It was a sunny day and the sky was bright blue. There wasn’t a cloud in sight, a beautiful day to go to the park, or just absorb some summer sun. Too bad everyone else was missing it. Here in Serenity, the days were always beautiful.

An eighth day of the week just for me, nestled between Saturday and Sunday. Every Saturday at midnight, I am transported into this silent world. A perfect mimicry of Earth without all the people or most of the animals. All the objects are frozen in midair, frozen in time, only to drop to the ground when I touch them. Leaves, cars, trees. All still.

At first, I thought it was hell, but eventually I came around. Especially when I figured out how to get the TV working. Figuring out how to get one to work in Serenity had taken me years. But here I was now, able to enjoy it all at my leisure. Serenity was a place away from the franticness and responsibilities of everyday life. I yawned and curled up on the couch trying to distract myself with some TV.

The downloaded show I am watching is just terrible, but not quite bad enough to make me reach for the remote. It was surprisingly relaxing to just watch something I wasn’t overly engaged with. To just let the words wash over me without wondering what they mean.

I feel the hum of the generator through the floor as it provides power to my house. I’m glad I figured that one out. I had to reassemble that thing every time I came in here so I’m a pro at it by now. I can rebuild it in five minutes flat now. I remember back to when it took over an hour.

Suddenly, a rhythmic knocking at the door. The end of every knock was punctuated by a loud ripping sound like tape being peeled back. I turned off the TV, grumbling a bit as the knocks continued, and made my way to the front door. People on Earth kept bothering me about the stripped paint and bare wood at the door, saying it was an eyesore. But where were they now huh? Paint’s expensive, you know.

A few years ago, I gave up trying to make it look perfect every week. Now I just do what I like to call the hard slam test. Every Sunday after I return to Earth I open my front door and slam it shut as hard as I can, and if there are no visible holes and the door handle stays on then I’m good. Otherwise, I get a new door. Any visible wood gets a little dab of paint to cover it up, and you would be surprised how much I spend even with that haphazard system.

“Clack rrrrririiiiip. Clack rrrrrrip, Clack rrrririipppppp”.

There it is again, not stopping as I walk to the door. I wish it would skip a week for just once. But I had to do the stupid routine every time, otherwise it would just keep knocking all day. Well, sometimes it would stop for a while and leave if I waited. But it always would return within an hour or two to continue knocking again. I waited for a few seconds and waited for the next knock.

“Clack rrrrrii……”

I flung open the door to witness the shambling horror falling flat on its face and blinked dumbly at the ground. With all thirty of its eyeballs in sync. Well around thirty. They changed size and position sometimes so it was hard to tell the exact count. It’s surprising how well they could express dumb confusion so perfectly with such an alien body.

A small smile of amusement twitched at the corner of my lips. It lay there for a few more seconds with only a flicker of interest in me. A few eyes on its humanoid back met mine before they started blankly staring into the sky again. The eyes facing the ground started darting around and gained intense focus and I nearly groaned. It was going to be one of those days.

I had nearly forgotten the consequences of breaking my normal routine. The fleshy octopus tentacles at the bottom of its humanoid head gave a happy ripple and the beak underneath clacked once before the creature fell silent again. I just watched as it lay prone on the floor without attempting to get back up.

I felt a tinge of remorse as it kept ignoring me. I just wish I could tell it to just not knock so hard every time. It had been years at this point and we were the only ones that were here. It could be a little more considerate. But it wasn’t really its fault, it just didn’t understand I think. Well, I’m not entirely sure, maybe it really is doing it just to annoy me.

Fifteen minutes later there was no change, and I was annoyed despite telling myself to just be patient. Usually, it just stumbled a bit and looked at me in shock when I started doing this prank a few months ago. I actually had never seen it fall all the way over like that before. It had surprisingly good balance for what appeared to be the mass of exposed muscle and overly large bones that lined its frame. There was the occasional reddish chitinous plating covering some sections, especially the articulating interlocking bone colored plates covering the hands and feet. Those parts almost looked like some elaborate chainmail gloves. I call it Red in my mind, named after the color of its plating. Not very original I know, but it didn’t seem to care either way… Not like it could speak normally anyway.

Red finally looked up and the set of eyes I met flashed with unknowable depths for a second. I felt my memories of the earth, warm soil, ground, a pile of rotting leaves consuming my mind for a moment as the probe scanned my thoughts.

“Fshhhullllllll ka ka ka GRRRRRROUUUUUUnnn— ka –-AN—-ka---ANDA”

The beak clacked with each sound and the tentacles flapped as it stood. I shook my head a bit to shrug off the mental probe. I thought about the images I had seen looking for a common theme,

“Ground?” I said hesitantly.

I put my hand to my temple as I felt a twinge of pain as the wave of images resumed but now a repeating loop of ‘ground’ in my voice playing over and over beneath it. I shook off the mental probe a little harder this time before replying,

“Eh, Close enough,” I say, shrugging at it.

Red seemed to get the message and clicked its beak in satisfaction before standing and ambling off farther down the street. I closed the door and went back to the stupid shows on the TV. The street went silent once more. I needed some time to clear the headache I had coming on. Telepathy was always the worst part of this place.

— — — O — o — O — — —

After a few more minutes I turned off the TV again and stood up with restless energy. I always felt a little off balance after the mental probes. I just needed to do something with my hands to take my mind off things. I could barely watch TV anymore with the headache I was nursing anyway.

Hm, but what should I do? I think I should finish building the birdhouse. That should keep Red interested for a while. I was actually a little surprised it had left with just the one tidbit from my mind. Maybe it got a little of the concept of death when I thought of the soil? Especially when it focused on the rotting leaves near the end. Compost? Yeah, that must be it. Leaves that decompose and leave fresh soil for new growth. That was a meatier concept than normal. Maybe that's why it was staring at the dirt for so long.

It always got confused about stuff like that. Big concepts even for us natives to grasp let alone ones from whatever crazy reality it came from. I felt something wet drip from my nose. Ah, shit I almost forgot. I lifted my hand and put my hand to my nose before inspecting it. Yep, there it is. Sure enough, there was a trickle of blood flowing down my hand.

I went to the bathroom and looked at the mirror. Alright, looks pretty mild. I tapped the corners of my eyes and my ears and was pleasantly surprised when my finger came back dry. That was good. Blood from your nose was pretty easy to explain to people. From your ears and tear ducts? Much more concerning. I quickly washed off as the bleeding slowly petered to a stop after a few minutes.

I only made the mistake of attempting to explain that to the neighbors once. I shuddered remembering how Bill across the street called the ambulance anyway over my protests at the time. I knew I wouldn’t be able to explain myself to the doctors. After that, I took all their tests, and they couldn’t determine what was going on. After spending most of my money on various specialists, I eventually just was prescribed some blood thickeners and moved on with my life. I never used them, even the worst of the bleeding seemed to stop within a day or two of leaving Serenity. I shook my head of the old memories as I entered my garage.

I feel a little proud of myself as I take out my tools and start to look at some of the sections of wood that I had already measured and marked in pencil. Near the beginning, that telepathy would have knocked me out for hours but now it was barely a nosebleed. It made me proud of how far I had come since then. Suddenly with a lurch in my gut, I feel the memories from the past rise, struggling against their cage with sudden ferocity. I stop mid motion reaching for another piece of wood and frown as I wrestle mentally for a moment to suppress them brutally and decisively. No need to push my luck.

As the conflict died down my hand resumed its motion and I entered a sort of blank trance. Time passes in a blur and I hum a little tune to myself. I startle awake when I reach for the bench and see there are no more pieces to cut. I blink a few times and struggle for a second to remember what I was doing. My eyes scan the workbench, and eventually, my eyes catch on the box full of nails. Aha, the birdhouse! I grabbed the little bucket of nails and the hammer and began assembling the slanted roof and square walls. Finally, I screwed the metal hook into the top and it was ready to go.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

I had already set the pole into the ground in the backyard for it to hang on last week. Taking it outside, I hung it up and stepped back to admire my work. It swung in the soft wind and the sun beat down on my back. Yeah, there was a day-night cycle here. And no, I had no idea how that was possible. I smiled thinking at how Red would react to see its newest toy. Despite its horrifying appearance, it had surprisingly human body language. If I ordered my thoughts and aligned them with the right concepts when it came next week then this could hold its interest for a while. It was totally fascinated with even the most mundane things, but after a while, it would lose interest in that object for seemingly forever.

Having something new would give the front door a break. It would still knock at the back if I stayed on that side of the house but it might spend a few hours inspecting the birdhouse on its own before it did so. Over the years I got a sense of what would interest it and I had a good feeling in my gut about the project. It is surprisingly relaxing to be able to meet the eldritch creature on my own time rather than right on the dot every week.

It took a lot of work to set up sometimes but was a nice break from routine even if just in a small way. If I stood outside and waited for it then it wouldn’t appear. It was only when I went back inside that it would approach from the street and knock on the door. That’s why I waited for it to knock. If it missed its appointment its arrival was far more unpredictable and the door got even more damaged as I wasn't ready to meet it.

I was kinda surprised I hadn’t thought of making a birdhouse before after all these years. I put the finishing touches before stepping back to admire my handiwork. There it was with a triangular roof and a little stick poking out from the entrance. The unpainted wood swung from the post. When Red began to lose interest I would paint it to get its attention again. I needed to give myself time to wrack my brain for something else to do after all this. After all, the more I can prepare myself the less chance I get blasted with a surprisingly complicated concept like what happened today.

— — — O — o — O — — —

It was late and the shadows lengthened as the sun dipped below the horizon. I sat on the sofa reading a book under the glaring light of the nearby lamp I had just turned on. I looked up as I heard loud thumps from the front door for the second time today.

The knocking came with heavy slams. The creature let out loud screeching and clicking from behind the door. I frowned as I inserted my bookmark and shut the book with one hand with a click. I stretched and put the book on the side table as I stood. What could be wrong? Why was it back again today? I tried to think of what it could be.

I knew Red was still vaguely upset about that squirrel it mentally probed too hard last year. Little guy practically vanished when he entered the Serenity realm even if I occasionally saw him during the week on Earth. He ran for the hills whenever he saw the eldritch, which made Red’s shoulders slump a little whenever it happened.

And yes I could tell it was the same squirrel in the real world because he had a distinctive black diamond pattern of fur on his back on his otherwise gray coat. I didn’t even realize squirrels could have clear shapes in their fur like that. I chuckled a bit. I bet the other squirrels were amazed at how much extra food he stored for the winter with an extra day a week with no predators hunting him down.

I knew for a fact he ran around like a madman whenever I saw him. I frowned at myself as I realized I was getting distracted. I’ve been daydreaming a lot more these days, haven't I? I blinked in slight confusion as I suddenly was standing in front of the main door. Shadows flickered in the corners of the room like dark flames as I stood there.

Maybe Red, no Ally, wanted help with the new creature and be its friend this time? It wasn’t too uncommon but it hadn't had much luck even with my help. It was one of the few topics the creature actively tried to get me to help it with. Ally’s shoulders had hunched and its face tentacles had hung loosely from its face for months after the squirrel started running from it. I could just feel its visceral disappointment as most of its eyes pointed dejectedly at the ground. It had taken the introduction of trampolines to fix that one. That one had kept its interest for over a year. It just had taken one of its fingers and pressed down on various points of the trampoline a month or two before I finally demonstrated jumping up and down for it.

Ally was enthusiastic but I did wince when it landed directly on a few of its eyes a few times when it bounced too high. The injured eyes looked pretty gruesome and deflated for a few minutes while leaking a disgusting whitish fluid. After that, they formed what looked like a rough scab. Less than ten minutes later the scab had fallen off, leaving a fully healed eyeball. The freshly healed eyeballs would dart around frantically as if to make up for lost time. It screeched pitifully a little after the injury but after it scabbed over later it promptly forgot and just resumed merrily jumping on the trampoline before eventually injuring itself again.

“Thump THump THump SCRREEEEECH”

Oh right, I should just answer the door. I had just been standing there with my hand on the door handle without moving for a few seconds as I spaced out. Maybe Re— Ally just found composting really interesting and wanted more information? It began its loud slams and screeching at the door again as I resumed walking to the door. Wait but wasn’t my hand just on the door handle? Why was I back in the kitchen? Something just didn’t feel right… Why was it slamming the door so hard? And it almost never screeched unless it was scared or upset.

As I approached the door again I frowned and decided to divert slightly to peek out the window to see in front of the door at an angle. I froze. This… This isn’t my eldritch. Its posture is totally different, its multitude of eyes focused and narrowed in anger. Its posture was tight and its shoulders stiff. The face tentacles are thrashing around in agitation and its carapace plates are corn yellow with black splotches rather than dark red. I felt visceral disgust build in my gut. This is the ENEMY!

One of the eyes on its shoulders drifted from the door it was pounding on and met my own. I felt a mental probe enter my mind but this wasn’t the gentle one I was used to. It was barbed and pointed with malice as it attempted to fragment my positive memories and reinforce the negative ones. The waves of raw malice of sharp edged images contained in the attack were almost as stunning as the damage itself. It was built to savagely wound and maim the mind.

I was stunned by the sudden vicious assault. I only snapped out of the spell as the foreign ENEMY outside moved, I pushed back at the mental assault, and it was… easy? The sharp images penetrated but then it felt like a wave of energy pushed out from the back of my mind to help me. The attack was instantly washed from my mind leaving me with nothing but faint pressure from behind my eyes.

As the creature rushed to the window it launched another mental attack, its face tentacles thrashing even more wildly now. I brushed the assault back preemptively as I imagined walls in my mind. Everything felt fluid and easy compared to normal and I marveled at the strength of my quickly erected mental defenses. They were like the stone walls of an ancient castle. Thick and sturdy. The pressure behind my eyes builds and I feel a slight headache coming on. But my confidence seemed misplaced. Endless wave after wave of psychic assaults follows the first attack one after another with seemingly no end. The headache builds more and I feel myself begin to sweat.

Those barriers that felt like mountains are now crumbling more every second, my misplaced confidence turned to fear as my defenses were stripped bit by bit. I look away to the ground but I can feel ENEMY forcing the mental connection open even without eye contact. Thousands of attacks and sharpened images launched each second into my mental walls. Each was weaker without eye contact but still wearing me down slowly. After nearly ten seconds my headache has transitioned into a full-blown migraine and I clutch my head in pain.

I desperately tried to counterattack but only formed a few distorted and lumpy images that barely even crossed the divide between our minds before dissolving. My weak counterattack came at the cost of my crumbling barriers. As my assault petered out, one strong barbed image suddenly pierced my mind and sent me reeling back in pain. A woman with a caved in chest, blood leaking from her slack mouth... She was familiar.

I stumbled backward away from the window but tripped as the gap in my mental defenses widened under another wave of mental attacks. The window shattered and a yellow carapace coated arm reaches through the broken glass… Only to pause and retreat in a hiss of pain and the sizzling of flesh.

The frequency of the mental attacks quickly slows until suddenly, the bridge between our minds snaps with an elastic twang. I lay sprawled face down on the floor and my head was fuzzy as I reeled from the backlash of the mental bridge snapping. I’m pretty sure the warmth underneath my chin is blood. It’s sticky and I can smell something metallic. I try to push myself up but my arms are weak and violently tremble when I put weight on them.

I collapse to the floor bonelessly. Everything swims around me as shadows begin twisting in the corner of my vision. The pool of liquid beneath me grows and I feel something warm and metallic on my lips that are kissing the floor. In the distance, I hear a challenging screech followed by another louder one outside the window, and I close my eyes for just a moment…

— — — O — o — O — — —

Another pair of screeches sends a sharp jolt of pain through me and jolts me awake. I must have fallen unconscious because I hear the thumps and grunts of battle farther down the street now. I hear more eldritch screeching and wet slaps of flesh on flesh and flesh on exoskeleton as the fight continues. The shadows around me wobble. Finally, after what seems like an eternity, the sounds die down and I hear one of them whimpering and shambling away with what sounds like a limp, to the triumph of the other.

There is a victorious screech but I can’t tell which one came out on top. I flip myself onto my back and cough as some blood runs into my mouth from my running nose. I tuck in my chin and barely manage to sit up so I can see the shattered frame of the window leading out into the night, the whole bottom portion in a pile of splinters. A cold wind blew through the shattered glass and stung my watering eyes. I waited with baited breath and my shoulders tensed as the winner shuffled toward the shattered window.

After a moment a familiar red form appeared framing the window shadowed by the street lamps behind it and I let out my held breath in a sigh of relief. Ally’s visible eyes appeared worried and it put its right hands up as if to reach for me but paused before reaching through the shattered window. For a moment it looked indecisive; it returned its hand to its sides and just stood there silently. I meet one of its eyes and a mental connection begins to form. But as soon as it connects my headache flares and I wince in pain. The channel is quickly severed and the eldritch lets out a loud decisive click from its beak.

Ally got a determined look in its eyes and began to turn. Its back merged into the darkness of the street and my wobbling vision grew even blurrier. I heard the warbling of the eldritch across the street before a crash of a shattered window broke the silence. My mind grew fuzzy and I could barely focus. Another crash of a shattered window. This time to my neighbor on my right. Everything faded as the crashes continued. I had one last ridiculous woozy thought before passing out,

“Hopefully I don’t have to pay for those windows now too.”