The Invitation

I woke up early today, as a pebble hit me on the head. I blinked a few times, and then I stared at the ceiling, which showed more cracks now than from last night. It really made me start to reconsider living here; maybe I could sleep outside instead? Every ceiling in this entire house was beginning to form cracks, and I didn’t have a backup plan for if it collapsed. It was stressful, seeing myself at risk of losing it all when I came home each and every night. Keeping it in mind (as much as I wished I didn’t), I crawled out of the window and walked outside to begin yet another day in this now months-long odyssey of just trying to survive. I didn’t make it far, as I noticed a missing weight, and I went back to grab my notebook. I walked towards the front door, thinking about where I had set it down.

Before I reached the door, however, my thoughts got interrupted by a mysterious letter with red writing on the front, sitting directly outside of the front door. I stopped, staring at it for a few moments, unsure of what to do. Someone must have put it there last night, but why? I hadn’t seen that Espeon in such a long time now; and while that paranoia had long since subsided, this strange letter caused it to flare up. Did they write this letter? Were they watching me? Did they track me down to… this house? I picked it up, took it inside, and set it next to my notebook.

It took an eternity to translate even a tiny sliver of the letter. (thank fuck this language uses similar phonetics to English,) while I couldn’t solve most of it, what I did make out was critical. It started with my name and ended with directions telling me to go to some place, with an address that I did not understand. There was one word after that, and I assumed it meant “Immediately!”

Having already been terrified to a satisfactory amount, it was made worse by the fact that I did not know a single address here. I would need some serious problem-solving skills, or some help to figure out where that place was, and only one of those was a considerable option in my mind. So, I walked out the door, and my fears got confirmed.

The Espeon was standing at the edge of the yard, next to the road. I hoped that she did not notice that I had noticed her, so I could immediately turn around and start looking for an alternative exit. I looked out of the back door, and the Espeon was there, too. Turning back to the front door, I saw the Espeon back at its original spot again. How was she doing this? Was this place her house?

I started pacing around the main room, looking for a place to hide, but there was none. Having no other option, I made the unexpected, and impulsive decision to sprint out the front door, directly toward the Espeon. Somehow, it worked, and the Espeon disappeared in front of me.

Now that I was out of the situation, I started to consider what had just happened. Was it even real? That whole thing was absolute nonsense; there was no way that she could have been in two places at once, right? I was fairly certain that it was just paranoia, so I shook it off and started looking around town, to try and figure out how the address system worked.

“Strange,” A voice in my head said, “I can’t seem to figure out what’s going on in that head of yours.”

“Who- Who’s there?” I said aloud after I realized that those were the first English words I’d heard in a month, at least. The voice continued to speak as if I had never even said anything.

“I was trying to speak to you earlier, but you weren’t letting me in. At least it appears that you can hear me now, even if everything I say comes out utterly unintelligible to me, so that’s good.”

“Who are you? Why are you doing this?!” I demanded. She continued to talk as if I had never said anything.

“Give me a sign if you can hear and understand me.”

I hesitated, and then raised my frontal left paw.

“Good. Now I bet you’re wondering why I’m talking to you.”

“I-,” I got cut off again by her, and I was starting to think she couldn’t hear me at all.

“I am Elizabeth, and I also received that same letter. I am just letting you know that you’re going the wrong way. You need to turn left at the edge of the street, next to the library, and continue down that path until you see a row of wooden houses. Go to the third house and I will meet you there tonight.”

‘Well, that solves one problem,’ I thought to myself.

“Oh, and sorry about what happened earlier at your house. I didn’t mean to scare you, but I can see how I did. You shouldn’t worry about me; I don’t bite.” She chuckled, and I just stood there for a moment, before making my way back to my house. Baffled by what had just happened, I did as I was told, and waited until the night to leave.

While I was grateful for the help, I was even more terrified by what that interaction could mean for me, and what would be waiting for me when I got there. I really hoped that my language skills could pull through on this, even though I knew that they really would not. Was it good news that the Espeon could not read my mind? What was it that they wanted from me? I didn’t know.

The alley seemed barely familiar. It gave me a visceral feeling that I’d been here before. I thought it might mean I’m finally getting settled into a sense of familiarity with this place.