The Society of Imaginary Friends

In the middle of the night, for no apparent reason, Valerie suddenly awoke from a deep sleep. It was almost as if a fire alarm inside her head had gone off. Panic seared through her like a flash of lightning, and she sat up straight in her bed, ready for an emergency. What had woken her? Everything was as it should be in her room, and there was no sound other than Kanti’s soft, even breathing.

Then, without warning, the room faded before her eyes, and she saw the white walls of a strange closet, where she was curled in a ball, shaking. She knew that she was in one of her visions like the ones she had on Earth when she was unconscious. But this time was different—she hadn’t fainted, and she was still awake and conscious. If she concentrated, she could even feel her soft sheets clutched in her hands. This knowledge grounded her and allowed her to watch the scene unfold more objectively than she ever witnessed it before.

She heard Sanguina’s voice, low and threatening. “Where are you? Hiding?” She popped into view, her face inches away. Valerie screamed.

“You swore that you would stay away after I helped you last time!”

“You know by now that I will never let you go, Henry,” Sanguina said, shaking her head as if she was disappointed. “I’m always here. And like always, I won’t leave until you give me what I want.”

“No! Get away from me! Go!”

Valerie was confused. Why was Sanguina calling her Henry? She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror that was hanging on the door of the closet. But instead of her own face, she saw the face of a boy about her age. His black hair was oddly streaked with gray. His eyes were wide with fear, and his entire body was quaking with dread. He was terrified of what Sanguina would do to him, Valerie thought.

“We need another monster, and you’re the only one who can give it to us. And if you don’t—”

“Valerie, wake up!” Kanti was shaking her, and Valerie’s vision faded away. For the first time, she wasn’t weak and helpless, drained by her vision as she was on Earth. She was as strong as ever, and she had the power to save Henry.

“It wasn’t me! All along, in my visions, it wasn’t me that Sanguina was after! I was seeing through the eyes of Henry. That’s why Sanguina didn’t understand when I asked her why she haunted my dreams. But what does she want with Henry?” she asked.

“What are you talking about? Are you even awake?” Kanti asked, and then started to shake her again.

Valerie snapped back to the present, where Kanti watched her with genuine concern, and made a decision. Maybe it was important for her past to be a secret from almost everyone, but Kanti had shown Valerie nothing but kindness and deserved to know the truth about where she was from. Besides, she needed to talk about this right now. She was so close to solving this puzzle; she couldn’t let it slip away.

“I’m awake, Kanti. I need to tell you something. And you’re gonna want to sit down for this,” Valerie said.

Kanti sat, and Valerie told her story from the beginning. Kanti listened without interrupting, her jaw dropping further and further with every new detail. At the end, Valerie told her about her vision.

“So it means that all along, my visions were real! And now there’s a boy on Earth being terrorized by Sanguina. It’s awful, Kanti. He’s my age, but his hair is already turning gray! It must be from Sanguina and her monsters terrorizing him every night.”

Upon hearing this last detail, Kanti, who until now had been quietly absorbing everything Valerie told her, began to tremble violently.

“It can’t be! No, he’s not my Henry! My Henry is dead.”

“That’s a pretty common name on Earth.”

“Yes, it was what you said about his hair—my Henry’s hair was turning gray, too, from the time he was three and his mother died.”

Shock reverberated through Valerie. But what were the odds?

“No matter who he is, we have to find him and save him,” she said, realizing for the first time the impact of what she had discovered. All of the horror that she had experienced when she was unconscious, Henry dealt with all the time. “It’s a miracle that he didn’t die from the strain of being so terrified all the time. I don’t think I could have survived it. The visions of Sanguina alone almost killed me. We have to find her.” If she had to search every corner of the Globe, she would find Sanguina and stop her.

“I have to go to the Guild and tell them about this right away. They’ll know what to do,” Kanti said, already changing into her jeans.

“Will anyone be there in the middle of the night?”

“Sure. Kids call on their imaginary friends at all hours, so there’s always a supervisor on duty in case an apprentice needs help,” Kanti replied. “Want to come with me?”

Valerie slowly shook her head. “I want to try to remember more about my visions. Maybe it will give us clues to where Henry is, or where we can find Sanguina. Until tonight, I didn’t know that it wasn’t me experiencing those things. All that time, I was being pulled into Henry’s mind. But why me?”

Before Kanti left, she gave Valerie a quick hug. “Thank you for telling me, for trusting me.”

After Kanti left, Valerie decided that she didn’t want to stay in her bed any longer. The spacious room suddenly seemed stifling. She needed fresh air to clear her head.

She wandered the winding streets, not paying attention to where her feet led her. She was lost in her thoughts, trying to remember what Sanguina had said to her in the past. It always seemed as if she was coming to get something from her—from Henry, she corrected herself. What could that hag possibly want from a child?

She had reached the edge of town, and the shadowy forest loomed up in front of her. Somewhere deep in the trees, moonlight glinted on water. The mesmerizing sight seemed to call to her, slowly drawing her in. Without thinking, she made her way through the woods.

The water was farther away than she thought, and she walked for a long time before the trees opened up to reveal a clearing with a sparkling lake in the middle. She knelt at the water’s edge and drank deeply. The water glittered in her hands, as if there were sparkles inside.

She saw the white form of a unicorn against the trees. Azra nodded at her solemnly, her horn glinting in the moonlight.

I know what has happened, Valerie. The boy in your visions is real, and he is in great danger. Sanguina is in league with the Fractus, maybe even leading them. For some reason, they need Henry. For what, I’m afraid to ask, Azra said, and the depth of her concern flooded through Valerie’s mind.

“How do you know all this?”

The water in this lake connects to the endless ocean of Illyria, and is therefore extraordinary. Have you ever heard of the Akashic Records?

Valerie shook her head.

It is all of the knowledge of the universe. Every thought, every feeling, every event that has ever happened has been recorded for all eternity in the depths of Illyria. And as time progresses, more and more of the story of the universe is written.

“Like a giant underwater library,” Valerie said, leaning forward so that she could stare into the water.

Yes. The Illyrians, the people of the water, are the keepers of this knowledge, and from time to time they will share pieces of it.

“What have they told you?” Valerie asked eagerly.

The Illyrians who live in this lake guard their knowledge jealously, and tonight they will tell me nothing. But over the millennia, I have learned to interpret a few small pieces of the records. On a clear night, like tonight, I can sometimes find answers to my questions. I was searching for knowledge of Sanguina, and I saw your vision.

“Did you learn anything else?”

Yes, but there is so much I don’t understand. You and Henry share a special connection. I think it may be that Henry’s power is psychic, and he is unconsciously reaching out with his mind for help. His mind must have connected with yours originally because you were the only other person on Earth with powers as strong as his. But it amazes me that his mind can reach yours now that you are here on the Globe.

“But why do I only jump into his mind when Sanguina is near?”

It is when Sanguina terrorizes him and his fear reaches its highest pitch that he unconsciously reaches out to you. When you were especially weakened by your own magic, he was able to pull you into his mind. I cannot discover why Sanguina is obsessed with Henry, but their names are linked in the records.

“I hate her! Why won’t she leave us alone?” Valerie cried, rage filling her completely. She suddenly wanted to use her power, to destroy Sanguina, to crush her with her newfound strength. The thought of what Henry was enduring every day made her furious.

Azra’s expression changed, and she stepped closer to Valerie. Her soft mane brushed Valerie’s shoulder. There is much you do not know of her. I cannot excuse what she has done, but Sanguina was not always like this. Not so long ago, she went by the name Lydia and was an apprentice for the Guardians. She was hunting down a member of the Fractus who was haunting children on Earth. She found his lair on the Globe and went to fight him. She was over-confident, and went alone, believing that he wasn’t a threat to her. But he was fast, strong, and had the ability to steal her magic. In the end, he defeated her, and changed her into what she is today.

“Which is what?”

Long ago on Earth, they were called vampyres. After her transformation, she gained speed and strength, but then she also craved fear. The myths on Earth are incorrect; in truth, vampyres feed on fear, not blood. The taste of terror gives vampyres immeasurable strength, and such a prize is hard to resist. Sanguina might have been able to fight that craving with the help of friends, but it was not to be. As a vampyre, she could never step foot outside because the light constantly pouring into the Globe is said to be fatal to vampyres for the first few decades of their lives. Even when they are older, they still shun the light because it weakens their powers.

She was forced into the shadows forever. The Guardians didn’t allow her to stay in the Guild because she was useless to them. Without her Guild, she had nowhere to turn. I believe she turned to the Fractus because no one else would welcome her. She is who she is today because we abandoned her. Azra’s large, bottomless eyes were the saddest things that Valerie had ever seen.

“That doesn’t excuse what she’s done to Henry,” Valerie said with certainty. Still, learning about Sanguina’s past drained some of her rage away. Sanguina had been abandoned by the Guardians, just as she had been discarded by her foster families, like a defective part. That crushing sense of loss was unbearable. But even though a part of Valerie sympathized with her, Sanguina had made her choice to embrace evil. Valerie was determined to do anything to save Henry—even if it meant hurting Sanguina.

Nothing excuses what she has done, it is true. But we will find Henry, and we will save him.

She suddenly remembered Kanti. “Is this Henry the same Henry that was Kanti’s friend? Maybe she would know where to find him.”

I do not know if the two Henrys are the same—I have not found that answer in the records. But it occurred to me that when Kanti couldn’t find Henry all those years ago, it could have been because Sanguina or one of the Fractus blocked him with a protective charm like the one they created for Venu. When Kanti couldn’t find Henry and she saw the coffin, she assumed he was inside of it. But maybe that wasn’t the case. Perhaps Henry lives.

It can’t hurt for the two of you to project to his home on Earth and look around. I will continue to search the records. I will also work with the leaders of the Guilds, and they will lend us their resources. We will find him, I promise you. Tomorrow I will travel to the sacred pools on the island of Messina. The record keeper there has helped me in the past. I will return with answers.

“Thank you, Azra,” Valerie said, but inside she squirmed with frustration. She had spent so much of her life waiting—she wanted to save Henry now, today. The thought of Sanguina haunting that boy was more than she could bear.

Valerie returned to her room as the sun rose over the horizon. Kanti and Cyrus were waiting for her. The expression on Cyrus’s face was grim, and Valerie knew that Kanti must have filled him in on what had happened. She told them about her meeting with Azra.

“We can’t just sit around waiting!” Kanti exclaimed.

“There is another option,” Cyrus said thoughtfully. “The Oracle. We have a great need. Don’t you think they’d give Valerie her prophecy? “

“Yes! Cyrus, you’re brilliant!” Kanti said, the panic disappearing from her face.

“That’s what I’ve been telling you,” Cyrus said, trying to lighten the mood.

“What are you guys talking about?”

“The Oracle is a group of Conjurors who can see the future. They deliver prophecies to guide people on their quests and give them answers to their questions. But they’re really picky about who they’ll help. Only if your need is great enough will they prophesize for you.”

“Cyrus, how do you know all this stuff, anyway? You have answers for everything,” Valerie said admiringly.

“Whatever,” he said, not meeting her eyes.

“Aw, are you shy?” Kanti teased. Then she explained, “He was elected to serve on Azra’s youth council. It’s a really big honor, and she tells them a lot of stuff about the Globe that isn’t common knowledge.”

“That’s awesome, Cy! Why didn’t you say so?”

Valerie was surprised he didn’t jump at the chance to brag a little. Instead, Kanti explained, “He thinks it’ll bother me because I also ran for the council position, but didn’t get elected. I’ve told you a million times, I’m happy for you, not jealous.”

“I never said you were! The subject didn’t come up, that’s all.”

Sensing tension in the air, Valerie changed the subject, hoping to prevent another argument. “So, do we need to bring something to the Oracle? Like, an offering?”

Kanti and Cyrus stared at her, surprised. Finally, Cyrus laughed and said, “It doesn’t work like that. They’ll help us if they think it’s the right thing to do. And if we can help them, we will.”

“Sorry. Earth thinking, I guess,” Valerie said. She saw the shocked expression on Cyrus’s face and added, “Kanti knows I’m from Earth. We’re friends, and I want her to know the truth.”

“Fine, whatever,” Cyrus said, trying to sound casual. But his tone didn’t fool Valerie—Cyrus liked being the only one to know her secret.

“Back on track, people,” Kanti said. “Let’s pack up and get out of here.”

“Before we go, I want to fill Thai in on what’s happening. When we figure out where Henry is on Earth, he’ll be able to protect him. Kanti, if this is your Henry, why don’t we project to his house? Maybe he still lives there and we can explain everything,” Valerie said.

Kanti shook her head regretfully. “I had the same idea. While I was waiting for you to return, I projected to Henry’s house. It doesn’t even exist anymore; there’s a parking lot where it used to be. They must have moved quite a while ago. My guess is that they’re probably still in the same country, if not the same state. Maybe Thai should travel to America. By the time he gets there, there’s a chance that the Oracle will tell you exactly where Henry is.”

“That would make things easy,” Cyrus agreed giving a comforting squeeze to Valerie’s hand.

His words—and the squeeze—had the opposite effect that he intended, sending a shiver of foreboding through her body. She’d learned the hard way that in her life, things rarely came easy.