Imagination is more important than knowledge. I mentally cursed Einstein. He had no idea. Our imaginations were what had gotten us into this mess, and knowledge was what we were desperately in need of. I shook my head as I thought back on the past few days, and how life had taken on a surreal hue.
It all started when we decided to revert to childhood three months prior to graduation. We were excited to be done with high school, but the unknown loomed ahead. We were bored at lunch one day, and the phantoms had been born. Figments of our imagination, our phantoms were animal shadows of us. We could play with them during a boring class, or watch them chase our cars during long trips. They were simply another way for us to entertain ourselves. That all changed the day it became real.
Driving home from school, stuck in traffic, I was bored, so my phantom wolf came out to entertain me, weaving between stopped cars and chasing joggers. Then I saw the tiger. I didn’t think much of it at first, as my imagination often ran wild when unchecked. Till the tiger lunged at my wolf. As with my dreams, I decided to sit back and watch the fantasy battle I was sure would ensue. Shock took over my features as the tiger’s claws came in contact with the front leg of my wolf and I gasped in pain. My wolf vanished as I turned my attention to my right arm, where three gashes appeared amid waves of pain.
Grabbing a towel from the back of the car, I tried to wrap my arm as I stepped on the gas, as the traffic had chosen that moment to start moving. Luckily only a few blocks from home, I arrived with my mind racing. What was I going to tell my mom? I had to come up with an explanation, and fast. It was hard to think with my arm throbbing and a headache had started. Stepping out of the car, I nearly tripped on a rake left out in the garage. An alibi forming in my head, I stumbled in to the house.
*************
I arrived at school the next day with a bandaged arm, but thankfully no stitches. Mom had flipped, but the doctor had finally convinced her I’d be fine and not even have scars. Marci and Mikayla looked a little concerned, and Laura just shook her head. After telling them I’d explain at lunch, I quickly left before they could question me further. In each class, I repeated the story that I’d tripped on a rake. Most, knowing of my natural lack of grace, accepted it without inquiring any farther.
Lunch arrived fairly quickly, and I wasn’t sure what I was going to tell my friends. Should I tell them my fabricated story, or the real one? And what had happened? I sighed, spotting the group. Once most of my ‘phantom’ friends were there, I decided on the truth as far as I could tell it. Laura, the direct one, got right to the point. “What did you do this time?” After giving her one of my signature glares, I responded. “I’m telling everyone I tripped on a rake.”
She laughed and shook her head. “Only you, Jen.” Going back to her lunch, she seemed satisfied. But Brianna wasn’t. “That’s what you’re telling everyone? So what’s the real story?” Rachelle seconded the query, as did Mikayla and Lacy. “Um…” I started, “remember when we were bored that one day and made up our phantom animals?” To my surprise, they all laughed.
“Remember?” laughed Kensey, “mine kept me entertained on a number of occasions!” I listened, a little stunned, as the others all admitted they hadn’t forgotten their phantoms either. “But beside the point,” Lacy intervened, “back to your story. How did you hurt your arm?”
I took another deep breath, realizing how crazy I was going to sound to my friends that were already partially insane. “I was playing with my phantom yesterday when a tiger attacked it. As soon as it hit my phantom, the cuts showed up on my arm.” I looked around to see looks of concern for this information and concern for my mental welfare. “Well…” said Laura, breaking the silence, “that’s a little creepy weird.”
Margaret, glancing up from her novel, looked at me curiously. “What kind of tiger?” she asked, “real or imaginary?” I looked at her, now desperate for someone to believe me. “Well I thought it was my imagination until it attacked my wolf. It looked like a real tiger, but something was off about it.” Now the others’ eyes got wide, sensing I truly believed everything I was telling them. Just then, the bell rang, ending lunch. The thought crossed my mind that saved by the bell was a perfect example of the relief reflected in my friends faces. “Well, hope your arm gets better,” were the only parting words I received from any of them.
***********
Later that night, I got a shaky phone call. Checking the caller ID, I was surprised to see Laura’s name. She usually texted unless it was really important. “Jen?” she asked in a strained voice, “I believe you.” I gripped my cell tighter.
“Wha-at are you talking about?” I asked hesitantly, afraid of the answer.
“I was thinking about our talk at lunch today while I was walking home from voice lessons. I got bored, so I decided to have my phantom dog keep me company.” She drew a deep breath. “Then the dog showed up in front of my house. It was like a Grim out of Harry Potter or something, but I could tell it wasn’t a normal dog. It looked like it was barking, but no sound was coming out of its mouth. It attacked my phantom, like you. But I freaked and decided to, I don’t know, stop imagining my dog, like take it back inside me.
“After I did that, I could hear the other dog. I guess since my phantom was gone, it decided I was the next best target.” She paused, wary of my judgment, “I could tell it was real, Jen. I made it to the front door. But before I could get inside, it caught me.”
I tried not to, but a small gasp escaped my lips. “Are you okay?”
She sounded relieved that I believed her. “Yeah, it only got my pant leg. But that’s the scary part. It tore off part of my pants. It felt real. But what dog would sense and then attack something out of my imagination? Are we all going insane?”
I attempted to keep my tone light. “Well we already knew we were all crazy. We tell ourselves that every day.”
She didn’t think that was the proper answer to her question. “I’m serious. What are we going to do? We can’t tell our parents, they’ll think we’re nuts. Which I haven’t ruled out as a possibility.”
I racked my brain for an answer, but nothing came of it. “I guess we wait and talk to the others tomorrow. Bri and Rachelle are intelligent, maybe they’ll know what to do.”
“Okay,” she whispered, “well then, ’night.”
“Be careful.” I replied, finishing the call. I rolled onto my bed, reviewing what had just happened. So I wasn’t delirious, with two attacks on different people. Well, not delirious by myself anyway. Crawling into bed, I was almost afraid of what tomorrow might bring.
**********
Walking to lunch, Laura caught up with me. “Um,” she started, “about last night.” I nodded. It had happened. She took a deep breath as we approached the group. I was so frustrated. I wanted to pounce something, to give everyone the impression everything was normal. But I felt that was taking too light of an outlook on the situation, and my bandaged arm was kind-of a problem too.
I didn’t really know how to bring up the subject, but Laura solved that problem all on her own. Getting the others’ attention with a quick version of what she’d told me last night, she then turned to me. “And well,” she finished, “I know Jen’s not alone in this…” I shot her a grateful look, “because of THIS.” She uncrossed her legs and rolled the one to the side, showing where a portion of her jeans was missing near the bottom. Rachelle and Kensey let out small exclamations, and Mikayla just looked shocked. Bri and Marci wore equal masks of panic, with Sara and Lacy’s stunned looks to complete the set. Brianna gulped a little, then asked, “Wait, how do we know that it wasn’t just some random dog?”
Laura looked exasperated. “It attacked my phantom. A dog attacked something out of my imagination! And I know the dog was real! You guys aren’t getting this!” My frustration increased, a realization coming to mind. I voiced the realization before thinking it through. “Um, guys? Problem. Who’s going to be next? Two attacks, you think this is gonna stop? I have a hunch that one of you are next.” Now the shocked looks were aimed in my direction. “Will you all knock it off?!?!” Now I was just ticked. They should have figured out by now that Laura and I were telling the truth. But maybe, a voice in my head said, maybe you’ve just scared them out of their wits and they need a minute to digest it all.
Lacy was the first one to regain the ability of speech. “Okay, I don’t know whether to be freaked out or… wait, I’m officially freaked out, but about your sanity or this thing coming after me next, I don’t know.” McKensey laughed nervously at Lacy’s mid-sentence thought switch.
Laura and I both breathed a sigh of relief. They believed us. Sorta. We began to seriously discuss everything, but within a few minutes, the bell rang. It was Friday, so there was a good chance we wouldn’t see each other until Monday. With worried looks at one another, we dispersed.
****************
We reunited well before Monday. It started with a call Saturday morning. Paranoid, I ran to my phone and flipped it open so fast it almost split in two. “Jen, can you be ready in ten minutes if I get over to your house to pick you up?” Lacy sounded out of breath and scared.
“Um, sure. Where are we going? Is everything okay?” It took a lot to shake Lacy up. She sounded a little exasperated as she explained. “Didn’t Rachelle text you? She and Margaret are trapped in her house. By a tiger. Sound familiar?” I gasped. “Ten minutes,” she said, then hung up.
Ten minutes later I was in the backseat of Lacy’s car, along with McKensey and Laura. “Bri’s bringing her own car, and Mikayla’s grabbing Marci and Sara,” Lacy informed me, “we don’t know what exactly is going on, so Magaret asked us all to come if we could.” The rest of the drive was in silence, until my cell rang. It was Rachelle. “Park a block away first, but please don’t get out of your car.” “Why?” “The tiger’s in the front yard and it might attack you guys.” “What about your parents?” Then I remembered. Rachelle’s parents were out of town, that’s why Magaret was hanging out with her today. “Okay,” I told her, “we’ll park a block away to check things out.” I hung up after she agreed.
Later, three cars sat around the corner from Rachelle’s house. We talked by phone, to scared to get out of our cars. After discussing it, we decided to drive into the driveway, that we’d be safe enough in our cars. All seven of us crammed into Mikayla’s car, and we started the engine. Once turning the corner, we saw it. It was prowling on the front lawn. Watching it in horror, we failed at first to notice a small black bunny on the lawn. Once we HAD noticed it, however, we were terrified of what the tiger would do to the small creature. Mikayla cried out to the bunny, and McKensey looked at her in shock. “Can you see my bunny?” she asked. We all stared. “That’s your phantom?” I asked in shock, “Then how come we can see it? Isn’t it a figment of your imagination?” Everyone’s eyes got large as they realized what this meant. Bri was the first to say what we were all thinking. “It’s not imaginary anymore. This isn’t some make-believe story like Harry Potter or Avatar. We’re in our real world with these creatures. What are we going to do?”
At that moment the tiger spotted McKensey’s cute creature. In fear, she made it vanish. Bad, bad idea as it turned out. The tiger whipped around and locked eyes with us, growling. Stalking towards the car, we saw Rachelle and Magaret staring out the window in horror. Brianna looked like she was concentrating hard, and then a black cat appeared on the lawn. It yowled at the tiger and took off on a dead run in the opposite direction of the car. The tiger roared and tore after the black streak. Shaking from the sound, we turned to look with astonishment at Bri. “Your phantom’s a cat?” Marci asked. Bri nodded, “I wanted a dolphin but that didn’t really work, and I knew you liked dolphins, so I chose a cat.”
“That roar was really loud,” said Sara, “you could feel it shake you. I’d be surprised if the whole neighborhood didn’t hear it.” Bri looked confused. “What roar?” she asked, “Did the tiger roar?” We gaped at her. Shaking our heads in confusion, we decided to make a break for the house.
Once inside, sipping hot cocoa, we tried to piece it all together. Bri had made her phantom disappear after we ran inside, so we figured she was safe for the time being. After telling everyone’s piece of the story, and Sara pronouncing us all as insane, Rachelle put it all together. “As I see it,” she said, “These are the cards on the table. We will assume for the moment that this is all real. When our phantoms are attacked, we are hurt. It may be the only reason Laura was attacked may be because the dog was following her phantom, which was ‘inside’ of her. For some reason, we may not be able to hear the tiger without our phantoms ‘inside’ us. The tiger, and maybe the dog, are following and finding us. Why?” We all shook our heads. That was the million-dollar question. Magaret had a theory. “What if it’s an ‘opposition in all things’ kind-of thing? We have to have evil phantoms because we have good phantoms. Or something realizes how powerful our imaginations have grown, and wants to stop it, like communists or power-hungry people. Hello, anybody else want to jump in?” Silence. “Any time now.”
“Or maybe,” said Mikayla, “Our imaginary creatures were made more real to help us fight an evil that already existed.” We pondered this in continued silence until we heard a growl. This growl was different though. It was that of a dog. Laura and Lacy peeked through the curtain on the window. “It’s the dog that attacked me,” whispered Laura, “I’m sure of it. It has the same evil eyes, shaggy hair, and uh….uh big, black, stripes.” She bit her lip in an effort to not scream. Lacy whipped her face from the window, looking ashen. “The dog changed into the tiger,” revealed Lacy in a hushed tone, “they’re the same creature.”
***********
Two hours later, we were still sitting in Rachelle’s living room, too scared to even play games. We talked very little, which is an accomplishment for someone like me. Once Marci mentioned it was lucky she didn’t have work that day, and Laura commented that she was glad she’d finished her chores. Finally, I couldn’t take it any longer. “It’s still out there,” I stated, “and it doesn’t look like it’s leaving anytime soon. I propose we chase it off.” They stared at me. “Kay, it’s been three days of you guys gawking at me, so get over it. Stop looking stunned, I have a feeling it’s going to be a while before our version of reality returns. I say we run it off. Who’s with me?” They all were. So we plotted. It was decided that Laura and I, with our phantoms, would attack the tiger. We would start with trying to just scare it, with everyone’s phantoms rushing it. If that failed, Laura and I would make contact. Rachelle got out her first-aid kit, and I prayed my hurt arm wouldn’t affect my phantom’s performance. We turned to the window and drew back the curtains so we’d have a clear view. “Ready, set, GO!” I shouted. That’s when things got hairy.
Oh I love this story!! Chapter 2! Chapter 2!
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