When the word stops being truth and becomes a tool |
You know that feeling?
Someone is talking, smiling, saying the right things. They’re even “kind.”
And still… your body leans back.
Not because you caught them lying.
Because they’re not there.
It’s hard to explain this without sounding paranoid.
But I’ve learned to trust it.
In German there’s a word: zwielichtig.
It literally belongs to twilight. Half-light. Double-light. The hour where everything is “almost” visible.
That’s the problem with twilight:
you can mistake the predator for the protector.
A zwielichtig person isn’t always a criminal.
That’s what makes it worse.
They can be perfectly legal.
Perfectly polite.
They can even tell the truth sometimes.
But they don’t inhabit truth.
They inhabit reality like a chessboard.
Their life isn’t presence — it’s positioning.
Their word isn’t revelation — it’s leverage.
Their relationships aren’t encounter — they’re transactions.
And you feel it. Before proof. Before arguments.
You feel the fracture.
A healthy person can be messy. Contradictory. Sometimes weak. Sometimes wrong.
But still… you can sense a centre.
They may stumble, but you still know........