Story Prompted- one-shots inspired by story prompts

My Only Friend

 Bobby McClaine.

 He was my best friend. I knew absolutely everything about him. I was there with him every second of every day. He wasn't just my friend. 

 He was the only person who ever cared about me.

 He was the only kid who knew I was even there. I was his creation, and I owed my life to him.

 My name is Robobunny. I'm an imaginary friend. I've had many different names and looks, but right now, I'm a cyborg rabbit with laser eyes and a robot leg. Oh, and I'm orange. That's Bobby's favorite color. I'm from the future where robot rule the world and ride armored dinosaurs into battle.

 But to be honest, that's not what happened. I just sort of appeared. He imagined me into existence, and I was suddenly there. Summoned from a thoughtless slumber. And I thank him for that, because this life is perfect.

 But now, he was 10. He's been slowly forgetting about me, but he still keeps me around sometimes. When he's really upset and doesn't want to talk to Mom, he complains to me. And I listen. When he's all alone on the playground, we play games together. One time we played Tic-Tac-Toe. He let me win one round. That was a good day.

  He was standing in his mothers bedroom, watching her dig through the closet while trying to find an old photo album. Non existent of us said a word, but I knew he thought this was dumb, and I agreed. 

 But I saw something in the darkness of that closet. What looked like a wispy silhouette of a crying woman with a dress and fairy wings... and cat ears. Her cries for help echoed throughout the room, and then she was gone. Faded way into nothingness. She had to be an imaginary friend like me, I thought. It's too bad she was forgotten.

 Bobby's mother finally dug out the dusty album and opened it up. She rambled on about all the memories of her own childhood and Bobby's infant days. She blabbered on about how he loved to drive in his blue toy Jeep that only went around 2 miles per hour at its highest setting. About how he had an obsession with dinosaurs during first grade and would always call them "Dinoroars". About how he had a pet goldfish named Sharky and cried for a whole afternoon when he died and got flushed down the toilet. Those were fun times. Well, maybe not the goldfish one. But I was there every step of the way. I remembered all those moments so vividly.

 She came across a strange page. It didn't have a Polaroid photo from the 80's or a group picture from Christmas littered with fake smiles or an awkward school photo. No, this page had a crayon drawing. Two, to be exact. One on each page. She's pointed to the first one and said, "I remember her. That was Flossie, she was my imaginary friend when I was about, uh... probably 7?"

 It was then that I realized who that girl in the closet was. That was Flossie. She was a fairy princess cat who had been on the verge of being forgotten for decades. And today was the day. At least, I thought it was. At that very moment, she flashed back into existence. She was very vivid and healthy compared to the wispy tortured soul I saw in the closet. Flossie leaned over Mom's shoulder and said, "Remember when we played Ring-Around-The-Rosie in Grandma's backyard? Or that time when we had a tea party and I made you a princess? Or when you dressed up as Ariel for Halloween and I pretended to be Flounder? Ahh... those were the good ol' days."

 She knew she couldn't stay for long. Tears were welling up in her sparkling blue eyes. She was fading more and more with every second, every word. I wish she could have stayed just a while longer. She was the most beautiful imaginary friend I had ever seen. Her eyes were like a vast blue sky, radiating against her sleek pink fur, dusty and cobwebbed from being tucked away in her creator's subconscious. It was like every strand of fur was covered in sparkling morning dew.

 She was perfect.

  But Bobby's mother was done remembering her. She whispered, "Goodbye, Dana. I'm going to miss you", and dissolved away into nothingness once more. I knew she wasn't going to come back again, but I still hoped she would. I could not wait for the day when I got to meet her in the afterlife.

 Dana shifted her attention to the crayon drawing on the second page. "Ah, this one's by you. I remember when you drew that. You were just 5 back then. You said that was your imaginary friend... What was his name? Laserbunny?" "Mom, it's Robobunny." Just him saying that made my form become more vivid. I loved the way it felt. I could tell he was remembering all the good times we had together, al, the bad times when he came to me to talk about his feelings, all the memories we shared. And I felt full. Fuller than I had felt in a long time.

 Dana asked, "Don't you still keep him around?" And then, Bobby did the unthinkable.

 "No, I don't do that anymore."

 My heart shattered into a million pieces when he said that. He was only ten, I was sure he had more time for me. And he did, but he wanted to be older now. He wanted to give me up. He didn't want to be a little kid, and I understood that, but it still broke my heart. I could feel myself dissolving away. It started with my cotton tail, then my legs, then it gnawed through my back and my skull like a vacuum pulling me away into the darkness. Like a black hole.

 It wasn't physically painful, but it hurt my soul.

 "Goodbye, Bobby. It was great while it lasted." I had done my work, and now I was finished being here. I was dead.

 I'm writing this from Bobby's- I mean, Robert's new bedroom in Los Angeles. He's 43 now. His daughter, Lily, just turned 6 today. She had a big birthday party with all her friends from school, and afterward Robert told her about his childhood and her infanthood, like his mother did for him 30 years earlier. Lily has an imaginary friend of her own, Cupcake the horse. Not as beautiful as Flossie was, but still beautiful. Girl's imaginary friends are usually super pretty. He told her about how he used to have an imaginary friend when he was around her age, and that was when I came back. I was ecstatic to be alive again, even if not for long, but I knew I had to die again sometime. The thought lingered in the back of my head. It killed me inside.

 He's in his bed now, thinking about me. Lily is fast asleep. I'm fading fast. I don't know how much time I have left, but apparently I had just enough time to jot this down. If you're reading this, you're an imaginary friend of a descendant of my creator, Robert J. McClaine. This is a special message that only you and other imaginary constructs can see. I want you to cherish the time you have with your kid, because you could lose them at any time. I want you to remember me, and remember Flossie, and even Cupcake when she's gone, and remember that even when we died, our creators continued to remember us. I'm telling you now that you're gonna be safe, and that you're gonna be forgotten inevitably, so make the most of the time you have now.

 Goodbye,

 Robobunny McClaine