The girl realized that it was a phone that he had put in her hands before shoving her outside. It had a rectangular shape, and unlocked itself once she had put her finger on the circular button near the bottom of the phone. It showed only a couple of applications, but it still gave her a bit more humanity. She slid it softly into her pocket and continued moving forward.
The door had placed her in a wide field of grass. To her left—a city. To her right—a huge forest.
Could Dagger be in either one?
Suddenly, something started to vibrate violently against the side of her thigh. She froze, as she didn’t know what it was.
Is it the phone? It couldn’t be...
She reached for it and pulled it up to her face, it still vibrating. She peered at the screen. It read ‘Evan’ in big white letters. There were also two circles—one red and one green.
W-which one do I choose? Green must be the good one… r-right?
She lightly tapped on the green circular button.
“Hello? Vanessa, are you alright?” She heard the phone talk.
“AAAAYEE!” she screamed, dropping the phone into the pile of grass that she stood in.
“Vanessa, pick up the phone from the ground.” Shaking, she did so, holding it in her hands loosely.
“Now, hold it up to your ear. You’ll hear me better like this.” The phone and her ear were now touching.
“Not so close, sweetie. Move it back a bit. There, that’s better.” She sighed and plopped onto the ground, sitting in the direction that looked towards the city. She only groaned softly, feeling a bit sad.
“What’s the matter?”
“I d-don’t think…”
“You don’t think you can do this? Listen, it’ll be easy, and––”
“But I don’t know anything about this world!” There was a moment of silence from the phone, and then another sigh.
“It’s OK. I figured you weren’t ready. You’re going to have to be strong. This has been assigned to you as your mission. You must complete it, no matter what. I will help you the best I can. All you have to do is call me, OK?” The girl stood up and nodded.
“Alright, E-Evan. It’ll be OK.”
“Good. And you can always come back here, if you want. You’ll always find your way here.”
“OK, thank you.”
“No problem. OH! And one more thing. Beatrice told me something very unique about you. You’re able to photosynthesize.”
“To do… w-what, now?”
“Oh, of course you don’t know what that means. Whenever there is sunlight, you will take in energy. It’s around four in the morning now, so you won’t be able to get any energy, at least for right now. And even though you have this special ability, you will still need to eat. Got it?”
“I-I understand.”
“Good. see you soon then, my child.” Evan hung up the phone, and it was placed back into her pocket once more.
“Hmm… I guess I’ll head to the city then…” Vanessa said, getting up and slowly making her way there.
I will complete my mission…
-~-
“What do you mean, you don’t know where she is? She was here two days ago!”
“Listen, son, we didn’t say that. We said that we don’t know which hospital she was moved to. You’re going to have to ask someone at the front desk over there,” the doctor said, pointing in the direction of the desk. I made my way over there, slamming my hands down angrily on the flat surface. The woman working there immediately turned around and away from her conversation, giving me a mad frown in return.
“You know, it’s not nice to make noise when grownups are talking.”
“I DON’T CARE! I just… I-I…” I fell to my knees in distraught, starting to cry in front of everyone in the room.
“I… just want to know… where my m-mother is…”
-~-
I don’t think that I had woken up in a cold sweat because I was sleeping outside in the freezing cold. It was because of that… vision. It wasn’t a dream, unfortunately.
But it could have easily been an everlasting nightmare.
As I got up from my slow slumber, my eyes were adjusting to the dark world around me. It was a world that was still waking up as I hopped off of the roof of an overhead power line center. It was a small and quaint building, and the top of it was covered with smooth panels. It felt great for my back, and it was located only near a couple houses down the road. And best of all, I had never seen anyone come up this way—ever. Almost like it was hidden to the human eye. It was a perfect place to come back to for the night.
However, I can never stay. Anywhere. I had to keep going. I had to keep moving, or else…
I shook my head and slung my backpack around my shoulders, heading off into the city.
I mean, honestly, I could have stayed and lounged around for a bit. But then, people get suspicious. People get worried. People try to help.
It’s whatever though. I put my hands on my head and keep walking.
God, I am hungry. I told myself after only a couple of steps into the walk. I sighed, digging my hands into my pockets, trying not to let things fall out of them and to the ground.
In my left hand? Multiple pennies, nickels, dimes, and threads of yarn.
In my right? A receipt for the winter hat I was wearing and pieces of the plastic fork I was chewing on.
Then I remembered my wallet was in my bag. Sweet. My tummy is saved—at least for this meal. I huffed and returned to my thoughtful state.
When will this all end? When… will this… just go away? I looked up to the swirling black-blue abyss that was growing brighter with every step I took.
It will only end when I meet my goal.
And that goal is to find my mother, and at least see her one last time.
I nodded to myself and blasted off towards my destination.
-~-
Step after step, I made my way into the city, now walking around a sidewalk instead of rocks and gravel. They weren’t crowded, as it was around six or seven in the morning. As I was walking to the nearest breakfast shop, a strong and delicious scent floated across my nose, making to diverge from my path for some hot bacon.
However, it also smelled like breakfast. Or at least… meat?
“Yum…” I slipped into an alleyway, which led to many back areas of stores. It was always weird how this strip existed in the first place—but I guess stores needed a place to dump their trash and get their deliveries. It was somewhat barren, with a couple of trash cans littered across the space. Some were tightly placed against the wall of an exit door, while some were tipped over and strewn all over the place. Raccoons and deer must come here often.
I wandered into this place, spotting a slightly cracked open door. That had to be where that smell was emanating from. I crawled up to the door and twisted the doorknob slowly, about to take a step inside.
BASH!
I was forced into the building, with a heavy figure wrapping their arms around my waist. I yelped, landing on my stomach. I put all of my force to the top of my body and flipped the opponent onto the floor, as well as crawling out from their grasp. I caught my breath and stood up, looking at the person who decided to tackle me.
“Hey! What the heck is your problem?!” I screamed at the person. It sat up and shone its face at me, who turned out to be a female with blond hair. I stared at her for a few seconds, trying to get a read on her actions. The door was slowly closing behind us from our tumble, and it was getting harder to see with every inch the door shut.
“Speak up! Who are you?!” I yelled at her again. Her eyes flickered back and forth at her surroundings, she still refusing to raise her voice back at me. I rashly started to move my hand toward her to see if she would respond. The door was now closed tightly, with small lights from electronics now illuminating the room.
Her attitude suddenly turning into rage, she lunged at a nearby knife and swiped it at my hand, leaving a large cut on my thumb. I howled in pain and clutched my hand with my other, immediately retaliating by flipping and kicking the girl in her face. She was flung across the room and slid into the bottom of a counter. A loud CLANG! could be heard from her slamming into multiple low-resting cabinets as well.
I ran up to her, reaching above her on the counter to grab a frying pan. She shoved the knife at me again, making me jump on top of the smooth countertop. I flung the pan at her, making her fall to the ground yet again. I jumped down and nabbed the knife from her hands, using all of my strength to slide her away from the cabinet drawers. I drew the knife at the girl, staring at her with my cold, dark eyes.
The girl flung herself at me once more, grabbing at my legs and forcing me to the ground to reach for the knife once more. I extended my arm with the knife away from her and barked loudly, shaking her up enough to throw the knife from both of our reaches. I growled and tried to push her off of me, but she then grasped my neck tightly, putting all of her pressure on her two hands without saying a word.
I gasped, my vocal cords feeling that they were being closed with a wrench. I swung my arms at her, but it didn’t seem to have any effect to her persona. I could feel her body shaking, as she was sitting directly on top of me. Her expression remained tight, just like my throat at the time.
Was she scared? Why is she doing this?
Who even is this girl?
Maybe… just maybe, she works for… I was starting to lose hope in myself. And consciousness.
Well, I had a good run.
It felt like a good ten minutes before I heard a new sound.
FWOOSH!
The girl was flipped backwards, clashing against the kitchen tile floor. I coughed violently, quickly scrambling behind the island counter of the kitchen. The lights were now on, and there was a man with a large broom in his hand standing next to the girl.
“You! Out! We don’t need your kind here! Shoo!” He pointed to the door as she got up and ran through it, heading back into the alleyway. Another boy entered into the room, somewhat out of breath.
“James! What the heck happened? We haven’t even opened the deli yet, and—” The boy looked at the island counter, shortly walking up to it and picking up the frying pan.
“James… Please don’t tell me you used this to hit that girl.” He said worryingly. He placed it down again and leaned on the counter. James sighed and waved the broom at him.
“No, I used this broom. And she was choking someone!”
As if it was on cue, when I heard the word ‘someone’ I poked my head out from the side of the counter, staring at James. He looked my way as well, pointing to my head. “That guy!”
The boy jumped a little when he noticed me behind him, making him stand next to James.
“Uh, hello. Are you looking for a job?” James said with a serious tone. I shook my head nervously. The other man sighed and walked up to me, placing his hands on the counter.
“You, up. You need to leave. I know the girl was choking you, and I’m sorry. Whatever you guys are going through, it can’t be done in here. Sorry.” I replied by simply nodding. The boy extended his hand towards me to give me a hand up.
“The name’s Sylvester, by the way. That’s James over there, and welcome to Dach’s Deli.”
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