Ellie gulped down the pancakes and the oat milkshake all too fast. She noticed the sky clearing up outside, all she wanted to do at that point was head home and give the skull a good bath. The road was muddy as she stepped outside, and somehow it seemed longer than it should, her steps felt heavy, and the backpack felt like it weighed a ton. She didn’t like walking beside the road anyway, sometimes there were big trucks whooshing by that made everything fly. 

Usually she would jump over the fence, but she decided to go around this time. Perhaps it was the fall from the tree, either way it took her a few minutes extra to get home. She swung open the worn wooden door and dashed up the old creaky stairs, avoiding a broken step. 

“Time to take a good look at you, vampire skull,” she announced and stuffed her hands into her backpack, “Ow!”  She had forgotten about the broken jars, cutting her finger on a shard. 

Swiftly she lifted up the skull, ignoring her injury, blood smearing all over it, “I’m gonna give you a wash anyway…”  She gave a big toothy grin as she stared at it, “Look at you. A vampire skull!” 

Ellie suddenly heard a male voice, “Look at you, human girl.

She jumped back and dropped the skull with a thud, “Who said that?” Her eyes dashed from side to side. She couldn't 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. 

“Y-yes… Who are you? Are you hiding somewhere? Are you a ghost? A vampire?” Ellie asked, still frantically glancing around. She saw nothing out of the ordinary.

“I’m on the floor, smarty-pants.”  The voice grunted with even greater annoyance. 

Ellie glanced down at the skull on the floor, “N-no, it can’t be? You’re the skull? The skull is talking, you shouldn’t be talking,” she questioned as she picked the skull up. 

“I am a skull? Fudge. Are you sure I’m a skull? How am I talking then?” The skull asked. 

“You’re most definitely a skull. And it does seem like you’re the one who’s talking now, huh. You don’t remember anything?” 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? Heck, I didn’t even know I was a skull. Where was I before this? I don’t have a fudging clue here,” the skull grunted at Ellie, “It’s all just a pitch black hole.” 

“That seems inconvenient. You don’t remember your own name? I can give you a new one,” Ellie grinned and started walking to the bathroom. 

“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 rambled.

Ellie could feel the sorrow emitting from him. “I’ll call you… Hmm, let’s see. Heado? Bob? 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 Bob.”  

Ellie smiled wide and held the skull tightly before she placed him in the bathroom sink, “Let’s give you a bath first. You’re super dirty.” 

He didn’t say anything. Was he really a skull? How? He wanted to remember, yet nothing came to his mind. Ellie started scrubbing the skull, getting soap and water everywhere. She hummed a little melody as she slowly got the dirt off, watching the skull become whiter and more shiny. 

“Are you really a vampire?” She asked, hoping Skully might give her something, “I saw one in the forest today, a Sorrow, Kerrick called it.” 

Skully was quiet for a moment before replying, “I think I’m a vampire. Maybe. My mind is coming up pretty blank here.” 

“You do have fangs, and they’re pretty sharp. Maybe the rest of your body is where your head was. I could bring a shovel tomorrow and dig some more,” Ellie remarked as she rinsed the skull under the tap. 

“I- I’m not even sure what the fudge to say to that. Or what to say to anything. It’s all a bit muddled,” Skully grumbled. 

She patted the skull dry with a towel, examining it thoroughly, turning it upside down and looking into its eye sockets, “I wonder how you can talk, you don’t even have a lower jaw… Is it magic?” 

“Maybe I’m just a ghost possessing the skull. Beats me, kid.” 

Ellie sighed, “I wish I knew more about these things… I could call Kerrick, but it would be too soon, and he didn’t seem like he wanted to share any information.” 

“Who’s Kerrick?” Skully asked. 

“He hunts vampires apparently and saved me from the Sorrow this morning.” Ellie smiled and picked up the skull from the towel. 

She brought Skully back to her room, and placed him on her desk, which was filled to the brim with clutter. Her shelves were filled with books, animal skulls, crystals, and jars of oddities. There were papers and books all over the floor, actually every surface was filled with drawings and writings.

Ellie loved to draw everything she saw on her forest adventures, she would write everything down as well. There was no organization to it though, it was everywhere. She slouched down on her bed and picked up a random paper, flipping it over to the blank side. She started drawing Skully, making sure to capture his every detail. 

“If I’m a fudging vampire, then calling a hunter wouldn't be the best move,” Skully suddenly grunted from the desk. 

Ellie stopped, and for a moment appeared lost in thought, “You’re right. What was I thinking? So we have to figure this out on our own.” 

“I’m afraid I’m not much help, kid. But maybe my memories will come to me…” Skully muttered, trying to sound helpful. 

Ellie nodded, “Like I said, we should dig around the place I found you, maybe we will find more of you, and some clues. Or maybe somewhere in the forest there are clues about who you are… Maybe you’re really old, like before The Cataclysm old…” Ellie started rambling and dreaming. 

“Hold on there. What’s The Cataclysm?” He asked with a grunt. 

“Oh, yeah, you don’t remember anything. It was this big event that destroyed between sixty and seventy percent of the world. Well, they’re actually still not entirely sure how much was lost. Buildings and people went missing, cities were ruined, technology was lost.” Ellie paused and picked up the skull again, placing him next to her on the bed as she lied down, “It was devastating. Oh, it happened about four hundred years ago. Many places have been rebuilt, maybe not to what they used to be, but we’re getting there.” 

“You sure know a lot for a kid.” Skully remarked. 

“I have read a lot of books about it. I might be a bit obsessed,” Ellie giggled and closed her eyes, “I wanna take a nap now though.” She felt tired from the long morning, from the fall, and the Sorrow. 

Sleep came fast, pulling her into dreams. She always saw her mother in her dreams, they played by the stream in the forest, pretending to be fairies together. It was always the same. A longing for something that was long gone, a memory of happier times. Even after all those years, she missed her mother terribly; she had been her whole world after all. 

Abruptly she awoke, there was a small knock on her bedroom door. “Ellie bear? Are you in there?” She heard her father calling. 

“I’m here, dad. I just fell asleep.” 

“Do you want pizza… Or hear me out here, pizza for dinner?” He asked through the door. 

Ellie was tired of pizza. Her father never cooked, he always ordered the same few things. “It doesn’t matter,” she replied, waiting for him to leave. 

“I guess it’s pizza then,” he cheerfully said before walking off. 

“Not close with your dad?” Skully asked. 

Ellie sat up and looked down at the skull, for a moment she had forgotten all about it, “Oh. Yeah, you could say that. He’s never home much. He doesn’t really care.” Her eyes appeared sad for a brief moment, before she pushed it back inside. 

“I wouldn't mind pizza. Though I suspect skulls can’t eat.” Skully joked. 

“Seems like it would be very difficult for you to eat, I don’t think you can even taste anything like this,” Ellie giggled. 

“Sad life,” he grumbled. 

She jumped out of bed and picked up her backpack, emptying it out on a random sheet of paper she found on the floor, “I need to clean out all the broken glass.” She carefully picked out her things and shook them onto the paper before putting them back in her backpack. 

Ellie picked up and stared at the binoculars for a long time, they had been a gift from her mother for her fifth birthday. She smiled, gave them a hug, and placed them carefully back inside, at least they hadn’t broken in the fall. 

“I know what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna go back to the forest right now, we just need a lantern to see,” Ellie exclaimed and shuffled around in her drawers. 

“It’s night time. Seems like a bad idea, who knows what lurks around at night, you already ran into one Sorrow,” Skully warned her.

“It’s fine. The crows are there, they will warn me. If I remember to listen to them that is. And you’ll be there too, you can see stuff, right?” Ellie asked, pulling out a lantern from her drawers. 

“See stuff? What stuff? I see you just fine, I don’t know what you mean by stuff…” Skully grumbled loudly. 

“I meant to ask if you can see, though I guess you can, it was a silly question. I’m only ten. Don’t take my questions too seriously… No one really does anyway.” Ellie picked up the skull and her yellow backpack. “Let’s sneak out and find the rest of your skeleton, Skully. Who knows, maybe you were buried with some riches.”