ATHAZAGORAPHOBIA: The fear of being forgotten or ignored
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F L A S H B A C K -
It’s a chilly night in December, my group of 4 friends and I are hanging out at the movie theatre. We are all wrapped in big puffy jackets and warm hats to protect ourselves from the cold weather. Laughs fill the air as we’re talking about things that don’t make any sense. My friend Paige walks over to me and says, “Hey, you are coming to the sleepover, right?” I had almost forgotten to tell her! My parents decided to let me go to the sleepover! “Well yea! My parents are finally letting me go hang out with you guys a little more!” I look over to Paige, slight annoyance written on her face. Confusion starts to plague my mind before I dismissed it as something else.
E N D  O F  F L A S H B A C K -
I’m hiding in Paige’s room, I made sure to let her notice my presence by moving some things and make some eerie noises, I don’t want her to ignore me anymore…  It’s been almost a year… Wow, 9 ½ months since they kicked me out of the group. They must’ve all forgotten me… Like I never existed. Hehehe, it’s been really quiet without them. Oh, what am I saying, I don’t need them… Especially her… Paige … Th- they abandoned me! I DON’T KNOW WHY THEY ABANDONED ME! I THOUGHT WE WERE FRIENDS! I want to get back at them for leaving me all alone. Hmmm, but how should I do it? Oohhh! I got it! All they have to do is to fall into my trap like the fools they are… They are going to regret for causing this mess. I’ll send all these letters to them, telling them to meet me at the large storage room in the old gym, each saying that they should go there for an important reason.
3   D A Y S   L A T E R -  P A I G E ’ S   P . O . V . -
That’s it! I can’t take it anymore! The stalking, the noises, EVERYTHING! But what I can’t stand the most are these note, they’re so… Sinister. The choice of words are so familiar! But who could’ve wrote these I need to tell the others! I HAVE to, maybe they’ve been getting these things too. I walk into my 1st hour class and sit down on my assigned seat.
A F T E R   S C H O O L - (Y O U R   N A M E )‘ S   P. O . V.  -
I carry my backpack and place it in the corner as I’m waiting for everyone to walk over here so they can feel my wrath. I look over to the extra change in clothes and I hide my main weapons and my backup weapon in my back pocket. The main weapons are 2 syringes filled with poison, the backup was a Swiss army knife. The large storage room contained a couple large boxes, a couple tables, two chairs, and a single lamp.  Ugh, where are they? They should be here b- Ooh! Here they are! Just as planned… I stay quiet, crawl over to the door and lock it quietly, and hide behind a couple of large boxes. Aww, they’re confused as to why they’re here and what’s going on, how cute.
“So, you all came here, I just wanted to say somethings before I show you a surprise… I called you here because you all caused me all that pain, 9 ½ months ago… You guys think I’m just an embarrassment to you, huh? I bet you all ignored me, you soon forgot me, all 4 of you, …  I’VE BEEN IGNORED FOR SO LONG BEFORE I MET YOU GUYS, we were friends and what did you do? YOU KICK ME OUT TO THE CURB LIKE I WAS NOTHING!” Everyone looks so scared, crying and hugging each other like they’re at some haunted house. They began to scoot towards the wall. I take out a syringe filled with poison and slowly saunter towards them as if this was nothing. “You shouldn’t have left me… YOU SHOULD’VE SEEN THIS COMING! NOW IT’S TOO LATE FOR APOLOGIES!!”
Paige tries to convince me not to hurt them. “O-oh god, (Y/N), are you mad again? (Y/N), come to your senses! This isn’t right! You can’t do this! Where’s the friend that we all knew and loved?” Everyone agrees with her and stutter their apologies, tears pouring out of their eyes. I was starting to hallucinate, they seemed to laugh at me and call me names.
“STOP IT! STOP LAUGHING AT ME! I DID NOTHING WRONG TO DESERVE THIS! YOU JUST SAY THOSE WORDS JUST SO YOU CAN LIVE! ADMIT IT! I’M JUST A NOBODY TO YOU!!” I pounce onto Paige and take out one of the syringes from my back pocket and proceed to attempt to inject them with the poison but they avoided it. I growl in frustration and I jab them again. Aha, I got her in the leg! A bit of blood splattered onto my shirt. Paige looked at me in horror and in pain as I injected a generous amount of poison . In the process of doing so, all my other “friends” tried to calm me down. Since I was the one being outnumbered, I tried to push them off, it took me a while, but I eventually did it. “ I never asked for it to be this way! I was so afraid of being forgotten and you guys knew! Why did you do this to me?” Tears trickled down my cheeks, more emotions bombarded my mind, I turned around and looked at Paige, her eyes were lifeless and blood trickled down her mouth and nose…
There was a long silence before one of my friends said, “L-look, I’m sorry… “ My mind was blank when I heard those words, my hand still held the syringe as I turned back to face them with no emotions shown on my face. One friend came closer to hug me before all 3 of them joined in the group hug. I started to hug them back, as if we were still friends.. It seemed like my murderous rampage was over, but that was not the case here. Once my mind has fully processed the events, my mind went back to the deep end. I held the syringe tighter before stabbing it into one of my friends, their eye widen in shock as they let me go. I started to chuckle like a lunatic. The other 2 back away in fear as I inject the last portion of poison into her. I drop her as she and the others tries to get back up and escape. It wasn’t long before she started choking on her own blood. As she was dying, I pick my friend back up and place her next to Paige. After doing so, I looked at the last 2, and walk over to them… Their eyes widen in fear for the inevitable that was about to come.
A N   H O U R   O R   S O   L A T E R -
It's over now… I’ve gotten my revenge, but why do I feel guilty? This is what I always wanted, right? I grab my bloody clothes and pack them into my backpack, not that anyone will notice, they’ll just think I have a textbook in there. I look back, specifically at the large bloody writing I wrote. It said, ‘Please don’t forget me; You can’t forget me; So don’t forget me.’ As I walk out of the empty storage room, I hear people screaming in pain. I was frightened, and I was sure that this was only a nightmare, but at the same time, I wasn’t actually sure if this is real life or if this is just a twisted nightmare. Before I came to a conclusion, I was thrown into a dark void and see my dead friends there. I tried to reach out to them, but they only walked away, talking bad things about me behind my back.
“Guys!” I kept calling out to them, but they kept ignoring me and left me alone… Just like last time…
“Heh, I guess it’s over, isn’t it?”

(What did I just write?)