Jason rode through the gate, the horse carrying him away from the gloomy city. It was another long path, but the nature around him eased some of the tension. He could hear birds singing, though he couldn't see them anywhere. A sun followed overhead, but it wasn't bright more like a painting of a sun, flat and unconvincing. The trees looked the same way. So did the grass. Everything around him felt artificial, like a stage set someone had assembled in a hurry , nonetheless, it made him feel peace.
He noticed a direction sign up ahead and felt a flicker of relief. Finally, some guidance. But when he got close enough to read it, his hope faded. All that was written on it was: "You can outrun a lot of things, but your choices know the shortcuts." confusing enough but not surprising anymore that could mean anything.
Still, the sign was turned toward a specific direction, and from that way he heard noise faint but distinct. Voices maybe, or movement. Without thinking twice, he urged the horse forward and followed the path the sign indicated.
He reached a park and stopped short. It was crowded. Actually crowded with people families, children playing, couples walking. "What the—" Jason said, his voice catching in shock. He immediately dismounted and walked toward them, drawn by the simple normalcy of it all. He tried speaking to a woman passing by, then a man with a dog, but no one answered. No one even looked at him. He was invisible but not surprising, really.
He didn't feel despair though. Maybe he'd accepted his fate a long time ago, or maybe he was just too tired to care anymore. Instead, he walked toward a nearby bench and sat down heavily. He turned around to call for the horse, but it had vanished again ,that didn't concern him anymore either.
He just kept watching. Children playing tag. A cat licking its paws on a sunny patch of grass. A man talking with his wife on a nearby bench, her hand resting on his arm. Everyone looked so happy. He felt like an intruder a dark smudge on a canvas of bright colors, but he didn't feel shame or self-awareness. He felt anger.
Why? Why them and not me?
He hated that a child had loving parents. Hated that some man nearby looked happier with his wife than Jason ever had with Lara. He was furious watching friends laugh together,a kind of laughter he'd never shared with Eli. All the money he'd wasted on projects that went nowhere. All the moments he'd squandered.
He was just angry. Burning with it.
Suddenly, a child sat down beside him on the bench. Jason didn't bother looking at him,seemed pointless since no one could see him anyway.
"It's raining."
Jason glanced at the boy, assuming he was talking to someone else. It wasn't raining. The sky was clear, the sun still hanging there like a painted prop. But the boy was staring directly at him. Right into his eyes."It's raining," the boy said again.
It was a little Jason.
Jason felt like time stopped. Suddenly he was soaking wet from rain that hadn't existed two seconds ago. Everyone around him vanished the families, the couples, the cat all gone. Only the little version of himself remained on the bench beside him, and for some reason, he wasn't shocked. It felt familiar, like this wasn't the first time he'd talked to himself. Like maybe it had happened before, in dreams he couldn't quite remember, or moments he'd buried too deep to recall.
The rain fell in sheets now, though it made no sound when it hit the ground. Jason could feel it soaking through his clothes, cold against his skin, but when he looked down, the bench beneath him remained dry. The park around them had transformed into something liminal—caught between existence and memory. The swings still hung in the air, but they didn't move. The trees stood perfectly still, their leaves frozen mid-flutter as if someone had paused the world with a remote control. The sky above churned with dark clouds that seemed too low, too close, like a ceiling pressing down on them....everything was frozen as if they were waiting for the two of them to start talking and react however they see fit....