If you're one of those people who thinks it's fun to be invisible- I hate you.
Please, feel free to take that personally. But honestly, what kind of idiot are you? Seriously, think about it. No one can see you. No one realizes you're in a room when you're there. I bet some of you are just sitting there thinking that what I just described sounds awesome. Right? And maybe that's true, for the first day. Possibly the second day, if you're a masochist.
I want you to imagine something, before you just go all 'well this guy's a dick'. You know that one person in your life, the one who you love to see smile? Maybe they're a friend, a romantic interest, a family member, or whatever, but just them. That crazy beautiful expression that they get when they're genuinely happy. That one. Picture it. And I'm sure that you do so many things to get to see that expression.
Now think about what would happen if you couldn't. If you could see them and see how upset they were, and not be able to do a damn thing about it. Can you honestly say that you would like to be invisible now? It is excruciating. The people you love, the people you care about, they all think you're dead and gone, or just lost, if they've any hope left after years of you just vanishing off the face of the Earth.
An argument can be made for the pros of invisibility if and only if the person in question has control over when they are invisible. Otherwise, it's just hell. Sure, once upon a time I would've been just like you. I would've been sitting there arguing that you could just talk to loved ones, and maybe they would be a little startled at first, but after that life would just proceed as normal. Sue Storm seems like a prime example of a successful and happy invisible lady, but what is the key part of her life? The fact that she's not invisible all the time. In theory, one could control said superpowers. But it is just like a drug. Initially, it's a high, it's a perfect escape from reality; I mean you're freaking invisible! But, there are long term effects that you don't consider.
What does one suffer from overuse of superpowers? I'm sure it's different for other powers. For example, I had a friend, a long time ago, who was a flamer. She loved to play with her powers to amuse small children, making tiny flames curl over her palm just to see the wonder in their bright young eyes when the flame suddenly turned into a little sprite that did a delicate dance across her skin. And then, slowly, her temperature started to rise. The woman now cannot be touched by normal humans because a mere brush against her skin will cause a third degree burn, even on some supers. Luckily for her, she fell in love with an ice man. He just melts a little every time they get close.
Other supers are lucky I say. The flyers simply become a little more susceptible to being blown away (literally that is), the ice folk become colder, the flames hotter. What about the invisible people though, the ones everyone was so quick to despise? It starts out so small at first.
In the middle of a conversation, you'll try to say something. You know, continuing with the train of thought, and maybe it's even a great contribution. For the sake of making you seem important, let's say you're smart. Congrats. You're the next Einstein! But no one notices. Okay, you say to yourself, I was just a little too quiet maybe, or something distracted everyone. No biggie.
And then it'll happen again. And again. And again. Once it gets to the point where you finally realize something is actually wrong, it's most likely too late. People will start bumping into you more often, and when they do, they'll look so surprised when the see you, as if you had been completely invisible up until the point where people actually walk straight into you. And even then, they will squint and sometimes even put their face closer to yours than is exactly comfortable before their eyes widen and you finally see the realization dawn on them that you're there.
The last step? People start to walk through you. You forget that complete invisibility means that no one can be aware you are there, in any sense. They don't see you, they don't feel you, they don't hear you. Invisibility, it is not a blessing. Even when people want to see you or want to know you're there, if you speak, they just think they're going insane.
I loved someone once. He was a particularly amazing guy. The tall, dark, and handsome stereotype, except he was the warmest person I knew. He was a total romantic, and his teeth stood out against his skin every time he smiled in a way that I once compared to snow on trees, that ethereal combination. He heard me. Once, twice, three times, I'm not sure how many times it was. But what I will never forget, is the look on his face when he heard me.
He was terrified. He clapped his hands over his ears, he started muttering to himself about how it couldn't be, it couldn't. As I kept talking and he kept searching for the source of the voice, I could see his fear rising. It was like a visible thing in his eyes. He thought he was going insane. He couldn't see me. He couldn't touch me. It was only the natural response. I tried once, possibly twice more after that.
He's in an asylum now.
I'm invisible. And it is hell. I don't exist anymore. Sometimes I'll sit in the middle of a crowded area and talk out loud to myself, just to see someone glance in my direction, and for a moment, I will dare believe they heard me. But they never do. You never do.
Oh, I wouldn't worry about me too much though. You probably won't either, I mean, this is all a story right? It's just words, just words that someone wrote when they got bored, in the attempt to sympathize with this mythical man who vanished from the Earth. Huh. I just realized I'm crying. Not that you'll ever know.
You and people like you make me sick. You're still reading, probably hoping for a happy ending, a cheerful resolution to what seems like an interesting story. This isn't interesting, this is my life. Interesting is not the word I would use. Torturous. Agonizing. Horrible. Those words seem more appropriate.
Do you still have hope, lovely, visible reader? Do you still think I can come back, get a life back? I used to have hope too. And then I stopped being stupid. Miracles are things of old books and testaments in Bibles. There is so much in this world that is unfair, so why would miracles ever be anything but sick jokes played on people by the universe? Invisibility used to be a miracle too.
I'm sorry, is this a sad story? Is this story not to your liking because it is not a happy one? Well I have good news for you. You're going to forget about it soon. These words, they'll fade. They'll become invisible too. And you'll forget. You'll forget me.
Because that's what it means to be invisible.
