The TV lit up. 

My fingers mindlessly clicked the same button as the channels mindlessly changed, random sounds bursting out of the TV after each click.

New pictures and moments in each channel that I couldn’t care less about filled the big Samsung screen.

She and I used to watch Disney shows together to make fun of them. And unlike most of my friends, I was never afraid to tell her that I was hungry, which is often, so we would always snack together. It was usually sour cream and onion pringles.

One time I was imagining how I wanted my thirteenth birthday to be like. So I had tried to imagine what paradise, what a fun time, what a problem-free time would be for me, as I was usually anxious about something 24/7.

To me, Magnolia was equivalent to paradise. Nothing special even, just being with her. First of all, her house was so amazing to me. She lived in an amazing Manhattan two-story apartment, with a cool sister and parents… who were married, which I couldn’t say the same for mine.

I felt like I was in their family when I was there, and sometimes I had dreamt of being in a big family. Everyone would eat dinner together at the table, and it was always a delicious spread of a meal. 

One time Magnolia began to sing a song, and her sister joined in. They then took a random phone from the counter and began to play it, leading to the three of us dancing to it and blasting it. 

I was never bored when I was with Magnolia. 

I could sit in a room with her in silence and we would still enjoy it. 

I loved to go outside with her and take a walk somewhere. One time we were in the mood to do an art project together, which I had never had the urge to do since I got my cellphone. The nearest good art store was closing in fifteen minutes, causing us to run down the street together. The minutes of running felt long and warm though. As long as it was with her, I would run a marathon. 

Another time we went with her brother to get pizza and eat in the park. It was lovely. Talking to them alone was nice, but occasionally they got into arguments, and it felt like watching a sitcom! I told them they needed their own show, and they agreed. 

Magnolia made me laugh. I made her laugh. And neither were annoying or difficult and I never fake laughed as I did with many of my friends. I just thought she was funny. 

She was always trying things that I was interested in. It was as if they mattered to her just as much as they mattered to me. 

I knew I could spend months with her without getting tired of her. With all the rest of my friends, I had always gotten sick of them after 2 days, but somehow I never got sick of her. 

She was the perfect best friend. She was my paradise. 

It’s a shame she’s been missing for two years now. 

My favorite thing to do with her was to watch TV, so for these two years, it’s been especially hard to watch anything without thinking of her. If someone mentioned a disney show I would run to the nearest bathroom and cry. You would think after two years I would get over it. 

Sometimes I wished my friends had gone missing, and I mean the ones who were awful to me. I wished they went missing so that I wouldn’t have to stand up to them, so that I didn’t have to deal with them. 

I would never wish that upon anyone now. 

I should have listened to the movies where the moral was to be careful what you wish for. 

I also feel a strange feeling of guilt often. Like it’s my fault. Like I didn’t deserve her. I felt myself getting clingy before she was gone, maybe she was getting tired of me anyway. I had just never had a friend who didn’t make me feel like crying.

But with her my paradise had gone missing as well. 

Not to mention she was more than my paradise. She was loved by her family, she was the smartest girl I knew, she was missed by her school. She had many friends, she was always friends with everyone in elementary school. Just being here seemed to make the world a better place, especially since she had dreamed of being president. 

I hadn’t been happy anywhere since I saw her first missing poster outside of her apartment on a partly cloudy tuesday.
I hadn’t seen her family since, I could only imagine how they felt. 

Nobody had any clue about where she had gone, and the police had looked for a year. They gave up in May. I couldn’t blame them. There was no trace of her anywhere. 

A chunk of my life had been taken out. The main source of my happiness. Gone.

I crunched loudly on a goldfish piece, it was the only sound as I was in the dark living room, home alone, clicking the same button on my remote over and over until I got onto a channel that even looked slightly interesting. 

Nobody was in the house with me, so it was odd when I heard the sound of a swishy windy flash in a faint volume.

But those happen all the time, so it wasn’t a big deal. It was just startling. But even when you’re fifteen like me, you still can get the creeps when you’re home alone. 

But then it happened again. And it felt louder, closer. 

Following it was a wooden clank-sounding noise. 

I was no fearless person. I grabbed my phone and hid under the covers and opened Youtube. It would make me feel safe in a quiet room because it had sound that  could distract me. 

But oddly a video wouldn’t play. It acted as if there was no internet connection but when I checked in my settings app, the WiFi was perfectly connected. 

I was freaked out, but I decided I might as well just find a channel quickly because it could distract me just as well. I peaked my head out of the blanket but still kept it on my full body. 

More sounds of wood clanking and wind whooshing occurred and I let out a small scream.

I didn’t know what to do. My phone wasn’t working so I couldn’t call anyone or distract myself or even text anyone, it was as if I was on an isolated mountain. 

A new sound arrived. My head jolted to the TV as it made a loud glitching noise, which the classic glitching screen to match it. 

I didn’t know what to think. It felt like a horror movie. An opening scene where someone dies to kick it off.

Somehow thinking it would help I grabbed the remote and hurriedly slammed my thumb on the power button, but it was useless to the glitching. 

The glitching came to an abrupt stop and shifted to a plain white screen. 

It seemed like a camera recording white room when I looked closer, and from the top of the screen, a small pack of sour cream and onion pringles fell to the white floor. 

My eyes widened. I ran behind the TV to unplug it, but as my fingers gripped the cord, I heard something that stunned me all together. 

Magnolia.

I backed away slowly to look at the screen. 

Magnolia was standing in the white room, the pringle can at her feet. She was wearing a white sundress, and her hair was fully straightened, like a clump of strings, though she was always known for her curly hair. Her eyes were faint and distant, her expression gave off no emotion. 

“Magnolia?” My voice was a series of sounds, it was high pitched and terrified but also sounded like crying. I could barely get the word out. 

She didn’t answer. She just stood there. 

“Magnolia, can you hear me?” 

She remained still for another ten seconds, but after that her eyes jolted up to look at me. 

Our eye contact was intense. It was powerful, and it felt like I was going down a rollercoaster. I hadn’t looked into her eyes in so long, and I wanted more than anything to see her again, but this wasn’t right. What was going on?

“Nora…” as she said my name she trailed off. She looked surprised and confused, Her eyes floating about. 

Tears began to stream from my eyes. “Magnolia, where are you?”

She looked down, and stared at the pringles. She was still confused, and all I wanted was for her to answer me. 

Out of nowhere her head shot up at me, her face shifting to a panicked state. 

“NORA!” She began to yell. She looked everywhere around her, as if she was checking for something. “NORA!”

“Magnolia!” I joined her in panic. “What’s going on?” 

She looked at me one more time with a face of utter fear before the TV began glitching again. No. Why was it glitching? I wanted it to go back to Magnolia. I need to see her again. Where was she? 

The glitching didn’t last long though, it changed back to the white room, but Magnolia wasn’t there anymore. There were only splats of blood filling the white walls, and her loud cracking screams coming from off screen. 

“MAGNOLIA!” More tears streamed down my face like a waterfall. All I wanted was for her to be safe, or I just wanted to see her again. To see her face. 

The TV glitched again, but it was only for a split second. The glitch was acting as a transition, because it shifted to Magnolia again. 

She was covered in blood. It was dripping from her nose and her mouth, but it was mixed with tears and sweat. 

She was banging on the screen. “NORA!” 

I ran to the TV and started banging on it with her. It was as if we were on either side of a window. Both of us were sobbing, the only difference being that she was covered in blood in a white room on a TV. 

“NORA HELP ME!” I had never heard her voice like that before. Her throat was sore, yet she was screaming, the scream cracking in the middle. 

I was banging the TV so hard I was surprised it hadn’t shattered. 

To my dismay the screen glitched once again, shifting to the empty white room again. No blood. No pringles. No Magnolia.

I couldn’t keep track of my breath. My stomach was tickling and my heart was pounding, my face was wet. 

I stood there looking at the TV for about five minutes, before out of the side of the screen, Magnolia walked in. When she reached the middle of the white room at the center of the screen, I got a good look at her. 

All the blood was gone, except for two lines of blood on her face, starting from the corners of her eyes to the beginning of her neck, like tears. However she had a nice clean, even smile. 

Her white dress was clean, and she was holding the pringles. 

She dipped her hand in the can and pulled out a bloody chip. “Would you like one?” She asked, her smile staying strong. 

“Where are you Magnolia? I can call the cops and tell them just tell me what’s going on!” I said back to her, eager for something that made sense. 

“Nora, have you not figured it out yet?” She shoved the bloody pringle in her mouth but crunched it gracefully.

“Wh.. what?” I truly had no idea what she was talking about. 

“Nora” She laughed, but she quickly turned it into a frown and stared straight into my eyes. “I’m not real” 

I couldn’t say anything. I was petrified, I didn’t know what to say, or how to say it. It felt like the air and breath had been snatched out of me. I attempted a couple times to answer but no sound came out of my mouth. 

“You created me, Nora.” She continued. “You were so lonely, you had no source of happiness, no good friends. You needed something. You needed something to hang on to.” 

“But.. you… you can’t be imaginary. That’s impossible.” How could she have that family, that house? I know it wasn’t fake. It  couldn’t be. 

“You were very lonely. I don’t blame you.” Her smile formed once again. “But you’ve made it real, and that’s not going to look very good for you”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. 

“How did you go missing?” 

“I didn’t like being your robot, being everything you wanted.” 

“Why would.. Why would this not look good for me?” 

She disappeared. She just went pop, leaving the white room alone, and leaving the TV to begin glitching again. 

“Nora” I jumped. Her voice was close and practically in my ear. My body shot around, and she was standing there. 

I couldn’t think, yet millions of thoughts swarmed my head. 

She was holding a gun, and she slowly lifted her arm up, pointing the gun at me. 

“Loneliness a bitch” She pulled the trigger, and everything went black.