I look over at Tim, Todd, Tad, Toad, whatever his name is. I try not remember that guy’s name. It’s not like I have bad memory; I just say things like this to try and disassociate with him. He looks over at me and says, “I’m glad I got to spend my day with you.” Then he blacks out. Todd, that’s his name. He always acts like this. He’s been my friend for a while, but I really feel like his half-thought out pranks and oddities where annoying and on the borderline of being psychopathic. Wait till I get to the meetings. There are a lot of things I could say about them. One time, he got a whole bunch of people to act like he died. Everybody, I mean even the teachers were worried. But this was all relieved when he showed back up on Wednesday. In fact, it’s actually one of his better habits than later in our relationship. But I suppose you’ll want to hear about some of his oddities.
It was a dark and stormy night off the coast of Scotland, when he appeared to me and whispered in my ear, “Hey all-star, you should get your game on with me.” Ok, that didn’t really happen, but it’s definitely something he would do. He would even dress up as an ogre, no joke. Anyway, the real story goes something like this: my friend, Honey, called me up one day with some very “exciting” news that would “finally” get me a “social life.” It’s not like I didn’t have friend’s; I just didn’t have 9000 like her. She said something along the lines of; “So, um, like I have this, like really cool dude, and he wants to go, like, on a date with you.” I thought, hmmm, probably fake, but why not. So she set the time of Saturday morning, 6:00 PM. The plan was to go for a simple dinner. Never go on a date that says it’s a “simple” dinner. During the date, Todd would say really weird things and have odd twitches. Me, being the really chill person I am, tried to carry out a normal conversation. Big mistake. This guy would go off on really small things, like I would say, “Oh that sounds cool” and he would say, “WHAT DO YOU HAVE SOMETHING AGAINST HIGH TEMPERATURES”, and it continued on like this. At the end, he came up to me and spoke in an entirely different voice, saying, “Sorry about that, but it was a prank. I wanted to see if you could get through that.” Looking back on it, I’m not sure how I didn’t tell he was using his real voice, but this was my first exposure to Todd.
About three months forward, I was invited to a party at Todd’s house 4:30 PM. When I got there, I was led out to the back. I knew some of the people there, and they were all spread out across a huge lawn with a big swimming pool in the middle. I spotted Todd and walked up to him. “What are you doing?” I ask.
“Oh, nothing much,” he said, “making plans to take over the world, setting up a pedestal so I can make my speech, building a throne for my supreme empire.”
“Ok then Supreme Overlord of All, do you require any assistance?”
“Yes, that would be swell.”
I helped him set up his “high enhancement throne”, as he likes to call it. In reality it’s an unnecessarily complicated cardboard box. How one complicates it, I don’t know, but Todd has special abilities. Before he gets up, he whispers, “Yours was Veronica.” I stood there confused. Who was Veronica? Why did he say she was mine? However, just at that moment he began.
“Hello, ladies and gentlemen of the court, I have brought you here for a reason. The reason is: pranks. Over the past 4 months I have pranked every one of you in one way shape or form. If you don’t know how I pranked you, I won’t be reminding you. Either way, today is the day for your revenge. The people who requested your pranking are here, and you can prank them. Now, let this game begin!” 
He jumped down and started walking back across the yard. “So you going to stay? I think you’ll enjoy it.” He said this with a glint in his eye, one that I would never trust in any person. “No, actually.” He looked confused.
“Why.”
I didn’t hesitate or stutter when the lie came out of my mouth; “Something just came up with my mom. She’ll pick up in 20 minutes.”
“You know I can sense when people are lying?”
I felt nervous for a second, before my lightning flash comeback instincts kicked in; “Then you should know that I’m telling the truth.”
I’m really glad for this comeback, because some major stuff went down at that party, but his mom really doesn’t like taking about it.
Back to the now, his Mom came down. “Hey guys you all doing ok?” she asks. Nobody really knows what to say, as we all drifted apart after he “fainted”. His friend, Josh responded first. “Probably nothing. You know him.” She didn’t look at the slightest bit concerned. “Alright,” she replied, “if any of you need anything, you know where I am.” I feel like Todd could get hit by a bus and everyone would call it a prank. Kind of like the boy who cried wolf. But really, she should’ve tried to get up.
Anyway, back to me getting here. After the party, I didn’t hear from Todd or his associates for a while. Then one day I get a note. “Come to the light post by the busses after school today, during the time which you can talk and still get to the busses.” As I walked to the spot I remember think about who it could be. I bet it was Todd, and it was. He claimed he was making a sort of “council” for “taking over the world.” At this point in time I viewed it as a joke, but eventually the meetings started happening and didn’t stop. I thought they were pointless, but they really showed you what Todd was actually like. Once he accepted armies and things like that wouldn’t do, he decided to take unorthodox methods of gaining power. It backfired in his face though, because towards the end of the meetings he started getting paranoid. Honestly, I couldn’t go through living in the house we did those thing in.
His bad mental state peaked at the second to last meeting. During this meeting, he said lots of things about ghosts and spirits. He started listing off ways to get rid of ghosts, bring good spirits, and more spiritual things. During this meeting no one was comfortable. We all knew it wasn’t a prank though. He always says it’s a prank at the end of pranks. I decided to let it be, as he was completely normal at the last meeting. It was actually quite disturbing looking back on it now.
After the last meeting, we all went back to our normal activities. I went back to my doing nothing, and started having strange dreams about him. Dreams telling me to forget about him, to disassociate with him. At first I didn’t really listen to the signs. I kept at my normal life. But the dreams started growing more violent, and eventually I had to start following their advice. I started withdrawing from people, even more than normal.
But eventually my dreams started becoming normal. I started to wonder at why things were happening like this in the real world. I mean, these used to my dreams, but now my dreams are what I live for.
However, three days ago, Todd comes up to me, and starts going off about things that are 100% sacrilege. At the end of it all he says to come to his house at 3:00 PM next Saturday, the 6th of April.
And that’s the story of how I got here, in Todd’s house. I’m not sure that’s how it actually happened though. Sometimes when I look over at Todd I see strange things. One time I saw a skull. Other times I hear an odd buzzing noise. Sometimes it makes me really want to leave, but I don’t because I’m a nice person. I look at my phone to check the time. 2:30 PM. Funny, I’m not early. I look around at everyone. Why are they asleep. I look at the date. It’s the 2 of April. These things shouldn’t be possible. Suddenly Todd’s mom appears. “You ok sweetie?”
I nod, “I’m perfectly fine.”
“Well you’re still here. Everyone else left ages ago.”
I look around, confused. “No. They’re still here.” I counted them. The other 14 people were still here.
She looks at me, “There are more than one way to leave, dearie. Would you like to join them?”
I look up unsure. “Ok. Sure.” Why not, I think to myself. What could possibly go wrong.