Post by econdha on May 13, 2005 2:11:25 GMT -5
He is always with me. Tanya thought, leaning back against the wall of the stairwell. He'd been there since she was a child, as far back as she could remember. She'd given up turning around to catch a glimpse of him. He never let her see him anymore than he let anyone else see him. Except Abby.
My baby sister called him Peter, at the age of two she'd started staring behind me whenever we were alone together. I never really noticed until she started calling him by name. I knew his name, of course. It was something instinctive.
Abby will never tell me what he looks like, even though she's 7 now. She stopped seeing him after the first time she told mom. I've imagined him with so many different faces, so many different forms.
I told a girl from school about it once and she said it must be my gaurdian angel. For some reason, I can't imagine Peter as a winged man in a robe. That's not the vibe he gives off. Besides, I asked Abby if he was an angel and she said he was definately not.
Mother thinks Peter was an imaginary friend I had as a child. She doesn't know he's still with me, even though I'm a teenager now. People look at you like you should be in padded walls when you tell them you hear someone talking to you who isn't there.
He talks to me of course. Not a lot. He didn't tell me his name, I've just always known that. He won't tell me what he looks like, either. He did tell me that he's here to help me. Laughed when I asked if he was my guardian angel.
He's on the stairs behind me even now. Three stairs up. I'll finally get to prove it. Because he's there. And he doesn't know about the video camera. She straightened up and closed her journal. Peter was silent behind her.
She'd figured out that he couldn't read several years before. It had become possible to communicate without his knowledge. Until then, plots to uncover his true identity had been foiled, just like any danger of harm to her had been ignominiously removed.
She walked down the stairs to the room where the VCR was recording everything that happened on the stairs. Peter's feet tapped as he walked down behind her. She rewound the tape to the beginning and pushed Play. The image of the stairs appeared. There was a sharp intake of breath behind her.
On the television, Tanya appeared, descending halfway down the steps and sitting down to write in her journal, just as she always did. In the living room, the real Tanya's eyes widened as, on the screen, Peter took up his vigil. Three steps behind her. A shiver ran up her spine.
In the living room he began to breathe denials. "How could you do this to me? How could you betray me like this? I only tried to protect you."
He was there. He was visible and tangible. He cast a shadow. Tanya shifted and looked over her shoulder at the monstrous black spider she'd known all her life. His inhuman face mirrored a distorted version of hurt. 8 black eyes asking why.
The creature didn't even bother to hide. How had something taller than her little sister, with a legspan wider than a standing man hidden from her all these years? How could it even speak, it didn't even have a real mouth, just a pair of fangs. Memories of black, clicking manidbles and legs came back to her from a forgotten past.
"Peter. Your name never was Peter, was it?? I was just too little to say spider. So when I got older, I forgot what it really meant. You've been deceiving me for years!"
"I NEVER hurt you! I only wanted to protect you. I wanted to be the gaurdian angel you thought I was. Why did you have to do this? You could have let things be."
Then he was gone. As he'd always done. Disappeared without a trace.
This time Tanya was alone. Truely, forever alone.
My baby sister called him Peter, at the age of two she'd started staring behind me whenever we were alone together. I never really noticed until she started calling him by name. I knew his name, of course. It was something instinctive.
Abby will never tell me what he looks like, even though she's 7 now. She stopped seeing him after the first time she told mom. I've imagined him with so many different faces, so many different forms.
I told a girl from school about it once and she said it must be my gaurdian angel. For some reason, I can't imagine Peter as a winged man in a robe. That's not the vibe he gives off. Besides, I asked Abby if he was an angel and she said he was definately not.
Mother thinks Peter was an imaginary friend I had as a child. She doesn't know he's still with me, even though I'm a teenager now. People look at you like you should be in padded walls when you tell them you hear someone talking to you who isn't there.
He talks to me of course. Not a lot. He didn't tell me his name, I've just always known that. He won't tell me what he looks like, either. He did tell me that he's here to help me. Laughed when I asked if he was my guardian angel.
He's on the stairs behind me even now. Three stairs up. I'll finally get to prove it. Because he's there. And he doesn't know about the video camera. She straightened up and closed her journal. Peter was silent behind her.
She'd figured out that he couldn't read several years before. It had become possible to communicate without his knowledge. Until then, plots to uncover his true identity had been foiled, just like any danger of harm to her had been ignominiously removed.
She walked down the stairs to the room where the VCR was recording everything that happened on the stairs. Peter's feet tapped as he walked down behind her. She rewound the tape to the beginning and pushed Play. The image of the stairs appeared. There was a sharp intake of breath behind her.
On the television, Tanya appeared, descending halfway down the steps and sitting down to write in her journal, just as she always did. In the living room, the real Tanya's eyes widened as, on the screen, Peter took up his vigil. Three steps behind her. A shiver ran up her spine.
In the living room he began to breathe denials. "How could you do this to me? How could you betray me like this? I only tried to protect you."
He was there. He was visible and tangible. He cast a shadow. Tanya shifted and looked over her shoulder at the monstrous black spider she'd known all her life. His inhuman face mirrored a distorted version of hurt. 8 black eyes asking why.
The creature didn't even bother to hide. How had something taller than her little sister, with a legspan wider than a standing man hidden from her all these years? How could it even speak, it didn't even have a real mouth, just a pair of fangs. Memories of black, clicking manidbles and legs came back to her from a forgotten past.
"Peter. Your name never was Peter, was it?? I was just too little to say spider. So when I got older, I forgot what it really meant. You've been deceiving me for years!"
"I NEVER hurt you! I only wanted to protect you. I wanted to be the gaurdian angel you thought I was. Why did you have to do this? You could have let things be."
Then he was gone. As he'd always done. Disappeared without a trace.
This time Tanya was alone. Truely, forever alone.