Imaginary Friend

“Are you coming tonight?” I heard a voice ask. They said it again, a bit louder this time. “Are you coming tonight??”

“Hm?” I hummed, quickly snapping out of my trance while almost dropping my phone. “W-what did you say? Coming to where?”

I heard the person on the other line sigh and repeat their sentence, adding more detail so I knew what the heck they were talking about. “I asked you if you were coming tonight. To a restaurant. For dinner? Like. We. Planned???”

“Ooh, dinner! Right,” I caught on, suddenly remembering what we were talking about prior to this whole ordeal. “Yeah, I think I can come. Sorry for not understanding the first three times you said that.”

I was talking to my best friend Layla over the phone. We were just chattering on about nothing in particular until she had brought up the fact that earlier this week we’d made open-ended dinner plans that needed to be closed. She’d asked me multiple times if I was still coming that night, but I was staring out of my window, just chillin’ in my own world. I… I can’t exactly remember why, but all I know is that it had nothing to do with what we were talking about last.

A slightly amused chuckle sounded from my phone’s speaker. “Not to worry! I do that all the time! Well, sort of,” Layla added, a hint of concern laced her voice. I frowned a little, almost forgetting that she couldn’t see what I was doing on the other side of a phone call.

“Layla,” I began, “I’m completely fine, no matter what you're currently thinking. I’m not totally bat-crap crazy like the doctors want everyone to think. You know me too well to think that, right?”

A beat of silence could be heard from Layla’s end of the call, only slight breathing could be heard if you strained. Then, timidly, Layla responded. “Yeah! You’re not crazy, Mina. Never thought you were. After all, I am your bestie! Haha!”

Layla’s laughter sounded quite happy, but it also sounded like there was something she wasn’t telling me. She probably is just thinking about something else. I thought, shaking my head. Yeah, that’s it.

“Well, I guess we have a few hours before dinner, eh?” I said into the speaker.

“Yeah, sure do.”

“Then I’ll be seeing you?” I asked.

“Not if I see you first!” Layla responded, sounding jolly, her tone of voice changing at the speed of light. I laughed too, then said my goodbyes, and quickly ended the conversation. I sat my phone down onto my bed next to me, then I looked out of my window. There wasn’t anything extravagant out there; just some trees, birds, a man walking his dog - you know, that sort of thing. But for some reason, I felt like I was in a trance of some sort. Like, I couldn’t stop looking at the invisible thing that hung around my window.

I stared intensely at my window for about five minutes, but it felt like hours, until my phone chimed, rigidly pulling me back into reality. I looked down at the glowing screen and a notification popped up from Instagram telling me that someone I follow had posted new content to their story. I was intrigued, so I belly-flopped back onto my bed and lost myself in scrolling through my feed, liking the occasional post or two.

About two hours had passed, and I had grown tired of looking at people’s posts about their lives and how interesting they are. They can’t beat me. I thought, pushing myself off of my comfy bed. I have a nice life, too! I walked over to my closet, wondering what I should wear to dinner.

“Hmm,” I hummed aloud, “The place is nice, but not too fancy, so maybe…”

I rummaged around in my closet for a bit until I eventually pulled out a pretty blush-colored knee-length dress that had a lacy pattern over the top. “Ah, yes! This is perfect!” I laid the dress carefully on my bed, being sure to not wrinkle it at all. Then I got out my shoes that were nothing too special; just a pair of black flats that I had laying around for occasions like this.

Soon, I had my whole wardrobe sorted out and I was just putting the finishing touches on my make-up and hair. In the bathroom, I glanced over at my phone and saw that it was about time to leave for the restaurant. “Oh, I’m so excited!” I exclaimed as I turned off the curling iron. “I finally get to see her again!”

As I walked through my house, I called for a taxi to pick me up and take me to the venue. The taxi service was very nice and told me that I had about a 10-15 minute wait. I closed and locked the door to my house and waited on the front porch for the taxi to arrive.

~~~

“Thank you for the ride!” I called out to the taxi driver as he drove off. He honked the horn twice as a response, which made me smile. I turned on my heel and entered the fine dining establishment, almost bubbling over with joy and anticipation to see my best friend again.

The hostess inside greeted me with a huge smile and asked for my party name and amount. I said I was in a party of two and that it was under Layla’s name. She looked through a little book - the reservation book, I assume - and I watched as her cheerful expression changed to a rather confused one. She looked up and kindly told me that there wasn’t any reservation made with neither that name nor number. Huh? I thought, feeling totally lost. But… I see her in that booth! Right over there!

“I-it’s okay,” I said, still looking over to where Layla was sitting, “I see where she is. She’s right over there in that booth. I’ll just seat myself…”

I brushed past the very confused hostess and made my way over to where Layla was sitting and she welcomed me with a small smile. “Glad to see you made it,” she said as I sat down across from her. I chuckled as I replied.

“Yeah, I am too. You wouldn't believe what just happened a minute ago,” I said, picking up a menu to browse. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that Layla was intrigued.

“Eh? What happened?” she asked, sounding genuinely interested. I sat the menu back down and started to explain to her how the hostess couldn’t seem to find our reservation in the book when it was clearly right here. “Oh, wow…”

“It wasn’t too big a deal. It was just a minor inconvenience, you know?” I waved a hand. “Anyway, I know what I want to eat. Do you?”

Layla nodded her head just as a waitress approached our table. “Hello! How may I serve you?” she asked politely, sliding out her notepad to take down our order. “Will it just be you for tonight?”

I opened my mouth to answer but then closed it when the second part of her question registered in my mind. “I… I-I’m sorry… What do you mean by just me?” I asked, looking up at her. “I have my friend Layla right here.” I gestured to Layla, who was sitting right beside me. She waved her hand and smiled up at the waitress.

“Ma’am, I don’t want to come off as being rude or anything, but…” the waitress’s sentence trailed off. It was as if she couldn’t find the right words to use or something.

“But…?” I prompted, clasping my hands together. The waitress took a deep breath and struggled to get her words out.

“Well, um… You see, ma’am, your friend sort of - uhm, how do I put this? - doesn’t exist?”

My heart started beating a million miles a minute, but I still just sat there with a smile plastered on my face. “W-whatever do you mean?” I asked, my voice shaking a little. Just stay calm, Mina, just stay calm. I’m sure everything will be okay…

“I mean- It’s just that I can’t really see your friend… Um, Layla,” she said quietly, avoiding direct eye contact with me. She then took out her phone, took a picture of me, and looked at the picture herself before showing the screen to me. “Here’s a photo of you and your, ahem, friend.”

I hesitated before peering into the little device’s screen, my heart shattering into a billion little pieces after doing so. “I-I… But I…” was all I could manage to get out.

In the picture, I sat there in a red booth looking so so happy - so happy that it looked fake - and in the seat across from me was… Nothing. Nothing. I started to hyperventilate as I looked away from the screen and whipped my head over to where Layla sat, but when I focused my eyes a bit more, I saw nothing. I rubbed them quickly and blinked them several times to make sure I was really seeing what I saw; yes, Layla was indeed gone.

“N-no…” I gasped, clasping my hands to my mouth in shock. “T-this isn’t real. I… I have to be dreaming! PLEASE TELL ME I’M DREAMING!!” I screamed at the waitress. The girl only stepped back a few steps before shaking her head violently.

“I-I’m sorry, ma’am!” she stuttered. “You’re not dreaming! There’s nobody there!”

“NO!” I shrieked, shooting up from the table, tears streaming down my face. “YOU’RE WRONG! LAYLA’S BEEN MY BEST FRIEND SINCE KINDERGARTEN, AND YOU’VE THE NERVE TO TELL ME THAT SHE ISN’T REAL?!”

“M-ma’am,” the waitress’s voice cracked, “I’m going to have to ask you to-”

“NO!” I cried and began to run out of the restaurant. “SHE’S REAL! I SWEAR ON GOD, SHE’S REAL! I’M NOT CRAZY!!!”

I ran out into the parking lot and didn’t even know where to go from there, so I ran off into the darkness, going wherever my sobbing self would take me.

I found myself surrounded by trees, running in the woods while mascara streaked down my face. I had been running for what seemed like forever until I eventually stumbled out into a grassy field with a huge tree that stood strong in the middle of it all. It was there and only there that I saw a person - Layla - sitting with her back against the tree. I immediately stopped crying and smiled greatly as I ran towards her. As I neared her, I saw that she seemed to be reading something. I didn’t know what it was nor did I care; I had my best friend back!

I melted down beside Layla and sighed a shaky sigh as I drew my knees up to my chest. After a brief moment of silence, I looked at Layla and caught her looking at me. We sat there and stared at each other for a long time, just smiling at each other.

“You found me,” Layla said, her voice small. A stray tear rolled down my cheek as I replied.

“I found you.”

~~~

“Mina? Minaaaa! MIna, where are you?!” a person dressed in a white lab coat yelled as they walked through the woods. It was a doctor - Mina’s psychiatrist - who was calling out her name, trying to find the missing woman. Word had gotten out to Dr. Springwood that Mina had run away in the wood’s direction and hadn’t been seen anywhere else. Dr. Springwood was among a group of policemen and women who had been sent out to start the initial search.

After a short time, the police and the doctor emerged from the woods and into the field where they heard a faint voice talking. Dr. Springwood looked around and locked her eyes on the huge tree in the middle, alerting the police that that’s where the voice was coming from and that it sounded exactly like Mina’s. They didn’t hesitate to investigate the tree and what they found shocked them…

As the police and doctor approached the tree, the voice got louder and there was an increasingly awful stench that came with it. Everyone covered their noses and mouths as they neared, as the smell was almost unbearable at this point. Everyone stopped everything when Dr. Springwood gasped and pointed to the base of the tree; a person rested there along with something else.

As they got even closer to see what exactly that was, everyone was immediately disgusted and, well, shocked. They had found a raggedy and tear-stained Mina, and she was talking to the thing that was beside her… A decomposing and decrepit female body. Nobody knew what Mina was talking about, but they did know that she was talking to the body and was referring to it as Layla, which was odd but it soon started to make sense.

A policeman pulled out an old, torn piece of folded paper that had a picture of someone as well as an accurate description of what they looked like, acted like, where they had last been seen, etc. It was a Missing Persons flyer, and he gasped after looking at the paper and the body together. He showed it to everyone there and they too were completely dumbfounded. 

Mina looked up at the crowd that had just arrived around the tree. She smiled brightly and held the corpse’s hand, unphased and without an ounce of caution or disgust. Triumphantly and like a child who’s recovered their long-lost toy, Mina said, “I found her! I found her!”

The Missing Persons flyer had the same name, description, and everything as Mina’s “friend” did.

Layla had been kidnapped and killed by a serial killer over fifty years ago.

And the worst part is…

Mina’s only 25 years old.