The Voice

Jiminy Cricket

This may come off as insane, like I should be put in an asylum for my "delusions", but calm down, I'm not hallucinating. I swear to you on my life that there's a voice in my head and it's not me. Remember, I swore on my life and to an ancient Roman, if I lied, you could kill me and it'd be okay. But since I'm not lying, you don't have to kill me.

Anyways, back to the topic at hand, yes I'm hearing voices—well, only one—and no, he doesn't talk during tests incase you were wondering. He's the type of guy who always follows rules. It's like he's a very vocal concience. Like Pinocchio.

I am nothing like Pinocchio, you are.

And there he is, Mr. Jiminy Cricket himself.

I am not a little cricket sitting on your shoulder.

You call me Pinocchio but I can't call you Jiminy Cricket? That's not fair.

Life isn't fair. Now pay attention to your audience.

Right, sorry. So, let's get one thing straight, this is a dangerous story, if you read it, you life will forever be in danger. I know you hear things like that a lot when you're reading and once you see it, you think, "Then why are you publishing this as a book?" or "yeah, right" or even "now where have I heard that before?" the answer to the first one is because I promised someone I would. Well, technically I promised a thing that happened to be near a thing that happened to—

Denin, why don't you start at the beginning?

Good idea Jiminy Cricket.

My name isn't Jiminy Cricket, it's Cal, use it.

Fine.

Now I guess I should start at the part where I was going to steal a video game.

That would be the beginning.

Shut up.

As I held the case in my hand, I debated with myself. I never really was a video game person, I like learning to fight with ancient weapons, learning about mythological creatures and learning small spells that never actually worked.The only reason I even thought about it was because it was supposed to be the best so far—according to my friend, Kyle, who supposedly has it all—so I decided to check it out.

Kyle said he'd let me try it, if I got the game. The problem with that though is I recently spent all my money on a series of eight books. I lived alone and I apparently had no priorities.

So there I was, talking to myself; yes, no and back again. I couldn't decide what to do. When I started my habit of talking to myself, I got some pretty strange looks from the kid next to me. I don't think he heard me, just wondered what I was doing. Come to think of it, that was what I was doing too.

Anyway, after a few minutes of staring at the case, I heard a voice. It said, Denin, you really shouldn't do this.

"Who's there?" I asked, Just a little louder than before it spoke.

It's just me, now shhhh, the voice said. Talk back in your head, you're getting stared at.

Who are you? I asked.

I'm your conscience, my name is Cal.

My conscience? You sound like Nemo's dad. And aren't consciences just your guilt?

Yes but you're special, I was put here in your brain by a guy named Detima when you were a baby. I've only just found my voice.

Okay.

By this time I was sure I had lost it.

You're not crazy Denin, now let's get back to the matter at hand. Are you really that desperate to try this video game? You're a reader and a study person. A nerd. Aren't you proud of that?