Another Life / Book Ten / The Life Series / Supernatural

Just My Imagination

Dean and I were sleeping in our room, when I could hear crying from the baby monitor.

Dean was a heavy sleeper, and he wasn't going to wake up that easily.

I looked at the time, seeing it was 6:30 AM, sighing tiredly, getting up, walking into Aiden's nursery, picking him up from the crib. 

Aiden stopped crying, but he was still fussing.

I took him down to the kitchen, walking toward the sink, picking up the baby bottle, turning on the water, filling it with purified water, turning the water off, putting the bottle down, putting the formula into the bottle, putting the lid on it, shaking it up, feeding Aiden. Aiden drank greedily. I turned around, seeing a buffet of childish treats set out on the kitchen table.

A man appeared in front of me. "Surprise!"

I let the bottle go in shock, punching the man in the face, backing away, holding Aiden. "Who are you?"

"It's me, Ness," the man told me. "It's Sully."

"What?" I asked.

"You remember me, right?" Sully asked. "I made all your favorite snacks. We're friends. Like best friends. You remember?"

I started to remember, still in shock. "Sully."

"Yeah," Sully answered.

I shook my head. "No. You're not real."

"Well, how'd you punch me, then?" Sully asked, holding his nose in pain. "Great swing, by the way."

Dean and Sam walked in.

I looked at Sully. "What is happening? What are you doing here?"

"Uh, Ness, who you talking to?" Sam asked.

I pointed at Sully. "Him."

"Are you having a stroke?" Sam asked. "Do you smell toast?"

Sully looked at me. "They can't see me unless I want them to."

Dean looked around. "Baby, when did you start making this stuff? You know that Aiden can't any of this at least for a couple more years, right? Is that marshmallows on nachos?"

"Yeah, this wasn't me," I told them.

"It was me," Sully told them. "And those are delicious."

Sam and Dean looked at Sully in shock.

"Wait a second," I told them. "Can you see him?"

Dean nodded. "Uh-huh."

"Sam, Dean, this is, um... I think this is... Sully, my friend from when I was a kid," I told them. 

"Friend?" Sam repeated.

I tilted my head slightly, awkwardly. "Imaginary friend."

"You mean Mork from Ork here is your imaginary friend from childhood?" Dean asked.

"Yeah," I answered.

"I'm gonna get my gun," Dean told us.

"No, please," Sully told us. "Someone killed my friend."

"You mean your imaginary imaginary friend?" Sam asked.

"First off, 'imaginary friend' is more of a descriptive term," Sully told him. "How you just said it? That was a little... offensive, just to be honest. Secondly, we're zanna. Me and... me and the victim, we're zanna." I knew what he was talking about, sighing, looking away. "We help kids. We're the good guys. Ness, tell them."