r e c o l l e c t i o n

Prologue/Chapter 1-Twelve and Counting

      A sharp pain in my hand is followed by a piercing pain seemingly shooting through my heart. I see a flash, and a vision ensues. She is laughing. She is happy. With every second I can hear and feel my voice getting thinner. My smiles less visible. To her, at least.
But instead of starting with informing you about my present death bed, I should introduce myself first. Hello, hey, what's up "brochacho." My name is Gia. And I'm Nylah Rendon's one and only imaginary friend. And I'll be her last.
Children all over the world have imaginary friends. It's a pretty normal part of childhood, right? Well of course, like most parts of childhood, they fade away. In the end,everything really does. I mean except for those weirdos who haven't left their parents' basement in 15 years.I'm pretty sure even their imaginary friends feel bad for them. Nylah isn't that case though. I guess I should be happy for her. She's much more social than three years ago. But as soon as she's moved on, I'm not hers anymore. One of two things could happen. One, I could be somehow passed on to some other kid, and kids of get a fresh start if you know what I mean. Two, I could disappear forever.
However in my lovely case, I don't get a choice. I'm going to disappear forever.
It's a long story. I know. Cliché cliché cliché. But it is. Or maybe I'm just not in the mood to tell it. Whoops.
Anyways, I'm disappearing forever. You know what? That's fine. Okay, I've had a good run. At least it would be fine if I didn't have to leave Nylah behind. The world...the world is a rough place to say the least. We all know this, and if you don't you'll find out for sure some day. Because it's true. And I don't want Nylah in it. At least not by herself.
I've tried for a while to think about how to fix this. There are ways, but they aren't exactly Easy Street. And I quickly realized I don't want to risk leaving and going off on some ridiculous quest, and missing what could very possibly be my final moments of life and a friendship worth living for.
So I just keep going.

Sometimes, Nylah forgets my name.
Sometimes, Nylah forgets my voice.
Sometimes, Nylah forgets I'm here.
Never, do I want to forget her.

Nylah will be 12 in 2 days. I guess for an imaginary friend I'm pretty damn lucky. Usually it's more 6-8 when we kick the bucket. Guess I got some extra time for bein' good or something. Who knows.
Anyways. Over the years I've always helped with her birthday parties. This year it's nothing too big, but I'm still happy to help. However, it's been a bit of a challenge with the whole "disappearing thing." You try holding up streamers when 4/5 of your fingertips are invisible on your right hand. I usually just glove that hand, since I can actually see what I'm doing and won't freak Nylah out. She thinks it's a fashion statement. I think it's ridiculous. Also it's itchy.
But I forgot to put a glove on today. My bad. I didn't think much of it, because since I barely even see Nylah day to day I didn't feel the urge to wear it. I thought her party was next week, but it's in 3 days. So today we're decorating. But someone's bound to notice something's a bit off when you're holding up some rainbow streamers with half a missing hand and seemingly vanished fingertips.
She's blabbering on about some girl at school who dropped a book on her in the third period. I'm smiling and thoughtlessly contributing, and don't really focus until I noticed she's stopped talking. I assume she's just lost her train of thought, and glance over at her questioningly. I see a solemnly calm look on her face, which isn't something a girl like Nylah wears often. She begins to walk, or almost storm towards me. For a second I wonder if it's over. She finally can't see me any more.
But instead she reaches towards my hand. Or what was formerly a hand.
She looks me in the eyes and her voice seems to break as she speaks.
"What's happening?"