“Who said that?” Ellie exclaimed, her eyes dashed from side to side. She could not determine the origin of the voice.

“I said that. Wait, what the fudge do you mean who said that? You can hear me?” The voice sounded surprised yet annoyed. 

The crows cawed louder, almost drowning out the voice. The sky seemed to darken further, shrouding the forest with a sombre gloom. 

“Y-yes… Who are you? Are you hiding somewhere? Are you a ghost?” Ellie asked, still frantically glancing around. She saw nothing out of the ordinary, but the crow’s caws grew even louder. 

“I’m right fudging here in your filthy soil-covered hands.” The voice grunted with even greater annoyance. 

Ellie glanced down at the skull in her hands, “N-no, it can’t be? You’re the skull? The skull is talking,” she exclaimed with such volume that it made the crows take flight. 

“I am a skull?. Fudge. I don’t seem to be able to remember anything… Are you sure I’m a skull? How am I talking?” the skull questioned. 

“You’re most definitely a skull. You don’t remember anything? What do you mean?” Ellie tilted her head and stared down at the skull in her hands. 

“I have no idea how I came to be a skull, nor who I am? Where was I before this? I don’t have a fudging clue here,” the skull grunted at Ellie. 

“That seems inconvenient. You don’t remember your own name? I can give you a new one,” Ellie grinned as she picked up her yellow backpack from the forest floor. 

“I- I don’t remember my name… I don’t remember anything… It’s so distant, and vague.. There’s a city, a tree… a star… I don’t know,” the skull mumbled.

Ellie could feel the sorrow emitting from him. “I’ll call you… Hmmm, let’s see. Heado? Fred? I know! Skully!” She suddenly yelled out. 

“What the fudge? Skully? That’s the best you could come up with?” The skull grumbled, “Well, at least it’s better than Fred.”  

Ellie smiled wide and held the skull tightly as she started walking back home. The darkness loomed over them, and the crows followed behind. They cawed in unison as they flew overhead. She wondered what had gotten into them, the crows all seemed quite agitated. Ellie glanced down at the skull and for a moment she wondered if it had anything to do with him. 

Ellie shook her head and kept wandering towards home, her feet found the soft moss on the forest floor. She didn’t know vampires were real. What else could be real? Magic? Fairies? Werewolves? She squealed at the thought of all the possibilities. 

“What the fudge are you being so loud for?” Skully rudely asked her. 

Ellie giggled, “I’m just excited because you’re a vampire skull. I didn’t even know vampires were real.” She leaped over a small creek, her feet finding the moss again as she kept walking. 

“Hmmm. I somehow know that vampires are real, yes. Maybe because I am one? I’m pretty sure I am one. It’s all so distant though, as if it’s another life,” Skully softly told her with a less annoyed tone, to Ellie it sounded like he was longing for something that was all too far away. 

Ellie’s worn-out, once-white sneakers carried them through the forest. By the time they reached the road, it was night, and stars twinkled brightly above their heads. Ellie looked from side to side to make sure there were no cars. 

“How long has it been since I last saw the stars, I wonder,” Skully whispered as Ellie crossed the road. 

A derelict two-story house appeared before them, the paint had all faded from a blue to a grey. Ellie leaped over the short wooden fence and made her way through the tall grass surrounding the house, it all looked as wild as her. The front door made a loud creak as she entered the house, even the stairs creaked as she placed her feet on each step. 

“This is my house, and this is my room,” Ellie exclaimed as she swung her room door open. 

“Amazing,” Skully grunted sarcastically.

Ellie’s room was filled to the brim with clutter, books, various animal skulls, and rocks of all shapes and sizes. Most importantly her walls were covered by Nova Blackheart posters, he was a character from her favorite book series, The Violet Cauldron. He never said no to adventure, and Ellie wanted to be just like him. 

She threw her yellow backpack to the floor. Ellie tried her best to love yellow – it had been her mother’s favorite color – yet somehow she wished she had picked a less conspicuous color for her backpack. She placed the skull on top of a bunch of books on her desk and stared at him. 

“Alright Skully, do you remember anything at all? How did you end up there? Do you have a body somewhere?” Ellie asked too many questions in her excitement. 

Skully let out a grunt of annoyance, “Listen, kid. I told you I don’t fudging remember anything.” He stopped for a moment and became quiet. There was something – something vague – he could almost reach it, “Ugh, I— There is a city… Dawn, I think? It’s fudging vague. There’s a tree and a shooting star. I’m lost at sea here, I can’t remember, it feels like it’s all just out of my reach. I am an island in the dark,” Skully mumbled mournfully. 

“Aw, I’m sorry, Skully. I wanna help you, I feel like you’re so sad,” Ellie told him. She could feel his sorrow engulf the whole room. Like a thick fog, almost suffocating. 

“You’re just a kid, I don’t think you can do much. Maybe you should just put me back,” Skully grumbled darkly.