They called her imaginary. They said she does not exist. They told me that all of it would pass, that I would grow out of it. They were wrong! She never left me. My name is Zyph and she is Suda. She is my friend and I am her protector. We cannot talk to each other, but I can tell how she feels. We have a connection; it is as if I am never alone even when I cannot see her. I live in a house full of boys; I'm the smallest and the youngest, but I've been here the longest. The other boys tell me that nobody wants to adopt a freak afraid of his own reflection, but I have never seen my reflection. I always see Suda and her long black hair, her sorrowful brown eyes, and her round sad face. She always looks scared of something that I can never see.

When I was younger, I started having nightmares. They were always the same. I was chasing her. She was running away from me. She never stops and she never talks. I know she is scared. I can hear it in her breathing, see it in her face, and I can feel her fear. When I run past buildings, I see large monstrous shadows on the walls. They terrify me, so I run faster until I wake up. Then I am even more exhausted than the day before. My birthday is today and my life feels different. My day started normal, with Dameon trying to suffocate me with a pillow, and when I finally kicked my way out of my "birthday present", I took a cold shower and talked to Suda.

"I hate it here!" I whispered looking up at Sudas' terrified face in the mirror "But don't worry, I'm here to save you. I promise!" Reaching out my hand and placing it on the cold glass near her face.

I walk to the bathroom door quickly glancing through the halls. I leave the room dashing to the front of the house grabbing my backpack and racing to school. In my first class, my teachers' shadow starts to double in size. It slowly moves across the wall. It made me jump right out of my desk, and fall to the floor. When I look back at the board, the shadow is gone and everybody is staring at me, so I climb back in my seat. Through the rest of my classes, I keep my head down and draw in my notebook. I draw pictures of a room filled with books, and in the middle of the room is a desk. On this ugly blackened desk is five pictures, but the actual image is distorted shapes and lines. When school is finally over my teacher asks me to stay behind to talk to me. Drawing in a quick breathe and packing my bag, I stalk to the front.

"Yes ma'am?"  I ask my History teacher, Mrs. Skalein.

"You need to help us!" she growls at me growing into a dark figure with red eyes.

I scream and run as quickly as I can out of the school, and down the road to the Foster Home. On my way there, I can see shadow people appear on the buildings as I pass. An adult with glowing red eyes and a tall sharp shadow grabs me from behind yelling, "You have to help us!"   Wiggling out of his grip, I race to safety. Making it home, I sprint to the bathroom, slamming and locking the door. I pant while walking over to the mirror, but Suda is gone. There is nothing there, not a reflection and no Suda! At that moment, I felt completely alone.

"Oh, Zyph are you there?" I hear a small tap and a sour sweet voice "Do not be scared Zyph. We do not want to hurt you. We just need your help."

I lay down on the floor with my hands covering my ears. I can see a black shadowy finger stretch along the ground. Slowly it creeps to my face; an ominous breeze blows over me and the next thing I know I am asleep, dreaming. I find myself in the bathroom, but everything is gray and dreary. The walls are cracking and the paint is peeling off. I smell a sour odor that makes my blood curl and me want to vomit, but I manage to swallow it back down. I look from the walls to the mirror and what I see stops my breath. It is four simple sentences and two effortless words, but they are heart wrenching.

Soon she will die.

Understand that this is your job.

Defy me and you shall join her among the dead.

A key is your only hope.

Have Fun!

This does not make sense to me. Does this thing mean for me to kill Suda? I can't and I won't!  I walk towards the bathroom door listening for any sound of life and looking for any movement. Upon opening the door, I see a shadow slowly creep down the hall. The odor is stronger and smells more like rotten food. I make a dash for the front door, my eyes searching for a key. I leave the Home stepping into a black and white Le Crosse that is deteriorating from the inside out. All the streets shift into two paths, one that twists and turns and the other that seems straight and rather narrow. I have a bad feeling about both, but more for the curve rather than the straightway. I run for the narrow alley observing every step of the way. I hear an explosion and feel my feet leave the ground as my face hits the pavement. A sticky warm liquid dribbles down my forehead. I stand up. Dart down the alley dodging windows spewing shattered glass. The alley starts getting so narrow that I can barely fit. I see a metallic glimmer two feet in front of me, reaching my hand out I try to grab the shimmering object. I feel the cold metal against my fingertips, and can see the outline of a skeleton. I shimmy closer reaching for the key. Suddenly, a warm breeze blows on my other arm, and something sharp digs into my skin. I let out a yell fighting to stumble forward as I am slowly dragged back. I try kicking my legs and swinging my captured arm. My foot connects with something solid propelling me a little farther forward. Grappling with the unseen, I grab for the metal object dangling in front of my face. Once again, I feel the cold metal against my skin, and the small pressure of the tip biting into my palm. The key gives and it slips from its spot into my hand. I let out a sigh of relief and feel myself being pulled backwards and as I prepare for a fight, I hear a voice.

"Zyph! Zyphron, wake up!" it's Mr. Hamar our Foster Parent shaking me awake, "Are you okay?"

"What happened?" I mumble sitting up and looking at the deep purple cuts on my left arm where my nightmare creature had grabbed me. It was bleeding slimy red blood and it stings. Carefully reaching my hand to my head, I touch more blood that seemed to have dried to my forehead.

"You must have passed out. Do you know where all these cuts came from?" He asks reaching for my attacked limb.

"I'm fine! Leave me alone!" I screech scrambling to my feet leaving him sitting in the bathroom floor I must trust no one.

As I leave, I open my good hand revealing a small golden key with a skull as a grip. Shoving my only hope into my pocket, I smell a familiar scent, almost like one from a dream. When night comes, I am terrified of what it brings with it. Finally slipping away into a slow sleep, I am jolted awake by a loud noise. Jumping out of bed, I creep towards the door. I am suddenly overcome by a smell of rotten food. Opening the door, I hear a quiet creak and see red lights shaped as eyes that pierce through the darkness of the Home. I shake my head trying to clear my vision of the creature and continue on to the root of the sound. Getting closer I feel a warm breeze drift around me, and I begin to feel dizzy and the world begins to change.

When my vision clears, I am standing in an empty black and white room about the size of a basketball court. I look all around me checking for any way to leave this area, but there is absolutely nothing to find except peeling paint and a disgusting smell of rotten food.  I remember the key sitting in my pocket, upon retrieving it the room shifts into a different view.  Now standing on the sand the key morphs into a skeletal sword that bears the words from the mirror, but before my eyes, they begin to change. On one side, it says "She Lives You Die". I turn the sword over and this side reads "You Live She Dies". I am angered. They think, whoever "they" are, that they can control me and make me kill the only person that means anything. I won't! I refuse to play their petty game.

"You don't control me!" I yell to the ceiling and abruptly the whole place begins to shake.

I do not move as the roof begins to crash down around me. I will not falter. I am her protector, her friend, her only hope. When the room stops moving and all the dust clears there in front of me stands a monster. It is a hideous creature about my height, but skeleton skinny; with hollowed out glowing red eyes.  It seems to bend over as it walks as if it is in pain, and is accompanied by the horrible smell of rotten food. I almost feel sorry for this pathetic being, but then I remember that this must be the one that wants to murder Suda.

 "I will not kill her! And I won't kill myself either!" I spit at the monster.

"The problem is Zyph." He says sweetly, "This is your destiny. All your life you were working towards this one simple task. This is all you are meant to do. If you complete it, you will never be alone ever again. It's simple really."

"I won't kill her! I already told you that. I hate you for even asking! If you want me dead, do it yourself!" I scream throwing the sword towards him, but he does not look angry, he looks scared of this object.

"You don't understand!" He yells trying to calm himself "I can't kill you, or at least not yet."

He walks over the rubble, far away from my weapon. He turns and motions me to follow. I carefully step after him, and pick up my sword on the way. He leads me through the rubble to a small room that is unscathed, but is hideous with rusty metal and dilapidated walls. It has pictures of shapes and lines that do not seem to follow any pattern. He picks one up and hands it to me. It morphs into a picture of me from when I was five, and I was telling a couple interviewing me about Suda.

"Do you remember that day?" He asks in a sorrowful voice. I nod. "They thought you were a freak. They told Hamar that you should not be adopted until you solved your problems."

He takes the picture and hands me another one. This one shows me in counseling with my psychologist. She had asked me to draw one of my nightmares and a picture of Suda with crayons. I remember this day because she told me that I just had an overactive imagination and explained to me that I would grow out of it. I remember yelling at her saying she did not understand.

"Nobody knew what you were going through. Did they?" He asks, not really expecting an answer, "She told Hamar that you were unstable, but it was probably just a phase. She also said you were mentally ill and there was nothing she could do for you."

He handed me another replacing the picture in my hand. This one contained me swinging outside with Hamar and the couple from my first interview standing behind me talking.

"This is when Hamar told the only people that wanted to adopt you no. He said that you were a freak, and that they could do better."

He again replaces my picture with another, this time one with me in the bathroom talking to Suda, but it slowly shifts to outside the door where Dameon is standing with his ear pressed against the wood.

"Here is the day Dameon caught you, and told all the other boys. Remember how they would steal your things, destroy your artwork, take your food, and starve you of basic privileges like showering and going to the bathroom." He stares at me as I turn my head away.

He hands me the last picture from the desk. This one shows me the day I ran home and found no Suda in the mirror. At that moment, I could not hold the tears in. They started to stream down my face, but the monster just moved on not fazed by me at all.

"Yes, this was the day you realized that not even your precious Suda cares for you. That the one person that you care for the most openly abandons you. She hates you Zyph. She does not love you, and she never will. You are a monster!" He screams at me growing taller.

 "You are wrong!" I mutter out between sobs, "She didn't leave me. You took her away from me! I will kill you and save Suda if it is the last thing I do!"

I pull out my sword and hold it straight at his throat. This time he does not flinch, instead he smiles.

"I was hoping you would see the truth, but since you won't I will open your eyes to force you to see it." He says, "Now Zyph you will face the might of Auto and you will forever be alone."

He lunges at me, but I knock him away with a swipe of my blade. I swing my weapon toward his head only to have him hit it like a fly. I launch myself forward trying to stab any piece of him that I can. He hits me with a force so strong I stumble backwards landing on my back. He stomps over to me picking me up by my nightshirt. He then grabs my neck slowly squeezing the life out of me.

"Zyph it doesn't have to end this way. You could change your mind now and kill your pathetic Suda." He whispers into my paling ear.

"I will not kill her!" I wheeze out.

Slowly I begin to lift my sword behind the monster. When it is angled above his back, I let my arm fall sending the blade slicing through his spine and killing him. We fall to the ground and I crawl away coughing and trying to maintain my breathing. Standing carefully, I stumble over to his body looking for my sword, but the only thing there, is the skeleton key. I pick it up and look for a way out of this world of torture. I see a door behind the desk, so I walk over to it. This door is unlike all that I have ever seen. It is made of a brilliant mahogany that almost shines. It has an intricate design of a dragon fighting a knight and a princess standing in a castle. The doorknob is formed from a metal that I have never seen before. I place my hand upon the knob only to find it locked. Slowly I slide my key into the keyhole and turn it listening to the sound of all the mechanical wheels turn. This time the knob gives and the door begins to open.

I step into a room made of a polished white stone. I walk over to the window and see that I am in a new world where there are no demons, no dream worlds, and no monsters. I realize that I am standing in a castle not just a normal house. I walk to the other door in the room; it too is the same wood with a beautiful scene carved into it. This door opens up to a long hallway made from the lovely white stone. I hear a girl's voice from farther down the hall. It is beautiful and sounds almost like a song. I smile. That has to be my Suda's voice. I run down the hall to the room. I carefully open the door. She is sitting on the floor of her room playing with small dolls; they each are talking to each other and having a tea party. I stand there for just a few seconds longer trying to think of something to say.

"Hi Suda, I'm Zyph." I smile as she turns toward me and then lets out a scream.

"Leave me alone! Please leave me alone! I haven't done anything to you, and I don't know why you haunt my dreams." She starts to cry.

"Do not cry Suda. I am not going to hurt you. I promise." I go to lay my hand on her, but she flinches away from me.

"I hate you Auto! Just leave me alone!" She yells.

Now I am completely confused why would she call me Auto? I am not that hideous creature. I back away to give her space and when I do I see a mirror. In this mirror, there is Auto, with his skeleton thin body, pale grotesque face, and red hollowed eyes. I let out a cry of horror. How can this be? I am not Auto; I am Zyph. I am a boy not a monster. Then I understand. This whole time I haunted the mirror Suda saw, which was why she was afraid. I was the shadow on the wall in my nightmare, and I was chasing her. I made it so she could not sleep at night, and here I came to her world only to cause her more pain. I put my hand in my pocket and retrieved my skeleton key. The words were right. This key was my only hope, but not just mine it was also Suda's. I had promised to save her, and I will. How do I save her from myself? The key turned into a sword with the words "You Live She Dies". I look at her horrified eyes and try to memorize her soft face. Raising the sword and with a single tear I bring the blade down through my stomach. I feel the pain as it pierces my body and I can see the thick blood pour from my body. I want to cry, but I know that this will save the only person I have ever loved.

"I love you Suda." I whisper as I fall to the ground.

My thoughts are of my dream of her and me playing together, and becoming friends. Here she lives in a world of peace and I in tumult. I had caused her fear and now I take it away. Before the blackness overtakes me, I look toward Suda and see that she is sad. She is crying tears of grief. She throws herself on me sobbing.

"Zyphron, my dear brother why didn't you tell me it was you? Why would you haunt me? Do not leave me Zyph. Please don't leave me again."

How could I tell her something I did not know myself? I put my hand on her face and let my eyes slowly close into a world of eternal peace. I was her last hope, and she was mine.