Stories i will never write

Setting yourself free

Two girls are standing in a near empty room, boxes piled up in the corner and walls bare. They are identical in every way except their states of minds; one has accepted her misgivings and is prepared to move on, the other, still holding onto something long gone.

A bond. A long friendship coming to an end.

They are in the middle of an argument. Tessa wants to move out and start university in the fall halfway across the state, while the other girl, Brin, is trying to talk her into staying.

"You can't just leave me here all alone, Tessa. You can't."

Tessa is stacking another box atop of the other. She stops. "I've asked you to come with me. I've asked you so many times, Brin and every time, you refuse. I have to go."

"Wait—please, i–" Her face contracts, and Tessa can see she is fighting back tears. "I'll be all alone if you leave."

"I'm sorry." She really was. "But if you talk to other people for a change, you won't be."

Suddenly Brin bolts forward, and, gripping her friends arm tightly, stares pleadingly at her. "I can't."

"What do you mean, you can't?"

"Tessa, i–i cry and cry out, but they don't ever hear me." She shakes her head in sad confusion, releasing Tessa's arm and stumbling back a few steps. "Why can't anybody hear me? I'm right there, but..it's like I'm not..."

The boxes fall from Tessa's hands. Her expression is one of shock.

"It's like...i don't exist."

Brin stares at Tessa for a moment, everything slowly clicking into place. "I'm...I'm not real, am i? I'm just...part of your imagination?"

Tessa hesitates, not wanting to break the news to her dearest friend. But she has to. "Yes. I'm sorry."

The imaginary girl—called Brin—takes another step back, her eyes sparking as though to prove the proclamation. She begins to splutter in small bursts, a sign of her agony. "But..that can't be right. I–i was the one who convinced you to go to therapy, remember? I was the one who talked you off that ledge, i saved you! You're getting better with the help of a person. Me!" Brin presses her hands to her heart for emphasis, desperate.

"Brin." Tessa says the word gently, as though she were speaking to a young child. "I saved myself. It was me, all along. The night we almost jumped, do you remember? Truly, i mean. You were the one who got the idea in the first place. You whispered it right into my ear. You wanted it. For me. For us. But i stopped it. I stopped us from dying." She shook her head, sad but determined. "You're the past, Brin. You're the part of me left from when mom died; the darkness. The voice that I've been hearing, that I've heard for all these years, it's you. Now, in order to move on...i have to let you go."

Brin's eyes grew wide with horror at the unspoken implication. "No! No! Please don't forget me! I'm...I'm real, Tessa! I can be real, you'll see. I'll go out and make them see me. I'll–"

Tessa touched her arm, stopping her. She can see her hand dimly through where flesh should have been. She is already pushing her away, shutting her out. "Stop. Stop, Brin. It's no use. You can't fight back."

Brin's face is crumpled with fear, with agony. She could already feel herself beginning to disappear. "I don't know how to go quietly." She whimpered. "Fighting is all i know, it's...it's all you know."

"I know. I know. But I'm right here with you. It'll be okay. We'll be okay." Tessa holds the younger girl, the person born from her own thoughts, her own memories, tightly as she begins to fade. She is letting her depression go.

"How does it feel, Tessa?" She is speaking to herself now. "How does it feel to be set free?"

A dim voice answers, far away but yet clear.

"It feels..it feels like hope."

Author's Note:
This is a long one, hope you enjoyed!