"I'm crazy." Eric watched as the flower vase twitched to the left on the kitchen room table. "Stop playing games. I know I'm crazy." His breath began to hasten. The vase shook even more, making noise as it teetered towards the edge. "You’re not real dammit! I'm just crazy, yes, that must be it! You’re not even moving, it's all in my imagination," he panted, almost out of breath. The vase fell to the floor with a thunderous clash. Eric winced. Massaging the bags under his eyes he starred, wide eyed, at the broken mess. "Nope! Still all in my mind." He began to laugh as he picked up a shard starring at the detail on its surface. "You’re really off the deep end here, Eric." "Wow, you really are crazy," a voice murmured behind Eric. In an instant Eric did three things jump, scream, and trip. As he scrambled to his feet across the kitchen floor he looked up at the strange apparition. "No. No. No. No. No. NO! You're not real!" In another instant the apparition appeared from across the room to being in front of Eric's face. Eric was speechless as the apparition's hazy from took the shape of a young woman, only 25, with straight brown hair and dark dark eyes. Sweat glistened from Eric's face, his eyes widened, fear froze the man stiff. "Who- Who are-" Eric stifled. The young girl slapped him. "Get a hold of yourself you nut, I need your help. And dammit, I'm real!" the girl yelled flippantly. "I've been trying to get your attention for months! And all you can do is call yourself crazy! Didn't you think that you should've stopped those psychiatry visits if they didn't help you the first twenty times!" her form was pulsing, somehow it spoke anger in the strange madness of the situation. A strange mixture of calmness and incredulity took hold of Eric once again. He rubbed his cheek, hot and warm. "Well!?" the woman yelled, "Still think you’re crazy!?" Eric was silent for a time, "I'm not crazy..." he whispered.
The girl sighed. "Yes, you’re not crazy, only rude." "What is it you want then?" Slow realization began to wash over Eric's mind, "and why the hell didn't you show up like this earlier! All those months! All those bills! Psychiatrists are expensive! What were you thinking!?" The girlish form began to withdraw from the onslaught of words reaching back into the far corner of the room. A sad look fell upon the woman's face, those beautiful dark eyes falling to the ground as her ethereal form seemed to float somewhere between reality and everything else. She laughed softly, "I don't know, Eric." Her gaze met his, and for a second Eric thought he could see the source of sadness in those eyes. Her voice was soft now like a gentle tide, "I don't know why I'm here. I don't know why I couldn't appear like this before," she smiled at Eric, "All I know is that I need your help, Eric. I don't know why, I don't understand why, all I know is that I'm here for a reason." Eric blinked slowly taking in the situation. A pang of sharp thought hit his consciousness, as if the unaware mind made sense of events that had no business being together. No it can't be, he thought. Moving steadily, he walked towards the slowly fading woman and put his hand to her chin lifting her face to his. He looked at her brown straight hair and at her firm jawline, all accented by her deep intelligent eyes... like his own. "Victoria," he whispered, warm tears fell from his eyes, "I... I thought they killed you..." Her eyes met his. Time stopped. "Honey?" she uttered. She disappeared.