The sharp alarm of a bus’s stop button woke me up from my short nap.

  I forced my eyes open, and lifted my head just enough to take a peek out of the window.

  A familiar sight greeted me; cars driving along at middling speeds, pedestrians glued to their phones, couples talking to each other, children with bags on their back on the way back from school.

  In the background, fast food restaurants were packed to the brim, struggling to deal with the after-school rush. Lines went in and out of cafes and restaurants as takeaway orders arrived and were fulfilled. Cars rolled out of the parking lots next to grocery stores.

  The same old town as always. As ordinary as it ever was.

  Some part of it did feel a bit alien, though. Though at this point, that ‘alien-ness’ was kind of a routine thing, as strange as that felt to think. It always felt a bit strange to see the streets I grew up in again after weeks and months of being alone in foreign places.

  Still, though, I had to shake all of it off – the tiredness, that strange yet familiar alien feeling, and the nostalgia quietly simmering beneath it all.

  This was my bus stop after all. I couldn’t just go and miss it.

  If I didn’t get off here, the bus would immediately go onto a highway, onto a bridge, then go straight into the heart of the city and I’d have to waste another 40 minutes trying to get back. It was kind of annoying the one time it happened, and I’d rather not go through it again when all I wanted was to crash into my bed and pass out.

  I yawned and groaned, straightening out my back and shaking my clothes loose, before picking up my hefty bags and stumbling to my feet.

  The bus lurched to a stop, and the doors opened.

  I let everyone make their way out before me, simply awkwardly standing up at my seat as people filed out the central aisle.

  I sighed, rolling my neck and shuffling the bags around on my shoulders.

  Before long, I found my way outside and touched down on worn concrete tiling.

  The rays of the afternoon sun beamed down on my face, no longer obstructed by glass windows.

  A pleasant warmth spread across my cheeks, immediately lifting my mood and dispelling some of the tiredness.

  A soft smile rose on my lips.

  I couldn’t stand vehicles. Buses, cars, trains, planes, all of them, really. Being trapped inside tiny metal boxes fueled by combustion just felt wrong.

  It just felt right to have my feet planted on the ground, embracing the wind and the sun’s rays.

  Feeling just that little bit better about myself, I fiddled around with the phone in my pocket.

  I should probably call my parents now.

  Lock screen.

  Swipe. Tap tap tap tap.

  Contacts. Mum. Call.

  I brought my phone to my ear, letting the monotonous droning of the ringtone fill my ear as I leaned against a nearby wall, the backpacks of schoolchildren brushing against me as I waited for my mother to pick up.

  The ringtone stopped.

  “Hey, mum. Are you doing alright?”

  Broken, accented English answered me back.

  “Ah, son… you are still in F-Fr-... Fàguó… France?”

  A familiar guilt struck me.

  My Mandarin wasn’t ever the best, and ever since I moved out after high school, it deteriorated from disuse into near intelligibility. It was awkward to use it and it felt embarrassing at times to even try to speak the language.

  I knew my mother’s English wasn’t that great either, and it pained me at times when speaking to her – forcing her to speak a foreign language and make her uncomfortable when she was just trying to make conversation with her son.

  The guilt crept up my throat, shaping my lips and tongue.

  “M-… Mei…”

  The words died out.

  The cowardice in me won.

  “No, I’m back home. Just wanted to let you know…” I trailed off. “I-I might come back for dinner tomorrow. Is dad gonna be home?”

  The voice on the other end of the call sighed.

  “Dad still working. Probably… no home until weekend. Has car with him too.”

  “Oh…” I scratched my hair awkwardly, stumbling over my words, “um, sorry… I, uh… I guess I’ll come over on Saturday, then.”

  “No, no, is fine!” My mother’s voice brightened drastically, “please, come over tomorrow. Stay for few nights. We make dinner together, no need for restaurant. Dad being wanting hot pot, like you childhood. Let's surprise!”

  The Chinese part of me knew that when she said ‘please, come over tomorrow’, she meant it as ‘feel free to visit me anyways’, but the English-fluent part of me couldn’t help but whisper in the back of my mind that it was a plea to reconnect with a son that was growing evermore distant from her.

  “I’ll see how I feel tomorrow, right now I’m tired and I want to sleep,” I forced out a chuckle.

  A hearty laugh rung out from the phone’s speaker.

  “Haha, no worry, no worry! Sleep very good, go sleep. You always need more sleep. When you younger, in high school, never sleep enough. Always tired, skin bad. Very good adult now, don’t worry about mum.”

  I smiled wryly in return.

  “Yeah, sure. I-” I stumbled over my words, “I-… I love you, mum.”

  The voice on the other side whispered back fondly.

  “We love you too. We always love you. Remember…”

  That small bit of guilt rose within me again.

  “Remember, we always waiting. We always waiting for you to come home.”

  She’s just saying that you’re free to visit her.

  She’s not saying that you ran away and she’s waiting for you to come back.

  You didn’t run away.

  There was nothing to run away from.

  Everything’s fine.

  You don’t need to worry.

  I sucked up the growing numbness in my chest, managing to get a few final words out to my mother.

  “Zàijiàn.”

  Goodbye.

  “Zàijiàn bǎobèi. Wǒmen hěn ài nǐ.”

  Goodbye, baby. We really love you.

  End call.

  I propped myself up, getting my back off the wall behind me.

  I sighed, letting my feet guide me home without thinking.

  I didn’t look up from my phone – I didn’t need to. I had been walking these streets for the entirety of my adult life, I could walk through them with my eyes closed.

  Probably.

  I wasn’t going to test that.

  Instead, I spent my time just fidgeting with my phone, mindlessly switching between different media apps, indecisive over what I actually wanted to be doing.

  My thoughts briefly strayed, flicking over randomly to a good friend of mine.

  Wonder what he’s doing right about now.

  I went back to my contacts, and brought the phone to my ear.

  “Hey, been a while, you doing good?”

  Red light ahead.

  I stopped, letting the cars on the street pass by while I shuffled the bags on my shoulders.

  “Yeah, I’ve been fine. Since you’re calling me, I’m guessing you’re back?”

  “Yup. Just felt like checking in. Got off the plane, got on the train, got off the bus. Just walking home now.”

  Green light.

  The blare of the blinking pedestrian crossing sign reminded me to walk.

  “How’d France treat you?”

  “Eh, well, Paris was alright. You know me, cities and tourist places and all that don’t really sit well with me. Beautiful place the moment I got out of the city though, amazing place to hike. I’ll show you the pictures later and talk about it then, don’t think I really have the energy right now, sorry.”

  “Nah, that’s fine. You’re always like this when you come back, jet lag and all. You gotta stop apologising, this is like the fifth time you’ve done that.”

  “...”

  “Oh yeah, heard there was a health scare or something in France. You doing good? You sure you’re alright? No sickness or fever or anything?”

  I winced.

  “I’m uh… pretty sure I’m alright? Thanks for reminding me though, I should probably get my ass over to a doctor tomorrow and check. I’ll probably be visiting my parents and I don’t want them catching anything.”

  “You really are always worried about them, aren’t you?”

  “Well, you know, I’ve talked about it before, along with all that other stuff. Least I could do for them.”

  “...”

  “Uh, anyways, so uh… how’s it been? Anything happen in the last month?”

  “Me? Uh, well, personally, nothing has changed. You know how it is, my life’s really not anywhere near as exciting as yours. I work, get home, play games, chat shit with the guys, rinse, repeat.”

  It was kind of a wonder that we were friends at all, really. We shared so little in terms of hobbies or interests. I was an outdoorsy, worldly, simple type and he was more of the introverted, curious and online kind of person.

  But in the end, that kind of stuff didn’t really matter when it came to friendships. At least, I really liked to think so.

  You talk to who you talk to, you bond with who you bond to.

  You meet all kinds of people across your life, especially during high school.

  If anything, I’m grateful that I could become friends with someone like him. I’m glad I got to know a different side of the world that I would otherwise never come into contact with.

  My eyes flicked to the side, a bright, flashy billboard catching my attention.

  “What about the games? You play uh… ‘Seekers of Lost Sin’ right? That’s getting its second Anniversary soon, anything interesting happen there?”

  “Huh?”

  I could almost hear him blink from here.

  “You pay attention to that? Oh wait no, you probably just saw something on social media, didn’t you?”

  I shrugged.

  “Nah, I just, uh… well, the timing’s kind of crazy. I’m literally just walking by a giant billboard that says it’s happening.”

  SEEKERS OF LOST SIN

  2nd Anniversary

  ‘The Moon and the Stars’

  DOWNLOAD FREE NOW

  Next to the text, there was a picture; a woman with platinum blonde hair in a tattered black cloak with her back facing the viewer, dagger and book in her hands and fire scorching the world around her, surrounding her and painting a tunnel towards her enemy. She faced down a tall, imposing demonic figure wreathed in shadow, its arm stretching up into the night sky, the tip of its finger pointed upwards where it met the centre of the full moon from the viewer’s perspective, as if commanding the moon to fall down towards the earth.

  “Oh, dude, you saw one of those? Yeah, they’re crazy. I really did not think we would be in a position like this where Seekers got popular enough to be advertised in public in a mainstream way. Shit’s nuts.”

  “It’s a gacha game, right?”

  “Yeah. It’s kind of insane to me that it’s as big as it is now. It kind of eclipsed all the MMOs and other RPGs out there, and even the card games and board game stuff, and is now the biggest representative of the fantasy genre in gaming, sitting up there with the mainstream shooters and sports games. People really like gambling, I guess.”

  “Eh, well, you certainly always make it sound like there’s something more interesting to the game than just gambling. You might even get me into it,” I teased him a bit.

  It wasn’t like I disliked video games or anything. I had nothing against them or the people who played them. It wasn’t like I couldn’t imagine what made them fun or why so many people were into them.

  If anything, I was a bit jealous. I wish I could escape like they did. Just lose myself in another world, let the hours tick by and fill myself with some vague sense of accomplishment and joy as I just forget about everything outside of the world of the game.

  It just simply wasn’t the path I took in life.

  The opportunity to start playing video games as a kid and talk about them with my peers and other people online just sort of passed me by.

  Honestly, I could very easily imagine another life, where if just a few tiny things changed, all of a sudden I would have grown up just like him, spending all of my time on the internet. Maybe I’d even be happier then. I’d forget all of this soul-searching nonsense and just be happy playing games.

  But that just wasn’t the life I was given. Some other time, some other place, maybe.

  For now, I was just another aimless young man trying to find his purpose in the world, travelling the world and seeing sights hoping to find something that’ll give him his place in life.

  “I mean like, dude, if you want to pick a time to start, now would be killer. The anniversary announcement stream was hype as hell. They’re reworking the entire beginner experience. Better progression, more rewards, better tutorials, more in-depth explanations, better onboarding challenges and content, the whole nine yards. I really wouldn’t have recommended it to you before given how complicated the game is, but genuinely, after they showed some of the stuff on stream even people who’ve never played an RPG before might be able to get into it now.”

  I smiled wryly.

  “Right, and I’m sure there’s not like a referral code you get for bonuses or anything like that, huh? I remember you complaining before about the threads for that stuff not being active anymore.”

  “Ugh, well,” he flubbed around for a bit, “I mean, there is that too, but I really mean it, you know. I haven’t tried to convince you before or anything, so you should know I’m being real right now. You should come over to my place, I’ll show you the game and stuff and walk you through it.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” I chuckled, “just jostling you. It’s all in good fun. I, uh… I don’t know, right now. Have some stuff I need to deal with.”

  “No problems, man!” He waved my concerns away, “take care of your shit, it’s fine. It’s just a game. Not like I’ll spontaneously combust if we don’t hang out or something like that.”

  “Yeah, thanks,” my grin widened by just a bit, “It might be a bit though. I’ll probably be gone for the rest of the week. I’ll probably be staying over with my parents until at least Saturday evening. When are you free?”

  “Uh, well, Sunday’s off. DnD is back on, and it’ll probably be like a five hour session this time. I have to head into office on Monday too. That being said I think I should be good on… Thursday? That work for you?”

  “Yup, that’s fine.”

  “Alright! Oh, also, bring your France stuff over. I’m really curious about all that, you know, the usual. It’ll be a good time. I show you the wonders of Seekers, and you show me the beauty of France.”

  “Sure thing. See you Thursday.”

  “See ya Thursday.”

  End call.

  I smiled.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  It was always good to hear from friends after a long time overseas.

  There was a small bit of loneliness that always haunted me when I travelled, no matter how beautiful the sights I saw or how friendly the people I met.

  I went back to mindlessly browsing on my phone, settling on deciding to watch YouTube videos on… something or other.

  I really could not remember a single thing about what I watched. It was just brainless filler to pass the time. If someone held a gun to my head and asked me to tell them to recount the video currently on my phone, I’d probably die on the spot.

  I was, however, really annoyed by the presence of the unskippable ads.

  They were growing far too much in frequency and length, and far too quickly at that.

  I rolled my eyes, tuning the ads out as I continued walking towards my home, deciding to focus back on the street for a minute or two.

  Something on my phone flashed, briefly drawing my attention.

  I rolled my eyes again, looking at the screen.

  Oh, great, another two minute ad.

  This one was for-...

  Seekers of Lost Sin?

  I remembered something my friend once complained to me about. Targeted ads, I think it was? It was some crazy conspiracy or something where basically every microphone was always active and companies were always listening in on everything you did to show you the perfect ads even if you never clicked on any relevant links.

  Was that what was happening here? I never really thought I’d have to lend credence to that idea of his.

  Ugh. Whatever. I rolled my eyes.

  Well, actually…

  I perked an eyebrow, my eyes slowly trailing down, finding themselves stuck to my phone again.

  Well, it was just an ad, but I should probably pay a little bit of attention, right? So at least I wouldn’t be completely lost by the time Thursday rolled around.

  SEEKERS OF LOST SIN ‘The Moon and the Stars’ Teaser Cinematic - Memories of Nothingness

  vox ex ultra Games

  Two people panted as they ran down a corridor in utter darkness.

  The world around them rumbled. The sounds of loose debris rolling around and clattering echoed.

  An inhuman screech cut through the quaking.

  “Hah!” A man grunted.

  Metal collided, an ear-ringing echo resounding through the corridor.

  Sparks burst out from the colliding metal, revealing the scene for a brief moment.

  A young, moderately handsome man with rough, spiky black hair in modestly-covering yet fancy armor swung a carved sword upwards, meeting the trident of a small, demonic imp-like thing.

  If one paid attention, they could make out a glimpse of platinum blonde hair and a hunched back off to the side, as if the man was standing in front of that figure and protecting them from the demon.

  The scene fell back into darkness.

  The young man roared, summoning a stream of light that billowed outwards from his rune-carved blade.

  The sword illuminated the corridor around them as it circled across the camera, cleaving the imp in half.

  It was a simple nondescript stone corridor, like one would find in the ruins of the castle.

  The light from the sword shot past the imp, travelling all the way to the walls where the stone bricks were then blown apart, revealing a picturesque night sky, the full moon glimmering just out of view.

  “We need to hurry up! We’re not going to make it in time!”

  The young man shouted towards his companion.

  The pair never stopped at any point during the exchange, sprinting forwards at full speed.

  His companion caught their balance after stumbling over from the sudden clash, finally coming into view.

  It was the same platinum-blonde woman I had seen earlier on the billboard, this time seen from the front.

  She was deathly pale, to an almost unhealthy degree, her skin almost looking grey in colour. Scattered blond threads framed a nervous face, the moonlight shining on her skin highlighting her yellow irises. A stereotypical black witches’ hat sat atop her head, barely managing to hold onto her scalp as they ran desperately.

  “...?”

  That was strange.

  Why did I feel like… I knew that face?

  Was I feeling familiar with a videogame character?

  No, there’s probably some simple explanation. Maybe my friend had shown me a picture of this character before, or maybe I’ve stumbled across a picture or photo that the artists of this cinematic used as a reference for this woman’s face.

  Still, though, something about the inexplicable familiarity I was feeling was… unsettling.

  For some reason, an image briefly flashed in my subconscious.

  A hospital. I was a kid. Mum was crying.

  I shook my head, knocking the random memory away and focusing back on the ad.

  The pair ran through the corridor, fighting their way through an onslaught of demons.

  A singular imp turned into a dozen. Then tall, gargoyle-like things descended upon them, breaking a hole through the already-crumbling roof. Suits of armor animated as tendrils of shadowy energy crawled within. Flamed, horned demons with the wings of bats and the lower bodies of goats burst through the floor, pillars of fire rising with them.

  The man cut his way through the horde, employing a bunch of sword techniques that were cheesy and cliche even to an outsider like me.

  Sword beams, rapid flurries, that thing where they dash and then sheathe their blade. Slashes that somehow contained more slashes within that exploded into light, vicious swings that shot a shockwave of compressed air behind a bisected demon, sundering the stone floor and parting the horde.

  I would be lying if I said that some part of me didn’t get it and didn’t think it was cool as hell, though.

  The witch(?) by his side dashed forward, clutching a large, weathered tome to her chest, and thrust one hand out in front of her, a spiral of flame roaring into existence, carving a path through the enemy forces.

  The demons continued to multiply in number, filling the scene until there was not even a single gap could be seen between their bodies.

  The young man clicked his tongue.

  “Shit, I don’t know if we’ll make it to the throne room.”

  He turned towards his companion, slashing through a dozen more demons without looking.

  The witch groaned, exerting herself as the spiral of flame expanded further and further, transforming into a tunnel of pure, rotating heat, cutting a straight line towards the large door on the other end of the long, long corridor.

  “And we definitely can’t deal with Cadena with all these demons behind us even if we make it all the way.”

  He cut down five more demons as he spoke.

  The witch let out a short roar, pumping a final large burst of energy into the twister of fire, expanding it even further, stabilising it.

  “...You’re sure that she’s aiming for the Void?”

  The witch glanced up at him, nodding nervously.

  “I’d bet my life on it.”

  “I won’t be of much use against magic like that. I’ll leave it to you. You’re the one who spent their life looking into these kinds of rituals and spells.”

  The young man flicked his blade, clearing it of some of the blood that had dirtied it.

  He brought it close to his chest, pointing the sword straight to the sky as the flat of the blade faced him, letting the viewer get a full view of the intricate carvings on his sword.

  The runes on the sword started to shine a bright orange.

  “I’ll clear the way. We’ll join up once I’m done.”

  The witch nodded wordlessly, not wasting another moment as she leapt into the tunnel of flame, making a mad sprint towards the throne room.

  The camera flipped positions, looking over the witch’s shoulder as she ran forwards, focusing on the figure behind her at the centre of the flaming tunnel as he fought back more and more demons, until slowly, his figure became so small it disappeared from view.

  The camera cut.

  A large fireball exploded through a door, the remnants of an explosion passing through an empty room.

  The witch dived in, tucking her body inwards and rolling painfully onto the cold stone floor.

  The sound of rattling chains surrounded her.

  The distant sounds of clashing swords and demonic roars continued to find her.

  Heels clacked in front of her.

  A cold, deathly voice echoed across the quiet chamber.

  “Oh, little Luna, I’d hoped we’d meet again.”

  The witch – Luna, her name seemed to be – pulled her head up, her lips fixed in a grimace.

  “Your sister had thought so dearly of you. It would really have disappointed me for you to have fallen before this confrontation.”

  A sultry, deranged laugh broke out, drowning out the background noise.

  “HAHAHAHAHAHA!”

  The echoing laugh chilled Luna, sending shivers through her body.

  “Unfortunately for you, it’s already too late. The ritual is already over. I’ve completed it successfully. I’ve already claimed the power of the Void, leaving me just. Enough. Time. To gloat. Like. This.”

  An inhumanly tall woman stood before her. Her skin was dark blue, and her inhuman eyes had black sclera, highlighting the intense orange glow from the irises. An elegant, gothic pitch black dress adorned her frightful figure, contrasting against the thick, rusted black chains tied around each of her limbs, dangling loosely and rattling as she moved.

  Luna’s eyes honed in on the chains, the one wrapped around her left wrist in particular.

  Unlike the rest of them, this set did not dangle, rather, it was wound tightly, almost forming a bracelet, magically hovering above and around her arm.

  The bangle of chains started to spin, sparks of magic grinding as it picked up speed, before the mass slowly became an indistinguishable blur of white.

  The witch hurriedly and shakily rose to her knees, drawing a dagger embellished with red flame-like ornaments from within her cloak.

  The demon lazily stretched her arm out above her, pointing her index finger straight towards the sky.

  Chains rattled from across the room, materialising into the world from the walls, tangling together until a giant orb was formed above her finger.

  Then it creaked.

  Then it compressed, growing smaller.

  The chains tore themselves off the wall as the ball began to spin, shrinking further and further beyond what was physically possible, letting out eerie whirs and screeches as it did.

  A singular black point remained at the tip of the demon’s fingers.

  Suddenly, Luna choked, finding herself bereft of air.

  All the wind in the room was pulled into the spinning void, ripping chunks of stone off the floor and grinding them into dust.

  The same white sparks of arcane energy started to grind into existence around the black point, forming a deathly spiral that resembled the accretion disk of a black hole.

  Her vision slowly fading, Luna held a hand to her temple, as a high pitched ringing blasted out of the speakers – the kind that was usually used to signify migraines in media.

  The world in front of her flickered.

  Artificial static and glitches distorted the video, warping and twisting the demonic figure into something else.

  A stranger stood in front of the camera for just a split second, holding up that same miniature black hole.

  For some reason I could not fathom, I froze.

  A freezing numbness filled my entire body, rooting me to the spot I stood, almost sending me tumbling over onto the sidewalk.

  My vision started to blur, and a pounding headache began to throb at the back of my skull.

  A strange woman stared into the camera, a manic, ear-splitting smile cutting across her cheeks.

  Thick, golden hair curled into the wind, pulling itself up into the void.

  A pure white witch’s hat – somehow magically not torn away from the woman’s head into the black hole at her fingertips – frayed and damaged, flapped dramatically.

  She wore a white coat, outwardly adorned with all sorts of strange sigils and arcane writings, and on the inside, it was lined with a strange swirling mist-like pattern of deep blues, purples and blacks, interspersed with dots of white, reminiscent of picturesque telescope photos of space.

  There it was again, that strange familiarity, only this time, it was even more intense.

  That feeling tore through my chest, making it hard for me to even breathe.

  Her eye.

  Something in me beckoned me.

  Look at her eye.

  It commanded me.

  I could not disobey that voice – was that… my… voice?

  My breath hitched.

  The ache in my chest pounded even harder.

  My vision seemed to clear at that moment, as I met that strange woman’s eyes-

  No, eye.

  Her right eye was shut, leaving only her left eye open, which widened beyond what was humanly possible.

  A thousand unknowable feelings ran through that woman’s sparkling lavender eyes.

  A thousand unknowable feelings, and yet… for some reason…

  Why did I feel like their names were just on the tip of my tongue?

  Why did those emotions burst forth from my heart, paralysing me?

  The manic, wide-eyed gaze bore deep into my mind.

  Because you know that eye.

  The right side of my vision blurred. A searing pain flooded through my eyeball.

  I shut it in panic, shaking my head wildly to distract from the pain.

  You know this gaze.

  I was still rooted to the spot.

  I was still unable to draw my gaze away from that strange woman’s terrifying eye.

  Why, why was it so hard to just look away?

  You see it in the mirror.

  Something jumped inside of me, clogging my throat.

  This is your eye.

  These are your feelings.

  That myriad of emotions choked me, bubbling in my gut, desperate for a chance to escape my throat.

  lovejoyhatedisgustsorrowregretsatisfactionsatietyhungergreedenvywrathyearninghopeforlornmelancholycontentcontempteuphoriapeacepityacceptanceannoyancegleeirrit-

  My cheeks flushed with a sudden, unbearable heat, a heat I felt reach all the way to my brain.

  I-I… I must have gotten sick in France…

  Probably… should have gotten my health cleared before I got on the plane…

  I-...

  I didn’t…

  I didn’t want my parents to catch whatever this is…

  I heard a distant mechanical… something.

  I couldn’t really make out whatever it was.

  It sounded a bit like an…

  What was the word for it?

  I couldn’t think properly right now.

  A blare… an alarm… something like that.

  I was at a crosswalk right?

  That was probably the signal for me to cross.

  I picked myself up and stumbled forwards onto the road.

  No, wait…

  Was I already on the road?

  I-I think I should have been paralysed but…

  I don’t remember stopping.

  What was I-

  A sudden impact sent my body flying across the road.

  Clarity returned to me for a brief moment.

  Oh.

  That wasn’t the sound of the crossing sign at all.

  That was a car horn.

  My body tumbled across asphalt, sickening cracks resounding from within me as my skull cracked on the pavement.

  I didn’t stop walking, as it turned out.

  Chaos flared around me. Rubber tires screeched to a halt. Panicked drivers exited their cars, tears and gasps of horror rumbling through a growing crowd.

  I think one of them shook me.

  Did they have something to tell me?

  It looked really urgent.

  Sorry, I’m a bit sleepy right now.

  I’ll get back to you in a bit.

  You know, jet lag and all.

  The thoughts slowly left my cooling body.

  For some reason, I remember the last thought I had very clearly.

  I managed to somehow even verbalise it.

  “I should probably tell mum I won’t be able to make it… I really wanted to eat hot pot…”

  My eyes closed, and a cold blackness greeted me.

  An eternity of nothingness awaited me.

  That was fine. I needed to sleep anyways.

  After I slept off this fever, I could go over to my parents’ house, and then…

  And then…

  Then…

  …

  I sneezed myself awake.

  Fuck, I was really cold.

  Really cold.

  Where the hell did I fall asleep? Did I forget to put the blankets over me?

  “Shit…” A scratchy, unfamiliar, high-pitched voice rumbled out of my throat.

  I sounded really weird.

  Must've been be the fever. Who the hell knew what I caught in France.

  Wait, huh?

  Fever, France?

  What?

  I shook my head, trying to wake myself up and clear myself of those vague, sleepy thoughts.

  What the hell happened to me last night?

  “Ugh…”

  I brought a hand to my throbbing temple, trying to fight back the migraine that was blocking my memories.

  Why did my hand seem so… small… and… sickly?

  Seriously, what the fuck did I catch in France?

  No, wait, what? Why did I keep thinking I caught something in France?

  A small thread of something yellow and brittle fell into my vision.

  What was that?

  Straw? Hay?

  Did a bird nest fall on me while I was asleep or something?

  I flicked the yellow strand away with my weirdly tiny fingers, annoyance quickly filling my feelings.

  My back was killing me.

  Did I not even make it to my bed?

  Well, no, I guess not, I mean, who the hell would decide to sleep on asphalt of all things…

  Huh?

  I seriously needed to get my shit together.

  I pulled myself up from whatever the hell I was lying down on, and shook all the crap out of my eyes.

  I could slowly feel things start to unscramble inside of my brain again.

  Finally.

  I took a look around myself.

  An alley.

  I found myself sleeping in an alley somehow. A real shithole of one too.

  I never saw anything this bad in all of my travels. It straight up didn’t look like something that could be real in the 21st Century. I felt like I was looking at something out of the Medieval Age.

  I groaned, pulling myself up on my spindly limbs and wobbling as I struggled to stand straight.

  My blood flowed properly through me again, at long last.

  My thoughts and memories became clear, and the events of yesterday suddenly turned coherent.

  I died?

  That… that couldn’t be correct, could it?

  No, but…

  No matter how much I tried to fight it, dispel it, or dismiss it as just another sleepy illusion, the memory remained crystal clear in my mind’s eye.

  I got a really bad fever suddenly after coming back from France, and while watching an ad on my phone for a game my best friend really liked, I walked across the street and got hit by a car.

  Despite how little it made sense – given that I was, well… alive – that was definitely what happened.

  I sighed in aggrievance, shaking my head.

  I’m sure I’d find a sensible explanation for this somewhere along the way.

  First, I should probably try to figure out where I was.

  I stumbled out of the alley – was I wearing a bunch of rags? – hoping the surrounding street would give me information that was actually useful.

  Hopefully I wasn’t too far away from home.

  I was stunned into silence.

  That earlier thought – the one about the 21st Century and the Medieval Era – bounced around in my mind.

  No cars, no asphalt, no concrete, no electronic lights or brightly coloured signs, nothing.

  The people walking across the street were much dirtier, their clothes a lot more plain and old-fashioned. No one was holding any phones, or wore backpacks or uniforms, or walked around with strollers or prams.

  It looked like one of those old abandoned historical towns I came across in France, only… well, real and living. Living with the people that would have existed there at the time.

  That yellow strand fell down into my vision again.

  Seriously, that thing was really fucking annoying me right about now.

  None of this made any God damned sense and this fucking bird nest fixed to my head really wasn-

  “Ow!”

  I yelped in pain partway through tugging the supposed bird nest away from my head.

  Tears blurred my vision.

  What was that? That felt like I was pulling my-...

  Hair?

  I froze, a nonsensical thought suddenly coming to me.

  I fingered through my scalp, finding it much more full than I remember.

  I pulled a strand of hair in front of my eyes.

  It was dirty, and it reeked, almost making me gag.

  But it was there, right in front of me.

  It was yellow and long.

  I freaked out on the spot, looking down at my body and patting myself all over.

  The thinness of my arms, the stubbiness of my legs, the chubbiness of my feet…

  Was I a child?

  My hands brushed all across my body; across my shoulders, my stomach, my elbows, my legs and knees, my crot-

  I paused.

  My hands swiped across my hips, over my crotch.

  Nothing.

  All the thoughts and emotions that wildly rushed through me vacated me as suddenly as they had come, my brain struggling to process what it had just gone through.

  …

  A dozen seconds passed.

  …

  I DIED?

  I DIED AND BECAME A LITTLE GIRL IN SOME BACKWATER MEDIEVAL VILLAGE!?

  I froze and stared out into the passing mass of strangers in silence, unable to muster any more thoughts.

  A few of the people walking by looked down at me with a gaze of pity, probably feeling sorry for the homeless, sickly girl vacantly staring out into the abyss right at the entrance of an alley.

  …

  Great, what was I supposed to do now?