All I Need

Ever since I was little, I've seen him. Watching me grow up, go to school, hang out with friends. At first he terrified me, but after years of frequent encounters, I got used to him. He in a way, was comforting.

His clothes indicated he was not of this century. They were those of the Victorian era. He always wore a tuxedo shirt and a vest as well as high waisted trousers and a top hat along with an engraved walking cane.

I used to think it was someone in a costume. A green hue always surrounded him. I could never see his face and I assumed it was just shadowed by his hat. But after awhile, I finally realized, he doesn't HAVE one. Just a dark spot where it should have been.

Every once in awhile during school, I would see him. I remember on countless occasions turning to a friend and asking them if they saw him too. They would look around, shake their head, and give me strange looks. Eventually my friends just blamed it on sleep deprivation as I had a long history of insomnia.

Eventually, I started seeing other things. Dead bodies lying on the ground, blood splattered on the walls, various animals tearing out my flesh. I kept it quiet and to myself. My friends already thought I was crazy, I didn't need to give them more proof.

I started to hear things as well. At first it was just incoherent whispers, it soon turned into screams and voices telling me to do things. I was severely depressed and isolated myself, I was terrified the voices were going to start telling me to do things to OTHER people, not just myself.

I finally broke after years and confessed to my parents what was happening. I was admitted into a psychiatric hospital, TWICE. I was loaded with medication and was in a constant state of lethargy.

I attended therapy multiple times a week, took my medications everyday, and was cooperative with whatever treatment plans the doctors had concocted. I eventually became bored with talking to the people who's only concern was with how much cash they could drain out of my family and into their pockets.

I began to lie. I would say I hadn't hallucinated in quite awhile. I would saw I was, "thinking positively." Finally high school ended and I was sent off to college. I actively participated in my classes, studied late into the night, and soon became the student with the highest grades.

Fellow classmates would try and talk to me, that never turned out well. I was invited to parties but never went. I was asked on dates but never called them to make plans.

I don't need friends, because I have him.

My invisible man who was with me no matter what.

The Victorian Man is the only thing I need, and he will

never

ever

leave

me.

The note becomes unreadable past this point. Jennifer Kingstan was found dead in her college dorm on September 7, 2014, her twenty first birthday. Cause of dead, strangulation.

A murder investigation is underway and police are questioning fellow students. But it seems, so far, there is no trace of Jennifer's killer.

It's as if he never even

existed.