Imaginary Friends

Darkness… It was all I saw… it was all I felt… Darkness is what I am. Im not a nobody because to be a nobody you had to be a somebody once and I was never that. I am nothing but darkness. A void, an empty emotionless abyss. It’s quiet, not that I could hear anything, I didn’t have ears or eyes or even a face. Some would say that darkness brings a certain peace but to me it makes me nervous. I’ve been darkness for as long as I can remember, that is if I even have a memory or a mind....

Then in an instant there is light. Its bright, but then again to me everything would have been brighter than the darkness. My eyes squint trying to block out some of the brightness… Wait! Eyes! I have eyes, I can see. For the first time in eternity I could see, I frantically try look around trying to take in whatever is out there in fear that in an instance it would go away.

Orange… It’s the first bright thing that my new eyes find, blinking a couple times, I examine the color. Somehow, I know that it’s a color called orange. I’ve never seen it before but in the back of my mind I know it. Oh my God. I have a mind. I could think, I could see, I could smell, hear, taste! I had hands, scaly ones with pointy claws. I had feet! They matched my hands, scaly! I was a “someone”. I could feel so many different emotions, I didn’t know what to call each and every one! I feel lost but at the same time I feel home. What even is a home? I didn’t know at that time but I knew I would figure it out sooner or later.

I looked back down towards the orange. I noticed that there were very light lines on the orange. As my new eyes looked up I saw him. A small, slightly pale, boy. Blue, the next color I saw was blue. That was the color of his eyes. Did my eyes have a color? I titled my head as I peered at him, no one made a sound, I didn’t even know if I could make sounds. Black, I knew that color already, it has been drilled into my brain, it was all I saw until now. But his black hair wasn’t like the one I was, it wasn’t as dark and it didn’t make me nervous. No this black made a feeling of peace wash over me. White, white was the color that adorned his teeth which I could see through a smile. Although some of his teeth were missing, the smile felt whole. His smile made me smile, I never smiled before, but I felt my face curl up word.

That’s when he spoke, “Hi, my names Emmett.” “What’s yours?” I stare at him blankly, not knowing what to say or if I even had a voice. Finally I took a deep breath in, “I don’t know” it came out rugged and lower than I thought but it still had a friendly accet to it. The boy who goes by Emmett started to make a sound, at first I was frightened but then as it got louder I realized that it wasn’t a bad sound. No this sound was assoitated with happiness, I knew that because his smile was back. This sound was laughter and soon I joined in, laughing, oh how I never wanted this to stop. Because for the first time, I felt happiness I didn’t feel darkness or anything remotely close to that. What I felt I could only describe as light.

After the laugher died down Emmett looked back up at me “Don’t worry I will find a name for you. After all you are my imaginary friend.” I froze, What? What is an imaginary friend and why am I his? Does he know what I was? As I was lost in my thoughts, Emmett started to walk around me. He pulled at my tail, snapping me back to reality. I turned towards him, “Since when did I have a tail?” Emmett looked at me with the same face of confusion that I had. “Do you know what you are?” he asked. I sheepishly shook my head and smiled. He smiled right back, God I do love that smile I thought to myself. “Well you are a fire breathing dragon that can skate board and cook hot dogs on your belly and you fly and you can do stuff like backflips and and you can do all sorts of things.” Emmett started to babble on about all these things that I could supposivly do. I sat down beside him and listened intently, he seemed to know more about me than I do; well he did imagine me. As the long list finally came to a close Emmett looked up at me, his blue eyes gleaming with excited, “Most importantly you are my best friend!” Best friend, those two words echoed in my mind. I didn’t know what a “best friend” is but since it was coming from him it must mean something good. “So best friend have you thought of a name for me?” I ask smiling. Emmett stops for a few seconds, looking at the ground, scrunching up his nose, I leaned in closer to see what he is doing. He was thinking, he was thinking pretty hard… All of a sudden he jumps up to his feet, pointing a finger at me, he exclaims “ I’ve got it! I’ve got it! Your name will be….” I look up at him, my eyes full of wonder. “Alex!” Alex… Alex… The name fills my head, “You like the name right?” I blink a couple times, my eyes focused on his. His eyes, his wonderfully deep blue eyes, show a small amount of fear of rejection. That’s when I pull the biggest smile. “I love love it! It’s the best name for me because it came from you!” Once again Emmett is back up and jumping, this time I join him, he shouts “ Alex the Dragon! Alex the Dragon is my imaginary friend and my best friend! We are going to go on so many adventures and it will be sooooo much fun!” I begin to laugh as he continues his list of things that we will do. I know that we will do all of them. After awhile we start to settle down, I sit back down and Emmett starts playing with my tail. I look at the ground, soaking in all the different colors. Whispering quietly to myself “I am Alex and Emmett is my best friend.” Releif washes over me, and I know that I’ll never go back to darkness again.

“Emmett? Sweetie come inside, its time for lunch.” I looked over to where the sound came from, the voice had a stern feeling but overall it felt safe. “Coming mom!” Emmett shouted back towards the house, standing to his feet he starting to leave. I stayed still, Should I follow him? Do i stay? What’s a mom? All those questions rattled my brain. Emmett must have noticed that I wasn’t following because he stopped and looked back at me. “Aren’t ya going to follow me Alex, come on I’ll introduce ya to my mom.” Nervously I stood up and walked towards him, Emmett reached out his hand and grabbed mine. His hand was supstandcailly smaller than mine, I realized that I was also much taller than he was, I liked it I felt like a guardian. Emmett started to drag me towards the house House? How did I know that? No matter those were questions for another time. As we entered through the door, I saw a bunch new colors, but for some reason they seemed familiar. I could name all of them, purple, red, brown, pink, all these colors felt like I’ve seen them before. That’s when my eyes landed on another figure, she was taller than Emmett but not close to being as tall as I am. Her hair wasn’t quite black but more of a darken brown but still had a wave to it just like Emmett’s. Her eyes matched Emmett’s though, the deep blue color, but hers looked more full of wisdom. “It’s okay Alex, don’t be shy. Say hi to my mom.”

I started to feel nervous again. I glanced at Emmett who gave me a reassuring smile, it calmed my nerves. I straighten my back and stood as tall and as proudly as I could. That’s when a soft voice came for the mother, “Well hello Alex, I’m Emmett’s mom Jonan.” I smiled and felt a new feeling erupt from me, my face felt hot, I gazed my eyes around the room and found myself staring back at me. Tilting my head, I realized that I was looking at a mirror, Mirror that word ghosted through my mind. I then realized that I was blushing and that new feeling that I had was embarrassment. Turning my head back towards Jonan, I finally spoke, “Hi Jonan I’m Alex the Dragon, Emmett’s best friend. It’s nice to meet you, how are you?” I waited for a response but nothing came, Weird I thought. I looked down at Emmett, he was still smiling, shaking my head How idiotic could I be? I’m sure Emmett didn’t make me visible for Jonan, after all he probably didn’t want to scare her. “Alright Emmett, go sit down it’s time for lunch.” Emmett pulled me towards two chairs both sitting next to each other. I sat down, it felt hard and wooden but I was still comfortable. Jonan handed Emmett a plate full of different things that I’ve never seen before. Food the word popped into my mind, So that’s what Emmett eats… Food.

I watched Emmett eat his food, his mother left walking into another room. “So what are you eating?” I asked cocking my head to the side, showing that I was confused but intrigued as well. “Chicken nuggets, apple sauce and fries. Although I don’t really eat the apple sauce.” I giggled a little, he seemed to be happy that I laughed so he continued. “Yeah sometimes I scrap it off my plate so Barley can eat it.” “Barley?” I asked my face full of confusion, “Who’s Barley?” Emmett stared at me, then his face light up with excitment. “How could I forget to introduce you to Barley!? Don’t worry you’ll love her.” Is she going to be like Jonan? Maybe Emmett will make me visible this time. A sharp whistling sound extracted me from my thoughts. Emmett started creating the sound again and shouting “Barley! Barley! Come here girl!” Next thing I hear is the sound of footsteps, whipping my head towards the opening of the room, I see a rather large and fuzzy thing come barreling towards me. I cover my face with my claws for protection, but then I realize that this thing IS “Barley”. Emmett got down from his chair and started to pet Barley. “She’s an autral.. austrai…. Austalian shephard, we got her when she was just a puppy. Don’t be afraid Alex you can pet her, she’s nice.” I slowly glanced from Emmett to Barley, reaching my claw down towards her head. I carefully moved it up and down in fear of hurting her. I felt the fur brush underneath my claws, a small smile formed on my face when I realized that Barley didn’t run from me. “See, I told you she was nice.” Emmett said from his chair, as he continued to eat I continued to pet.

Soon enough I heard the quiet creak of the chair, I flashed my eyes towards Emmett. His plate was clear, nothing left, not even the apple sauce. I smiled and politey asked “I thought you said you didn’t like apple sauce?” Emmett quickly glanced up at me, he shyly smiled and explained “Welllllll mom always said that when guests are over, I have to eat everything.” His face was slighty red, I smiled at him. “Come on Alex, I’ll show you my room and where you’ll sleep!” Emmett’s face lit up with excitement, he grabbed my claw once more and pulled though the room’s doorway. As we walked through a long and slightly narrow hallway I noticed that there were many different photos hanging on the wall. They all had pictures of Emmett and Jonan, there was another man standing next to Emmett but I didn’t recognize him. As I was about to ask Emmett about the man, we stopped. BANG! I slammed my head into the door, rubbing my head I heard Emmett start to laugh. His laugh started to get contagious so I laughed as well. “We are here! This door leads to my room!” Emmett sang. I started to feel jittery, I couldn’t wait to see his room.

When the door was finally opened, I walked through. My eyes widen at the sight, his room is full of colors. His walls were painted blue like the sky and a large rainbow adored the farthest wall away from me. His bed had a large and fluffy green blanket that had white spots, two pillows were neatly placed at the top. To my left there was a small book case that held all sorts of different items, some books and some small toys. To my right there was another door, it didn’t look like the one that I ran into. This door had shutters and was smaller. “Do you like my room?” Emmett asked, “It’s amazing, it’s sooo colorful!” My tail flicked over in amusement as Emmett started to skip around his room. “You can sleep right here!” He pointed towards a smaller door next to his bed. I cocked my head in confusion, he must had noticed because he continued “Don’t worry, it looks better on the inside.” Emmett ran over and opened the door, I knelt beside him and looked in. My eyes widen, it wasn’t big but it was big enough for me, there was a blanket and a pillow. It was….perfect. “This is perfect” I exclaimed! “Thank you so much Emmett!”

He giggled and jumped onto his bed, I sat down next to him. “So…” I started “Tell me about you.” Emmett looked at my questioningly, I noticed that he was confused so I tried to be more specific. “What makes you, you?” “Oh!” He chimed, “Well I’m five years old, I like dinosaurs, my favorite color is green and my birthday is November 25th. Also I’m going to be in first grade once summer ends!” I listened intently and nodded ever so often. Emmett described the things that he liked and other traits that he had. After he finished a comforting silence fell over us, “What about you?” I turned my head towards him, I didn’t really know anything about myself but I still needed to answer. “I’m exactly like what you described me as but my favorite color has to be orange.” It was the first color that I saw, Emmett nodded and slid off his bed. He walked over to the bookshelf and grabbed a box, “Let’s play Candy Land!” My head tilted in confusion, “What’s Ca-ndy Land?” I questioned. “Oh don’t worry, I’ll explain it. It’s super easy.” I nodded and sat down next to him, folding my legs so we both had room, listening to what the directions were. Emmett took a thin board out of the box and layed it down infront of me, the board had lots of color, I smiled with excitement. Next he pulled out different cards and four small figures, “Okay so first you have to pick a little guy.” Emmett raised up four tiny figures each had a different color covering their whole body. “But you can’t have the blue one, that one is mine.” Emmett explained, I nodded at his request. Then I eagerly pointed at the red one, it matched the color on my skin, Emmett placed the blue and red one at the start of the game. “Next you have to pick a card and whatever color you get, that’s the first one you go to.” Nodding even though I was still slightly confused, Emmett grinned and picked up a card it was red. He grabbed his character and placed it at the first red block, nothing happened at first then I realized that it was my turn. Picking up a card… Green. I showed Emmett the card, “What do I do now?” I asked in confusion, he grabbed my character “You place your character on the first green block.” Oh okay I thought.

We played for awhile until Barley started to bark, the sudden noise made me flinch. Emmett’s face lit up, “My dad’s home!” Dad? He has a dad. Is that like another Jonan? I was too busy thinking to notice that Emmett had run out of the room. When I realized that I was alone, I frantically got up and ran out the door looking for him. Where did he go? I walked around his house and stopped in the doorway leading to the living room, there I saw a taller man almost taller than me. He had black hair like Emmett but instead of blue eyes, he had brown. Was this his dad? Emmett’s voice ran through my head “Dad! I have to show you to Alex!” A lower voice questioned back, “Who’s Alex?” When I realized that they were talking about me, I stepped into the living room and flexed out my wings trying to look as cool as I could. “This is Alex! He’s a fire breathing dragon!” I smiled and waved but i didn’t say anything, I figured that I wasn’t visible. “Well Alex, I’m Derek, Emmett’s dad, I hope you two are playing safe.” Derek said with a chuckle. I nodded and was about to say something when Derek turned to his wife “So honey what’s for dinner?” I looked over at Jonan who was standing in the door way, “Well I was thinking speggetti. How does that sound Emmett?” Emmett started to dance around the room, “I take that as a yes.” Jonan said while laughing, she then walked back into the kitchen. Derek followed her as well, I joined Emmett in dancing around the room. Soon enough dinner was called.

As Emmett and I piled into the kitchen, I took note that there were only three chairs. The one that I sat in for lunch was taken by Derek. Luckily Emmett also noted this and asked his dad to bring in another chair for me. His dad glanced back at Jonan, who just nodded, before grabbing a stood from the corner of the room. He placed the stood next to Emmet’s chair and I eagerly took a seat, as the food was being set out I simply watched and listened. Jonan, Derek and Emmett all had a conversation talking about their day, Barley sat down in between Emmett and I. I started to get lost in my thoughts Man I really love it here. This whole house is so colorful and Emmett well his personality is just as colorful. Although this place seems familiar, like I’ve been here before, not this house per say but I’ve seen theses colors somewhere. I was brought out of my thoughts by Derek’s statement, “Honey this was an excellent dinner.” I gazed my eyes over the table and noticed that most of the food was gone. Emmett was nodding in agreement, “Can we watch a movie?” Emmett asked, Derek and Jonan first looked at each other but then agreed to his request.

After the dishes were washed, the whole family including me rejoined in the living room after getting on their pjamas. I once again sat down on the couch, it was a darker red color and it had a rough texture to it. Emmett’s dad pulled out a movie, leaning down towards Emmett I whispered “What movie are we watching?” Emmett mumbled “I’m not sure but my dad always picks out funny movies.” Nodding I sat back and enjoy the movie. Soon enough the movie was over, the plot was a little unrealistic but Emmett seemed to have liked it. Emmett and I let out a yawn at the same time, “Looks like someone is ready for bed.” His dad beamed, I giggled and so did Emmett. It was funny, a couple minutes ago I was fully awake but then a feeling of sleepiness washed over me. “Go get ready for bed sweetie, we’ll be in to say goodnight after.” Emmett’s mom said, we both nodded and left the room. Emmett told me to follow him, we entered another room. It had a big mirror, I stared at myself it was the first time that I fully studied what I looked like. Boy do I look cool! I thought to myself as I flexed my wings. As I was looking at myself Emmett was brushing his teeth so they stayed that white color. Once he was finished we walked back to his room, he sat on his bed and called out “Mom! Dad! I’m ready for bed!” There were footsteps, then both his mom and dad walked in. I stepped to the side and waited, goodnights were shared along with a few giggles. Once both parents left, I started to walk towards my bedroom, “Wait Alex, It’s too dark.” I stopped and looked at him through the darkness, I remember how I hated the darkness so I did understand where this was coming from. Nodding I walked to the end of his bed and sat down, I quietly whispered “Hey, Emmett watch this.” Then my whole body lit up a reddish color, it wasn’t too bright and it wasn’t too dull, it was perfect for him. “Thanks Alex Goodnight.” I smiled and mumbled “Goodnight.” As I slowly fell asleep.

The next couple of weeks Emmett and I’s routine stayed the same. Then one sunny day in August while Emmett and I were trying to find the rare treasure that pirates had stolen. Jonan called from inside the house, “Emmett you got invited to a birthday party.” A birthday party? Why does that sound familiar? Emmett stood up and started to climb down from our treehouse or as he would call it “Command Center”. I flew down and walked next to him, Emmett ran up to his mom who held the letter in her hand. “You know your cousin Theo?” Jonan asked, to which Emmett nodded, “Well he is turning six tomorrow and we got invited to his birthday party. Isn’t that exciting!” Emmett started to skip around the room singing “Birthday party! Birthday party! I get to go to a birthday party!” I laughed and got excited as well. Tomorrow came quickly and soon Emmett and I were in the car driving to Theo’s house, once we arrived Emmett and I raced each other into the house, through the kitchen and to the back yard where other kids were playing. There were a lot of kids, they looked mostly around the age of Emmett, I felt a burst of happiness in me as Emmett started to get jittery. “Hey Emmett come on! We are playing castle!” A young boy called out from inside a blowup castle. “Okay Theo! Can Alex play he’s a dragon!” I glanced over towards Theo, I expected him to say no, Why would he want me? He probably won’t even be able to see me. I thought to myself. “That’s a great idea Emmett we need a dragon to protect the castle!” My eyes widen at Theo’s answer, I flew over with Emmett by myside, after I was introduced Theo grabbed my hand He can see me! I laughed, “Okay Alex you have to protect the princess who is Sophia.” He pointed over to a small girl who was sitting in a chair with a tiara on. I nodded “But who am I protecting her from?” I asked, Theo responed fairly quickly “You’ll be protecting her from the knights cause they want to save her cause you’re evil.” After getting the whole story, I got into place, Theo who was the king shouted “Okay Knights! Go save Princess Sophia!” And thus the games had begun.

After an hour or two of running around chases the kids, we all eventually got tired. The birthday cake was brought out and all the kids ran to the table. I stayed back and stood by the adults, I wasn’t hungry, I really never am. Then the presents were opened, Theo got lots of cool toys and clothes. He thanked everyone and a game of tag soon started, which I joined. Emmett was “it” so we were all running from him. That’s when he fell, “Ouch!” He exclaimed holding his knee, I ran over and knelt beside him “Are you okay! Do you need your mom, dad, a doctor!” I said while frantically tried to figure what happened. “Tag! You’re it Alex!” That phrase ran through me, I swiveled my head towards Emmett who was already running away shouting that I was it. Grinning I stood up and started running after him, after a few minutes of running in a circle I finally managed to tag another little boy who goes by the name Cody.