The Forgotten Friend

For as long as I remember, I always felt as if I was being followed. When I brought this up with my parents, they reported it to the police. However, the cops couldn’t find anything and the investigation went nowhere. I was embarrassed enough because of the investigation since the issue caught the attention of the entire school, but then my parents made it worse by hiring a private investigator. After a while, I no longer knew whether I was actually being followed or whether it was just the PI. My parents called her off after a year had passed, but the feeling of being followed still remained.

Mom and Dad checked on me once in a while, asking whether I sensed anything strange, but I said nothing. I never saw or heard anyone, it was always just a feeling I could never shake off. There was nothing I could prove, so I decided to remain silent. If I truly had a stalker, then they had ample time to learn my daily routine and approach me when it was convenient. For years, I hadn’t encountered anyone who seemed hostile or obsessed, and my circles were always limited to family and a handful of close friends. By the time I reached eighteen, it was just something in the background to me.

I later got married and moved to another town, where I had my son, Raven, two years later. As Raven grew older, I noticed that there was something strange about him, or rather about the way that he often looked around me with wide eyes, gesturing towards empty space. The strange presence I had felt all my life was still there, although I paid little attention to it, but now it seemed like my son also sensed it. The sense of unease I had not felt in years returned, and I kept an eye on Raven to see if there was anything strange happening. Again, there was nothing but that strange feeling hanging in the air.

By the time Raven was three, I found him talking to the empty spaces before him. When I asked him who he was talking to, he said it was my old imaginary friend, Sam. How did he know that Sam was the name of my imaginary friend? I thought maybe Mom and Dad told him, but they swore that they didn’t. That night, as I was drifting away in bed, I heard a faint voice whisper in the air above me.

“Alana, why did you leave me behind?”

I woke up to find a portal above my head, and just beyond it, in the purple currents that swirled on the other side, was Sam. She looked just like she did back then, like the older sister I never had. I sprang up from where I was lying and backed up against the bed, feeling a cold current race across my skin.

“Sam? What are you… How is this even possible?”

“I waited for so long for you to notice me, but it wasn’t possible until Raven was old enough to talk to me.”

“Were you the one following me around all this time?”

“Yes, I wanted you to remember me, but there was always a rift between us that I couldn’t cross…until now.”

A wave of thoughts flooded my mind, and I was unsure of what to say. “What do you want from me?”

“To be with me, just like you used to all those years ago.”

“What do you mean? I’m not a child anymore.”

“But you promised!” Sam’s face twisted as tears welled in her eyes.

“I’m sorry, Sam, but I was just a child back then.”

“I just don’t want to be alone anymore…”

I had no time to react to what happened next. Sam extended her arms through the portal and wrapped them around me.

“Sam?” My body ran cold, and I froze where I stood.

“I’m sorry, but you promised.”

Sam dragged me out of bed and into the portal. I screamed for help but only caught a glimpse of my husband waking up as the portal behind me closed. I didn’t know how much time had passed since then, but when I woke up, I was in my childhood room again. I got up and looked around. Something was strange. And then I noticed my hands: they were those of a child.

Then a cold whisper echoed through the room. “Welcome back, little sis…”