Cody

A girl wearing a rainbow is marching towards me from over the hill. She's walking with purpose, and if she stays on her current course, her route is going to bring her right up to me. The doctor did warn me about vivid dreams and even hallucinations as possible side effects of the medication I'm currently on, but he never said that it would be this overwhelming and colourful.

I am sitting on a huge fallen tree in the middle of nowhere, wishing that I could be anywhere else. Any dimension would do or, even better, not exist at all.

I push my face into the palms of my hands, willing my mind to clear.

The girl is still coming towards me when I look up again. I repeat the process over and over, but she's not disappearing. In fact, she is a little bit closer each time I take my hands away. I've often seen this kind of effect in horror movies. A ghost or monster appears and seems to come closer by leaps and bounds each time the victim blinks. It feels freakishly similar, except that the girl isn't scary, and I can make out more and more details as she comes closer, details I really didn't think were possible in hallucinations.

Strands of her long, straight hair, the colour of warm honey, are braided, seemingly at random, while the rest are flowing freely in the wind. She's wearing a loose, purple spaghetti-strapped top over a neon green t-shirt. A black and yellow chequered pleated skirt reaches more or less mid-thigh, and her knee-high socks don't match at all. One is red and covered in green apple slices, and the other has cherries on a sunny yellow background. Her feet are hiding in black combat boots that look tough enough to kick-start a Boeing.

She finally arrives, stopping right in front of me, and I fully expect her to pass right through me and disappear. She's not disappearing, and she's close enough for me to see that what I thought of as a purple top is actually a top covered in a crowd of pink and blue fairies. There are so many of them that the material appeared to be purple from a distance. I blink my eyes, shifting uneasily.

Am I supposed to greet her? Does one interact with hallucinations or pretend that they're not there? I'm not sure of the protocol. Experiencing hallucinations is still very new to me.

She doesn't say a word; she just sits down next to me.

She's short enough for her feet to be airborne once she's sitting on the tree stump, and I can smell her. Do hallucinations have a scent? Lily of the Valley. I know because Anara once had a bottle of the stuff, and she used it too liberally. This girl, however, didn't bathe herself in it; the scent is gentle and subtle, not as cloying and overwhelming as I always thought it was.

I dare to turn my head slightly to study her. I can't have such a vivid hallucination and not make a point of appreciating it fully. I am a little alarmed, but as hallucinations go, this one is a lot better than the red and green rabbits I saw running over my grandmother's rug last night. The rabbits kept on growing in number and in size until I was sure that I was going to be suffocated by a horde of the busy, rabid-looking creatures... and then I suddenly woke up in a heap on that same rug and the rabbits were gone. My mouth felt dry, and I was extremely nauseous.

I once asked the doctor how long I'll have to be on the medication because I really don't enjoy the side effects, and he just said: "Until I'm satisfied that you're out of the woods."

The woods... I'm not in any woods; I'm in hell.

At the moment, physically, I really am in the woods, though, or rather at the edge of one. The farm is desolate and vast, and there really cannot be a fairy-clad girl sitting beside me on the toppled tree. Probability is the only way how I can tell that she's a hallucination. Other than that, she seems very real. I can even feel subtle warmth radiating from her skin and strands of her hair touching my cheek every now and then.

A collection of leather and bead bangles dangle from her left wrist, and a faded floral silk scarf, covered in some strange, overlapping reddish pattern, forms a tight band on her right wrist. Small green, red and yellow parrots are dangling from her ears.

She's not wearing any make-up; she doesn't need any. Her cheeks are rosy, her lips are pink, and her eyes are rimmed with thick dark lashes, and they seem to be real.

She catches me staring, and suddenly I'm looking into her eyes, and they startle me out of my deep thoughts. They seem to have taken their cue from her outfit. They're green, with touches of the sky and touches of the ocean in them. I've never seen eyes quite like hers before.

I rather like this mirage.

She smiles, and I swallow nervously.

Are a person's hallucinations supposed to interact with them?

~~

Glitch

I'm running away from home. I'm often running away from home. So often, in fact, that I've long since stopped packing a bag to take with me. It's useless anyway; I always forget my reasons for leaving home as soon as I have the wind in my hair and the sound of birds in my ears and find myself alone at the edge of the forest.

There's someone sitting on my seat today. I don't like that!

I've already forgotten all about the incident that caused me to leave the house. It was nothing important anyway; sometimes, I just need to run away, that's all. All my determination is now focused on getting rid of the intruder.

At first, I thought that it might be Jasper. I don't like Jasper. I definitely don't want to be alone in the field with him, and I especially don't want him anywhere near my tree seat. Why would Jasper be trespassing on the border of my family's farm and that of Aunt Maria's?

Something about the lonely figure on the fallen-down tree makes me feel that it couldn't be Jasper, even though the size and dark hair seem similar from a distance. It is exactly that loneliness that convinces me that it is not that dreaded boy. The figure on the tree seems like the loneliest person on the planet. I can tell, even from far away.

I should probably be afraid now that I'm sure that the person sitting on the tree is a stranger, but I'm not. I'm more curious. Besides, I know what loneliness feels like; I no longer mind that he's using my seat.

Once I get close enough to make out more details, I stop having any doubts. He is not only lonely, but he also seems to be lost and devastated. He somehow looks right, sitting on the moss-covered tree trunk, his feet in the long grass and his unfocussed gaze resting on me. There's a crutch propped up against the trunk.

I can share the tree seat... it's definitely big enough to seat a crowd.

I sit down next to the boy, not certain whether I should say something, but somehow it feels as though any words would be impostors, so I just remain silent. Besides, it's not entirely impossible that I'm just imagining his existence. I often imagine things. I usually know that I'm just imagining them, though. Most of my imaginings are on purpose, and none of them is ever this clear.

I catch the boy looking at me, and he blushes when I look back at him. He suddenly seems to be very nervous.

He has a sweet face... if it's okay to call a boy's face sweet. It's the kind of face that induces instant liking... at least in me. I really hope that the only thing I'm imagining is the pain in his eyes. I could easily mistake his red-rimmed, pupil-dilated, puffy eyes for those of a drug addict or someone recovering from an alcohol binge, but something within their depths tells me that I would be wrong. I can feel grief and despair coming off him in overwhelming waves, and it tugs at my heart.

He is nervously plucking at a bandage wrapped around his left wrist, and I think he might be ready to bolt. I don't want him to run away. I smile at him, willing his pain away, but it's not having the desired effect; in fact, he seems to be even more alarmed now.

I look away from him, draw my feet onto the stump and use my arms to clutch my legs against my body so that I can rest my chin on my knees. I can suddenly almost hear my aunt scolding me: "Gertrude, ladies do not sit like that. Do you want people to see your underwear?"

Do I? Yes... I rather do!

I'm wearing the happiest panties in the world; they are a cheerful pink and covered with blue and yellow birds. I always smile when I see them. If the boy next to me saw them, he might smile as well. I wish I could wear them on the outside of my clothing.

I actually once said exactly that to my aunt and cousins about one of my other happy panties (I have many). I told them that I believe that they were meant to be seen, but if I wore them over a skirt, I'd have to pull the skirt through the leg holes somehow, and that would just look weird.

They'd given me the look... I know that look all too well by now.

"You wouldn't know 'weird' if it came at you and smacked you in the face," Allie'd said, and Sindy had giggled, but she punched her sister's arm just to show me that she hadn't switched alliance. My aunt looked the way she always looks when she is dealing with me. Startled and perplexed.

I steal another glance at the boy next to me. No, I'd better not offer to show him my panties; he could take it the wrong way. Not all people on Earth see things the way that I do, in terms of shape and line and colour and pattern. I often land myself in sticky situations because of that.

The boy isn't 5 years old, after all. He seems to be at least my age, which is 17, but he's probably a little older. He would look it if he weren't so frail right now. He has the gaunt, well-built appearance of an athlete who'd been ill for a long time and lost a lot of his muscle mass. Resigned to my decision, I lower my feet and smooth my skirt in the proper-young-lady way I've seen my aunt use on numerous occasions.

I suddenly wish that I was wearing jeans. It's possible to wear one's panties over long pants. Superheroes do it all the time! But I hate long pants; they make me feel constricted and heavy. When I wear my jeans, I cannot feel the breeze on my legs. I love feeling the wind on my legs; it is liberating.

I also don't like wearing short pants... but I don't know why I don't like it...

I'm starting to feel a little desperate about somehow lifting the boy's mood. His sorrow is beginning to overwhelm me. My smile didn't cheer him up, and Sindy always says my smile is the most cheerful thing in the world, though she's probably just being kind. She's always kind to me.

I can also not show him the pretty blue and yellow birds, so what can I possibly do to soothe away at least some of the heartbreak seeping from every one of his pores?

Making up my mind, I shift my position, being careful not to fall off the tree seat or flash my underwear, and finally do the only thing that seems natural to do. I place an arm around the boy's shoulders. They're a little wide, but I more or less manage to reach my goal.

~~

Cody

I stiffen, my heart rate shooting up, and I'm suddenly clammy and more than a little afraid. None of the nonsensical hallucinations I've had before interacted with me; they especially did not touch me. I can clearly feel her arm trying to reach from my left shoulder to the right one. Is she coming on to me? Is she an angel sent to comfort me? It would be easier to believe that she's a demon sent to drag me to hell, where I belong.

I'm about to get off the tree when I feel her fingers gently patting the parts of my right shoulder blade, she's able to reach, and she lays her head against my left bicep. It feels reassuring and calming. My legs are heavy, stopping me from standing up, and my heartbeat is slowing down. Warmth spreads through my body, and after a minute, I give myself over to the sensation of well-being, slowly taking control of my senses.

I don't even immediately realise that I'm finally crying freely.

When I wake up in the grass next to the tree, the girl is nowhere to be found. I blink my eyes, looking at my surroundings and find that the sun is almost completely gone. Dusk is starting to take over. I'm struggling to my feet, and that's when I make the discovery. My head had been resting on a soft spaghetti-strapped t-shirt covered in fairies. Did I find the top here, use it as a pillow and then just dreamt the girl or had the girl been real, and she'd left it under my head to cushion me from the ground?

Neither scenario seems likely, and neither scenario satisfies me. If I apply some logic, the fairy top should not even exist.

Regardless, I take it home with me.

~~~