New Muses
@sarcastic-pasta-games
"Heh," I chuckled softly as I pushed myself away from the computer, wiping a tear from my still misty eyes. "That wasn't even about me and I'm still crying. It's not fair you know."
"Of course it's fair," said a voice behind me. A freshly familiar voice to my ears. After all, it had come from my own mind.
"This game was made with love. Of course you felt the emotion in it." Jenny said, looking exactly as she had in the game, "It's only natural that you'd be affected by it."
I had to resist the urge to reach out and pat her on the head, since that would be both kinda rude and really weird, considering she was mostly a figment of my imagination. She was right that the game had affected me strongly, but that feeling couldn't stay forever. Already I could see her fading away, drifting into my subconscious where she would be only another voice feeding me ideas and advice. Behind her, grinning like a fool, Cliff waved to me. I smiled back to them, happy that my two newest muses were people I would have loved if they were real.
I relaxed back into my chair as they faded completely from my view, contemplating myself. I used to hate watching characters I had grown to love fade away, I had felt like their souls were leaving and they would never be the same as they were the first time I saw them. No matter how many times I read a book or played a game, the characters would always fall flat after the first time, like seeing a memory rather than experiencing something. But as I grew, I started writing, and their voices had flooded back through me onto the page. I was never really alone again, I had thousands of friends, loves, enemies and mentors, all with me forever in my mind.
As I moved over to my bed and sat propped up on my headboard, I opened my laptop and began to write. At first the words didn't want to come, but slowly, as I closed my eyes and sorted through the voices in my head, the two of them were louder than the rest. I could even still see their faces if I tried.
"You should write something fun, with explosions and rabbits!" Cliff said, rubbing his upper lip with one finger as he beamed at me. "Or maybe something Scifi, with lasers!"
"Maybe later," I hedged, smiling slightly, "That doesn't really fit my mood right now."
"How about you do some self reflection?" Jenny suggested, folding her hands behind her back. "I know it's not easy for you to open up, but you've been feeling lonely lately. You've been sharing your stories, but those don't really show people who you are yourself, not the real you."
I had to admit she had a point. I had been avoiding writing anything too personal for a long time, and maybe that was part of why I had been feeling melancholy and not really myself. Besides, I didn't have it in me to say no to a pretty face, so I started typing. The words flowed from my fingertips, almost appearing on the page before I had fully thought them out, and the voices in my head faded into background noise as the story took hold. Before long I was nearing the end, trying to find a way to wrap it up. It felt like no time at all had passed and while it wasn't the longest I had written in a sitting, it wasn't nothing either.
"Good," Jenny said approvingly. I paused for a second and tried to hold onto her image, not wanting to let her or cliff fade into my subconscious quite so soon. "Stop that," She chided, reflecting my own thoughts, "That's how people go mad, a bit at a time. If we didn't fade away, there'd come a time when you couldn't tell us apart from real people. Let go and remember, like always."
Cliff piped up again, and I smiled again as he talked. "I like the story, makes you sound a bit crazy though. Do you think you'll be able to share it?"
"I think I will," I replied, putting in the last few words. "I have people I can trust now. I've already put my heart out there for them, and they didn't hurt me. After that, one story is nothing."
