Solipsism

It's a dark morning on the suburbs. The clouds dance around the sun, like they were ghosts looking for human souls to feed off. Ricardo is sitting on the edge of his bed with his IPad on his hands watching some video over and over again. His heart is dark as the sky above, the brain is full of succubus that torture him with no mercy; demons that suck his will and destroy his intellect.

Now, the video is standing still on a beautiful girl with blue eyes and black hair as oil, she seems upset; her eyes are red and puffy. Ricardo pushes play again; his own voice emerges from the device as a yell looking for her remorse.

"Why did you do this to me?" He said crying.

"Please, stop torture me!" She demanded.

"No! No! You are the one who is torture me! You betrayed me! I'm losing my mind!" Ricardo said.

"I said I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I Just… I just… I JUST DON'T LOVE YOU ANYMORE! Don't you get it?" The girl stands up, and walks away.

Ricardo tries to focus her getaway but his hands are shivering.

"Jessie! Jessie! Wait! Come back!"

Ricardo pushes the stop button. His face appears on the screen of the device. "Well, here I am" He said after a deep breath. "I finally done it, now, I realize the truth of everything; the entire universe exists because of me, I am the cause and the effect of all the living and non living things on the planet earth. Wherever I am there's life, and wherever I am not, there is death. I am the light and the darkness; I am the alpha and the omega!"

Ricardo focuses the checkerboard floor of his room with the tablet; there's an upside down pentagram painted on it; in the middle of the red blooded drawing, there is an image of the Codex Giga's devil…

"Yes!" He said "I did it; I invoked the devil, Lucifer, Beelzebub, Satan in person! And I did it because I want to probe my theory… well; I WANT to prove that I am RIGHT! If he appears then I am wrong and we all are just a bunch of forgotten ants in the middle of an empty universe, but if he does not appear on the next few minutes, I'm right! And this entire charade, that we call life, is just a play, and I am the star…! And you my dear friend, who is watching this video, are just an Extra!"

Suddenly, the door of his room opens wide. Slowly Ricardo focuses the shadow that emerges from opening. "What the hell are you doing!" said a girl.

"Go away!" Ricardo answered to his sister Tephanny.

"Are you playing with that again?" Tephanny asked with her hands on her hips. "Are you out of your mind?"

Tephanny picks up the image of the devil. "You can't play with this stuff?"

"Oh, come on, this is nonsense!" Ricardo answered mocking. "Look at his, he looks like a drunken smurf!" He takes the image and puts it on her face.

"This is serious!" Tephanny tears up the paper.

"Tephanny, you don't have moral authority to judge me, look at you… you are a witch!"

"I'm not a witch!" She said at loud and then she snaps Ricardo's forehead.

"Ouch! Hey!"

"I am a Wicca, not a witch!"

"Whatever…"

Tephanny takes a deep breath and says: "Look, bro, I know that your perception of reality is kind a… huh…" She makes the air quotes with her hands "Mess up" "So, your girlfriend, the love of your life, your valentine cheated on you with your best friend on your bed, and now you think that you are the center of the universe, I get it!" She sighs "Look for help! Go see a psychiatrist, or someone else! But your pain is not excuse to playing with forces beyond your imagination; you don't know what kind of dark entity will answer your calling…"

"Leave me alone!"

"No! I won't, someone must to say this: Be a man, grow a pair! Let her go! She doesn't worth that much, this kind of things happens all the time, everywhere and to everyone. You are not the center of the universe. Everyone cheats"

Ricardo stands up. "No, no, I am right and I will prove that to you, sis. I challenged the devil to appear in the next five minutes, the time is running out…" He sees his watch "…in five… four… three… two… and… one! You see… nothing!"

After Ricardo's countdown there's a silence in the room. The brothers are staring at each other's eyes; the silence is now deafening. Tephanny sighs.

"You are a left brain thinker, Bro" She said.

"I am, and you are my opposite, sis"

An explosion downstairs breaks the silence of the house. Tephanny screams.

"Calm down, Maybe is mom" Ricardo said.

"No, she's not here! She's at work!" She screamed with his arms in the air.

"Don't scream! Maybe it's nothing"

"No, no, it is something! It's him!"

"Come on… Tephanny, are you telling that you actually believe all that supernatural nonsense?" He asked.

"The truth is not something to believe in, the truth is something that you see, or you ignore. You DID the stupidest thing; you mocked the truth" She said very seriously.

"Bullshit! The only truth in the whole universe is the scientific truth".

The explosion down stairs sounds again. Tephanny scream. Ricardo hugs her sister and look at her eyes "There's nothing wrong…" He said "Let's go down stairs and we'll see that everything is just fine".

The brothers come out of Ricardo's room very slowly; He is recording everything with his IPad, Tephanny walks behind him with her Wicca talisman; a five point star, on her right hand.

"Let me go to my room, I need to get something" Tephanny Said.

"Ok" He answered.

Ricardo focuses the stairs with his device; suddenly a shadow begins to increase in the wall as is someone was climbing to the second floor, but the person is not making any noise.

"Are you sure mom is in work?" He asked to her sister.

"Yep, I'm pretty sure…" She answered at the same time that she leaves her room with another talisman on her hand. "…I kissed her good bye!"

"What's that?"

"This is the Saturn seal of protection, and it will protect us from the evil that you summoned early!" She said showing the talisman right in front of her brother face. "Why are you asking about mom?"

"There's someone down stairs, look!" He points the wall, but the shadow is gone.

"Oh… are you starting to believe that something is actually happening after your invocation"

"No!" He goes down stairs.

"Great goddess of day and night protect me with all your might…" Tephanny said while she's walking.

Ricardo is recording on the first floor; it seems to be empty, there's no sign of any disturbance. Tephanny walks to him repeating the same phrase over and over again.

"Would you shut your hole?" He said.

"In this place and in this hour, by the guardians of the secrets of the night, take the keys to my heart, and close the door of my mind!!" She said at loud.

"Shut the…" He said, but a metal noise that proceeds from the back yard calls his attention. "Shhh"

Ricardo walks to the back yard, Tephanny follows while she is whispering her spells of protection.

"The breath of life, and the light of my mind, creates an enchantment, of protection and comfort, as the air I breathe is purified, I surround myself with an orb of gold, this golden haze, is constantly purified, and separated from any negativity, may my space be protected"

The brothers arrive to the glass door of the back yard, Tephanny shuts up. Ricardo makes a panning of the back yard with the IPad. Something behind a plant of ferns calls his attention. "Look!" His sister screamed. A tiny green figure, with horns and long yellow nails, is staring at them as a predator "No!" Tephanny Screamed. The demon comes to the light; now they can see all the details of its horrible figure; the veins that ply all his body, the horns with flesh and blood stains, his reptile shaped eyes, and the green slim that came out of its mouth. "No!" The sister screams again. The demon runs to the brothers like a bloodthirsty bull, and in a matter of seconds it gets them and breaks the glass door, Ricardo and his sister fall down.

"No!" Tephanny screamed at loud with her hands on her face. The two brothers are now on the floor with pieces of glass all over them. After a few seconds, Ricardo stands up; he swept away all the pieces of glass of his clothes with his bare hands. Tephanny is still screaming.

"Calm down! Tephanny, whatever it is… it's gone!" He screamed.

"You are lying!" She answered.

"See it by yourself! Open your eyes!"

Slowly, the girl opens her brown eyes. "You're right!"

Ricardo helps her sister out to stand up. "You know, I still don't understand the logic of what you did" She said.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"Why calling the devil is the proof that you are wrong?"

"I'm a scientific…"

"Oh! c'mon…" She interrupted him "…You are just an anthropology student!"

"Anyway!!! I will be a scientific! I don't want for him to exist, because I don't believe in all that supernatural' crap, so if he exists, it means that I am not the center of the universe…" He sighs "And… now… apparently, he does exist… so, I was wrong!" He said disappointed.

"See… the existence of the devil doesn't necessary means that you are wrong…" She said with her eyes in the ceiling.

"What do you mean?"

"Whatever you resist, persist. There are people that believe that the demons are just ideas parasitizing our mind…"

"I don't understand"

"Are you sure that you woke up this morning?"

"Of course, I am! Am I?" Ricardo frowns.

"Maybe you are high"

"Definitely no"

"Are you sure? Mom found all the pot that you hide right behind Miley Cyrus' poster!" Tephanny extends her right hand with her ring finger pointing up. "What if this is some kind of dream, or mystical experience? In this case you are the center of the universe, and that demon is just an idea that is trying to kidnap your mind… and we all know the name of the idea, it's the J word."