A FEW HUNDRED YEARS LATER..

The foggy, gray sky is all I see.

The zen and silent ambience of the forest is all I feel.

Sitting quite menacingly and disturbingly peaceful is all I could do..other than speaking in reverse, I guess.

That’s not the point. The point is..I’ve been lonely for quite a long time, I never even knew I was lonely until now. I never asked the question of why it was so empty and wasteland-like here in my personally comfortable habitat.

Well..that isn’t fully true. See, I live in an area of..what was his name..Neptune? Yeah. I live in an area of Neptune’s rapidly growing universe where everything considered as “junk code” gets kept here, to rot and glitch into extinction. I somehow survived, I’d..rather not say how-

I’m not the most approachable looking. I’m a 7’5” tall giant pile of glitchy code and mismatched body parts, which could unfortunately be nightmare fuel for those who eventually see me. I’m not a monster, though. Just a tall and dapper..quite scary gentleman..?

As I silently thought to myself about these things, I suddenly heard rustling in the entry zone of “The Glitch”. I forgot to mention that was the name of the place I lived. Heh, pretty specific, right?

I turned around, looking around for the first sign of life in excitement and nervousness. It was a steel blue haired, pale, fairly tall man. He had a loose black sweater on, a slightly worn out braid design belt holding up his equally slightly worn out dad jeans.

As you already know, I’ve never seen humans or anything alike, so I was naturally curious as to who this special visitor was. He was looking around like he was lost, but eventually we locked eyes with each other as he slowly approached me. My eyes..well, eye, widened as he tried to reach out to me like I’m a hostile creature, which honestly kind of offends me but I’m sure he’s just misunderstood.

I moved my head closer to the curious man, slightly startling him by the sudden move, though I think it was with my one eye and the glowing thing above it, though.

“ Do.. “ the man started. “ do you know who you are? “

He’s right, who really am I? Talk about an identity crisis.

“ ?uoy oD “ I asked back, tilting my head at him.

(Do you?)

“ I believe you, young sir, are Sycorax. I was hoping to find you soon, since it’s been quite a while since I saw you. “ He explains, flashing a slight smile on his face.

“ ...xarocyS “ I repeated.

(Sycorax...)

“ ?niaga uoy era ohw..em ot nevig evah uoy eman railucep a hcus “

(such a peculiar name you have given to me..who are you again?)

The man looks surprised, as if I should’ve known his name in the first place. He chuckled it off and shimmied his way across the tiny space that led to a small platform that could be used as a seat.

He tidied himself up, dusting his clothes and slowly looked at me in the eye. “ My name is Neptune Oberon. I created you a hundred years ago. “

My eye widened in interest. A hundred years ago? I must be..very old without knowing. It also boggles me how I’m still 7’5” even though I’ve been continuously growing my body for that many years. Slower amalgamation process with Earth, I guess.

The air became awkward and silent. I saw Neptune fidgeting with his hands, trying to figure out what he should say next as I looked at him, slightly lost in the meet-up.

I tried to clear the air, which had strange tension, with a question.

“ ?tserof gnisserped..dna dloc a hcus ni evil I emoc woh ,enim sa looc sa eman a roF “

(For a name as cool as mine, how come I live in such a cold and..depressing forest?)

“ Ehehe.. “ He awkwardly laughed, rubbing his neck to ease the tension. “ Good..good question.. “

Hm. Guess that deems the question useless. I slowly turned my head away from him, beginning to look at the same, foggy white sky that I’ve apparently seen for..a concerning amount of years. From my peripheral vision, I saw him slightly flinch in a way where it seemed like an idea sparked inside him like a lit match.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

“ Hey. “ He called out to me. “ What say you about..you know..a more comfortable abode? “

I flashed a confused look at him.

“ .ereh ti ekil I ?naem uoy od tahW “

(What do you mean? I like it here.)

“ Yeah, I know, but..you know..the ground is pretty cold and it’s boring to look at the same surroundings over and over again. “ He explains, making gestures in the process. “ I’m actually surprised you never noticed how bland it was until a hundred years later. “

I tilted my head at him and gave him a small, glitchy chuckle.

“ .norebO riS ,syaw ym evah I “

(I have my ways, Sir Oberon.)

He chuckled back, the laugh slowly fading as he realized that it became awkward again. He sighed, looking back at the fog. I thought about his idea and..it..doesn’t seem bad. I would like to transfer to a somewhat less sad of a home.

“ .esuoh eht tnaw t'ndid I dias reveN “ I mentioned.

(Never said I didn’t want the house.)

“ ?ti dliub annog uoy era nehW “

(When are you gonna build it?)

And that’s where our friendship kicked in. It was kind of difficult adapting to a new climate inside the lovely and cozy cabin Neptune built for me, but eventually I started noticing that I liked the warm better than the cold. Some days, Neptune would visit often, and others, he’d visit less, but I understood that he was quite busy with the outside world.

A few years go by in this wonderful new home of mine, and I realized that Neptune was visiting less than expected. Even more concerning, he seemed more..uninterested around me.

But I told myself not to worry. He might be stressed or a little burnt out from all the programming he has to do to ensure everyone lives at least a few years of life here in his world. Felt a little hurt from all his dry one-liners, though. I just wanna..strike up a conversation like we used to.

Him visiting once a week became once a month. Once a month becomes once every 5 months. Once every 5 months becomes..rarely.

Eventually I got used to being alone again, but I still waited for Neptune to arrive and greet me with a warm and welcoming smile. The books he gave me were fun but..not as fun as talking to him as if I knew him from the start.

I laid on my bed, staring endlessly at the vivid moon as stars appeared around it. Sounds of the leaves blowing in the wind were the only ones that could satisfy my hearing right now. The candles on my bedside drawer started to dwindle in brightness, but honestly I didn’t care.

My eyelid was drooping into sleep until I felt the cabin shake. I watched in horror as the candle fell onto the wooden floor and set it on fire, almost like it was in slow motion. I immediately threw myself off my bed, stumbling and hitting my back on the wall. As I tried to catch my breath, I felt a thud against the wood I laid my tense back on.

I was in the center of my cabin, which half is engulfed in flames, looking around in this lost and hurt feeling. I looked up and saw that the ceiling was about to collapse on me due to the constant shaking it endured, so I tried to ram the wall down with the force of my own body, but to no avail.

I kept forcing my body into the wood to try and make it budge by just a bit, getting more desperate as the flames were slowly chasing after me. Eventually, I pressed onto the wood with so much force that my being decided to merge with it, making it part of my body.

I fell onto the ground, staring at the flames dancing around what was once my warm home like an abstract art piece. My vision blurred in absolute distress as I heard the voices of people in the background, speaking over the slowly approaching ringing sound in my ears.

“ Oh my- what the hell is that?! “

“ How am I supposed to fucking know?! “

“ Should we kill it? It seems dangerous.. “

“ You have a point...kill it. “

It took me a while to notice that they were talking about me. When I did notice it, I had to act fast. I slowly stood up from the soil below me and stared at the two, seemingly teen boys with guns in their hands. I saw their reaction morph from bravery to instant fear in a matter of seconds.

I squinted my eyes at them as the glowing dot above my eye turned from magenta to cyan, signaling the teens to start walking away from my property. They have to do it fast, too, considering they just destroyed my home.

“ .evaeL “ I growled at them in a low tone.

(Leave.)

They stared at me, now puzzled. Then suddenly, one of them started bursting in laughter, so much so they were almost at the point of tears.

“ Man, I can’t believe we took this..thing.. seriously. “ He insulted, wheezing and squeaking in waves of laughing fits as he continued to look at me.

“ I hope you enjoy your burning house, you useless piece of shit! “ He exclaimed, throwing his pistol at me and walking his friend out of the scene.

I just stared at them like a deer in the headlights, feelings of loneliness surfacing back as the cold midnight air blew against my slumped body. I slowly sat myself down on the freezing soil, positioning myself in a cross-sit as my peripheral vision watched the rest of my house burn down and get demolished by the fire, hearing the laughter of the teens in the distance.

The moment after my house burnt down into ashes, Neptune never came to visit me again.

He was my only friend.

I respect that he doesn’t want to see me anymore, after all it’s not as bad as returning to staring at the colorless sky again.

It’s okay if he doesn’t come back...I just want to know what I did wrong to deserve this.