I reach down and find that I’m able to pull my phone out of a groove in the armor. Unknown caller, no number.

Honestly, I probably wouldn’t normally answer this, but I suspect that the timing isn’t a coincidence.

So I pick it up.

“Nice going, Ashley!” says a female voice on the other end. She sounds like she means it. “I sense that you have gotten your hands on one of my jewels.”

“Who are you?” I ask.

“You must be a strong fighter,” the voice continues, rudely ignoring my question. “How many shadows did you have to face when you opened the portal?”

“Look, I’m sorry lady, but I think you have the wrong number. I have no idea what the fuck you’re going on about.”

The voice giggles at me, in a way which makes me very agitated. “Sorry for the trial by fire. I needed to know that you can be trusted. Come back to the RG, and I’ll explain everything.”

“Yeah, you better,” I say, ignoring the fact that I don’t know what the “RG” is because I probably wouldn’t get an answer if I asked.

I’m about to make to hang up the phone, when I hear the voice speak one more time. “By the way… you can call me Lucy.” Then, the line hangs up from the other end.

I look back at the armadillo, who was just patiently watching me throughout that whole exchange.

“Do you know that woman?” I ask him. “Really annoying, ignores everything I say, calls herself Lucy?”

The armadillo shakes its head. “I only know me.”

Which means that there are multiple parties involved in this whole debacle. Which means that things just got complicated.

Well, for what it’s worth, this armadillo thing did save me from being mauled to death, and unlike the woman (who must have been the same being who talked to me through the book,) it’s not trying to boss me around.

And then there was that figure behind me during the battle… St. Michael. I don’t really remember how he entered into all of this, but somehow, I just know that’s who he is.

“How long were you watching the battle before you intervened?” I ask the armadillo. “Did you see where the sword and shit came from?”

“You must have unlocked your Persona,” he says. (Which explains absolutely nothing, but I’m starting to get used to this kind of bullshit.)

“Well… I’m glad I did,” I say.

“It’s a heavy burden to carry,” the armadillo says somberly. “With great power, comes great responsibility.

I don’t say anything to that, and open my phone back up to try and find out if I have full functionality of it back.

Most of the apps don’t seem to work, but I do see that ugly red app from earlier. I try to click on it.

Suddenly, I find myself back in the real world, back in my pajamas. It’s still dark because the lights are out, but it’s regular dark now. I’m still standing in the middle of the church, but now everything is back to normal, the slightly ugly green carpet and the wooden pews.

So… for one, that means that I can use this app to break into places and steal shit.

“My name is Ted, by the way” the armadillo’s deep voice says from a few feet away.

Wait, he followed me here? I look at the ground where he was standing, where there is now a regular-sized normal-ass armadillo.

You know what? I think I’m just about done for the night.

I click the app again, which sends me back into the stupid purple world, and my armor and sword reappear, as does the armadillo’s anthropomorphic form.

“Well, then… Ted,” I say, “it’s been a lot of fun, but I’m going to go home. I need to be up early for school tomorrow.”

I take off for the exit doors, but the armadillo calls after me. “You must take care when traveling outside in this world,” he says. “The shadows have been released.”

The shadows… like those coyotes.

The ones which almost killed me.

It hurts my pride, but in that moment, I make a pragmatic decision.

“Hey Ted, how about you walk with me then?” I ask him. “You don’t seem particularly tied down right now.”

----------------------------------------

As we both walk back towards my house, we don’t have any more creature problems. I swear I can see some shadows lurking around in the distance, but nothing approaches us yet.

I decide to take this opportunity to start piecing together this strange clusterfuck of events.

“So, Ted,” I say, trying to decide which question I should ask first. “Where exactly… are we right now?”

“This is the Metaverse,” he says.

I wait a few moments for an elaboration, but don’t get one, so I press further. “Okay… what is the Metaverse, exactly?”

“It’s a world parallel to our world,” he says. And then, guess what? He stops there. This guy is really making me do this the hard way. It makes me feel kind of unwelcome.

Still, he did say “our world,” which seems to imply that, like me, he came from the regular world.

“So, how did you get here?” I ask. Then I think better of that. “Actually, wait, better question. Who are you, exactly?”

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“A forsaken soul,” he answers.

“The forsaken soul… of an armadillo?”

“No,” he answers. “I was a human. When I died, I was given this form and trapped in the Shadow Realm.”

I don’t like the implications of that.

“So,” I ask, “does this happen to everyone when they die?” And that makes me think of another point. “Were those coyotes we took out also people?”

“No to both,” he says, which is a big relief because I wasn’t happy with the idea of spending the afterlife as a talking animal, wandering around an empty shell of the place I used to live. “I am a human soul who was trapped here for a purpose. The shadows are not like me,” he explains.

“What’s so special about you?” I ask him.

“I was given a chance for redemption,” he says.

“So, if the shadows are not like you,” I ask, “what are they like? Are they demons?”

“Lost spirits,” he says, “bound to neither good or evil.”

“Well, those ones at the church seemed pretty evil,” I say.

At this point, we are about to arrive back in my neighborhood, but I still have more questions. “How do you know all of this?” I ask.

“Before I was sent here,” he explained, “I was told the nature of this place by St. Michael.”

Well, what a lucky bastard we have here. He got one of the top angels to directly explain something to him. Nobody ever directly explains jack shit to me. No, I have to figure out everything the long way.

“You know, I’m pretty sure I just saw that exact same guy,” I say, “helping me back with the coyotes.”

“That was your Persona,” he says. “The fact that you saw his figure means that he has marked you as his emissary.”

[I’m a little alarmed by this comment, but I don’t want to think about it right now so I deflect it.]

“You never even explained what a Persona is,” I say.

“You formed a contract with your true self,” he says. “Now, it gives you the power to fight.”

Even though this isn’t really adding up in any meaningful way to me, we had arrived at my house and I decide that it’s now really time to call it a day. However, before I can do that, I have some housekeeping to do.

“When I went back into the real world,” I explain to Ted, “you came with me. You took on the form of a real-world armadillo. That means, you’re going to need to stay somewhere safe while I go about my regular daily life.”

“You’re very kind,” he says.

Maybe he’s thinking that I’m going to let him stay in my room, so I need to dispel that misconception as soon as possible.

I point down the short end of the street. “Down there is a Methodist church that is next to a forested area. That would probably be the best place for you to hang out. If you hang around in the neighborhood, you’re liable to get yourself shot.”

“Are you coming back to the Metaverse?” he asks me.

Which is actually a great question.

“I don’t know,” I say. “It seems like we can talk to each other just fine in the real world, so if you don’t wander too far from that church I’ll come tell you myself when I figure it out.”

“When you come back, the shadows will be prevalent,” he says. “They sleep now, for they have just been freed. But when we come back, they will be unavoidable. You would do well to learn to fight. You can hone your Persona and reach your full potential.”

I wish I could argue, but I was the one who almost got my own dumb ass mauled not long ago.

“So learn to fight, I will,” I say.

And so we part ways. I head back inside my house so I can go back into the real world in the same place I left it.

And while I walk, I think about the question that Ted asked me. Am I coming back to the Metaverse? I mean, why would I? This experience has certainly been… um, interesting, but so far I don’t really see any reason to try and repeat it.

And then, I remember Lucy. She’s the one who sent me here against my will. She must have had some reason for that.

All that stuff I saw in the journal… about how I can make a difference. That must have something to do with it. But I need elaboration.

And Ted said that I had been marked as an embassy… It seems like he may be full of shit on that point. Why would I be chosen, of all people? I’m not exactly a role model by most metrics. In addition, he also said that this Persona was my “true self,” which seems to directly contradict the whole embassy thing. On the other hand, it does seem to sort of line up with what the book said.

This is all making my head spin. I figure that the only thing that’s going to help at this point is if I start getting to the bottom of this.

----------------------------------------

I re-enter the real world once I’m securely back in my bedroom. The first thing I check is the place where I threw the journal earlier. It is indeed there, right where I left it. So, I guess not all objects from the real world follow me into the Meta… place. Similarly, not all objects from the other side follow me back, which is good, because I don’t think I have the closet space for a sword and a suit of armor.

What does alarm me is that the journal is a bit different than it was when I had it last. The pink gem that I had placed into my chestplate is in a groove in the center of the cover. This makes me worry that this Lucy is trying to send me on a fetch quest to collect all of them, which I don’t have time for.

Speaking of time, I check my alarm clock. It’s 9:42, which means that actually barely any time has passed since I left. (Either that, or it’s been a full 24 hours and I missed my first day of high school.) It seems that in the other place, time progresses more slowly or stops.

I pick up the journal of the floor, grab my pencil, and sit back down on my bed. Like with Ted before, my brain is firing so fast that I don’t even know how to begin.

“Was that you on the phone?” is what I ultimately go with.

As before, my writing fades, and something new shows up to replace it.

“Why yes, it certainly was. How was your first trip into the Metaverse?”

What an odd question. You’d think I had just been on a pleasant vacation.

“I guess you can say I’m a bit conflicted,” I write back. “I’m going to need some serious exposition before I can even begin figuring out what to make of that.”

I am pleased, but also a bit startled, to find that the reply to that takes up most of the page.

“Well, I certainly have no shortage of ‘exposition.’

The Metaverse is an alternate world that exists parallel to the one that we live in. For shorthand use, I like to refer to the regular world as the ‘RG,’ and the Metaverse as the ‘UG,’ so I will be using these terms from here on out.

The UG is mostly uninhabited, though in certain areas, shadows exist. Shadows are lost spirits. Their primary instinct is typically to attack, but some of them can speak and be negotiated with. Now that you have broken the barrier, your little town is now one of the places where shadows exist. This is actually a really good thing, as they are good fodder for improving your combat skills. However, there are some shadows who are stronger than others, so you should pick your battles carefully.

I expect that there were several shadows waiting to ambush you the moment that the barrier was open, so by surviving that and unlocking your Persona, you have shown considerable potential. You see, I had to keep you in the dark, because I needed to know if you were worth my time to mentor.

The purpose of the UG is that some specific actions taken there can affect the RG. You can use the UG to change the hearts of wicked people. And I think that you may be strong enough to someday change the trajectory of society as a whole. Our nation is sick. People like you and I are like white blood cells. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

It is getting quite late, so I imagine that you will be going to bed. I urge you to think about what I have said here. You are being given a chance that about one in ten million people get.

~Lucy”

Now, that is more like it.

Before the other page has a chance to wipe itself, I turn to the next one and write, “can you just leave up that whole explanation so I can reference it later?”

Sure enough, the writing on the front page remains visible, and where I wrote my note, new text appears.

“Certainly. Good night, Ashley.”

I shut the journal, and stick it into a drawer in my night stand, out of sight.

There is a lot to unpack there, so I decide that it is probably best to think about it later, when I have more time. Still, it takes some self-control to not take out the journal and re-read her writing over and over again. Not like I really need to, given that I burned every word I read into my brain already. So I lay there, my brain full of Should I learn how to fight? And Is Ted a shadow too? And Have I really been chosen by an angel? And White blood cells? And What would Zoe think about all of this? And all sorts of little tidbits that I try to make a point of asking about next time. Needless to say, it takes me quite a while to fall asleep.