One day, lost in thoughts of their incoming, self-inflicted demise, someone suddenly gazed deep into their reflection in a window pane, on the street, outside. There was nothing particular about that one pane, barring the sudden, inescapable attraction. They gazed so deep, in fact, that they saw the Devil himself, all the way in Hell, peeking between the cracks of reality.
“You look lost in a world that has no meaning”, said the Devil.
“I feel like everything is out of reach and distant”, said the human.
The Devil grinned and beckoned them closer. “I will let you in on a secret”, he snarled. “It shall be etched into your mind and grant you a new outlook on life, forever”. Curious, the human’s eyes lit up and welcomed in the infernal knowledge. “Look around you and recall these words as truth: all you think is real really is not.”
Once spoken in the silence of the reflection, those words resonated with the human as though they had been obvious, ancient wisdom. It was as if a light suddenly shone on everything around them. “Repeat after me”, the Devil added. “All you think is real really is not”, they whispered on the other side of the glass. The devil smiled and vanished, but not before leaving more words to echo in the mind of the human.
“Don’t let it go to your head!”