The girl snapped her head and glared at Miranda; her eyes a soggy, red and blood pouring out of her mouth, all over her dress and her hands. The girl held her hand up, showing Miranda the blood and with a cough she cried in Miranda’s own voice “Why did you do this to me?”

Miranda found her own mouth, dry and couldn’t find the words or ability to respond.

“You made me ill!” the girl screamed, beginning to cry hysterically, the tears joining the blood from her mouth like a waterfall.

In her ignorance, Miranda hid herself under her blanket and squeezed her eyes shut, believing that this wasn’t real and if she could get herself to sleep, the girl would be gone in the morning.

The screaming became shrill and harder to ignore, there was a point that Miranda was sure her own arms were being scraped by tiny fingernails but of course, this must all be in her imagination, she created this child with her mind, not her body.

Morning came like fresh air and Miranda was relieved to greet it, or she would have been had the tiny body not leapt out at her from across the room.

“You aren’t real!” Miranda gasped.

The little, girl sat, staring at Miranda, the blood on her face now dry and the blood on her dress now deeply stained in. She was pouting and her eyes were still puffy from the crying. It was at this moment that Miranda noticed the chunk of hair missing from the side of the girls head.

“It’s not fair!” the girl sniffed “Why did you do this to me?”

Miranda couldn’t understand, she never imagined the girl to be in distress, this wasn’t her fault surely and more to the point, this girl had come from her imagination, she didn’t want to talk to herself. 

“You made me sick” the girl whimpered.

“I...I don’t...I don’t understand. You are not a real, little, girl. I made you up!” the more she said it, the crazier she felt and the more she wondered why a nurse hadn’t come in to give her a blood test or something that would tell her she was in a real world.

“You were supposed to use me to make you feel happy. You used me to take away your problems.”

It was then the thought emerged inside of her head and she felt a bit stupid for not having thought of it immediately. She had been feeling better and this was why.

“I’m sorry” Miranda said this with some hesitation, still perfectly aware that she was speaking to herself.

“I’m never going to be a princess, now! You made me hurty and you made me all owie and you...” the girl stopped to explode into a rage of coughing, blood dripped onto Miranda’s blanket.

“What do you want me to do?” Miranda asked, perhaps this was like in those movies where you have to bargain with the delusion to make it disappear.

The little, girl sneezed then jumped off the bed “You can’t. You’ve killed me!”

Miranda blinked and the girl had disappeared...She felt her own heart beating fast and she was sweating, it must’ve all been some horrible dream, whatever it was she was never going to think about the girl ever again.