*Again this is another short story I wrote a few years back, I've always wanted to make it into a longer story but really haven't figured out how yet. So it has remained a short story, as always...let me know what you think!

"Dad! You promised you wouldn't do it! You promised me you wouldn't cut that tree down!" A five year old Neala Miller yelled at her father in despair, the tears were flowing and she could see the guilt appear quickly on her father's face.

"I hate you! I hate you," she yelled exactly twice before turning and running back out the door she had just come through.

Usually when Neala was upset she'd run to her rather large and aged tree, but there was only a stump left in its place, it's gnarled old limbs and thick trunk lay cut in a neat and even stack near a dirt road on their property. No doubt that pile of wood would be added to the stock that they would burn during the winter.

Standing not too far from the tree stump, Neala allowed herself to truly cry. It was not only the loss of the tree that hurt, but also the loss of her friend. She knew her friend would no longer return that tree had been his home and since she could remember she was the only person that could see him.

"I'm sorry princess, but the tree was blown down in the storm two nights ago. I couldn't leave it there messing up the lawn, at least now we can see down to the fish pond. You can take visits there whenever you want to now," to Neala that was no consolation and she turned angry eyes on her father, it wasn't funny and he shouldn't have been joking!

"It's not funny daddy! Where is Kernick going to go now?" Neala demanded, she saw her father roll his eyes in exasperation and knew what was coming next.

"Come on darling! There never was any Kernick, your mind just made him up! Even the doctor said so," Carmichael Stevenson replied hotly to his little girl, this was probably the one thing that frustrated him.

Doctors had told him that Kernick was a manifestation of Neala's grief at losing her mother; he could understand that and had tolerated it for far too long as it was. His wife had been gone a year and a half now; doctors had assured him Neala would begin making friends once she began her schooling years. But she was still to forget Kernick and still hadn't made a single, real friend.

"I wish mummy was here instead of you, she would have believed me! She would believe that Kernick was here." Michael wasn't sure what hurt more, the fact that his daughter wanted his wife back or the fact that she could better understand their daughter.

"Well mummy isn't here, you're stuck with me. Now march your butt back up to the house, no pudding before bed for you." Neala closed her mouth, the sudden change in tone from her dad surprising her. He'd never spoken to her that way before and she wondered if perhaps she'd overstepped the boundary.

"I don't even like pudding! And I'm not having supper either, you can eat by yourself." Neala ran towards the house after that, a new wave of tears streaming down her face.

Michael watched his daughter run, he'd seen the surprise there and the small flicker of...something he could place. He followed Neala at a slower pace back up to the house, occasionally looking at the sky.

"I hope you're not laughing, I could really use a hand here love." Michael pleaded quietly before going through the back door that led into the kitchen.

Neala did eventually grow out of her dislike for that tree not being there and by the age of twenty three she had completely forgotten about that tree. But the name remained with her and every once in a while she wondered if the boy and the tree had all been her imagination like the doctors had drilled into her daddy, or if he actually had been real.

He seemed real enough to her, those deep dimples whenever he smile. Those green eyes so full of mischief and that scruffy mane of hair with the bangs that usually fell over his face.

"Nealie!! You're home! Come in!" Neala kept a groan to herself as she heard her step-mothers voice ring out almost as soon as she climbed out of her car.

For a few moments she felt as if someone was watching her and turned in the direction she often did when first arriving home and when leaving. That stupid tree had been cut down years ago and still she felt some pull towards the place it used to stand.

Over the years she and her daddy had attempted to plant another tree there, but none would take root and more often than not were dead within a week of planting.

"Hello mama, it's good to see you again and to finally be home." Neala greeted her step-mother as she pulled her attention away from whatever was bugging her and went to give her mother a hug and kiss.

It was Christmas and the family often gathered at Michael and Laurena's home to celebrate the season.

"Where's Jared?" Neala cringed at the mention of her now ex-boyfriends name.

"Packed and gone, it's a long story. I'll tell you later." Neala could see the frown on Laurie's face before it brightened again as she grabbed Neala's bags and ushered her inside.

"Your room is all ready! You're the last one to arrive, Cyril and Lui came in last night. I hope you don't mind but they brought a couple of friends with them, all pleasant and nice people but it's going to be a bigger crowd this year." Neala appreciated the heads up but took her bags from Laurie and headed up to her room, mindful to keep away from the rooms that would likely have crowds.

The door to her room was closed but when she opened it Neala couldn't help the smile that stretched across her face.

It was probably the most lived in room in the entire house, Neala kept the original colour that her mother had painted it when it had been announced that she was pregnant. It was a soft peach, which coincidentally was her favourite colour.

But over the years she had added things around the place, there were clear 'artefacts' from different fashion trends and some of them made Neala laugh out loud whenever she laid eyes on them.

"Hello sis! It's about time you showed up, dad's been wondering where you were." Neala smiled as she turned to look at her older brother Cyril, but the smile faltered a moment and almost morphed into a cringe when she looked over his shoulder.

"Oh yeah. This is my friend Wilson; he's staying over a couple days." Neala nodded at the introduction, there was something odd about him, something she couldn't quite put her finger on.

"Nealie! It is you! Finally!" Neala was pulled from her study of the man by her youngest sister Camille as she pushed past her brother and his guest to get to her sister.

Neala had a limited amount of time to prepare for the onslaught of bouncing and hugging and eventually dropped her bags, one landing square on Camille's foot. Neala apologized quickly as Camille pulled away, going to sit on Neala's bed while Cyril and his friend Wilson rushed into the room.

"Sorry Millie, my bags were heavy though." Camille smiled at the apology, Neala still felt bad though.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Neala," Neala almost jumped through the roof at how close Wilson stood, if it hadn't been for the smile on his face and the fact that Cyril and Camille were in the same room as they then he would have come across as creepy....very creepy.

Neala didn't say anything, just eyed him suspiciously before remembering her father.

"I'm just going to pop upstairs to see daddy," fleeing the room quickly, the laugh from Cyril and the jibe at Wilson ringing in her ears.

Pink cheeked and a little out of breath, Neala ran into her father on the stairs as he was coming down to check and see if everyone had arrived. Laurena was right behind him and she smiled happily when Neala threw her arms around her daddy, giving him as warm a greeting as she always did.

"Hello daddy," despite her age Neala loved calling her father that nickname, she felt it had meaning and the rest of her siblings had never called Michael 'daddy'.

"Nealie! So good to have you home, come on! Laurena was just going to call everyone to the table, I hope you're hungry. Oh I can finally rest easy now that all my kids are home." Michael said happily as he put an arm around Neala and Laurena, escorting both to the dining room.

When Michael and Laurena had first married many people in his family had frowned upon the union, it had been too quick a courtship and marriage for anyone's liking and many predicted the marriage would be on the rocks within the year and Neala would be traumatized.

But both Michael and Laurena had surprised them all, even Neala had yelled down a few sceptics. And it was Laurena that Michael credited for raising Neala to be the level headed young woman she was today.

The tree incident had been one of a few things that resulted in a kid sized Neala arguing with her father, but as soon as Laurena and her two oldest children were in the picture Neala evened out and stopped seeing imaginary people around the place.

The estate that he had inherited from his father was large....very large. That tree that had brought him and Neala to arguing years ago had been on the estate for as long as the main house had been. Or so Michael and Laurena could conclude, but there was never any mention of a Kernick in records and it miffed them both.

When Michael had retold the story to Laurena she had insisted that perhaps there was more to it than just an 'imaginary' friend and they had searched, but when nothing came of it both agreed it was probably what the doctors described.

While everyone was seated and eating Neala continually felt eyes on her and the longer Wilson stared the more frustrated she grew until she stood and left the table after the main course had been served.

"Neala, is everything okay honey?" Laurena had noticed her daughters sudden disinterest in the food being served, everyone had watched her leave suddenly.

"I'm okay mummy, I think the drive was just a little more taxing than I wanted to admit." Neala knew Laurena could see through the lie but the woman only smiled and gave her a quick hug.

"Okay then love, you go up and rest if you feel ill. But we're going to watch a film in a bit, so come down when you're feeling better?" There was a hopeful tone to the question and Neala didn't have the heart to outright decline the invitation so nodded instead.

Later still in the evening Neala was brought out of her thoughts by a knock at her door, Wilson was entering her room before she could even answer.

Fear spiked in her veins as soon as she saw him lock the door and Neala found herself backed into a corner, holding a copy of a 1998 Cosmo magazine all the while wordlessly threatening to throw it at Wilson if he came any closer.

"I know this is weird and you're probably really creeped out but I had to come and see you...don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you." Neala watched, extreme caution winning in her mind as she continued to keep the magazine poised to throw.

"That's what all serial killers say before they kill...they just use it as an excuse to lure their victims into a false sense of security and them bam! Off with their heads." Despite the situation Neala thought that was kind of funny, the smile that had slowly spread across her face at her own wittiness gone as soon as a tentative smile appeared on Wilson's face.

"I'll stand right here! I promise. I just need to get something off of my chest and it's going to sound really crazy and I didn't want to come across as crazy in front of your family..."

"So you corner me in my own bedroom? Behind a locked door none the less, my family are really going to think you're insane after this!" Neala cut him off, she was jittery to be sure and it was beginning to show in her stance and come across in her voice.

"I know....but let me just explain myself. So, when I was seven and a half I was in a car accident with my parents. They were relatively unharmed because the car that hit us came from behind; I was left in a coma for a year and a half." Wilson began his story, Neala still stood there but this time lowered her arms, more because they hurt than her trusting him.

"I don't know how it's possible but I was in a sort of dream land. Well I thought I had died and gone to heaven or something because it was always warm and I always had only one friend in that place. She said she'd lost her mummy and that she'd gone away and left her and her daddy alone." Wilson took a deep breath and decided to finish quickly; he could see the horror begin to build on Neala's face as his story began to sink in.

"You had a dog named Nibbles when you were five and you used to let him lick your toes because it tickled and you had no one else to tickle your feet for you." That did it, Wilson could see the complete and utter confusion, horror, surprise and a whole load of other emotions flash across Neala's face before she let out an ear piercing scream.

Wilson covered his ears, but quickly unlocked the door as he knew they would not be alone for very long.

When the door burst open and hit Wilson in the back he stumbled forward a little, "Neala! What's the matter? Are you okay? Wilson? What are you doing in here?" Came Michael's quick volley of questions, Wilson knew he'd be in trouble but at least he'd gotten what he needed to off of his chest.

"There was a spider! I.just...." before Neala could finish the sentence she fainted, everyone in the room laughing nervously because Neala was deathly afraid of spiders.

With the help of Cyril, Michael managed to get Neala up onto her bed and tucked in for the night. Laurena didn't budge from her bedside and shooed everyone from the room, Michael ordered Wilson into the study and closed the door firmly behind him.

"So, why were you in my daughters room with the door closed?" Wilson swallowed nervously; Michael could see his Adam's apple bobbing and was pleased that he could still come across as an intimidating man.

"Sir, you'll probably never believe me...I mean I never believed it until I saw a picture of Neala the first time I visited. And then I went to where the tree was and that's when I fainted that time you and Cyril found me out on the lawn." Despite the fact that Wilson was speaking, the blood rushing through Michael's ears was deafening and he could hear nothing else as he was taken back to that sunny afternoon several years earlier.

Cyril had just returned home from boarding school that Christmas holiday and had brought two friends with him. After a short while both Cyril and Michael had noticed that one friend had gone missing and as it was almost night out they had gone searching for Wilson.

Wilson had been out cold, laying on the lower side of a small slope that led down to the fish pond. It was the same gentle slope that the large tree had grown on, but Michael had taken no notice of that at the time.

However, now that he had an explanation for Wilson being out there in the first place and the behaviour of his daughter when she was younger and the episode he had just witnessed moments ago it all fit together. Well not entirely and there was no logical reason that this could be happening...but there was the proof.

"How did you know about the tree? It was gone for a good ten years before you showed up and Cyril never knew it was there." Michael suspected the answer but wanted to hear it out loud and for himself, just to ensure that he wasn't crazy and that old age wasn't getting to him.

"When I was seven I was in an accident and ended up in a coma for a year and a bit. While unconscious I used to visit this girl, she'd just lost her mother and I was lonely. She seemed to be the only person that could see me and we used to play under a large, old tree for hours at a time. All I knew was that tree, Nibbles the dog and Ellie," Michael felt the bottom of his stomach drop out at the mention of Ellie. It was what Neala had demanded to be called for a year and a half; it was what Kernick had called her apparently.

"What's your full name?" Again Michael was sure he knew the answer.

"Kernick Wilson Ledbury, but I go by Wilson. I didn't like being called Kernick when I awoke and insisted on Wilson." And it was the truth; Wilson had only wanted Ellie to call him by his Christian name.

For a full minute both men stood in complete silence, each trying to come to terms with what they were currently confronted with.

More or less Wilson felt like he was crazy, that the more he admitted it the crazier he was and anyone agreeing or believing that what he said was real were equally as crazy as he. His parents spent a year trying to convince him that Ellie didn't exist and he'd fought them at every turn until he realized that no one believed him.

Michael on the other hand felt equal amounts of guilt and an odd sort of amusement. When he began laughing he couldn't stop himself, it was so crazy, so completely unbelievable that it had to be true.

"Someone has a good sense of humour!" Michael stated, he knew he looked crazy. But what other reaction could he give? He had very little hair to pull out and wanted to keep every strand for as long as possible.

The laughter died suddenly however when the circumstance of how Wilson and Neala met.

"Jesus! You were involved in the accident with my wife, how is this at all possible?" Now Michael really wanted to pull his hair out and run around laughing like a mad man, this was complete madness.

"Yes sir, I only learned that fact recently. It's partly why I came here this Christmas, it couldn't be a coincidence. The tree, Neala...the accident. I haven't told my parents yet, they probably would think I was crazy again. You believe me though, don't you?" Michael could see the hope in Wilson's eyes and nodded, how could he not?

No wonder why he and Laurena couldn't find anything on a Kernick Ledbury in the archives, they were looking in the wrong place and time.

A knock at the door brought both men's attention to Laurena as she inched her way into the room, not looking impressed but as soon as she saw her husband's pale complexion she turned accusing eyes on Wilson.

"Laurena, meet Kernick Wilson Ledbury," Laurena stopped dead in her tracks and felt as if she were about to faint.

"I was about to shout you out of my house, but now I don't think I'll do that. Nealie is asking for you though Wilson...I also wasn't going to tell you that. But I've changed my mind and am now going to shoo you out of here while I talk to my husband." Laurena said as she more or less pushed Wilson out the door, she couldn't describe the happiness she currently felt.

She knew it! All this time she'd known there was something special about that tree that she would loved to have seen and that Neala was perfectly sane.

"Bit of a pickle we're in, aren't we love?" Michael stated as Laurena went to give him a hug, laughing like a crazy woman as she did. What else could be said or done?