I See It

I cornered my friend Alex after school had ended. He refused to turn around, his back was facing me like he was trying to hide something. I was concerned.

He'd been avoiding me all day long: speeding away when I tried to talk to him between classes, and generally just staying away like I had some sort of disease. I was confused, because I thought I had I done something wrong, but I didn't know what it was. So I spoke first.

"Hey," I began, placing my hand on his shoulder. "Did I do something?"

His back was still turned to me. He placed his hands on his forehead, and he probably wanted to face me and tell me what was wrong. But something was stopping him.

He was like that for around a minute. Finally, he turned around.

He was a mess. His hair was unkempt, and his eyes were bloodshot. He looked like he hadn't slept in days. Something was seriously screwing with him, because this wasn't normal.

"You r-remember the world I started...?" He stuttered. He was shaking, now. "Everything w-was normal. I... I even got started on t-that mansion we talked about building." He forced a smile. He stuck his hand in his pocket, bringing out his phone. He tapped at it a few times, bringing up the photo gallery.

It was a screenshot of someone standing on a tree, using a familiar skin. I couldn't place where I recognized it, though.

It said, "Do you see me?"

I finally realized where it was from, and I took a step back out of fear. I looked at Alex, and he slowly nodded. I shook my head in disbelief. No way this could be real.

"Is this a troll or something? I mean, anyone could join our realm. You know that." I said, trying to find reason in this.

He shook his head. "T-that's his s-skin, and h-his only..." he was shaking more violently.

He stuck his phone back into his pocket and walked onto the bus. I was frozen, trying to process what just happened. I watched his bus drive away from the sidewalk.

All of this would be normal, except for the fact that my friend... the person in the screenshot. He disappeared a year ago.

I would never see Alex again. He was gone.

A week after Alex showed me the picture, I arrived home. Mom was out again, leaving me to do whatever I wanted. I opened PE on my tablet.

When I started it up, I dropped the tablet out of fear. There, was a sign that said,

"Do you see me?"

I don't know what to answer.