Imaginary Friend

Social Services removed Katie from her parents' care and sent her to live with Uncle Heath two months after her sixth birthday. Heath was a middle-aged bachelor who traveled regularly, leaving the girl's care to his live in maid, and the antebellum house was inherited.

The day Katie arrived at her uncle's house was a blur. Her red-rimmed eyes widened as she climbed from the social worker's car and caught sight of the large house and high columns. It has to be a hundred times as large Mama and Daddy's trailer, she thought.

She walked slowly and drug her backpack stuffed with clothes along the path to the front porch, clutching Teddy tight to her side and avoiding eye contact with the woman standing in the doorway.

Nana seemed nice, and Katie was glad she was neither pushy nor gushy. She greeted Katie warmly then showed her up a winding staircase to her bedroom. Nana left her to settle in while she talked with the social worker downstairs.

Katie heard faint voices and steps receding down the stairs. When she could no longer hear either, she flung herself onto the four-poster bed and cried into the quilt. Teddy's burned foot was itchy on her cheek but comforted her. For three days she thought she'd never quit crying. Everyone was friendly, but she missed her parents. She couldn't understand why the police took them away. Now she would be left in this big scary house, with people she'd never met and would never be happy again.

Later she woke up to a darkened room; she did not remember where she was and felt afraid. Eventually memory came back, and she nearly cried again, wishing the last two days were one long nightmare. Instead she swallowed the sorrow and fumbled around for a light. Once the light was on she surveyed her prison. The bed was almost as large as her whole room back at her real home, and tables with lamps stood on each side of it. A roll-top desk sat along one wall, an old fashioned wardrobe along the other, and an impossibly tall curio cabinet stood in the corner next to the door. A statuette atop the cabinet caught her eye; it was an animal that looked, from ground level, to be half eagle and half lion. She feared she'd been dropped off in a museum, and the nice old woman would spank her if she touched anything.

Katie shrieked, recoiling from the door as it opened behind her. Nana rushed in and squeezed her to her bosom.

"Are you okay, sweetie?" She asked, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you." Katie cried into her shirt. "It's okay, baby."

Nana held Katie until her tears dried up, nearly crying herself. The child was rail thin, and she could not understand how people could treat children so poorly. After the girl calmed down she asked if she were hungry to which she only nodded. She carried Katie down the winding stairs to the kitchen where they ate roast beef, mashed potatoes with gravy, and homemade macaroni and cheese. 

Katie was silent throughout the meal, stuffing her mouth and marveling at all the food. For the first time she thought that maybe everything would be okay. At least the food is much better than Roman noodles or ketchup sandwiches. In Katie's silence Nana talked the whole meal, discussing the girl's uncle, the house, and anything else she could think of in order to avoid an awkward silence. Toward the end of the meal Katie spoke up, the first words she'd spoken to Nana and asked about the statuette in her room.

"The griffin? That thing has been up there since I got here over ten years ago."

"Can it come down?" Katie asked.

Nana shook her head. "That cabinet is twelve feet tall and there's not a ladder or stool that'll reach that high. I have to use a duster attached to a broom handle to clean up there. Why? Did it scare you?"

"No'm," Katie looked down at her plate, then back to Nana. "I think it's cool."

"Oh okay, I don't know a way to get it down, but we'll see what we can do. Sound good?"

Katie nodded and smiled for the first time in days. The smile lit up the whole musty house, and Nana smiled back, instantly in love.

That night and for many of those first nights, Nana slept in Katie's room with her. Katie dozed in Nana's lap while she brushed her long blonde hair, and feeling overcome by the sweetness of the girl, Nana continued brushing her hair long after she'd drifted to sleep.

The next morning, while Nana was cleaning downstairs, Katie was in her room playing with Teddy, a plush bear (now dubbed Fuzzy Bear), and a plush husky pup (Balto) Nana had scrounged from the attic when the door shut behind her. She turned and jumped to the bed, too scared to call for help.

Standing just inside the door was a man that reminded Katie of the hobbits from her favorite movie. He was shorter than her but very fat, almost round, with shaggy hair. He looked both childlike and impossibly old. The suit he wore bunched and bulged in several unflattering areas.

As Katie stared in shocked horror the hobbit by the door grinned and waved. Slowly the man eased over to where Katie had been sitting with her stuffed animals, smiling all the while, and, hardly having to stoop at all, lifted Teddy. He shook the bear in a dancing motion and rocked his head side to side. Katie laughed and clapped her hands.

The man handed Teddy to her and picked up Fuzzy Bear and Balto and like that they danced, him grinning and her laughing, around the room until Nana called Katie down for lunch.

Before walking through the door, Katie turned to the short man. "What's your name?"

For just a second, the smile wavered but then a 'Scrabble' box edging just outside of the bed-skirt caught his attention. He dug through the box and laid several blocks on the carpet.

"Theo?" Katie read.

With a broad grin, the man nodded.

"My name's Katie. Want some lunch?"

Still grinning Theo shook his head.

"Oh okay," Katie frowned. "Can we play again?"

Theo nodded his head so vigorously he was almost hopping.

"Okie Dokie, Artichokie! I'll see you later, Theo," Katie smiled and walked out of the room.

Downstairs Nana frowned when Katie asked if she knew Theo, and her description was also puzzling. In the end, Nana just assumed Katie discovered a new imaginary friend; kids did that all the time, never mind the trauma the poor girl'd been through.

----

Over the years, Katie saw little of Uncle Heath, and he was often distant when he was home. Though Katie missed her parents, she came to love Nana as much as any mother.

She played with Theo daily; all day if school was out, and every evening after class when school started. After a year or two Katie noticed Theo was now an inch or two taller than her, and his suit began to fit better. Since she was also growing she thought nothing of this. Maybe he just grows fast, she thought. 

Theo never spoke but only motioned and grinned. Katie liked playing with Theo but always felt as if he snuck up on her. He appeared behind her with only the opening or shutting of a door to mark his arrival.

Around Katie's tenth birthday, as Nana was dusting she mentioned that she'd once read a book where a woman said something like "I swear, in the time I've lived in this house I've shut more doors than I've opened," and said that was exactly how she felt. Katie explained about Theo again, but Nana confessed that she'd never seen him. Katie realized Theo never came to play she was in the same room with Nana.

His avoidance of Nana disturbed Katie, and she said as much.

"I'll tell you a secret. Can you keep a secret?" Nana asked and knelt close to Katie after she nodded. "Do you want to hear an old remedy for being scared? Just go to a deep place, close your eyes, and with crossed fingers touch your temple, eyes, ears, and chest. And if you do that and keep your eyes closed then whatever scared you can't harm you. It's a magic sign.

"So if Theo ever scares you just run down to the basement, close your eyes, do the hand motions, and call for me. I'll be right down to get you." Nana winked at her.

Katie's eyes got wide. Nana could tell she believed her, and smiled at the girl. An old superstition a Creole aunt had passed along to Nana when she was around Katie's age, she'd believe it too when she was young.

"Can you remember that?" she asked Katie.

Katie nodded, "Yes'm."

"Good girl," she bear hugged the little girl. "Now run along and play while I finish up this laundry.

Nana's advice wiped Katie's trepidation toward Theo away, and even though she was often startled by how fast he grew, nearing the height of a short adult, she never felt the need to use the old ritual Nana had shown her.

Not long after Katie's tenth birthday, however, Theo's visits became more infrequent and erratic. Instead of visiting every day he would appear only a few days a week, and then only a day or two here and there. Within a month's time Katie believed Theo gone for good. Nana reassured her and secretly thought she'd out-grown her imaginary friend.

----

One bright April afternoon Katie, now sixteen years old, came home from high school and trudged up the spiral staircase to her room to drop her backpack and kill a few hours online until supper was ready. She'd called for Nana but didn't worry when she didn't receive an answer. By now she understood all the work Nana put into keeping such a large house in shape. She could easily be out back, in the pantry, or any number of places out of earshot within the ancient home.

After lounging on her bed for a few minutes, she stood and moved toward her desk but stopped short. Something was amiss in her room. Slowly, she catalogued everything; her bed and bedclothes, wardrobe, desk, everything- even the curtains were as she'd left them. A cold chill ran up her spine. She was frustrated at her room for feeling 'off' and at herself for either not seeing it or inventing the feeling.

She shook her head and tried to laugh but stopped midway through, breath caught in her chest. Her desk.

Amid the clutter of teenage, waste was a pearl white statuette standing nearly a foot tall on her folded laptop. The statue was of an animal with the face and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion. A thing that over years had become part of the wallpaper. Always up high and out of reach it had sat.

Katie looked from the griffin to the empty spot atop the curio cabinet in the corner. Her wall felt naked after having the griffin set up there for who knows how many years. Slowly she reached to touch the statuette, not sure why she should be scared of a statue. The material was smooth and surprisingly warm, as if someone was handling it recently. Shocked at its mass, Katie lifted the griffin with two hands and walked around the house calling for Nana. She wondered how she'd gotten the figure down from the tall cabinet but heard no reply.

As she walked through the long dining room, the door behind her, of which she'd shut just seconds before, opened and closed again. Katie froze, afraid to turn around, a half-remembrance playing in her mind. After a few seconds, childhood memories flooded back of her special friend who, along with Nana, helped her overcome the tragedy involving her parents.

With excitement Katie whirled around. "Th-" she began but froze once again, hardly able to hold onto the heavy griffin with her shaking hands.

Standing just inside the door was the furthest thing from the jolly hobbits Katie could imagine. A pale man, rail thin, stood with his bald head above the door frame, and Katie knew instantly how the griffin had gotten down from the curio. The man wore a dirty three piece suit with sleeves that clenched his forearms and pant legs that ended just below his knees, was at least eight or nine feet tall. The thin man stood and stared at Katie.

"Th-Theo?" she stammered.

The man smiled, not the jolly smile Katie remembered but a horrible, searching smile, and nodded slowly.

She looked down at the griffin, and something in Katie's mind snapped and blind fear took over. She threw the statuette in Theo's direction, sprinted through the swinging door connecting to the kitchen, ran through the house to the front door. As she gripped the handle, she looked over her shoulder and saw the tall man walking after her.

She slung the door open, cracking a small window inlay in the center of the door and ran outside. Halfway to her car, panic creeping, she realized her keys were upstairs in her room. Now the thin monster was striding down the front steps. Nana's words from her youth reached out to her, and she remembered the ritual she'd taught her.

Giving every bit of energy Katie could muster she ran around the east side of the old antebellum house heading for the outside entrance to the cellar, too frightened to pray Nana forgot to lock it. Desperation nearly took over as she looked over her shoulder; despite Katie's running the tall man's walking pace was slowly gaining on her.

Reaching the cellar double doors, she snatched the handles. The doors were indeed locked, and the rusted handles ripped from the weather eaten wooden doors from the force. Tears streaming, Katie tossed the puny handles in the monster's direction and ran around the west side of the house.

Upon opening the front door, she felt fingers brushing against her shoulder. Katie jumped through the threshold and heard a sick crunch after slamming the door; his white fingers writhed in pain.

Without losing a second, Katie ran through the parlor toward the back of the house. As she reached the cellar, she heard the front door open and slam behind her. Taking a glance, she saw the monster that was Theo striding toward her, grin creasing his face and black ichor dripping from his hand.

In her haste, she forgot to switch the cellar light on and bounded down the stairs two at a time into the darkness. After gaining solid ground, Katie stepped to what she guessed was the center of the room, closed her eyes, crossed her first and second fingers on her right hand and touched her temple, eyes, ears, and chest.

After a second of silence, she opened her eyes. A giant shadow moved through the darkness in her direction!

Katie screamed, clenched her eyes, and repeated the hand movements. And repeated the hand motion. Temple, eyes, ears, and chest. Temple, eyes, ears, and chest. For an eternity Katie, eyes locked like the outer cellar door, repeated the hand motions Nana taught her, crying into the darkness and imagining bony fingers brushing against her and hot breath on the back of her neck.

----

Several hours later Nana, upon returning from an evening with The Old Ladies' Club, found Katie on the cellar floor. To her relief the girl was physically okay, although mentally shaken.

Eventually able to get the story from her, Nana was unable to make sense of it, and at length Katie recovered from her shock.

Random doors would open and shut around the house, and Nana continued to have the feeling of shutting more doors than she opened, but Theo did not reappear. Katie never again felt at ease in the house that had become her home and would often wake from dreams of that pale, hateful, inhuman face smiling at her from the shadows.