As a young child, I wasn't much of a talker. My first word was 'dada'. I was almost a year old. Until I was three, all I could say was 'dada', 'mum', 'please', 'uh-oh', 'no', and a phrase. "Who's E?" My parents didn't exactly understand what that phrase meant. So they usually improvised.
"Honey, do you mean an elephant?"
"Or maybe your Uncle Evan?"
And I'd always answer with a simple, "No."
Truthfully, I wasn't sure myself why I said 'Who's E?' as a child. All I knew is I started saying it at two. But as I got older, I recalled a memory. Every night, my mind had the same dream. Well, kind of a dream. It started at different locations, each time I was lost. A boy my age would waddle over to me, and then it'd turn intoto the nightmare I still, to this day, dread receiving.
When I was about four, I said something along the lines of "Who are you?" He called himself 'E'. Being four, at the time, it was pretty mind blowing to hear a name that was just a letter. Every night we explored different places, gardens, castles, parks. Though we didn't speak much at first, I was obsessed with him. In Pre-K, the first thing we went over was the alphabet. When it was my turn to say my favorite letter, I said 'e'. That's a majority of what I said in Pre-K. This 'trend' continued until the first grade. My whole life revolved around him.
Sleepovers were never something I truly enjoyed as a child, either. I muttered in my sleep my precious conversations with him. One night, a girl asked me, "Why do you talk to E at night?" To this day, I'm not sure I have an answer. Just a bunch of empty thoughts no one believes. But that's alright. It's better to pretend I'm crazy (though I think I might be) and everything's a lie.
E and I were partners in crime, the peanut butter and the jelly in one amazing sandwich. He was my best friend. Still is, in fact. We could talk for what seemed like hours. Though I can't reveal much, I will say, he's probably the smartest person I know. I never wasted a minute of our time together in sleep. Questions of mine were always answered with details that thrilled me. The only thing wrong with our friendship were his rules. He had many, many rules. One was not to speak of him. To anyone. The only two times I did, he wasn't my friend. In those dreams, he was my enemy. One who punished me with images to fear with pain that felt so real. To this day, I can imagine the pain whenever I slip up and mention him. Still, I mention E a lot, though no one seems to notice. One day, someone will know. Know it all. I dread that day. But for now, I'll give you an hint. It's the 'e' at the end of Secrete.
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140,703 Literary Works • 673,672 Reviews
This is quite an unusual piece, in a good way of course. Honestly, I am not quite sure what to think of it. In a way, it's haunting. I can definitely see myself wondering about it later. There are many questions that you didn't answer in a conclusive way, though I believe that may have been your intention: to leave the reader confused and wondering (not quite sure if it is true or not). Regardless of whether or not that was your intention, this is wonderfully written and very expressive.
__Grey
This is awesome if it's true and still awesome if it's not lol. That's a really interesting psychological case u described there.
I hope he doesn't punish you for writing this cause this is a crazy-cool piece! 
Really strange and unusual piece. To be perfectly honest I had no idea where it was going to go at times.
This biggest flaw for me is that there really isn't any explanation. For some reason when I am left confused after reading something I re-read and re-read over and over until some understanding is lodged in my brain. But this there was no real understanding.
Was E a person?
Was he ever real?
Imagery?
Secrete?
I even looked up the word 'secrete' which left me even more confused. According to Lord Google it means discharge produced by cells or organs. Does that have any relevance or is it just my craving for understanding talking?
I also wondered if E was real to you. Clearly their must be if you're username is 'SecreteJournalist'.
Something like that has happened for me. A character of mine has the same name of my username. My username came first, however. It made me wonder if E or your username came first.
Perhaps I'm reading too much into it.
Perhaps the simple idea of a girl and her imagery friend whom she can only see in dreams was just a scenario which popped into your head.
But still this lingered with me longer than most pieces I have read. There is an underlining creepy tone which I can't help but feel.
This part here was very creepy to me. 'Someone will know...I dread that day'?
As I write this review I do feel rather silly. Perhaps I really am reading far too much into this and it really is a simple story. But I just cannot shake the creepy undertone I feel so strongly about.
There were some grammar mistakes but they've been pointed out already so I won't go into much detail.
All in all, this piece will haunt me I think. Amazing job!
This is a nice piece, however, I'm a little confused about what it's goal was-- in other words, what was the whole message you were trying to convey to the reader, or what is the reason why you wrote this? I mean, not all writing has to have a reason for why it is written but for the sake of getting more out of it than what's on the page, I think that's important.
I, like lostthought, am also having trouble understanding whether "E" is a real person or not. There are a lot of times where you describe him in a way that makes him seem like he is both, which is really strange. If you intended for it to be that way then there's a term I think you should look up: magical realism. If you already know about this, then awesome! I might be wrong about this, but I believe you tried to incorporate some aspects of magical realism into this piece (but only if E is fictional), like when you said you two are partners in crime. Your personification or casual tone of an imaginary character kind of touches on the magical part of it. I think. That's cool though!
Grammar:"The only thing wrong with our friendship, (was) his rules." That should be were".
This is posted in the novel section. Is this not a short story or essay? Is this about you at all? My mistake then if the answer to said questions are 'no'.
Tis an interesting piece. I'd like to hear more. Happy writing!
Well, since this is realistic, it must be real. Ok, that must sound like I don't believe or stuff like that. Actually, I'm just having a hard time imagining what it is like to have the same person in your dream over and over again. I hate consistency and my stubbornness would probably break of these person's rules(is he a person or just a realistic image in your imagination that you conjured up on the brink of loneliness or such?) Well, let's get onto the review.
All I saw wrong with it is a sentence ~Is better to pretend I'm crazy~ perhaps you are missing the word it?
Ok, I went over what Magenta said. When she said that secrete is nothing like secret, I think of it a different way. I think of it a secret e, like e is a secret or wants to be a secret. Of course, it could explain your username quite a bit.
Okay, I am not going to say you can talk to me if you need someone to talk to. Thing is, when people don't understand what you are going through, they just tell you to talk about it. It may make you better or it may not. Either way, you just told someone a secret and it feels wrong to know someone's personal secret. Besides, if you need a talking to, you can choose someone you can trust, not a stranger who you don't know.
Well, happy writing. It "tis a lot. Really, this was really good.
~lost
That is beautiful. I don't know if you are truly saying this is real or if it's a work of fiction but either way you wrote it beautifully. I loved it.
Hello SecreteJournalist,
This is Magenta here for a quick review on your short story, The "e" at the end of Secrete, which you have just submitted to the society. I just have a few comments and suggestions to make for you on this particular piece. I see that you have written a lot on here and this is one of many. Okay, so here for the review!
You have a causal style of writing which is best when you are writing in first person because it makes the reader feel more attached to the character and you are able to reflect more feelings without deviating from a formal writing setting. I think that casual writing, though, can lead to a few more mistakes because you aren't as focused on the grammar as you are on the casual style that you are aiming to use. I think that you have done well here and there are only a few things that I would suggest you change.
Another thing that I would like the mention is this whole "secret" or "secrete" thing that you've made this piece about. There isn't supposed to be an "e" at the secret because then it would become secrete, which is nothing close to the meaning of secret. Secrete being to produce and release something. Is this what you were thinking of? It does cause some confusion here, but I understand what you may have been doing here.
"I was almost a year old, just 9 days off. Until I was 3, all I could say was 'dada', 'mum', 'please', 'uh-oh', 'no', and a phrase. "
I would reword this first part here as "I was just nine days off from a year old". Oh, and yes, I would suggest writing out the number "9" as "nine" and "3" as "three" in the next sentence. Another thing would be to use quotation marks when you are quoting yourself, not using the single one.
"Well, kinda a dream. It started at different locations, each time I was lost. A boy my age would waddle over to me, and then it'd turn I to the nightmare I still, to this day, dread receiving."
This first part, I would consider changing. "Well, kinda a dream"? This is like slang and should really be "kind of a dream". I would also suggest taking out that first comma in the third sentence above, it isn't needed. Another thing would be this "then it'd turn I to"? I think that you meant to say "into".
"In Pre-K, the first thing we went over was the alphabet. When it was my turn to say my favorite letter, I said 'E'. That's a majority of what I said in Pre-K. "
I don't think that this is really necessary. I understand that you want to have some sort of connection with "E" in your real life, but I think you could use something stronger and more meaningful. You could expand on your dream a little more as well. Also, I think that the "e" should be lowercase because in this one, you are naming a letter of the alphabet, not his name that time.
"One who punished me with images to fear with pain that felt SO real."
It looks like you were going to underline this. I would first suggest not doing so and neither capitalize the letters. I feel that you are emphasizing the wrong word. The word that I would italicize would be "real". It would have more meaning here than the word so.
Other than those few things, I think that you are good. I liked the concept here and I think that you have a good start to this story. Perhaps you will go over it again and consider some of my comments? Anyway, I hope to see some more of your works. I might review some of the interestingly titled ones.
~ Magenta
I suddenly remembered Batman and Mr. E., xD haha.,
Nice piece though.,
*_rOck.on))