Life is strange.

But we already knew that.

I wouldn’t even call it unpredictable. It was way more than that. Life has a remarkable way of shifting the ebb and flow of the everyday. Though us common folks - unpredictable was the only word for it. But was it really?

Cause and effect. That’s the paper trail it leaves behind.

You know the cause, you’ll find the effect. You can prepare, you can be ready, be always one step ahead of the curve.

Sadly, that curve ahead was a steep one… and I didn’t brake in time, didn’t prepare so now here I was, staring at the effect in its blonde hair, hazel-eyes complexion in the face - the twitching of her lips, the constant darting of her gaze.

Amanda was a rather nervous effect.

The question was - what caused her to be here?

Hello second horseman, go on and ask your question, fill the empty space where my jaw hangs loose.

“What are you - “

“I wanted to - “

Spoked at the same time. Stopped at the same time. Next thing you know, we’ll be apologizing at the same time too.

“My bad.”

“Sorry…”

Think maybe I should buy a lottery ticket.

The huge intake of breath that streamed into my nostrils was filled with both amusement and bemusement. Then they both funneled out of me with my next set of words.

“Ladies first.”

Thanks…” She smiled meekly. “Actually… yeah, that’s what I came here to do.

“Which is to…?”

Amanda made eye-contact again, brief, fleeting… genuine, “Thank you.”

“Oh.” It was the most profound ‘Oh’ I ever had so far. Wasn’t certain about it before, I was now. “That answered my question too, then. Didn’t think… or hope more like, that you’d remember anything at all.”

“I still do, sometimes… even when I don’t want to,” The wind blew along with her heavy breath. “Sleeping pills help, but then sometimes they don’t… and then I’m back there in that building all over again.”

Her expression went dark, and just for a second, through a simple glimpse, I found myself staring back again at a hollow shell, into vacant eyes, hearing empty moans.

I’ve also seen enough of that in my dreams already.

“Detective friend of mine mentioned to me that sometimes amnesia would be a side effect of…” I trailed away, shaking my head. “But it doesn’t really matter now, does it? You’re here now, you found me, and you know.”

There was a look on her face that seemed almost apologetic, as if she was some kind of inconvenience to me.

“The doctors… the policeman… they asked a lot of things from us.”

“What’d you say?”

She smiled, chuckling faintly as another gust of wind breezed past her long locks of hair. “They didn’t believe the first guy… the second… not even the third. I decided that perhaps a simple ‘I don’t remember’, would make the process much shorter when it came time for me. That, now that, they actually believed.”

I smiled back at that. “Suspected as much.”

“Strangely though, when I first woke up at the hospital, I found myself thanking so many people for saving me… everyone, except for my actual savior. He… how I looked for him, but he simply was nowhere to be found. Even bought a thank-you cake as soon as I was discharged, then I went to his apartment. No luck there, either.”

“Don’t suppose you still have that cake, do you?”

Amanda raised her empty hands forward, showcasing their empty-handedness by displaying how empty they were, and then drew them back, hanging her head in shame.

“It was a good cake.”

“Evidently.”

This was one of the most outlandish conversations I’ve ever had, which was a little ironic, given that I was talking to somebody that wasn’t a mystical creature of myth for once.

A flesh and blood bonafide ordinary human being, like me… kinda… I think.

I think it has mostly to do with the fact that with the exception of Adalia, I like to pretend, at least in my waking hours, that that whole entire fiasco didn’t happen. That it was simply an isolated incident with no recurring repercussion.

Of course, Ash was also an exception… Ria was too - okay I just want to believe that apart from a few unavoidable ripple effects from that waking nightmare, that nothing else would come out of it. Nothing new to crop out.

Then all of the sudden, here waltzed in Amanda - a living, breathing relic of that incident, and suddenly I’m reliving it again, I couldn’t play pretend any longer.

It all felt very…

“It all feels a bit strange… talking to you,” Amanda remarked. “Do you get that same feeling too?”

That’s third time in sync. She psychic?

“Then again, I suppose not,” She spoke again before I could. “When I saw you - smelled a funny smell in town back then… I saw them too. If you’re with them, by now, I’m sure nothing fazes you, right?”

Bold assumption. Maybe if I was somebody else that assumption would actually be the truth. But since I’m not, that assumption will remain only an assumption.

Them, huh? Ria and Adalia. The flaming chicken and one of her abductors. I could only imagine how she reacted seeing them again, wandering and roaming about the city streets with not a care in the world. Then also seeing me sandwiched between them?

Frankly, I’m surprised she didn’t come up to me right then and there. I would have.

“They… I…”

There were so many things I needed to say, and it was frustrating that I couldn’t say them all at once. I took in a breath and reshuffled them into a nice straight line, starting first with:

“You’re not going to tell anyone about them, are you?”

Amanda shook her head immediately. “No, no, I would never. I didn’t come here for that. I didn’t follow you here to confirm that what I saw wasn’t a dream. I already knew it wasn’t a dream. I just… mmm, I told you already - I wanted to simply thank you… for saving me. That’s it.”

“I… I see…”

So much sincerity and appreciation. The last time I’ve had so much of it directed was with Ash, before… well before everything happened. I wasn’t used to being thanked and I don’t even think I should be. I was a small role in a part played by forces vastly bigger than I. It’s them that needed thanking not me.

“I guess, you’re welcome,” I gave a weak smile. “But really, me being there was just… being at the wrong place at the wrong time, I suppose.”

Amanda shook her head again, muttering softly, “Not to me.”

So far everything that came out of my mouth has been rigid, whereas she was more along the lines of being anxious if anything. Don’t suppose I can blame her for it, though.

“Is that really all you came here for?” I asked. “If I was the one standing there and you sitting here, I’d never be able to close my mouth again from all the questions that’ll be coming out of me.”

She shuffled in place, an arm over the other. “I ask myself questions a lot these past couple of days. Never really got around to finding an answer.”

Guess nightmares weren’t the only things we had in common from that incident.

“I’d asked but… mmm, I don’t think you’d know the answers to them either.”

“Probably know a lot more than you do though,” I rebutted. “Considering circumstances. Plus, you kinda have the right to know, don’t you? You aren’t gonna walk outta here even more empty-handed than you are now, that’ll just be pointless.”

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“Not really,” She said brightly. “My savior’s been thanked, got to see him again too… not in the way I thought I would, cakeless, but… ahh, maybe next time… if there is... a next time?”

I frowned. “Why wouldn’t there be?”

“Oh, oh, it’s nothing. I’m just not sure how things will turn out… if I see, uh… her again.”

“Adalia.”

“Her.” Amanda nodded.

Reassurance wasn’t probably the thing she needed. Can’t tell her that Adalia wasn’t actually all that bad, that she was surprisingly pretty nice once you get to know her. Amanda probably knew all that already, logically speaking.

But fear simply wasn’t all that logical. Fear just feared… and that I can wholeheartedly empathize with.

“Yeah, I hear you,” I told her. “That’s still beside the point though. You sure you got no questions you want to throw at me at all?”

Amana mulled it over for a moment. A moment where her lips tightened and her eyebrows went furrowing downwards. Finally, she exhaled a breath.

“Maybe, maybe just one,” She said, as another chilly current drifted her question hurling towards me. “What are Asterians doing here on Earth?”

Cause and effect. I mentioned it before. Gave a stern lecturing about how you should always be prepared. I knew how to talk the talk… walking the walk was a whole ‘nother matter entirely. In terms of expecting what I just heard? I was basically a one-legged cripple.

"Didn't take you for the cultured type," I said.

In retrospect, I shouldn't even be surprised that she knew. Wasn't like Asteria was an obscure indie piece with little to no backing whatsoever. If it garnered enough notoriety to have people cosplaying characters, it was a given it'd be a household name to some.

I just didn't expect she'd be one of the 'some'.

"We had a bit of a talk when you moved in, do you remember that?" She asked. "You asked me back then what I was pursuing in college and I told you that I was in - "

"Program and design," I uttered, realization dawning on me. "Must have slipped my mind."

"Asteria's one of my recent favorites. Wrote a short essay on it once too. That one actually got me a short tour in their studio. I never expected to be nearly killed by something I'd admired so much. Then again, I don't suppose that's a thing I should even be expecting in the first place. Life gets so strange sometimes… don't you think so?"

"Took the words right outta my mind."

Talking to her made everything stiff for some reason. Mature innuendos aside, I was seriously afraid to even move from where I was, like a wild timid animal, I feared she might scamper off, even when I knew something like that was totally stupid and unreasonable.

Couldn't help it. Everything about her, every slight movement, every gentle expression, they all just screamed 'Fragile! Do not touch!'. Heck, half the time I expected the wind to just blow her over Humpty-dumpty style.

She was like a grenade with its pin off, and God only knows if she was a dud all along or actually primed to burst at any moment.

"So…"

"So…" Once again, ladies first. "What are they doing here?"

I realized I shouldn't have talked so big just then. I held collectively, within this desolated little mind of mine, only sparse pieces of details and facts. The answers that I do have were fragmented, and none were even fit to be answers to give in the first place.

Time to go with a classic.

"No idea," I said at first, then realized I technically did. "Okay, actually I do. But it's a long convoluted mess and I'm not sure where to even begin."

"I rather not waste more of your time… you look tired as is," Amanda inched forward slightly, leaning over, sheepishly smiling over at me. "You can keep things short, I'll be gone soon. If there's something I don't understand… well, mmm… next time, then."

It wasn't as if I had a long captivating tale prepared in advance in the case anyone confronted me about my life as is. Fortunately, it wasn't a tale adorned with flowery words she wanted, just a simple brief answer for a not so simple, perplexing question.

I'll do my best.

"Well first off, they're not Asterians," I began, reluctantly unsealing the entrance to a rabbit hole without an end. "Actually one of them is, but I digress. They're all beings from a place called Kronocia."

Amanda, her reaction barely threading shock, asked calmly, "Another game?"

"Another world," I corrected.

She nodded, blinked, "Okay… wasn't expecting that," and remained still very much level-headed. "I have a funny feeling this won't be the last time you'll be shattering my expectations."

As it turns out she was right on the money. Every assumption, every belief that she had about the whole thing wrong, done and gone. I let my abridged version of the events unfold into the open air, Amanda, a good listener, stood quietly and took it all in.

Would have offered her a place to sit beside me, but strangely I felt she wouldn't have even if I got on my knees and insisted. So there, standing, she remained, letting my brow-raising explanations replace her own.

Of course, Kronocians not Asterians. But that didn't mean the conclusions she reached were all in stark contrast to mine. So much common ground shared between the two worlds, it'd be amazing if there weren't some similarities intertwined between my hearsay and hers.

Indeed it was a Matriarch's doing that got her involved in this mess. She even got the terminology right. Subspecies of Elidna. Going Frenzy. She remembered seeing an Elf, a Phoenix and also a Succubus alongside me. Honestly much of what I told, she already knew.

The rare few times I corrected her were for details that were simply minute. Terestra was no Demon Queen, she was the Goddess that ruled over Kronocia, and the omnipotent perpetrator that reduced it all into nothingness… and she was also -

"Your mother?"

That was the extent of her outrage, a slight rise in volume of her voice, and it didn't even go up by much. Amanda looked at me with eyes wide open, and with her eyebrows soaring to the heavens.

"Yep," I heaved. "I'm the son of another world's Goddess. The 21st century Jesus Christ at your service. Pleasure to meet you."

She smiled at that. "And Leonardo's your dad? I'm curious how that happened. They hate each other."

"Trust me, I'm also at a loss about my own conception. A Hero and an evil Goddess, loving husband and wife… who would have thought, huh?"

"Four out of Five endings to the game ended with them killing each other," Amanda wondered aloud. "I guess it's pretty safe to assume your parents aren't really from the game."

"Spoilers…how nice. Might as well double down while you're at it, what happens in the fifth?"

"The worst ending," She simply said. "Terestra destroys Asteria for good."

Seriously, my mom has got some issues. As a kid, I always hated that piercing gaze of hers whenever I was up to no good. Skipping school, playing games… just one look from her would set me straighter than the ruler she keeps on the top shelf.

I always thought that stare was a passive ability all Moms have on their offspring. Probably was still, it was just that mine had the added benefit of being capable of destroying the world in the blink of an eye… certainly felt like that was the case that one time I broke the washing machine because my dumbass thought it could clean everything.

Spoiler alert: They won't clean your shoes for you. I learned that the hard way.

"So, Kronocia… it's really…?"

"It got ending five-d, yes." I affirmed. "That about sums it up. They're living with me because they ain't got no place to go."

"Except for the Elf, though, right? She's Asterian… so what is she doing here?"

Hearing that popped open a thought, a question more like. "You finished the game, right? Does it ever explain why Elves are as hated as they are?"

"Ahh, that's one of my favourite things about the game," She said eagerly. "Usually Elves are a prestigious race in many stories. I like that little turnaround in the game where they're seen as vile and despicable creatures, it's really - "

Amanda trailed away, her eyes meeting mine, and immediately understood.

"Not what you wanted to hear…"

I waved it off. "There a reason for it?"

"Not… exactly. They're evil… and that's that."

"Seriously?"

"It is what it is," She said. "That's a direct quote from an NPC. I suppose you're asking because the Elf living with you told you about it?"

"Yeah… her name's Eshhhllyyy - I call her Ash," I said, nodding my head. "Probably recognize her from the game. She's a companion, and to answer your question - I have completely no clue. I found her swimming in the dumpster waiting to get crushed by a garbage truck."

From there, what started off as a single, isolated question in regards to how otherworldly beings ended up in our plane of existence branched off and morphed into a storytime session of bizarre proportions.

Had half a mind to pry more on Ash's story and her true nature... but decided it really wasn't Amanda's story to tell and moved on to something else.

It never occurred to me just how much I wanted to air out my grievances, how I longed for someone to just listen, nod their head, and sympathize with the utter ridiculousness that was my daily life, and as Amanda stood there, listening, nodding, sympathizing, I believe it was safe to state that she passed with flying colors.

"And all I wanted was a job, you know?" I finished, just as the setting sun peeked its last beyond the distant horizon. "Now I've died once, been made a master of two different beings, a blood donor for another one, and my all-powerful, all-encompassing parents are ghosting me to the ends of the Earth like they have nothing to do with it."

Amanda, the patron saint of patience, stood across a meadow of swaying yellows and red, twirling a sunflower around her fingertips, and wisdom knowing no bounds, simply uttered out, "Relatable."

"I know, right?" I said, feeling validated for once. "Look at me now, I'm dressed like a bad-boy and I smell like an air freshener that got stuffed with chili powder."

"Well, I think you look nice," Amanda said, her comforting smile visible from across the garden. "Much better than how I usually see you. Not sure about the smell, hmm, maybe it's just preference."

Unfortunately, she couldn't ponder for any longer. The invisible pitter-patter of raindrops flinched her face into a slight blinking frenzy. Adding to it, came a stronger gust of wind blowing the edge of her dress and the golden locks of her hair along with it.

"Another one," She muttered, squinting upwards to the grey murky skies. "These past few days have been awfully wet… and I keep forgetting to bring an umbrella."

"You need one? Got a spare in the house."

"Ahh, no, no…" She shook her head. "That won't be necessary. My car is right around the corner. I suppose I should take that as my cue to start going."

The pitter-patter turned into heavy splashes, inking the white of the concrete pavement into a damp dark shimmer, prompted Amanda into movement, her long slender legs treading back towards the open street.

"It was nice talking to you again," She said from afar. "It was very… enlightening."

A loud thundering from up high had her spinning right around, her hands above her head, breaking into a sprint towards the exit. Seeing her outline grow further into the distance spurred something in me.

Talking to her was a breath of fresh air, a semblance of normality that I've never had in so long. I'd like to retain that feeling, actually. It's quite nice.

"Can there be a next time?" I yelled.

Her figure from afar, her white dress, her yellow hair - so vibrant, mesmerizing - swaying in the breeze, - like a flower in full bloom smiling bright.

"Search me online," She yelled back. "I couldn't find you there. But I'll know you'll find me. I'm everywhere."

Having a shouting match while Ria and Adalia were just on the other side of the door behind me was not a good idea, so instead, I stifled my lips, raised my hand, waved, and gave a thumbs up.

Amanda, still moving backward, gave two in return, before disappearing around the bend, like she was never there.

So there I was once more alone with only my thoughts for company, except I didn't find them as bothersome as before. Would have loved to linger in isolation for a bit longer but I feared Ria would throw a fiery fit if I managed to soak my clothes before the day they were due to be used.

And with the raindrops gradually increasing in both speed and strength, I thought it best to also take that as my cue and save loitering around the outdoors for another rainless sunny day if there ever comes one.

I got up, twisted the doorknob, and entered the hallway, closing the door shut as I did.

"Right, I'm back. What's the plan you have here, Ri - "

It was dark. Very dark. Verging to the point of imperceptibility. Curtains were drawn, windows were shut, and every switch for every light source was flickered to the 'off' position.

The hell.

Confusion was very much settling itself well and comfortable in my head, yet before I could voice it out - there smoldering incandescently, glowed a crimson figure by the dining table.

"Nice plan," I called out. "Does it involve me tripping over something in the dark?"

"Shh." Her finger pressed against smirking lips. "Don't ruin the mood here."

"What mood?"

The wick of a candle, a candle I didn't even know was there, suddenly went ablaze, its flame flickering brightly, illuminating the center of the table and unshrouding all there was to see.

Two plates at opposite ends of the table, with silverware set perfectly adjacent on either side. At the furthest end sat Ria, elbows perched atop the table, leaning her chin onto the back of her hands, staring directly at me always with that mischievous expression.

"You are late," she said.

"I was outside," I said warily. "Ria, are you gonna explain - "

"Mistress Ria?" She tilted her head, her lips curving to a frown. "Master, is it not impolite to speak of other maidens when fraternizing with one directly? Do our customs really differ vastly from world to world when it comes to the matter of courtship?"

What in the fuck.

"You're joking," I muttered. "Please tell me you're joking."

Mistress Ria with cruelty in her veins upheld herself graciously, and spoke ever so sincerely, "Master, why would I feel the need to jest in such intimate moments with one another? "

"Oh my God, you're killing me."

"Am I really?" She said with a simper. "Why is that, I wonder? I mean, was it not you, after all, who desired to go on a date with me?"

I don't even know what to say to that. I don't even know what to do. She did though, Ria always does, nodding her head at me, urging me forth.

"Why don't you take a seat, Master?" Ria said, batting her eyelids at me. "Dinner awaits."