She is poking me with one of her tendrils.

She is a being entirely made of slimy tentacles with eyes on them, she is a girl, although I do not know how I learned this information.

"I can hear you think, you know?" she says.

I do not know how I am capable of understanding her either, every language I have come across previously was incomprehensible to me.

"We're speaking through thoughts, it just sounds like vocal communication." she says.

It is a mystery.

She keeps poking me with her tendrils. I wonder what she must be trying to touch, maybe I am on top of something she is trying to reach.

I take a step back for her convenience.

She pokes me again.

"Hey, hey, do you have a home? Dad gets angry every time I take animals home, but I don't think he'll mind since you're sapient," she says.

I do not know who she is talking to, no matter where I look there is no one else but us.

I can hear something resembling a groan as she grabs my arm with one of her tentacles and drags me somewhere else.

We are in a forest, then we are in a city. All the buildings are made of wood, I can see eyes in the wood. There are other tentacled beings like her. She drags me into one of those wooden buildings.

"Dad! I found a sapient thing, I think! It's a little weird looking, but I can actually understand what it thinks!" she shouts excitedly.

Another tentacled thing appear, it also pokes me the same way she did, but only once.

"I told you not to take random things from the forest and bring them here, last time you brought a rotting parrot and said that it was capable of conversation," he closely studies me with its many eyes, "what even IS that? It hurts to look at."

"Daaaad! How was I supposed to know parrots could repeat thoughts too! But this one is different, I'll take care of it please, please, please!" she begs.

Her dad growls, "If this thing turns into a midnight demon and tears you apart, then you'll only have yourself to blame," he goes back to the room he was in.

She quickly pulls me away to her room, I wonder what she originally wanted to take home. It is unfortunate I was there instead.

"Can you stop with that?" she holds my face with one tentacle on each cheek, "You, I'm talking about you. It's true I didn't notice you at first, but that doesn't mean you're invisible, alright?"

Me?

"Yes, you!" she moves her tentacles in what I assume is a nod.

That can't be right.

I can hear her dad shout in the other room, "Hey, $^ù')$*à , did you at least bring the wood you were supposed to cut?"

This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

"Ho, shoot!" she picks up a bag from her room and rushes towards the door. "Sorry, I have to finish something, don't touch anything, I'll be right back!"

She leaves.

I do not understand why she can see me, but she will forget I exist like the rest soon enough, it is not her fault, that is just how things are.

****

"Wow! You cleaned my room!" she says, as she wanders around her bedroom as if it was her first time seeing it.

I rearranged the room as I did not know what else to do.

"Huh? You were bored? You should've told me, c'mon, let's go outside!" she pulls me by the hand, giggling to herself.

She drags me around the city, no one pays attention to me, as always. Except her, why her?

"My dad says I'm good at noticing hidden things. I don't know what's up with you, but it's as if you're unnaturally boring to look at, as if everything else is more interesting," she pats me on the head. "But I don't like being told what to do, so I'll pay attention to you even if my instincts screams at me not to."

If that's the case, I'll pay attention to her, too.

"Hey, you have to meet my friends! They can be weird sometimes, but I swear they are cool!" she drags me further into the city.

I wonder if any of this is real.

****

I stare at the frog.

It stares back at me.

"Uh..." she waves one of her tentacles in front of my face. "Do you like the frog?"

I tilt my head, how do I know if I 'like' something?

"You know, are you happy when you look at the frog?"

I tilt my head even further, happy?

She groans, "Would you rather have the frog be near you, or have it not be near you?"

I look back at the frog.

It looks back at me.

I nod to her. I would rather have the frog near me than not.

"Alright then," she wraps the frog up in one of her tentacles, "I'll take the frog home too then. I'll need to make a terrarium, but this one isn't poisonous, so it'll be fine if it jumps around my room a little."

Would she rather have the frog near her than not too?

"No, I'm doing it for you, idiot."

Why?

"Because I'd rather have you be happy than not, it's that simple."

****

[MEMORY CLEANUP]

This memory is deeply rooted into your soul, and can no longer be removed by [MEMORY CLEANUP].

This memory might affect the soul in more dire ways if not taken out early, however it is out of the jurisdiction of [MEMORY CLEANUP].

It can and will still be BLOCKED at low [SANITY] because of its REDACTED nature. However, this memory will still affect your personality in unknown ways even when blocked.