Imaginary Friend

  You remember your first day. Everything was all sparkly and bright and new. Your client's imagination was wild and fierce and alive. His world was full of bright colors and interesting smells and insane adventures. Immediately after appearing you were thrown into the crazy world of Dan Howell.
  In the first year you climbed trees, spoke to animals, and explored the world with Pooh, Christopher Robin and Dan. You were well fed; Dan kept a place at the dinner table open for you. At night you fell asleep under the covers next to Dan, safe and warm and excited for what the next day held for you two.
  As Dan grew up, the adventures became more action packed. You were fighting pirates, finding buried treasure and exploring unknown planets. Every day ended in a feast in you and Dan's honor, thanking you for saving another village from destruction or saving the princess or stopping another villain. You and Dan were an unstoppable team.
  You remember feeling that sinking feeling of dread for the first time. One that every imaginary friend feels the first time they are forgotten by their client. It was when Dan first met Tyler. You and Dan had been valiantly fighting off invading troops when all of a sudden a little boy with blonde hair popped up from behind a tree stump. You and Dan stopped dead in your tracks.
  "Hello! I'm Tyler! Wanna play?"
  Dan stared at the flamboyant blonde for a few seconds before nodding and quietly mumbling,
  "Sure."
  He walked over to Tyler who eagerly asked what Dan had been playing. Dan quickly warmed up to the boy and they were soon playing as if they had been friends their whole lives. You try to run after them but no matter how fast you try to run, it's as if there's a brick wall between you two keeping you from following your client and his new friend through the woods. After they disappeared from your sight you stopped trying to fight the invisible force holding you back. You knew what it was.
  Dan was forgetting you.
  Soon Dan was spending more time with Tyler and his friends than with you. Fights with pirates were replaced with video game marathons; races through the woods were replaced with attempts at skateboarding. No longer did you gorge yourself on fabulous meals. In fact, a meal was rare, if it ever happened. You couldn't fit in Dan's bed anymore, he had grown too big for both you and the bed. You were left to find refuge on the cold wood floor, wrapping yourself in what blankets you could find.
  You see, this was the hardest part about being somebody's imaginary friend. You try to convince yourself that it will be forever, that your client will never forget you. But they always do. Your client gets to live their life and grow and be happy, but as they grow up, you die. You're replaced.
  You remember your final day. No longer was the world colorful and bright. You curled yourself into a ball on Dan's dusty bedroom floor. Your bones poked out in horrible angles, your black hair was just tufts on your pale scalp. All familiar, comforting aspects of Dan's room were gone. You knew that it was time. It was time to let go.
  You closed your eyes and began reliving your best memories with Dan. Adventures, feasts, stories and long conversations late into the night. You smiled as you felt a warm, tingling sensation fill your body. As you are taken from Dan's world once and for all you hear a little boy's call for the last time.
  "Goodnight Phil!"