Not so Imaginary // On Hold // GxB Paranormal Romance

Introduction

A lot of children have imaginary friends. Me, I had much more than that. I had a whole imaginary world.

Well, I thought that's all it was.

I was blind as a child--or nearly. Cataracts. The doctors figured that was why my brain invented its own world. But the monsters I saw weren't just figments of my mind, and neither was Ren. Ren, my imaginary friend.

I'd been seeing the monsters for as long as I could remember, but I didn't see him until I was at least five. The first time was when I was in the park. My babysitter had me out at the swings, and she left me for just one fast minute so she could use the ladies' room. If I were an ordinary child, this might not have been such a problem. You're probably already starting to figure out that my childhood was anything other than ordinary.

When my babysitter was gone, I stayed sitting there swinging by myself like the good kid I intended to be. Of course, I couldn't see much of the regular world but the clouded, purple sky and the lines of energy that zig-zagged off the other kids who sat playing in the sandbox and climbing across the play structure or sliding down to the waiting arms of their parents. What I'm saying is that I could see the world in inverse--I saw less of the children and more of the empty space around them, because the air itself was always filled with such interesting shapes and lines.

The park that day was quiet and warm, the kind of day where you don't expect trouble. So when this big, glowing moth settled down on the top of the swingset, can you really blame me for following it?

I chased it out of the tanbark pit and out onto the sidewalk and up a path through the grass and into the playing field and over a set of small hills, the entire time, the moth growing larger and larger and every once in a while, slowing and turning back to spin around me, waiting for me to keep up. It wasn't exactly a threatening maneuver. I suppose that was the trick.

Beyond the crest of the farthest hill, the ground sloped away fast into a skidding, sliding, muddy gully. As I tumbled down the embankment, the moth descended in low circles around me. By the time my shins and knees and elbows stopped tumbling over each other, it was at least three times as large as I was. The fur on its legs morphed into sharp spines as its head elongated and stretched to pinchers at the sides of a pointed beak. Its wings receded into armored scales.

I tried to kick it away, but it was no use. It had talons the length of my forearm. They wrapped around my shoulders and sunk in. That's a feeling that's hard to forget, let me tell you. Sometimes, in the right light, I swear the scars are still there above my collarbone.

Since there was nothing else to do, I did what any sensible person would have. I screamed.

The next thing happened so fast that I didn't even understand it until afterwards. One moment, the monster was trying to devour me, the next it was skidding backwards against the dirt and roots and bramble of the ground. Between me and it stood a boy not much older than I. He was dressed in all black with black hair and carrying a long weapon of some sort of metal--also black. It was taller than he was and curved about into a sharp blade at one end.

The boy's name was Ren. He took me with him through a gate of glowing light to a world filled with monsters and the warriors who sought to control them.

As I've told you, I must have had quite the imagination when I was a child. Sometimes, when I went back to the park, Ren would be on the swings. We often played together--when I could convince my parents or a new babysitter that I wouldn't disappear again. But I hadn't seen him since the year I turned seven. That was the year they fixed my vision.

I guess I should have been grateful. The monsters and night terrors disappeared with the operation--mostly, that is. Sometimes, when it was dark and quiet, I could swear I still felt the things watching me, waiting for their moment to attack.

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Thanks for reading! There's more to come. I'm aiming to update a couple times a week until it's finished, so be sure to add the story to your library so you can get updates. 

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Hopeful Romantic