to extend one of them to him.

And when Michael held the cup given to him by Elliot, Elliot raised his cup in the air facing the gaze of his astonished friend, saying with a broad smile:

"Can we consider this a pivotal toast? A toast of definitive proof that we will survive this furnace no matter the price and no matter the obstacles?"

Michael looked at the raised cup in Elliot’s hand, then looked at the cup held in his own palm, and his lips were led by a wide smile—not knowing why he smiled it—as he pushed his cup toward Elliot’s cup.

Clink!...

The two cups collided with a ringing glass sound!

"A toast to eternal survival!.."

And in a harmonious, rapid movement, the two threw the two waxy spheres into the air, watching them closely as they rotated in a smooth arc to fall directly into the depths of their open mouths, which they had opened in anticipation of the pill’s fall.

And immediately, the cups were raised and the dark red alcoholic liquid was poured inside the throat’s pathway to sweep the two pills along toward the pharynx and the entrails!