Twenty two years ago.
Jimmy.
"Who said that?" Jimmy asked, lifting his head up from the dead kitten. He looked around quickly. He had thought that he was alone. If somebody had seen him strangle the kitten to death, he was going to be in a lot of trouble. His mom would never let him touch another animal again. He couldn't let that happen. He needed to do this again. It was the best thing that he had ever experienced. Whoever had seen him needed to be forced into staying quiet. It had sounded like a kid so he knew he could handle it.
Jimmy, why did you kill the kitten? I liked the kitten.
"Who are you?" Jimmy asked as he spun around in a circle. "Where are you hiding?"
Who am I? I don't know how to answer that. I always thought I was you. I guess I am not. I would not have killed the kitten. I wish that you hadn't killed it either. I want to tell mom.
"You can't be me." Jimmy said. He was exceptionally smart for his age, but this did not make any sense at all. He couldn't figure out where the voice was coming from. He could hear it, but at the same time it did not sound like it came from anywhere. It seemed as if it came from his head, like an echo inside a well. It made his head hurt. "I am me and nobody else is."
Then who do you think I am?
"I don't know. A ghost?" Jimmy did not believe in ghosts, but he could not really offer a better explanation for the voice he heard.
I am not a ghost. I have always been with you. I watch you. I watch the other one too. I think you could say I am the link between you both, filling in the voids. Yes, that sounds right. Call me Link.
"What are you talking about?" Jimmy asked. "What other one?"
I can see that this is really confusing to you. I will not elaborate on who I am or who the other one is. I would not want to upset you. But I still want to know why you killed the kitten. I loved the kitten. Now what will I snuggle with? I want to tell mom, but she will just punish me too. Why did you have to ruin it for me?
"I don't even know who you are. Why would I care about somebody that I don't know?" Jimmy demanded. "I don't care what you thought about the kitten or what I did to it. I killed it because it was fun and I want to do it again. I don't give a damn if you don't like it, and I don't care what you snuggle with. Now go away."
Do you think that it really works like that? You think you can just wish me away? You are stupid. You can't get me to just leave whenever you want me to. I come and go when I want to. There is nothing you can do about it. What can you do? Are you going to try to choke me to death too? Can you choke yourself?
Jimmy was so mad that he could barely see straight. Nobody had ever called him stupid before. If he could just figure out where this kid was hiding, he would teach him a lesson. Except that he was alone. It both made sense and confused him at the same time that this boy Link was inside his head instead of being outside of it. How could he get after a boy that was inside his head? Could he choke him out? No, he would only hurt himself. Just thinking about it made his head hurt.
"Please go away." Jimmy tried a different approach. Sometimes when he was dealing with adults, they would change their minds about things if he decided to use manners. Maybe by asking Link to leave nicely he would be left alone. He almost crossed his fingers in hopeful expectation. It did not work. While Link was quiet for a moment, Jimmy did not feel the pressure in his head decrease. He did not need to be told that this indicated that the strange and inexplicable presence of another in his head had remained.
Why? Am I making you mad? Get over it. You made me mad by killing the kitten. If you bring the kitten back to life then I promise I will go away and quit bothering you.
"I can't do that." Jimmy said in despair. If he had known that killing the kitten was going to bring about this much trouble, he would have killed something else instead. Now that he had killed it, he knew that he needed to kill something else. He also knew that it had been inevitable that he would end up killing something. It had only been a matter of time. Too bad he had chosen a target that Link had been fond of. Now he had to put up with the irritating voice in his head.
Then I am going to stay and bug you. If you couldn't bring it back, you shouldn't have killed it. Now you have to deal with me. I can't wait to say things in your head all the time and make people think you are crazy if you try to talk back. You thought it was fun to kill the kitten, but you have no idea what kind of hell you have brought on yourself. You are going to hate the day that you killed it.
"I asked nicely. Go away or I will kill every kitten I come across. If I can't get to you, I will show you what I am capable of." Jimmy declared. He did not want Link to think that he could hold leverage over him. He was not used to being threatened by anybody, let alone himself. "You are going to hate the day you decided to pop up and bug me."
Fine. I will go for now. I know that you will kill other kittens anyway. Other puppies, too. Maybe even other people. You are evil. One day, though, I am going to have my revenge on you.
Jimmy felt a rush in his mind and then a feeling of pressure being relieved. He still looked around and tried to find anybody that might have been hiding, just to make sure that none of this had been a cruel joke. If he found somebody, he was really going to hurt them. Jimmy looked everywhere he could think of, but he neither heard a sound, nor saw any trace of this boy Link.
"Hello?" He called out and received no reply. Good. He was finally alone again. Now he could figure out what to do with the dead kitten and what he was going to tell his mom about it. As long as Link could not take over his body, then maybe Link would not be more than a nuisance.