The Girl that Time Forgot

3. This is home

The boy quickly left after that, stating some important matters he needed to attend to. Although, not without thanking you once again. He was rather polite for someone who looked like they could be a delinquent, what with the bleached blonde hair and obvious wounds from a fight. Or rather, a one sided beat down. A worried frown crossed your face upon thinking back to his injuries. You do hope he'd take better care of himself, he was still a kid with his whole life ahead of him beyond fighting and bruised egos. ...But you are, technically, just as young so maybe you don't really have the right to go around minding other people's businesses.

Then again, you could be jumping to conclusions assuming he's a delinquent. Appearance can be deceiving.

Now left to your own devices, your previous unease, that fled at the sight of the boy, had decided to return in full throttle. You tried to fight it back, unsuccessful, as it reared it's ugly head, mocking you for trying to solve someone else's, a stranger no less, problem before your own. You can call it selflessness but, in reality, you were just trying to bury that one looming question.

"What do I do?"

Quietly, you said the words aloud, in an attempt to free your thoughts or maybe in hopes that someone would come by and answer your question for you. It was unlikely though, you were the only one in the park.

A map. You needed a map. Not to tell you that you are far from home, but to gain some sense of certainty in your predicament. Something to cling to in order to prevent yourself from feeling completely helpless to the whims of the world.

Your hand automatically reached into your bag and, through blind rummaging, found your phone. You turned it on, and your finger reached for the icon symbolizing the map application. After a while, it was just a couple seconds, your digital map updated to pinpoint your location. You zoomed out.

Japan.

You stared at the singular word labeling the map of the island. Perhaps you should act more surprised, fumble with your phone, sputter incoherent words, break down into a sobfest. You certainly were feeling the shock but all you could manage to do was stare at the bright screen. Whatever trick the universe had pulled on you must have messed up your emotions, you concluded. You ignored the fact that you were the one subconsciously pushing your feelings down.

"What now?" You softly asked the nothingness around you again.

The wind blowing by didn't answer, but your phone certainly did. It blinked and a new pinpoint appeared on the map. This one was labeled "home". Try as you might, you can't recall ever dropping a pin anywhere in Japan, much less calling it home. But this was all you had to go off of. It was all you had to fall back on. It was all you had, period.

So you pulled up the directions to this so-called home of yours and you set out, wandering out of the park and back within the thinning crowd of people roaming the streets at night.

You walked, your feet moving on auto pilot as you thought about nothing and everything at the same time. Your phone chimed as it always had when you arrived at your destination, stopping you in front of a house, quite ordinary in fact. You aren't sure what you were expecting, maybe for the universe to throw out whatever tricks it had left up it's sleeves. But the classic two story house was so mundane in appearance, you could almost brush off all the craziness earlier. Almost.

You tentatively reached inside your bag yet again and your hands brushed against something metallic. Pulling it out, the unfamiliar set of keys jingled from how you held them dangling. You slid the key into the slot and the door opened with a click. It was dark inside and there was no indication that more than one person lived here. One person being you, or who should have been you. Through what you made out in the dark, the furniture and decorations were exactly how you would have chosen to decorate your living space. But you swear you had never done any decorating, nor so much as step foot in this house before. The thought sends a shudder down your spine but you didn't dare turn on the lights.

You vaguely remember to switch out your shoes before heading upstairs and to your room, the only bedroom in the building. But your clothes stayed on as you let yourself fall onto the bed tucked into a corner of the room, taking your bag with you. You clung onto what's left of familiarity, trying to find comfort in the bag you clutch tightly in your arms and the clothes with the lingering scent of your last meal, back in your world. Then you looked up and around, trying to claim this unfamiliar home as yours.

"This is home." You repeated those words over and over, like a mantra to help you ground yourself. Except it wasn't working, and with each repetition, you only find yourself weaker and weaker.

This is home, where you'll return to after a day's outing. This is home, where you'll wake up and fall asleep behind these walls. This is home, where you'll know the address by heart. This is home, the one place where you'll feel like you belong in the vast universe.

But you don't feel that belonging.

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In a world so unfamiliar, I found you.