Imaginary

Inspired by a quote from an anonymous source: "Don't let the imaginary person inside your head keep you from loving the real one right in front of you," ------------------------------------------

Kyle is eighteen.

Some call him mental.

Others call him special, and not in a good way.

Rain calls him her friend, although she wants something more….

But Kyle has this other friend.

She’s funny and beautiful, sweet and kind.

She understands him inside and out.

Her name is Cassandra.

She has long blonde hair, hazel eyes and the richest of tanned skin.

Kyle loves her very much.

Cassandra exists in Kyle's head.

This is her story.

What Friends are For

I had never felt more alive.

We plunged through the clouds, soaring around flocks of startled birds.

Kyle was having a dream about flying and I had joined him.

There didn’t seem to be a ground in this world, just the sky and the sun and the clouds racing past as we sped through the atmosphere.

He reached out his hand and grabbed mine, startling me out of my reverie. Laughing at me, he pulled me closer. My momentum made me crash into him, sending us spinning wildly in the air.

His strong arms slowed us down.

He held me close, whispering three words that always made me happy.

“I love you,”

We were lying on a blanket of cloud, gazing at one another.

His lips touched mine just as my world faded to black.

Kyle had opened his eyes.

I was trapped again, trapped behind his bright green eyes, a spectator.

A tear trickled down his face, burning his skin with salt.

I wanted to comfort him.

Please don’t cry…..

He wiped the droplet away furiously.

How can I not when you’re there and I’m here…..

Kyle stood, stretching.

But I’m right here…..

He wandered towards the mirror on his closet door.

His light brown hair was sticking up all over the place. I couldn’t help but laugh.

Hey! He thought indignantly.

I merely giggled, watching as he poked at the frazzled mess.

In the back of my mind,

(Did I have a mind? I’d never really thought about that…)

I acknowledged that I had cheered him up.

Isn’t that what imaginary friends are for?

Rainfall

Rain wrapped her arms around herself, rubbing her sides in an attempt to ward off the autumn chill that had settled over the park.

She noticed that everyone else had coats and whatnot.

Not Rain.

She had thought it'd be warm and had set out for Central Park wearing jean shorts and a blouse.

It didn't help that the bench she sat on was wet from a quick shower that had occurred in the early hours that morning.

Rain's right knee juddered up and down impatiently. Kyle was always late these days, sleeping in and playing with his girlfriend. She almost had to remind herself that Cassandra didn't exist.

"Hey,"

She looked up, surprised to see Kyle standing in front of her.

"Oh, hey!" Rain scooted over to offer him a seat. He frowned at the wet bench. Shrugging, Kyle seated himself next to her without a complaint.

"I'm sorry it took me so long,"

Rain refrained from rolling her eyes. He always said that.

"It's alright," She hugged her arms to her chest again as another cold breeze tousled her hair.

***

Deep inside Kyle's mind, I observed their interactions disdainfully. Oh how I hated that girl. Kyle was blind to her revealing blouse, the first four buttons undone, showing the world all her glory.

I gritted my imaginary teeth, balling imaginary fists.

I don't understand why you hate her so much.... Kyle interrupted my actions, erasing them.

Rain was going on about some new movie coming out, her dark curls flying about in the wind. She smiled that perfect smile, her bright blue eyes shining.

Because she's real.... I murmured enviously.

You're real to me....

He was tugging at my emotional heartstrings every time he saw her.

I know he didn't mean to, but that didn't stop the pain.

Kyle, in that moment, went against those four words he had spoken to me and entwined his fingers with Rain's.

I closed my eyes, sinking back into his dreams and thoughts so I wouldn't have to see him falling in love.

Thunderstorm

Kyle paused in mid-sentence.

"What's wrong?" Rain laid her hand on his arm, gentle and comforting.

"My God," He gasped, his head falling into his hands.

I was causing havoc in his mind, ripping up his old losses and sorrows, stirring up a hailstorm of grief.

Kyle's body shuddered, his face buried in the palms of his hands. Rain watched as a few lonesome tears dripped through the spaces between his fingers.

But I didn't care. I didn't care about her. Hell, at the time, I didn't really care for Kyle even.

All I did care about was making sure he felt my pain. That he understood what I was going through.

And I did so, the only way I knew how.

Memories drifted around me, smoke on the wind in the dark recesses of his mind. Faces of the long dead - Kyle's father who had died in a car accident. His brother, MIA in Afghanistan - stared at me with unseeing eyes as they met their fate over and over again.

I plunged my hand into an unsettling image of Rain dead and bloodied at Kyle's feet. One of his many fears was that something would happen to her.

If I so wished, I could make this fear become reality.

With every ounce of strength and sheer willpower I had left, I reached out through Kyle's emerald eyes, plunging my free hand into Rain's sapphire ones. For a moment - just a moment - I relished the sensation of another mind, someone different from the dusty cavaties of Kyle's imagination.

And then I wrenched, clawed, and bit until I could taste blood.

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Kyle stood. Rain lay at his feet. Blood stained her white blouse, spilling onto the pavement beneath her. Her glassy eyes were fixated on his face, an unsaid plea frozen on her lips.

It had happened all too fast. He had begun to feel Cassandra doing something. Something deadly. She had reached out to Rain's mind and strangled it. The blood on her blouse had spilled from her mouth.

It played over and over in Kyle's mind like a broken record. Rain choking, blood frothing on her lips. Gurgling sounds bubbling up from her throat as she clutched his jacket. And then, she fell off the bench, her head cracking upon the paved path.

"You've gone way too far this time Cassandra," Kyle whispered, almost unaware of the small crowd of people gathered around Rain's body, texting or talking into cell phones frantically - why call 911 when she was already dead?

A venomous voice responded, echoing in his head until all other sounds were drowned in it.

No Kyle. You went too far. You fell in love....

Crossing Over

Kyle knelt beside Rain, a wave of nausea and depression washing over him. Tears overwhelmed him as he held her limp body close to him, rocking back and forth. A stab of guilt touched my imaginary heart for just a moment before I threw away the feeling. I had no heart; therefore, I could not feel remorse. Or, I could at least choose whether or not to feel it. Whether or not to have a heart.

To be or not to be.

Currently, I was ‘not to be’ as Kyle put me as the farthest thought in his mind. All he cared about was her. Why did he still care? She was dead.

Then a thought came to my nonexistent mind…

If I could kill….

With one last desperate attempt, I flung myself towards Rain’s unoccupied mind, tearing my moorings to Kyle’s.

I clung to his thoughts and memories for a fleeting moment before falling into the swirling black pool of nothingness in Rain. Her body was still capable of living. But it needed a mind �" a soul.

I filled the emptiness, and Rain’s eyes �" my eyes �" shuddered open.

This was incredible!

I could feel the slick pool of blood beneath me, the soft skin of Kyle’s arms as he held me.

“Kyle?” I croaked, taking a ragged breath through my new lips.

“Rain? How - Why -?”

I looked up at him, placing my finger to his lips, silencing his words.

“Kyle. It’s me. It’s Cassandra,”

A look of utter repulsion crossed his face and for a second I wished I was still in his head, listening to his thoughts.

He let me fall to the ground as he stood, staring down at me in horror.

“How could you?” He hissed, rage burning in his green eyes.

“Kyle! Please! I love you!”

Kyle flinched as though I had slapped him across the face.

“I don’t love you,” He spat, turning away before I could reply.

I watched, longingly, as he walked away, sirens beginning to wail in the distance.

The ambulances meant to carry away Rain’s �" my �" dead body would come to quite a shock.

Alone

Kyle glanced over his shoulder at Rain - no, at Cassandra. He fought back the urge to run to her and kiss her. He had to remind himself constantly that it was not Rain who had returned from the dead but rather his imaginary friend inhabiting her body. Pausing for a moment, he shook his head to clear it.

In a few moments, I'm either going to wake up in a mental hospital or at home, in bed.... He screwed up his eyes, desperately trying to bring himself back to consciousness. But to no avail. Kyle realized that this was happening, it was a nightmare come true.

Grief clouded his vision as memories of Rain - the real Rain - flashed through his mind. Her laugh. Her smile. Her shining blue eyes.

Kyle stole another glance over his shoulder at Cassandra, only to find that she had vanished, leaving a group of confused people from the ambulance staring at the pool of blood.

He shivered reflexively as fingers entwined with his.

"You're stuck with me, whether you like it or not," Piercing blue eyes fixed upon his, Rain's face twisted in a mask of hatred.

He wrenched his hand away from hers, returning the stare. But his rage against his imaginary friend faded to be replaced by a sadness so deep that Cassandra - for a moment - regretted her actions.

"How could you?" Kyle's voice cracked with heartache.

Cassandra stared at her feet - at Rain's feet.

"I couldn't stand to lose you. To lose me." She looked up at Kyle once more, searching his eyes for a sign that he understood.

"Well maybe it's time I grew up. I don't need my imaginary friend anymore,"

He walked away from her for the last time, leaving Cassandra alone in the middle of the park in an unfamiliar body. The area had long been abandon after the accident, worried mothers shooing away their children from the sight of the dead girl.

The same dead girl who now stood, quite alive, Cassandra's mind inhabiting the empty space where Rain had been.

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The ambulance driver paused for a moment, one foot inside the vehicle.

He could have sworn he had heard a girl crying.

Shaking his head, he clambered into the driver's seat, strapping himself in.

Time to go to work.

Author's Note

My Protagonize account:
http://www.protagonize.com/author/VictoriaGlass