French Girls Counseling:

Were You Always In My Mind?

"Do you know why you're here?" Across from the man whom asked sat a blond teen with his arms crossed and a bored expression on. Blue eyes looked away from this man—this counselor—staring at the beige wall pretending like he wasn't here that he was off somewhere else inside his mind. It couldn't be farther from the truth but Jonathan kept his indifference expression on ignoring the middle age man who was asking him ridiculous questions.

Of course Jonathan knew why he was here, but he sure as hell wasn't going to voice it. Let the man struggle trying to get the Combs kid to talk. It wasn't going to work.

The man sighed, "Jonathan, I'm here to help you. But I need you to help yourself. No amount on my part will make a difference if you don't want to be helped."

Jonathan stayed silent. There really wasn't a way to "help him" as this man so eloquently put it. This has been going on for a week now since he was called down asking to see this man. Jonathan should've seen this coming. With everyone figuring out about his sketches of Sock and accidently saying his name out loud it was only a matter of time before they puzzled it in with what has been happening to him for the last few months.

They knew.

They knew he was being haunted by a demon. And they didn't believe him! Saying it was all in his head, but he wasn't hallucinating seeing Sock if the small babbling to the right side of him was any indication.

Not only did the blond teen had to ignore the man in front of him but he had to pretend that he couldn't hear Sock talking next to his ear about how weird looking "his counselor" was. No small feat since as hard as he tried to act indifferent he could feel the corners of his mouth fighting to curl up. A small part of him could feel bubbles of laughter making their way out of his chest.

"Who's he trying to fool? That toupee looks so fake! I've seen better hair on a bald eagle than that carpet." Sock groaned, "How badly do you want me to grab it and make it talk? Please, Jonathan, let me do it."

Slowly, Jonathan shook his head telling Sock no. He couldn't very well tell him since they weren't alone. He could hear the demon pout and grumbled about ruining all the fun. The counselor continued to talk now that he knew Jonathan wasn't going to answer while Sock moaned as he floated between them as he whined how boring he was. "You know what would make it easier? If you just killed yourself, that way you wouldn't have to keep listening to him."

Jonathan shook his head giving a small sharp look at the floating demon. Sock frowned but the counselor saw his small gesture before Jonathan went back to staring at the wall. "What is it Jonathan? Are you seeing something? Are you seeing that demon again?"

The Combs teen kept his mouth shut not giving him a word. "What is the demon telling you? You do know you can take control. There's no such thing as demons. No one is haunting you, it isn't real. You need to tell yourself that, if you do the demon will disappear." There was a long pause, "Please, your mother is worried about you. So am I, and so is the school."

Sock floated in front of the two sticking his tongue out and poking the man by his bad toupee. "Stop it," Jonathan said aiming it at his pesky demon that seemed to enjoy poking the bad hair piece.

"Stop what?" His counselor asked, and there was no point, he wouldn't stop until he got Jonathan to talk about his demon problems. This was going to be a long afternoon.

More weeks went by, and Jonathan still went to counseling much to his displeasure. It was only the look on his mother's face that stopped him from ditching his bi-weekly appointments. Sock still trailed in behind him but Jonathan should be used to having a demon haunt him.

He promised his mom that he would try harder just to get her to stop worrying and maybe he should try. Jonathan actually stopped outside the door and told Sock to go home, that he'll see him there after he got back. Sock protested but Jonathan told him to leave. Sock reluctantly agreed slinking back to the Combs' residence and waited for Jonathan to come back.

That was the first day of the end of Sock's job.

Jonathan came back strange and no amount of poking would get Jonathan back. Sock thought maybe the blond teen was mad at him so he stayed at a distance until this blew over. Tomorrow was another day.

But tomorrow didn't get any better. Jonathan ignored him, even pinching himself and mumbling something under his breath.

Nor the next day, did it get any better for Sock. It worried him. That his human charge wasn't paying him any attention and was acting really strange. He could go down to hell and maybe ask his boss, Mephistopheles, what was happening but Sock thought that he could handle it.

When his boss did check up on him it was too late. Sock had lost the ability to grab solid objects and no matter what he did he couldn't get a grip. He felt like a stereotypical ghost. He floated, was invisible to everyone, but now he couldn't even stay solid and would slip through desks, chairs, walls, and floors.

"Sock, why didn't you tell me this was happening sooner?" his boss asked as he did his usual check up and saw the state Sock was in.

"W-what do you mean?" Sock blinked up at him as he slipped passed another chair forcing himself to float above it.

Mephistopheles' eyes scanned Sock's face, "That human of yours that you had to convince to punch his own ticket. If he stops believing you're real, then you lose touch with this world. You start unable to stay solid, move objects... I didn't know it had gotten so bad."

"No," Sock shook his head, "That can't be true; Jonathan talked to me the other day."

"Sorry kid, but the way you're going you don't have much time before I'll have to pull you from this assignment. If the human can't see you and you can't affect him there's no point in haunting him." he sighed running his hand over his red hair making it stick out more. "It's one of those pesky demon rules." Mephistopheles sighed mumbling under his breath, "I knew I shouldn't have agreed to those terms a long time ago."

Sock was confused with what he meant by that but he got the main message, if he didn't get Jonathan back on track he was going to be fired. Or worse, reassign. "What do I do?"

Those gold eyes bore into his green ones, "You have to make him believe. And fast too. Or you leave me no choice but to reassign you to another position." Mephistopheles vanished in a blink of an eye just like always but the worry settled deep inside Sock's gut. He had to get Jonathan back on board or he would be... reassigned.

Fired, basically.

Sock tried, he really, really tried.

And Jonathan tried, he really, really tried. He had gotten good at ignoring Sock. He even chanted that Sock wasn't real, that it was all in his imagination. At first he didn't buy it but once he started actually believing it the strangest thing started happening. Sock actually for a moment blinked out of existence. It was such a rare thing that Jonathan was amazed.

There was hope. He could see a light at the end of this tunnel.

After that he willed himself to believe. It was hard at first when he could still see Sock everywhere but after a week or two, Sock was able to disappear for a whole minute. Plus, Sock wasn't able to touch him and flip him on his back if he tried to go through his desk like he used to. After these small feats Jonathan really started to believe.

Sock wasn't real. It was just a figment of his imagination. He really had made him up. There was a mix joy at finding out this revelation. Part of him felt like he must've been crazy to think up someone like Sock with his weird outfit and stranger personality. But another part was... glad, happy, or relieved, that he created this random personality. It had cured him of his boredom, in a very annoying fashion so Jonathan of course had mixed feelings about all of this.

Two more weeks went by when he suddenly couldn't see Sock anymore. Jonathan wasn't entirely sure why he wasn't 100% happy about that. He had what he wanted. Sock was gone and not bothering him anymore. No more annoying pokes from this strange demon or constant suggestions that he should kill himself.

But maybe that should have been the biggest clue that Sock was a figment of his imagination. Jonathan thought he was okay, but if his self-conscience was telling him to kill himself maybe he should have mention something to someone instead of befriending the demon. Jonathan still went to counseling just in case he relapsed but he didn't think so, Sock was gone and after five more weeks, he hadn't returned and he was finally allowed not to go to counseling anymore.

Sock was gone.

And if Jonathan felt a slight hollowness at that he didn't mention it to anyone.

Jonathan was at the public library currently bored so he was looking through old newspapers. He had no idea why he was doing it per se but if it killed time while his class toured the place, fine by him.

It has been seven weeks since his last session with his counselor. Once he started believing Sock was in his mind he started seeing him less and less until he disappeared twelve weeks ago. There had been no accidental tripping or his desk getting flipped so Jonathan had to believe that for a while he was hallucinating at seeing a demon.

Part of him was still astounded that he could make someone like that up, but it was all in the past. Though he didn't want to admit it, his days were calmer now that "Sock" wasn't messing with his life but they were also boring. Maybe there was a reason he came up with this demon. As annoying as "Sock" was he did bring a light to Jonathan's monotonous life.

Looking at another newspaper that wasn't local, he had a small local newspaper to a city across the state. It was dated five years ago. Though it didn't make the front page on that day it was close to the front.

One Family Disappeared Overnight. Missing and/or Presumed Dead

Jonathan really wasn't that interested in an old case that happened years ago but he froze. His breath caught in his lungs when he saw the photo of the family at the corner. His heart stuttering in his chest and the page becoming unreadable as his hands shook. No, that can't be. It can't be true I couldn't have known this.

Jonathan left the paper there as he ran out of the library probably getting pinched faces for his action but he had to get out of there. He couldn't wrap around his mind what he saw. It was local news, he had no way of knowing that family and yet he did. He recognized one, the couples' son. A Napoleon Maxwell Sowachowski.

I never learned Sock's real name. Never asked. Jonathan thought, his mind running wild his heart thundering in his chest. There was blood found in the house. DNA showing it was only of the couple but they couldn't find traces of the youngest member. The police thought it was a hit on the family by some murderer, or maybe a kidnapping.

"I killed my parents," Sock mumbled out when Jonathan asked about Sock's mysterious past. Sock looked out the window floating. "I killed myself after I buried them in the Mills Memorial Cemetery."

Jonathan had to get home, find if near that city there was that cemetery Sock talked about. And if he had to maybe even drive over there to see if he could find those makeshift gravesites. If he could prove it to himself, that all that Sock told him, was actually true there couldn't be anymore doubt. Sock was real.

"Sock," Jonathan bellowed in the empty parking lot. "I know you're here. Come out. I... I believe okay. You're not just some figment of my imagination."

He waited for that goofy face to peer and smile at him. He hoped desperately to see him. When a few minutes went by without any appearance, Jonathan's shoulders dropped in despair. "P-please... Sock, come back..." his voice caught as a lump formed in his throat. "Please come back to me."