Fictional Friend

Have you ever questioned the power of the human mind? A human's imagination is powerful, extremely powerful. It's a well-known fact that we only use ten percent of our brains on a daily basis. What else is in that ninety percent? Telekenisis? Mind control? The very power to create life itself...? It's something that we'll never seem to know... Or will we?

Meet Mel. She's a small girl, the age of nine. She was your stereotypical outcast, the girl that was into video games while others were starting to talk about boys. The girl who sat alone on the swings while the other played kickball. The girl who aced her tests, while the others struggled. She struggled with making friends, never finding the words to say, or the things to do. The lonliness was taking its toll... Until she decided to make a friend. An imaginary friend.

"It won't be a person...." She sat in simple contiplation, staring at her blank notebook. "It'll be something I know..." Then glancing at her Nintendo DS, she had an idea. "It can be a Pokemon!" Pokemon was the one connection she had with the outside world. A few kids played it, and the battling and trading was all the social interaction she really got. She delved through her box, and came down to her choice. It was an Eevee she had just gotten, a male, and she had named it Vince. Closing her eyes, she focused... And suddenly a soft bundle of fluff appeared in her lap. She opened her eyes, and there was Vince. "...Vince...?"

He looked up, and greeted her with a smile. "Hi there, Mel!"

"You can talk...? Cool! We're going to be the best of friends, Vince!" She hugged the Eevee in her lap, who happily licked her cheek.

The next few days, Mel introduced Vince to her life. Her mother chuckled softly, lauging at where her daughter's imagination had taken her. Mel walked Vince all around school, talking to him about her classes. Nobody noticed her talking to empty space, or really cared that she was. Running around the field alone never sparked any interest to her classmates or her teachers. Days turned into months, and months turned into years. It was around middle school when Mel was grasping onto reality, and that Vince didn't exist. Vince had become a Leafeon now, and had been a Leafeon for the last year or so.

"Vince, are you real?" She turned and asked him one day, she was doing her homework, and Vince was curled up beside her.

"Of course I'm real. You can touch me, right?" He looked up at her. There was a hint of displeasure in his eyes, like it was blasphamy that she was thinking such things.

"Pokemon aren't real... They're just in this game." She held up her 3DS, battered from the years of playing.

"Whatever, Mel... I'm going to sleep." He simply hopped off her bed, and curled up in the corner.

She thenn started to ignore him, treating him as if he wasn't even there. It was hard for her, especially the first month, hearing Vince cry. "What did I do, Mel... Why won't you talk to me...?" She couldn't take him anymore, releasing him in her game, evven though he was one of Mel's best raised Pokemon. He never left her side, never stopped trying to talk to her, and always curled up beside her when she lain down in bed. Throughout middle school, she finally started to make friends, which she could tell Vince didn't like. He would always curse at them, especially when they playfully teased her. Even when they didn't, Vince would hiss and throw a fit. When she got home, she would listen to Vince cry in the corner of the bathroom as she showered. "Why are those skanks better then me...?"

One day especially scared her. She was just starting high school, and her friends were having a sleepover. They were all playing the new Pokemon game, relaxing and talking about boys. "So... What do you think of Kyle?" Mel had casually asked her three friends, Veronica, Whitney, and Monica.

"Kyle's a total hottie. He's starting on the baseball team, you know? AND he's a gamer. Pretty too. But you need to catch your game up if you wanna shot at him, Mel." Veronica nudged her. "Especially around your waistline. I've noticed you've got up a size, girl, you may be budding into a late 7, but Kyle's like, an 11."

Suddenly, Vince broke from his corner, a look of fury in his eyes, as he smacked her across the face with his leaf. "Don't you ever talk to Mel like that, you ugly whore!"

She screamed, falling back in shock, a clear red mark across her face. "What the hell was that for, Mel?!"

"Mel didn't hit you at all... I think I'ma go home...." Whitney got up, walking out the door. Monica quickly followed, not saying a word.

"What was that...?" Veronica rubbed her cheek, wiping a tear from her eye.

Mel was shocked. Vince had never physically touched anyone, ever. He had thrown Razor Leaf attacks at people, and they just harmlessly went through them. This was new, and breaking every ounce of reality that she knew. Vince was a Pokemon. Pokemon weren't real. But here one was, and this fake entity had done harm to a real person. This was the time for her to come clean. Maybe if she did, Vince would go away. "Veronica... Vince hit you."

"Your old Leafeon? Mel, don't get loopy with me, Pokemon aren't real." Veronica rolled her eyes. "I think I may have had a pain in my face or something."

"He's sitting right here!" Mel pointed to him, the first time she had reconized him in years. "He plainly just hit you!"

"Girl, get some sleep... You must be tired, I'ma head home..." She gave Mel the weird eye, as she walked out and away.

She turned to Vince in anger and rage. "What the hell, Vince?!" This wasn't making any sense at all. Vince was her imaginary friend. Imaginary. Not real.

"Oh, now you wanna talk to me. I hit that bitch because she called you fat. You're not fat." Vince glared her down, as much fury as she was putting off in a single glare.

The three didn't talk to her for the next few days, and now Vince was taking newfound fun in his ability to mess with the real world. Tripping those around her, destroying her schoolwork and dirtying her room, no matter how many times she cleaned it. Vince also miraculosly learned how to scribble English, slipping a note into her crush Kyle's desk, the meanest, cruelest note anyone could write. He never talked to her, and Mel never found out why. It drover her into depression, that she was alone again. She started to steal alcohol from the store, drinking herself into misery, the only way she got through high school. She went through multiple jobs, never being able to stay at one longer then three months because Vince would either hurt her coworkers, or slip one of his infamous notes on her manager's desk, normally a letter of resignation. Mel couldn't tell them it was Vince, so she simply left each one without saying a word.

Because of her grades, she barely got into college, the first good thing to happen in her life since Vince first hurt Veronica all those years back. She moved into her dorm, alone of course, and had finally set up her room, when Vince sat in front of her, on her desk, knocking away everything on it. "Look Mel... I'm sorry I've been such aa jerk all these years... I'm really sorry, and I'll promise to be a good Leafeon again... Just talk to me..." Mel simply stared him down, got up, and walked out of her room. How dare Vince suggest something like that? After everything he's done to her? Her entire college campus had avoided her throughout orientation, rumor had spread fast, bad things happen to you if you're ever around "Mysterious Mel". She came back twenty minutes later to her room in shambles, all her furnature broked, her mattress split in half.. Vince was crying especially hard tonight, as she slept on her shattered bed.

The next day, Vince did something especially cruel. As Mel was talking to one of her professors, a older gentlemen, Vince pushed her forward, sending them into the most awkward of kisses, the professor shoving her back. "Young lady, do you think this is one of those schools? Consider yourself failed!" He shooed her out, slamming the door on her face before she could even explain.

She sat on her bed and cried, the rumor mill was going to break out hard this time, not only was she weird, but a slut now too? She curled up and let the tears flow, as Vince tapped her on the shoulder. "Mel...?"

"What do you want, you stupid prick! I'm going to have to drop out of college now! I'll be stuck on the streets, knowing you'll be around! I hate you!" Mel stared at him in a long silence, as tears started to flow from his eyes. "...I love you..."

"You're an animal. A real animal. I'd rather curl up and die then be with you if you were even human. You're not, so us being together would be impossible. I wish I never created you. I'd rather be dead." She slapped him across his cheek, and that was the final straw.

Vince shot his leaf out, wrapping it around her throat, slowly choking her. "If I can't have you... If I can't be your only friend... If I can't be together with you... Nobody can..." He kissed her lips as the life left her eyes, Mel seeing the light fade as she felt her virginity lost. The only thing to ever kiss her a Pokemon.

Her RA found her body the next morning, and the police didn't do much of an investigation. Her tie was around her neck, so it looked to be a clear suicide. Mel never crossed the thoughts of anyone ever again.

Now, this story is real. Nobody ever talked about it, and nobody ever will. Everyone has forgotten about Mel, and Vince. Think about the power of the human mind.... Close your eyes... And see if you can imagine your own Vince into the world. I bet you can, and I bet you will. Because after all... Imaginary friends make the best friends.

This Pasta was by Bruce Winterblue. A Link to his sites can be found here and here