Prologue
Creaks and cracks, moans and groans, things that go bump in the night, objects that have gone missing or move when they shouldn’t. When unsettling occurrences such as these take place, it’s natural to seek an explanation for them. Some of you presume your imagination has run wild, the incident a product of a daydream or nightmare. Others assign a physical cause: the wind, the settling of the house, something of that sort. There are those among you who are convinced it’s the antics of ghosts or poltergeists. I cannot claim to know if spirits exist, or what is inside your house or head. What I can assure you of is our existence, and an unexplained event could indicate a person like me has been near.
You’re probably wondering why I use the terms you and I. I use them because I’m different, all of us who share my traits are different from you. That’s deceptive, however, for physically we are the same, but for a key feature that sets us apart—we’re invisible. Completely so, inside and out. We can be felt, heard, and smelled, the only means by which our presence can be detected, even by each other.
This revelation inevitably raises another question: if what I’ve divulged is true, why are you just learning about us? Why all the secrecy? The answer is simple. We dare not acknowledge our existence. It’s against the law our forefathers enacted, punishable by the harshest sentence. For us, it’s a tremendous risk to attempt contact with a visible person.
Our slang word for you is visies, and we refer to ourselves as invisies. My fellow invisies have been known to describe you as vain, insensitive, greedy, daft, or dangerous. Harsh terms to depict the people who are our hosts, in my opinion. Unwitting hosts to be sure, and yet hosts nonetheless.
That statement is another misnomer. Visies don’t play host to all invisies since a few of us have chosen to settle in obscure places, survive on our own. Many of us don’t want to live that way, any more than many of you. We enjoy the advances you’ve made, amenities such as central air-conditioning, heating, microwave ovens, video games, toothpaste, deodorant, and the like. Those of us who prefer modern comforts are reliant upon you to live.
There are invisies, myself included, who view our benefactors differently. While obviously there are exceptions, we find you predominantly kind, charitable, creative, and intelligent. We’d rather coexist, and work together as productive allies, which could well be beneficial for everyone.
For those of us with that mindset, there’s an exception to our rule forbidding interaction, children. Very young children, not over the age of four to be specific. The imaginary friend you may’ve had as a tot may not have been make-believe after all; it may have been one of us.
I had a visie friend, Patty, when I was fourteen. Although that was ten years ago, at times I still miss her. Looking back, I appreciate how pleasant my life was then, and part of me wishes I could reclaim my naiveté, my blissful ignorance regarding the reality of our circumstance.
A great deal has happened during this past decade, events that led me to this truth, and a choice I must make. The course I choose will alter my life permanently—my decision irrevocable. To fully understand the nature of it I must relate my story. The facts are so convoluted I hardly know where to start. On reflection, it all began the last day I played with Patty when I attended a tea party to celebrate her birthday. My world was uprooted that day. Not because of Patty or a game, what took place was due to Gary, due to what he did.
