Imagination's Saving Grace

I am just as haunted by these storybook characters as I was before my imaginary friends tricked me into living their nightmares... That's right the children in the windows they are my ghostly imaginary friends. But through nightmares brings forth truth and with this truth I now know, that this Fog I find myself being drawn to is the same substance that captured my friends. Yet, I was too captivated by what this cover brought me, that I didn't want it to go away. See, after that last walk through the darkness I kind of liked the way my emotions faded, and my conscience waned allowing my mind to be freed even if it was just until I fell back asleep each night. But true to my conscience words I found myself in the presence of an imagination's saving grace. Where to begin speaking about this brown haired, green eyed boy that just happened to cross my path at the exact moment I was trying to hide from my emotions through a danger all its own.

I am not sure if I told you or if you caught it between the lines of the story I told so far. But I tended to move a lot and after that first move that shook-up my whole little part of the world I once lived. I started to see things I never saw, before the days of only having to watch out for the story book characters that came out as the streetlights came on. With each move a new piece of a greater world caught my eyes and with these new understandings came new imaginary friends and a great sense of the ever-approaching cover I named the Fog. But these moments are the ones I started to hide from, these emotions that grew each day I wanted not to feel, and this is where He came in.

It was as if I jumped into one of my favorite movies, there were these three brothers called the Wormers. They were the neighborhood boys that everyone felt sorry for, which to anyone watching yet not taking the time to understand, would say were troublemakers, under-privileged lost boys. They ran the neighborhood, stirring up the peaceful days. They were the dark knights, to which we were the villagers who lived within the kingdom's walls of parental guidance. Well, most of us at least. I, being surrounded by friends, real friends not the imaginary ones, but repeatedly fighting jealousy of those around me and still feeling completely alone. Those friends I speak about all seemed to form perfect pieces of a puzzle while I was constantly that one odd piece that looked like I should fit, but never did. I was like one of those random pieces thrown in from a different puzzle all together, that you would pick up at a secondhand store. They knew I wouldn't fit in, and I knew they were right. Until one day these dark knights caught my attention and that feeling of not fitting in slowly dissipated as I walked further away from those kingdom walls. These three had a story to tell and I was the reader anticipating the build, I was hooked. Maybe this is who, with every step toward cover, I needed to find before I became one of those imaginary friends I so often speak about.

These three boys, never apart but always, seemed to be free. Ran the neighborhood, found kingdoms to claim and made swords out of the sticks found among the ground to defeat those who tried to ruin their fun. I could just picture their crowns upon their heads, even if they weren't really there. They just made their games of make-believe feel so real you couldn't help but end up in one of their worlds. At least this is where I found myself the days my friends didn't pay much attention. I was looking through the gate wishing I could get to them, but I was a prisoner waiting for someone to come and free me. These three helped me understand my imagination could develop so much more than it currently was throughout the weeks of summer. I just got sucked in from there and didn't want to ever leave. Together we fought the storybook characters that haunted my dreams, the ones that hide in the shadows just waiting for a straggler to be caught alone. "Yes, those shadows I told you about when I found myself caught outside once the sunset." Those characters were the guards that stopped me from escaping completely. They made me feel as if I were part of their own imagined worlds, even if I was just a girl. I no longer felt the need to feel that emotional cover the Fog brought, for these three let my mind wander free and the adrenaline that came from these games was more than the Fog could ever give me.

Do you want to know a secret? There were a few weeks left in our summer break. Daniel, the older brother out of the three, rescued me from that Dungeon of Neesrof. For that last few weeks, I was completely free of all thought outside of our little made-up world. That is how I came to be with these three brothers, and they couldn't have come at a better time. My parents just informed me that we would be moving at the end of summer. I still had boxes packed from the last move, so it wasn't a complete shock really. I heard them whispering about it for a while before that, but I didn't know it would be so soon. See, the difference between this one and all my other moves, which I will mention throughout this story, was that this was the move that brought me to my first new land surrounded by light and not just shadows.

I was filled with happiness and beaming light while I was with Daniel. The darkness started to fade, my dreams were no longer taken by my imaginary friends or their nightmares. I didn't have to figure out anyone's story or try to rewrite something that was already ended. I was able to live a story of my choosing, this one Daniel, his brothers and I were writing together. Sometimes our games were held at a standstill, when a brother decided to write his own way. But those days were my favorite, because Daniel and I got to write our own story, together.

We picked up our own written world from the moment he rescued me from Neesrof. I was no longer a prisoner to the shadows, but I still had that feel of the Fog lingering close by.

"Come with me, you will be safe from those prison walls." I took his hand as he tossed me a sword, and we ran for safety. Luckily, the guards hadn't gained back conciseness, yet.

"How did you stop them?!" His crooked smile flashed as he laughed, "They didn't see me coming. They were too focused on you." We started to slow our escape as we grew further from the kingdom's land. "But how would you have known they wouldn't see you?" Our swords turned back to sticks, as we neared the shade of a beautiful willow tree. "Grace, will you trust me to show you?" He held back the hanging vines, as I found myself in what seemed to be a house. I guess I trusted him, without even thinking about it because I was back in a world unlike my own. "Wow, did you read all of these?" There were books in stacks around his whole house, "The books, yes. But some of those are notebooks, not books." I started picking up the books closet to me, as I turned them over in my hand to see what they were about, I noticed none of them had titles. "The covers are blank?" I was mostly talking out loud to myself, and didn't expect an answer, "Open it, you will see which story it is." I looked over at Daniel, and reflected the wonder within his eyes, into my soul, as I turned the book right side up and opened the hard cover slowly. "Get ready." It was barely a whisper to my ears, but as soon as I opened the book fully it started to glow, the words began to lift off of the page, blowing my hair off my shoulders. "Now open your mind," Daniel spoke in aww, placing an arm around my back and his other hand upon mine, which was holding the book. I nodded as I felt the heat from his body slowly sink into my core. "How are we doing this?!" My lips were parted in wonder as the stories inked words started forming pictures in front of our eyes. "We are Word Weavers; we can take lost stories and make them come to life." I closed the book, as the light faded and the pictures turned back into ink, my hair settling back onto my shoulders. I looked back into Daniel's face, "and the notebooks?" Daniel's intake of breath, had me on pins and needles waiting for him to tell me, I watch as his chest slowly went back down, as he finally said: "Unfinished stories" ...

Daniel gave me my second real kiss. I can still see him, I may not be able to remember his voice exactly anymore, but his piercing green eyes will forever be burned into my memories, because they were filled with wonder, which opened up a whole new world for me.