From the Basement

[CG]

Now I know I've said what I think of how Eduardo was created, by who and where in the past. But this idea cropped up just yesterday. It's short and to the point, I might write a more detailed one later. Halloween like, I suppose.

It had all started simple enough.

A little girl, long black spindly hair with large, deep brown eyes lived alone with her deaf father. He was one of the best authors of dark fantasy America had ever seen, his books sold by the thousands once they were printed. Feeling his only daughter, after witnessing the death of her mother at the hands of an intruder of their home, could or rather would not socialise properly with other children he felt it would be in her best interests for him to teach her.

She was gifted in many aspects. She could play the piano brilliantly from the get go, she could write, and read at a grade beyond her level. Plus her imagination . . . well. That was interesting.

The night she awoke to find a hulking, horned and sharp toothed beast resting at the foot of her bed brought more aspects into her world. She could create. Given she hadn't interacted with other children, she didn't even know about Imaginary Friends actually coming to life. Her first one had been simple, really. He was seven foot tall, large massive horns adorned his head and he was covered in shaggy purple fur. Given she was reading some Edward Gorey books, she named him Eduardo.

But Eduardo was not the last Imaginary Friend to come to live in the house. As the girl grew, and read more, even more Imaginaries began cropping up. There was the snake with the rows of teeth, which could swallow anyone whole. The conjoined twins whose hearts were outside their body. Don't even get started on the insect inspired ones.

She did a good job of keeping them secret from her father. The basement was long since abandoned, and given how large their house was it was soon full of different Imaginaries. Like the creator, not allowed outside. The only natural sunlight to meet their eyes were from cracks in the cellar door that lead outside.

Their creation had been smart. They had no need or want to go outside. They loved the darkness, the fear it could inspire. It was obvious since only one of them actually displayed his fear. Eduardo had been her first Imaginary; he had the one final piece of childhood innocence she had burning away within his soul. He, unlike his brothers and sisters could smell fear. When they'd shriek and howl for no reason in the middle of the night, he'd curl up in a tight ball in the corner of the basement and block his ears.

And they could smell his fear. It was like fresh meat.

One can't begin to imagine the horrors that had been unleashed upon him by the other Imaginaries.

It wasn't until one day her father had been looking for something and thought it had been in the basement did he finally see what his daughter had created. To say the least he had mixed feelings. He was proud of her imagination, but also disturbed at how she had kept them locked away for so long. Many of them were too awful to turn around, most screamed and hissed at seeing the natural sunlight. There was nothing else for him to do, much to his daughter's arguments, they had to get rid of them.

But where? He couldn't unleash them onto the world. Most would terrorize children and adults alike, prey upon their fears by almost reading their minds to what scared them most.

It wasn't until a few weeks after trying to sort through the worst cases to the easier one(s) did he see an ad on the television. Reading the subtitles he knew he'd found the answer to their problem.

Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.

Knowing making a phone call would not work, he wrote a long detailed letter explaining his plight. How his daughter had created Imaginaries that were more similar to demonic monsters then friends, and how he wanted them kept locked away for not just the safety of children, but their own sake.

He received a letter back, from a Mr. Herriman, curator of the house. He informed him that they would sort out transport for the friends, who would indeed remain locked away.

She didn't feel any sadness when the large containment van arrived one morning on a cold November morning. She watched it back near the cellar door, but didn't watch as her Imaginaries were herded away. She could hear the screams, though, of passer-by?s on the street who happened to catch sights of one or two.

Eduardo had been herded with the rest of them, but kept his eyes tightly shut as they entered the sunlight as he heard his brothers and sisters scream and hiss at the sunlight. He felt the wind blow through his fur if only for a moment, but soon enough he was back in the darkness with his now angered family. Why were they moving? This wasn't right. They wanted to be home again, their attic was their world. It caused a few fights to break out, but as soon as they did it seemed someone was watching them and switched on some sprinkler systems.

Preferring to be dry then wet, they sat in silence throughout the long journey.

Then came the long, gruelling process of doing paperwork of who was being admitted. All in all there were over twenty of them. Some could only speak their names, some had no names at all. Mr. Herriman, the tall rabbit in a tuxedo wrote up paperwork for all of them. He thought he'd seen the worst of them, but finally after an entire day, came the last one.

Turns out they had to coax him out of the transportation van with a potato before he even dared leaving it. While he did appear monstrous, he was anything but. He actually had sat down on the chair, eyes keeping to the floor and when asked his name he had answered in a shaking Hispanic voice. Each of them had been chained beforehand, to the ground, in case they got out of hand. But this one, Eduardo, didn't fight it. He just tugged on it lamely for something to keep his hands busy.

Madame Foster, who had watched all of these poor Imaginaries with a heavy heart felt almost immediately that this one was different. Despite Mr. Herriman's protests, she unlocked Eduardo's chains. Thus Madame Foster became the first human to receive one of Eduardo's soon to be famous bear hugs of gratitude.

To say it took Eduardo a while to adjust to life outside an attic was an understatement. Despite being allowed to have a bed, he'd regularly sleep on the floor. He remained terrified of the night, which brought back memories of the darkness in the basement. He had suffered at the hands and claws of his family who took delight in terrifying him; those fears remained long after he had lived in Foster's.

But he grew stronger, as the years progressed. He made strong friendships with some of the house members, Wilt the gangly, sports loving friend and Coco the bizarre combination friend especially. They were his new family now, who didn't scare him or cause him pain in any way. And he loved them for that.

Every few years though, Eduardo would make his way down through the mansion at night (with a flashlight) and arrive to the large cages that kept the 'Extremoasaurs' locked away. He knew the one that kept his 'family' in, and he'd often lean up against it and just listen to the sounds he would never forget.

And the little girl whose imagination took over her basement.

[BlooCheese]

Wow. That's a good story.

[lucyrocks73]

That's quite good.

Poor Eduardo, being tormented by the other friends...

I wonder what became of the little girl?

Good work.

-Marty