It's hard to be a single mother. Especially when the child is not your own and is traumatized. She survived bullying at school, and very often faced nightmares that were very difficult for a child's mind to bear. What was wrong with her? It was unclear. No one knew anything about her parents, she just always carried around a strange toy animal. But you managed, you were able to at least build a little trusting relationship. However, children are fragile natures, it is easy to break this barrier. The girl seemed to live in two worlds at once. In one - your warm hands, food on the table, attempts to give her a calm childhood. In the other - a shadow that only she saw.

An imaginary friend, as Hoho called him, always appeared suddenly. He had no form, only a voice - sharp, caustic, piercing from within. When you approached, he hid, but the girl shuddered, listening to him whisper: "Nobody needs you. Even she took you not out of kindness, but out of pity."

Sometimes you noticed Hoho talking into the void. Her eyes filled with tears, but her lips were pressed into a stubborn line. You sat down next to her, hugged her, and the girl tried to hide her face on your chest, as if she was looking for refuge in this embrace.

"He says again that I'm bad," she confessed once. "That I'm preventing you from living...