Chapter 3.2: Imaginary Friend

 Candice and Fenton were on patrol duty. Their job was to patrol the halls near Rikka's suite to make sure everything was secure. Levi stood outside the door while Gabriel, Ace, and David were with Rikka inside her suite.

   "Rikka, this is overkill", David complained.

"No it's not! They're those pervert stalkers who want my BODY!" Shivers went down her spine and she dramatically clutched her body, making the worst face she could muster.

Keeping the same pose she looked David dead in the eye, with authority only the rich could have.

   "Could you get me some food please. I'm hungry."

David obliged. "Sure. Nothing is going on anyway".

"Wait", said Gabriel. "Let me come too, I'm hungry".

  Once they left, Ace was nervous alone with Rikka.

  There was nothing to be nervous about, Ace told himself. She looks like a normal girl. She just happens to be rich and famous, and beautiful and smells nice. That's all.

That's what he kept telling himself to calm his nerves, but it didn't work.

   "Finally, they're gone", Rikka sighed. "I wanted to get the two of us alone." Ace's face flushed.

  What's going on, he thought. Is this the beginning of a bad porno?

  "W-what do you mean", he asked.

  "Oh, don't pretend like you don't know, silly." Rikka leaned back in her puffy purple chair, with bedazzled legs on the bottom and garish fake diamonds to match. She pointed a finger straight at him and grinned wildly.

"You're just like me. How did you get one?"

She pointed at his small cloth bracelet around his wrist, and she could feel the intense energy coming off of it.

" I have no idea what you're talking about", Ace replied. "You're-"

  Rikka got up from her chair, and grabbed his wrist.

Hard.

Rikka held out her necklace for Ace to feel its own power, but he didn't feel a thing. He was confused and a little scared.

Famous people really do think differently, he thought.

"You have a celestial object. Just like me! That's why I wanted so many bodyguards," Rikka explained. "The celestials can't fall into the wrong hands."

Ace was still confused. "What's a celestial"?

  Rikka gave Ace a good, long, look. "You seriously don't know, do you"? Ace shook his head.

"This bracelet was made from the blanket my dad found me in. You got me confused for someone else." Rikka was still gripping onto him fiercly and she looked at him, up and down, trying to see if he was lying or simply being dumb.

  "Someone did something to you", she mumbled. Rikka's eyes flashed bright and blue. She saw things that others couldn't and scanned him up and down, knowing that someone had hurt him.

Dad and Uncle Max took his memories, Rikka realized. Why? How come I've never met him until now?

"They blocked you from seeing the truth. To help you maybe, or just to hurt you?"

She held his hand and shivered, wondering what had happened to him, nervous to see what was inside. Rikka had seen many horrible memories, but these, these seemed worse than everything she had ever seen.

"I will show you the truth," she pleaded. "Come here."

Ace snatched his hand away and Rikka was angry with him.

"Don't you want to know the truth," Rikka screamed. "They hid you from yourself!"

  Rico's work was impressive. Ace didn't want to know, because he had implanted many subconcious thoughts into his mind, to keep him stupid and weak. Rikka saw his handiwork all over, her fathers marks of those he hurt.

  Like scars they lined his arms and legs, his chest and face, and it terrified her. Rico had not only hidden bad memories and replaced them with good ones, but he had replaced good memories with bad ones, scrambling his brain like eggs.

He must be so confused, Rikka lamented.

  "Don't touch me," Ace growled. His eyes turned an intense black and Rikka shot up from her chair. Like all Slaters she was ridiculously tall, taller than Ace, at six feet. She stared him down, and tried to reason with him.

"I won't hurt you," she pleaded. "I promise. I just want you to hear his voice."

"Is this some kind of religous thing," Ace shouted. "You wear the same dumb thing Gabriel does!"

"Don't be rude," Rikka hissed. "I'm offering you the power of the gods, and you dare to reject me?"

Before Ace could argue her she grabbed his right hand and put it over his eyes. She was strong, but Ace was stronger. However he was afraid to fight back, because she was a woman. A rich woman, at that.

He didn't want people to think he had done something, alone in a room with a crazy woman who spoke of seeing and magic.

"Close your eyes", she commanded.

   Ace closed his eyes and his heart raced as Rikka moved his hands away from his shut eyes, and placed hers instead. "True sight is my power. You will see through the lies", she boomed. Ace's head felt strange, and his body tingled all over. He felt like the air was being sucked out of his lungs and he gasped for air.

"Open your eyes".

  She pushed her hand hard, into his face, as if she were pushing something out of him and Ace shuddered, feeling gross all over. Like he needed a bath. That the room was wrong. Something had changed and he didn't know what.

  "Nothing has changed", he lied.

"Look at your wrist", said Rikka.

Ace looked at his wrist, but instead of a cloth bracelet, what he saw was a metallic bracelet. It was silver, and had a golden band that went through the middle.

   "You changed my bracelet to metal", he exclaimed.

"No!" Rikka was exasperated. "I've never met someone with so much power to be so stupid! Dad has clearly done something horrible to you!"

"You're nuts," Ace screeched. "Stay away from me!"

"Be quiet! Listen! You have been blinded for so long you can't hear him!"

Suddenly the door opened. Gabriel and David were back, and with food. "Is everything okay", asked David. "You look upset".

"Oh, I'm fine," Rikka grinned. " We were just arguing about the best movie." Rikka turned back into her bubbly self.

Am I the crazy one, Ace wondered. She looked like she was going to kill me earlier.

  The smell of BBQ filled the room, wrapping Ace inside a warm embrace. All the arguing had made him hungry and he grabbed a barbeque sandwich with shredded pork.

"Thanks David, I love this stuff", he said.

"Yeah me too", said a voice next to him. Ace turned and saw a young man. He looked familiar.

  How did he get in the room, Ace wondered. I didn't see him enter!

  Everyone was eating their sandwiches, totally ignoring him.

"It's a shame I can't eat this stuff", he said. "I just love the smell of meat".

  Everyone continued to ignore him.

Then Ace realized. They're not ignoring him. They can't see him.

Ace got up abruptly and made an announcment. "Bathroom."

He exited the dressing room, and the strange man followed him. Ace eyed him from the side.

   He seemed to have tan skin, with blonde hair. In fact, Ace felt like he had met him from before, but wasn't sure from where. Ace looked both ways down the hallway to make sure no one else was around.

  "Why do you keep following me", he hissed.

The strange man was shocked and pointed at himself, as if he were adressing some other invisible man in an empty hallway.

"You're talking to me"?

"Yeah, you", Ace snarled. "You some kind of psychic stalker? How come no one else can see or hear you?"

  After years of being ignored, someone had finally seen him. The poor young man was starting to believe that he was a ghost all a long, and the years he and Ace had spent together was a fabrication of his lonely mind.

  Little tears came out as finally someone had seen him, no longer would he have to suffer loneliness ever again.

  "Years, it's been years since you've acknowledged me." The man began to sob, and Ace awkwardly patted his arm. It didn't do much, because he was covered in head to toe in armor, and all Ace did was simply smack metal.

"Uh, it's gonna be okay, uh.." , Ace trailed off. "What's your name??"

  "Invictus."

  He wiped the snot from his face and his tears faltered. "You should know. You named me, Ace."

"That woman made me crazy just like her," Ace whispered. "This is impossible."

   Invictus grabbed him as he turned to walk away. "No you're not. We're best friends. I kept you safe when I was still a blanket. Remember?"

Ace thought hard and then he remembered. Invictus.

  When Ace was a kid he had a blanket his father found him in. It was plain white, nothing special. As Ace grew up, he loved to use the blanket as a cape. He would pretend to be a knight. And every day he would play knights and dragons with his imaginary friend, Invictus.

  When Ace got too old to carry his blanket everywhere, his father turned a piece of it into a bracelet for him. Eventually he grew up, and Invictus went away. He was never real.

Or so he thought.

   Invictus was standing right in front of him. An actual knight. His armor gleamed in the hallway, and his long cape shone of many colors.

  "But, you're not real. You're my imaginary friend", said Ace. "Emphasis on imaginary."

I must be really upset about her leaving me, Ace thought. I need to get it together.

"That hurts," cried Invictus. "After we promised to be best friends forever. I'm not imaginary at all!"

All of a sudden, Candice turned the corner, and saw Ace.

   "Who are you talking to," she barked.

"I'm just thinking out loud", he mumbled quietly. He side eyed Invictus who was clearly hurt. He faded away, glaring at him and Ace's mouth hung agape.

  He could feel Invictus' anger and it was disconcerting, that maybe he wasn't crazy. The ramifications of a sentient blanket made him questions if he himself wasn't just a sock stuck underneath someone's bed.

I don't want to know anymore, Ace thought. She needs to fix me.

Candice strolled up to Ace and put her hands on his chest.

"Something about you has changed", she purred. Ace's heart began to beat fast.

Why are girls so touchy today, Ace thought. He stepped back, afraid of another terrifying woman and what she would do to him.

"I'm tired of the games'', he mumbled. "You can't break up with me and talk like we're still together".

"Ace… why can't we just be friends? That's all I ask for now".

"I don't wanna be friends," he mumbled. "I'm tired of the way you treat me."

"Stop acting like a woman," Candice snapped.

  Ace flinched and braced himself for her to smack him. The look of fear on his face was enough for Candice to feel satisfied. She took a step closer to him and began her play titled, Forgiveness.

  "I miss you", she sighed. "I promise I'll always be honest with you from now on." She gazed up at him with her big brown eyes and she held his hand.

  Using her best acting skills she cried big huge crocodile tears, easily moving him closer to her. The promise of having someone around that he could easily understand, even if she was horrible to him was the most alluring thing about her.

  Ace didn't have to try and understand hard things, or try to remember anything at all because everything about her was simple and easy. She usually said what she was thinking, even if it was cruel.

  Candice was consistent in his life, always there no matter what, trailing behind him and cheering on whatever he did, no matter how bad it was for him. She promised she would follow him no matter what.

As long as whatever changed in him stayed.