"Do you like Horses?", he asked.
He often threw such random questions, though not always starting actual meaningful conversations.
A bit baffled, I replied "Yes, I do". Staying quiet for a moment, thinking he needs a push to talk, I added "What about you? Do You like Horses?"
"No", he snapped rapidly, clearly expecting my questions.
"Why not?", I asked curiously, "They are cute and likeable.."
"They're not that inoccent down here. Here they can eat you alive."
After saying so, he smiled his usual lunatic grin, as if proud for saying that.
"Eat you alive?", I asked surprised, the thought of horses eating people having never slipped through my mind.
"Yeah" he said, "they can like, suck out your soul. They're crazy down here, just like everyone else."
"B-b-but that ain't normal", I stuttered surprised, "crazy or not, horses just don't eat humans."
But he didn't respond. He started chuckling weirdly instead.
"Ah, you've been Normalpersonalized", he finally said.
Now I was silent, puzzled, staring at him baffled and curious. "What do you mean?"
"You are Normal", his tone suddenly serious, somehow drained, losing its playfullness, "You are not yourself, you're not human, you are Normal. You walk and talk like a fucking machine and you don't even realize it. You're so used to copying everyone else. Look at yourself! Then look at people around. Aren't you all the same?"
I shook my head bewildered.. "No, no, no. I'm not the same", I raised.
"I have different eyes, different hair, I think differently, I speak differently, I got a different name, my own name."
He laughed loudly, interrupting by moking me with "Oh, poor little you, realising just now that you are identical to them and their Horses. In fact you act as their reflection."
That did it.
"No, I'm not!", I snapped. "I do things my way and that's that!"
He looked at me. My eyes met. Mine burning in rage now. I stared right at him.
And then I saw him. Really saw him in a way never before.
I read the sadness on his eyes and brows, his waiver on his shoulders and his arms, hanging heavily on his sides.
He looked up slowly at the cloudy grey sky and sighed. I sensed he was trying to find again his nerve to speak. Or to shout out loud. Or just leave.
When he looked back at me again, his face became a picture I would never forget.
"It's not what you say or do. It's not what you look like or all this shit you wear and carry with you, what you think make you who you are and pull you through each day. It's not all that their Horses are after." he said.
And he sighed again.
"You see, they Already have all that. All this Already belongs to them, even before you make up your mind to do anything, like a good NormalPerson."
Silence.
And I will never forget his eerie voice, when he finally added:
"It's your Dreams they are after. Those Horses of theirs are Dreamthirsty and they will chase your dreams until they get them and they tread on them and neigh out loud and proud for all to see. They will then throw your Dreams back at you, only hollow, lifeless and dead, just like your whole future."
ellievsbear