It was Thursday afternoon, and I sat in the kitchen looking at the giant hole in the wall. It looked like someone had thrown a singular punch full force and left a hole in the plaster wall. I felt like that wasn't really an important issue to fix right now, but I couldn't help but keep staring at it. It reminded me that I wasn't safe here. I looked up as I heard a soft pattering at my kitchen window.

There outside I could see the squirrel that had entered Serenity standing pressed against my kitchen window. Its front paws were splayed against the glass as it stood on its hind legs while it cocked its head at me as it saw me turn. I blinked as it chittered at me for a moment before leaping out of sight.

Slightly confused, I went to the window and peered out to see the squirrel nowhere in sight. I wonder if it was more intelligent than normal? I mean it did enter Serenity after all so there must be something special about it. It wouldn't be the strangest thing I've learned in my life based on the last few years. I stepped outside for a bit, but it seems the squirrel was gone.

Already outside, I decided to rearm the security system for when I reentered Serenity tonight. The sound of the windchimes was annoying and a few hours after I set it up, I had to make it stop. I had muffled the hanging windchimes by stuffing some fabric inside each one. I went around the front and took out the fabric to allow the windchimes to make their full tones as they swung in the gentle breeze. As I reached the backyard, I saw a familiar animal perched in a tree staring down at me. The same squirrel from Serenity with a gray coat and a black diamond pattern on its back jumped down to the ground and reared back on its hind legs. Its tail was erect straight out, and it seemed to eye me warily as it stood in place.

We both stood there, man and squirrel for a moment staring at one another. That is until I almost fell backward as I felt a faint mental probe reach out for me. I reflexively slapped it away. My head whipped around, searching for the culprit, but it was just me and the squirrel. It shifted on its feet for a moment before stilling. The probe tentatively reached out again. I turned back and looked down at the squirrel for a second before accepting the connection.

The squirrel fell back down on all fours and sent a series of images to me. They were all distorted, like they were taken on a wide angle lens and everything looked massive. Before I could make sense of an image, another would take its place. I forcefully slowed down the deluge by focusing on one image. It wavered as the stream of other images passed by at the corner of my focus, trying to draw my attention. It took a moment, but I finally interpreted why the perspective was so strange.

The images were captured from the squirrel's point of view. It was wide angled because squirrels have eyes on the sides of their head while humans have their eyes pointed forward. And the squirrel was obviously way smaller than I am! After interpreting the first image, I moved on and grabbed the next from the stream flowing by. The stream gradually slowed as the connection between the two of us grew thicker and the squirrel seemed to realize I could only focus on a few images at a time. I considered the images I had examined so far. They were all different angles of my house.

For some reason, all the views of the interior were blurry and distorted. I was in all of the images as a grayish blob caught through a window. It showed different times, and different weather. Rain and shine, myself as a blurry figure captured around my home. But these images were followed by images of me outside with perfect clarity. I tried to understand why it would show me that. I think I understood. Maybe was some form of greeting, showing its view of me? So the proper response would be to send back my view of it? I packaged some of my memories of the squirrel outside and the few times I spotted it in Serenity and sent them back along the mental bridge, even if at a much slower pace than the squirrel's deluge.

The squirrel chittered happily for a moment as it received my stream of images. It tucked its head into its chest and wiped at its face with its little paws. I stood there, unsure what was happening as the telepathic bridge sat there unused by both of us for several seconds. I shuffled in place and scratched my arm. Both of us stood there for a second longer before the squirrel’s tail drooped a bit. It sent another stream of images at me, this time much more slowly. This time underneath the stream of images were emotions as well. Seemingly the same images of my house but more attention was given to the blur behind the windows. Caution, wariness, flee.

Then all of a sudden, the perspectives shifted again to a larger hunched figure that was similarly blurred. The images began to come in sequence. It played like a jittery video. At the end of the street, the blurred figure seemed to pop into existence mid-stride. It would walk a few steps before the perspective shifted and it was suddenly farther down the street than before. Like the video was buffering and skipping ahead after reloading.

The longer the video played in my mind, the smoother it became. The blurred figure made its way to a familiar house before banging on the door with its similarly blurred fist. Recognition finally hit me. It was Red! Sure enough, I saw the door open into the distorted interior of the house and my silhouette in the doorway.

The video faded away and now it felt like there was a pane of glass separating me from the events happening in front of me. I took a step forward and as soon as my foot touched the glass, I was sucked inwards into the illusory world. It felt like my body suddenly snapped into high definition. Taste, smell, temperature. It all came rushing back. I floated there as some kind of ghost as I was the blurry figure in my house answering the door. What I knew now as my past self stared at Red’s blurry figure for a minute or two before stepping back into the doorway like it was some kind of portal and shutting the door behind him with a slam. I frowned. The same emotions from the squirrel pulsed throughout the whole encounter when I focused on either of the blurred figures. Unease. Fear. Wrongness.

I sent the squirrel comfort and affirmation back. Images of me in the house reading a book, or weathering out a storm. Burrowing into the ground for the winter. I thought that was an analogy a squirrel would understand more. It sent skepticism back. I sent affirmations back. I understood it was frightened, but Red just wanted to be its friend, not hurt it! And the weird distortions, well it was… it was… Really, the best explanation... My telepathic messages faltered for a moment as I considered… Red didn't want to hurt it, and I certainly didn't want to either and I sent affirmations again. The squirrel now looked more tense as it shifted the illusory world to show another scene.

It showed the same interaction as before. Red approached, and my past self answered the door, Red tripped and lay there for a while, then left. The world stuttered and jumped. The sun was now at the horizon. It was twilight. That was when Yellow appeared. There it was framed in perfect clarity, with narrowed eyes, yellow plating, thrashing tentacles on its face.

There at the end of the street, it stood. I recoiled as the squirrel pulsed acceptance and comfort along with the figure. I watched as it beat on the door with massive force. But a few inches from the wood its fist slowed, as if suddenly pushing through molasses. It turned the titanic blows into something weaker than one of my average punches. After a moment I saw its eyes snap to my blurry figure standing there behind the window. The interiors of the house were impossible to discern. Anything beyond the window seemed to shimmer and waver as if caught in a mirage.

I winced as my blurry shadow collapsed out of sight as Yellow shifted to the nearby window and began hitting it instead of the door. For some reason the fists weren’t slowed as much as before and the wood splintered and glass shattered as it reached through into the house. But the distortions shifted behind the window and condensed into a thick dark smoke tendril the width of a thumb that latched onto the creature's arm, sending it reeling back in pain as its arms reached through the window.

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For some reason, I felt warm and fuzzy inside at seeing the smoke protect me. I gasped in dismay as the smoke grew a little less dense after the creature withdrew its arm with a hiss of pain. The creature collected itself for a moment before smashing the base of the window as the smoke condensed around its fist to reduce its blows. Its downward stomps were able to push through the smoke and open a gap for it to enter through. Each blow made the smoke lighter and lighter. The lighter the smoke became, the better I could see into the room as the strange distortions through the squirrel’s vision decreased.

The invading creature finished widening the hole before stepping through the gap. It screeched in pain but began taking slow steps forward as dark tendrils burst from the neighboring rooms and began latching onto it and burning its flesh. It shielded its face with its arms and slowly stepped forward even as an enraged shriek sounded in the distance.

However, it was faint and echoed strangely in the illusory world. Somehow I got the impression that it was coming from far, far away. I looked back into the house. Wherever the smoky tendrils the invading creature touched burns and the creature's skin sizzled. I instinctively held my breath, even if I was just a projection, as I approached what I recognized as my prone body. The creature was approaching it, barreling through as it swatted at the rapidly fading tendrils.

I clutched my chest as it raised its foot over my image’s body… only to step over me. It continued its battle with the smoke into the next room, ignoring the prone body like it wasn’t even there. I heard it move into the kitchen and begin smashing the floor with mighty blows. I could see my body shift and furniture move at the power of the blows coming from the kitchen vibrated the whole house like an earthquake. Another heavy blow. Another scream of rage in the distance, this time far closer. Before the invading creature could land another heavy blow, Red burst through the breach to the house with a scream of rage. It barely touched the ground as it launched into the kitchen and began to fight the other creature out of sight. I tried to shift to look, but my feet were rooted in place. I looked around and spotted a familiar squirrel squatting on my front lawn. I tried for another look, but it was no use. It seems I could only see what the squirrel had seen at the time.

After a series of heavy blows from the kitchen, the battle between the two eldritch creatures returned to the main room. They shifted and punched violently until they were practically fighting on top of me. Red was pushing the other creature back, assisted by dark tendrils emerging from the kitchen doorway that was as thick as an arm now and were pitch black. Every time they would dim, they would retreat to the kitchen before returning darkened once more. The yellow plated creature jumped over my body and retreated to the window as the defensive counterattack grew overwhelming. I shouted out in horror at the illusion as Red lifted its foot over my body, wholly focused on the retreating creature.

My eyes widened in fear and my projection dived forward as Red stepped down and stomped directly on my prone body’s right shoulder. I felt like vomiting as I heard the snap of bone and saw blood and gore spread from the wound where the right half of my body was crushed. My past self twitched and woke with a scream as the red carapace creature continued the chase outside, paying my body no mind. I stared as my past self writhed in pain and clutched his shoulder. Snot and tears ran down his face as I saw the dark tendrils loop around his torso. Still thrashing, my past self began to cough up blood as he was roughly dragged into the kitchen by the tendrils. The battle between the two creatures continued outside unabated.

I heard my screams from the other room and the ripping and tearing of flesh. Thousands of babbling voices assaulted me from every direction, all shouting into my ears asking for attention. I felt a phantom pain in my shoulder and my head began throbbing. After what seemed like forever, my past self fell silent. The ripping sounds continued. The battle outside continued. The sounds from the kitchen stopped before my prone form was dragged back into the main room and thrown roughly onto the floor face down. I leaned down to inspect my prone body’s shoulder, only to see smooth unblemished skin. Only my tattered shirt on one side remained of the injury.

The dark tendrils began waving, emerging from the kitchen and diffusing in the room as a dark mist, distorting my view of the room. I was drawn back out of the house as the distortion and twisting view grew greater and greater over time. The mirage beyond the threshold reasserted itself into it was once more indistinct blobs in my vision. As I floated over the front lawn, I turned to see a familiar squirrel sitting on a tree branch nearby. It seemed to have moved out of the way of the fighting. As soon as our gazes met the illusory world dissolved into white motes of light until there was only me and the squirrel in silence in a white void. The light grew brighter and brighter until even the squirrel disappeared. I shuddered as the mental bridge was suddenly severed, and I returned to my body.

— — — O — o — O — — —

I woke up staring up at the darkening sky. Sitting up, the squirrel was nowhere in sight. I stood and considered what I had seen, feeling slightly sick. The red carapace creature had just stepped on me! The yellow carapace one actually had been the one to take pains to avoid stepping on me despite launching the telepathic assault earlier. Why would the squirrel show me all of this? How would I not remember something that traumatic? However, despite my whirling thoughts, one thing stuck out in my thoughts. The yellow carapace creature had been smashing the floor in the kitchen. I was sure based on the vibrations on the floor it must have done serious damage. The emotions underlying the illusory world also constantly blared the kitchen's importance despite my inability to look inside. The kitchen was also where I had been dragged off to when I was injured. That's where those black tendrils had returned to to refill their color. Something important was there. I rushed to the back door and hesitated for a moment at the door handle getting a feeling of foreboding.

Finally, I threw open the door and peered into the kitchen but didn’t step inside, suddenly afraid. As I watched, the shadows seemed to lengthen. I shivered as I remembered the tendrils and took a step back from the doorway. A dark spot began growing in the middle of the floor, and I began to feel a pull towards it. My eyes widened and I turned to run. I only made it a few steps before something grabbed my ankle. I tripped and looked down, but there was nothing there. I sat up and tried to grab where I could feel something wrapped around my ankle, but my hand passed through whatever it was like it wasn’t there. I started to panic and started tearing at where I could feel the thing wrapped around me.

In a moment of clarity, I remembered. The dark tendrils! I must just not be able to see them like the squirrel. The invisible tendril began dragging me toward the doorway that now began to look like a cavernous mouth of a beast with inexorable force as soon as I had this thought. I struggled and grabbed at the grass but it gave way in great clumps as I was dragged back. As I drew closer to the door, I felt more and more tendrils latched onto me increasing the pull and increasing my speed. Finally with a final burst of force I flew off the ground and through the doorway and floated in the middle of the room. The back door slammed shut behind me and I stared down in horror at the pool of liquid shadow that was quickly growing beneath my feet. I twisted and shouted as the shadow grew over my legs and began working its way up my torso. It felt cool, and wherever the shadows touched, I lost all sensation. As I struggled, the tendrils held firm and my protests fell on deaf ears as the shadow reached my neck. I strained for one final effort, but now I could only move my head, losing sensation in the rest of my body. I let out one final scream as the liquid shadow began pouring into my mouth as I twitched and looked towards the sky.

— — — o — O — o — — —

I startled awake at the kitchen table. I had slumped over and started drooling all over the tablecloth. I sat up and looked around. It was nearly dark, the sky tinged a deep red as the last rays of light fled. I remembered I had a strange dream. Something about the attack on the house, then a big shadow… healed me? Something like that. I just remembered the shadows had helped me somehow. I strained at the memory for a second, but the details were already fading away as dreams tend to do.

Had Enemy and Ally been involved somehow? I flipped on the light to the room and squinted as I looked at my feet. Was my shadow darker than normal? Pretty sure his shadow shouldn’t be a perfect circle below his feet… The shadow pulsed and I remembered I had forgotten to take the cloth out of the last windchime by the backdoor earlier. I went outside and did it quickly before it got too dark. I went down my mental checklist before nodding to myself. Alright, all my chores were done, time to make myself some dinner. Never could go wrong with some pasta.