Never To Be Alone

"Oh, Hello. I can't believe you are still here. I am glad you are though!"

It seemed like it's been a long time, but has it really? Alone in a room with nothing. Not even a bed. Just the four corners and the door and lonely floor tiles. How can one even keep track of the simple twisting time of days?

How does he do that? Just appear in my door whenever I look for him? He must be magic! The man imagined his twin filled close to bursting with beautiful magic. It almost brought tears to his eyes, but he was not one to cry.

The man jumped in front of the door again and his twin bounded in front of him.

"Oh, I am always here for you when you need me," the twin pulled a crooked smile across his face, like a string was attached to one side of his mouth and he tugged it to pull the skin on his face upward into his smile. He actually looked a bit awkward now that the man thought about it, but it didn’t matter.

"Good."

The man always wanted a friend. While he was sleeping one night, he woke up to one. Sleeping across the room from him, in the exact position he was. They had so much in common. For once, he had someone who understood him. Someone who felt the same biting tiles on his feet, someone who saw the same four white walls made out of drywall every single day. The two even shared the small pills that appeared on their floor every time they awakened that kept them alive. The man could never tell, but he thought that his twin also shared the same feelings as him.

"How come I can never touch you?" asked the man, hopping from tile to tile. The tiles never seemed to betray him. They always sat so still while he bounced across his small floor. Playing his own version of hopscotch with his pills and the tiles, since the pill was the only thing entertaining him that he could touch.

He hopped in front of the door.

 "Because I told you not to."

The only thing the man considered human would not let him touch it. An awful thing. Such an awful thing. The man was so alone. Before his twin came along, he would huddle in a corner and talk to himself. What a silly thing to do. What with only the floor tiles to listen. Now that the man looked back on it, the man thought that he probably looked ridiculous. Talking to himself. Ha! People might have thought he was crazy or something.

Then again, maybe he wasn’t so alone talking to himself all those times.

"Why did you leave us? How could you leave us alone?"

The man dropped his head to look at the tiles, "I didn't know that you were here." The man curled into a ball in a corner of his room to have his private conversation with his unknown friends.

"How could you? When your twin walked in, you forgot all about us," the tiles hissed. Multiple hisses at once. It sounded like a thousand snakes had slithered under the man. He was not really sure what a snake was, but the only memory he had of what he thought was one, he was extremely frightened.

"You are still my friends!"

"Liar! Smash your twin and prove that you are still our friend."

The man looked up to his twin. The once loyal tiles have suggested such a barbaric act of horror. How could they? Were they not his friends?

"Hi! What are you doing?" smiled the twin. He seemed especially cheery today.

"Oh, nothing. Did you hear those hissing noises?" The man was worried that his twin might have overheard the hushed conversation held in the classified corner.

"Hissing noises?" the twin laughed, "Of course I did. Do you not see these things on my head?" chuckled his twin, tugging on his ear lobes.

The man became distraught, "I am so sorry! I did not want to...I did not mean…." He stammered, lost as to how to explain what had just happened.

"Please. I know you wouldn't hurt me. I am all you have," the twin cocked his head and stuck his jaw out until his yellow teeth were visible between his cracked lips. He looked so sinister.

The man stopped to think. He allowed his eyes to wander in his twin's. They were so dark and vast. He squinted into the dark eyes. How unhealthy they looked, almost as if the twin was malnourished.

"I never will be alone with you here." The man knew his twin was right, he was all he had. He couldn't hurt him. Even as the hissing tiles lied beneath his bare feet.

The man rubbed his face and slumped his shoulders. "I have to think," he scooted around, using his feet to drag himself to face his wall. He felt the cold tiles beneath him and for the first time, he realized he was surrounded. Oh what was he to do?! He felt the tiles crawling beneath him, and he heard their harsh whispers. He touched the floor, "I don't want to be alone."