"I promised myself I wouldn't do this again," I said to Mabel, staring at the book in my lap.
"Do… what?" she asked.
I sighed. "There was this girl, Abigail. She was my first love, really. She had blonde hair that she'd always tie up in a braid. After watching her for some time, I started to communicate with her. Of course, I was invisible to her, but I did it. Writing on walls, drawing in dirt, and sometimes I'd possess the little doll that she had. At first it was little things. Small talk, really. Soon it became full-length conversations that would last for hours upon hours. I even showed her how to fly. One day, one of the townsfolk spotted her flying across the sky and accused her of being a witch. She was shortly burned alive.
"There was also this little redhead boy, Jeremy. Usually, I'm not into other guys, but Jeremy was different. How? Why? I don't know. I didn't want him to end up like Abigail, so I wrote down how to summon me on a sheet of paper and laid it out for him to see. He did, and for a while, all was well. Nobody else in his city knew of my existence. I had to leave him, though. I told him I'd be back when it was over. The days turned into months, and the months turned into years. When I finally returned, I found out that Jeremy had committed suicide.
"And then there was Bernadette. She was about your age, I think, when I met her. She had long coffee-colored skin and long black hair that was impossibly beautiful. I somehow managed to summon myself, a feat which drains my energy so badly, and created my own… person, the same one I'm using now. Bernadette and I, we spent all of our time together. One day I told her about my true form, and how I could traverse people's mind. She asked if anyone has ever gone through my mind. I said no. She asked if she could. I showed her how. She… she was in their for a long time. Too long. I got her out, but she was in a sort of paralytic shock. She never got out of it."
I felt a hot tear run down my face. Reliving these memories is too painful. "I can't… I…" I choked on my own words. I couldn't have finished that sentence even if I tried. Another tear rolled down my face, then another.
Suddenly I was embraced in a hug. "Don't cry." she whispered. "Please."
A/N: How 'bout an author's note to ruin the fuckin' moment? All jokes aside, though, please tell me what you thought about this. I'd love some reviews, ya know. You don't have to read From Afar to know what's happening here, but you could anyway. Eventually I'll put together some sort of tragic MaBill story relating to these one-shots, but for now, just enjoy the ride.