My eyes began to stare into nowhere as my mind went into Picture Mode. As the music flowed through my ears, so did the variety of poses and emotions that my characters made inside my head. That was when it all came to me – Callum Vadim Azrov in the middle, holding his combat knives, about to strike as his poor girlfriend never stood a chance against him–
The door suddenly swung open, and I almost jumped out of my seat. My dad just came home from work.
"What've you been up to lately?" he asked me, as if he didn't know that answer already.
I replied with a smile. "I just came up with the best picture! It'll be difficult 'cause of the pose…since Callum's kind of hard to…draw…as it is."
My voice trailed off as I saw the complete and utter disinterest in my dad's eyes. I looked back at my blank piece of paper on my desk.
"Callum?" My dad asked. "Who's that?"
"Oh. Callum's one of Savannah's OCs."
"What's that?"
In my mind, I facepalmed. "It means 'Original Character.'"
"Ah. Starting to abbreviate things, are we?" he asked me, trying to sound engaged.
"I…guess…" I turned to my picture and started to sketch. My dad stood there for a moment or two.
"Hey Drew?"
I didn't look up from my picture. He continued anyway.
"It's alright to have an imagination and all…but you need to start focusing on reality, okay?" He walked out of the room, as if ignoring my silent reply.
My pencil slowed to a stop as my whole body felt like a ship anchor sinking to the bottom. My eyes stared through my window. My characters…are my reality. They are part of me. They are my creations with fragments of my personality. That or they're based off of someone in my life. This isn't just my imagination; this is my reality. I just needed my dad to realize that.
I went to sleep at three in the morning right after texting Savannah my last roleplay post of the night.
I rarely dream about my OCs…but this time I did. I was walking through the forest until I heard a teenage boy's voice behind me.
"Hey Drew! Wait up!"
I blinked and stopped, and then I looked behind me to find my Karik Nashimoto running towards me. "Oh hey, Karik. What's up?"
"Not much…" He stomped the ground, and up came a small stone pillar from the dirt, and he sat on it. "I heard some people are giving you a hard time again."
I instinctively crossed my arms. "Yup. You bet ya. It seems that everyone's underestimating how much I care about you guys. Except for Savannah, of course…"
Karik sighed. "I wouldn't say that. Your family misunderstands you. Lots of people do." I stared at him in reply. He stared back blankly. "Something wrong?"
"N-No, not at all! You're just…really accurate with how I imagined you."
It was true. The golden, almost brown hair, green eyes and earthbender garb were spot-on with what I've always envisioned him. Even his handsome looks had my heart beating a little faster than usual.
He smiled. "Well, yeah. What did ya expect?"
My eyelids lowered a little. "What's wrong?" He asked earnestly.
I looked into his eyes. "I wish you were real. You can help me through all of this bad stuff…"
Karik looked at me with that spark of optimism that he usually has. He smirked. "We'll show them. We'll show 'em that even the unseen is reality."
The dream faded and went on to another…something about a renovation, a wedding dress and a fiancé never to be my husband.
I woke up early that afternoon, somewhat confused by what Karik told me. It was only a dream…so there was no way anything was actually going to happen. Or was I wrong? I checked my phone, but it was too early to reply to Savannah's post she made at 3:30 a.m. Half-awake, I set my sketch of Callum on top of a hardback art book and continued drawing him head-to-shoulder, focusing deeply on his wavy hair soon-to-be colored jet black. I turned on my iPod to Nickleback and the process quickened. Before I knew it, Callum now had his metal arm and his muscular torso. I imagined the background further: Black, with faded images of frightened Ashra Azrov on the left and Callum's girlfriend, Raine Shelldon, dying in the snow on the right. I decided to skip Callum for now and draw Raine. Her eyes were blank, as if indecisive on what to express. She was attacked by the one she dearly loved…as she lay motionless in the bloody snow, her heart fallen too hard for the man who almost stabbed right through it…
My mind snapped back into reality. There was a loud boom of something hard and huge crashing into the ground. My heart jumped, and I scrambled out of bed. I ran to the living room and looked out the window.
I couldn't help but think I was still in a dream.