"When you stare at something long enough, when you look away you see the exact image but with opposite colors."
"That's right, sir."
"When you've been hearing a sound too long and it stops, is the ringing in your ears the opposite, too?"
"I don't know, sir."
"If it is, then all tones must have quantifiable qualities just like colors. If it isn't, then what is it and why is it not like color?"
"Are you a musician, sir?"
"I play. I am not."
"Are you a painter, sir?"
"I paint. I am not."
"Are you an artist?"
"I pray daily I may be."
"You are religious? This is a surprise to me, sir."
"No. I do not pray to a god. I pray. Something hears, even if it is only myself."
"Some can't see colors."
"Some can't distinguish sounds."
"What does it matter, sir? Some see the world differently. Some hear it differently, too. It's personal perspective. You can discern and analyze it if you wish. Simple psychology. Why do you persist?"
(Silence.)
"Stop asking such questions, sir."
(A sigh, with a strange smile of contentment.)
"What now?"
"Everyone used to tell me that, and then they stopped. The absence made me wonder what changed. If I had changed, or if they had, I couldn't know. It seems nothing has, after all."
"You're a right prick, sir."
"That one, too. Good night. I must gather my strength for tomorrow's execution."
"True enough. Good night, sir."
"Wait."
"What is it, sir?"
"Do you suppose when you've been here too long, a sudden change illumes the inverse?"
"Here, sir? Your bedchamber? Your nation? Your planet?"
"Sure, sure. This world. This dimension."
"Worried about tomorrow. Don't. You've had preparation."
"Will they miss me?"
"None as much as I, sir."
"A shame, for I shall miss them very much, I expect."
"This certainly is a beautiful world, isn't it."
(Pause.)
"Sir?"
"The inverse of this world is just around the corner, for me. Tomorrow."
"You could say that." (Eye roll.)
(Smile, no more words; he is asleep.)
(Watches while doubt and dread engulf his mind. For a split second the world is bright as day, and then darkness reigns in Hell again.)