Eugene

I used to have this friend, Eugene. Well actually, he wasn't really a friend. I had only met him a couple of times and we weren't close. He was a friend of a friend. My friend Daniel was best friends with him. The two times I did meet him he barely said two words to me.
But later...I was at my grandma's house texting Daniel and hanging out with my cousins and he suddenly started flirting with me. Very strongly. I can't tell you what he said or I would have to rate this mature.
Anyway, it was weird because I had known Daniel for around three years and he had never come on to me. Besides that, he didn't use that kind of language...he was way too shy.
I replied "WTF DANIEL"
He quickly said "IM SO SORRY THAT WAS MY FRIEND EUGENE!"
I started laughing and my cousins came over to see what I was laughing at. I showed them and they collapsed on the floor with laughter. I kept them updated on the conversation and every time Daniel told me Eugene wanted to talk to me again I agreed, because my cousins and I thought it was hilarious. I was texting my other friends screenshots of the messages.
But it got old fast. I started doubting that Eugene was really there, and thinking it was just and excuse for Daniel and his friends to be jerks. I told Daniel "I'm getting really tired of this Eugene person"
I didn't even remember having met Eugene until he sent me a picture of himself. He sent it to me from his own phone, and we continued the conversation from there. I kindly told him to back off and he suddenly started talking about killing himself. I wasn't buying it. I mean seriously, after saying such crude things, he didn't seem that emotional. I was certain he was acting.
"OK look Eugene ur obviously not serious about that and I don't think it's funny so just stop" I texted.
"I'm not kidding!" he said. "I'm dead serious and if u don't like me I'm done"
He kept saying things like this and I still didn't take him seriously, but I felt a little bad because, well, let's just say I may or may not have insulted him harshly, calling him several names and telling him I didn't want to talk to him again. I realized I may have been a little harsh and my cousins believed his whole story from the get-go. I tried to apologize, but there was no response.
I was starting to get concerned and nervous. I felt a sinking feeling in my gut. I sincerely hoped that either his phone died or he was trying to freak me out. I decided to call, but it went straight to voicemail. I left a brief message, then waited. My cousins insisted that he was just pranking me and we forgot about it.
A couple hours later, after my cousins were asleep, David called me. As soon as I answered, he said "What did you say to him?!?"
"Why?!? What happened?" I said, now in a panic.
"He's in the hospital! You don't understand; Eugene is very sensitive!"
"How do you know it was me?!?" I exclaimed, my voice full of guilt.
"WHAT DID YOU SAY?"
"I told him I didn't want to talk to him anymore!"
"God, what were you thinking?!?" he said angrily.
"How was I supposed to know he would react like that?!?"
"BECAUSE HE TOLD YOU!"
I felt horrible. I'm usually such a nice person- I had no intention of hurting him and certainly not of inspiring him to commit suicide!
"What did he do?!?" I cried.
"The doctors said he's definitely taken some sort of medication, but they don't recognize it. Look, I gotta go. Be careful what you say to people next time." He hung up on me.
I felt so horrible I was on the verge of tears. I couldn't stop thinking about it, and I didn't know what to do. Then Eugene started texting me. I was so surprised and relieved. But when I looked at the message, it was in a foreign language. I copied and pasted it into Google Translate and it recognized the language as Indonesian. What the hell? It translated to "You are crazy." He kept texting me. They kept coming, faster than I could keep up with. All different languages. Galician, Gujarati, Azerbaijani, things I had never even heard of.
"I don't exist."
"I'm not here."
"You are hallucinating."
"I didn't take the pills; you did."
"I am not the crazy one."
"Tomorrow I will be gone."
"Don't forget me."
I didn't know what to think, so I decided to dismiss it as him thinking strangely as a side-effect if the pills. But I screenshot the translations and sent them to my friends, thinking it was a little weird. Then I watched FRIENDS until I fell asleep.
The next day, I woke up and immediately texted Daniel. "How's Eugene?" I asked.
"Who's Eugene?" he asked. My heart stopped.
"EUGENE! YOUR BEST FRIEND! YOU WERE WITH HIM ALL NIGHT IN THE HOSPITAL!"
"I don't know what ur talking about..."
I quickly went to my photos to send him the screenshots. They were gone. I scrolled to the top of my conversation with where I talked to Eugene. All of Eugene's messages were gone. I went to the conversation from his phone, and only my side of the conversation was there.
"NO!" I exclaimed. I KNEW I wasn't crazy. He had texted me, I had met him before! I had proof right there and it was gone! I checked all my conversations with everyone I sent the screenshots to. They were gone. I called everyone I had told about him and they all said "You never said anything about anyone named Eugene!"
I shook my cousins awake. "Rose! Alex! You remember last night don't you?"
"Of course," said Rose.
"You remember when I showed you those messages from that guy, Eugene?"
"No..." she said. Nobody remembered except me. All proof I had of his existence had somehow disappeared. It was like he had never existed in the first place. It couldn't have been a dream, because the rest of the conversation was still there, just not the part about Eugene. I hadn't taken any pill. I wasn't crazy. Eugene was just messing with my head. Somehow getting revenge.
I called Eugene's number, panicked.
"Your call can not be completed as dialed. Please check the number and try again."

Reviews

[Fabian G. Franklin]

This could use a wee bit of editing but I liked it very much. It reminded me of the stories I used to read in a magazine called Weird Tales. It had modern upgrades of course though. I think you definitely have talent as a writer and an inner eye for the bizarre. Keep up the good work.