Imaginary

'She's ignoring me.'

'No,'

I startled as the man appeared beside me. He wasn't there a minute ago, I know he wasn't. I looked around. Everything seemed hazy. Disconnected in a way I couldn't quite figure out. I wanted to know where he had come from but there was a more pressing matter at hand.

Why won't she talk to me?

The man looked back at me, impassive save for the slight twinkle of emotion in his blue green eyes. Strange colour really. Almost like they shifted from one shade to another. Probably just the lighting.

The light in the room was pretty dim and the lamp in the corner always did do strange things to it's surroundings. Natalie had always been afraid of the dark so that lamp was never turned off. It burnt out once and she had cried for a full hour until her dad had changed the bulb.

That was months ago now.

He had told her she was being silly. That she wasn't supposed to be afraid of the dark anymore. Not now that she's a big girl. I watched her sitting on her bed, flipping through a magazine. She hadn't said anything to me since she got home. I think she's mad at me.

'Natalie, please talk to me.'

Nothing. She didn't even look up. I almost forgot about the man.

'What's going on?'

'You know what.'

I shook my head. I wish I did. In the past couple weeks we had barely spoken. Well, she had barely spoken to me anyway. I kept trying though. Whatever I had done to upset her, she wouldn't stay mad forever, right? She couldn't.

One time when she was about five she hadn't spoke to me for a week but then everything was okay again. Kids couldn't stay upset for long. Especially Natalie.

A familiar buzzing noise broke me from my stupor. Her phone. She picked it up and smiled as she started texting the person back. I loved seeing her smile but I didn't like the phone. She spent too much time on it now. It was like it was her whole life.

She got it almost a month ago for her birthday. Her mom said they needed a way to stay in contact but she never texts her mom. It's always her friends. Everyone but me. At first she thought the phone was stupid but then she started getting peoples phone numbers and now she hardly spends time off it.

'Think. You know what's going on.'

I looked at the man again. He didn't look scary but I felt dread when I looked at him now. He was wrong. He had to be. Maybe he wasn't even real.

Natalies mom had said sometimes we manifest our fears. She's a psychiatrist so I know she's smart. Maybe that's all this is. I'm manifesting my fears and imagining a man telling me- No. I won't think that. It's not true.

Natalie and I promised we would always be together. That we would always be friends. You don't break promises especially to best friends. This was just temporary.

The man is still watching me. If I ignore him, maybe he'll go away.

Natalie is the only one I want to focus on but I keep getting distracted. Something is really wrong but I don't know what. The man looks more solid now and Natalie, it looks like I'm watching her through a fog.

I force myself to look at the man, tearing my eyes off my best friend.

'You aren't real.'

He nods.

'True.'

There's a trace of sadness or maybe pity as he watches me.

I ignore it as relief floods through me. I knew he wasn't.

There's someone else in here too. A girl about twelve years old. She's walking across the room to a lamp.

Why does that seem important?

She takes a deep breath and reaches out a hand. She pauses.

'Time to grow up.' she whispers.

The light goes out.