Chapter Text
{ SIFFRIN }
You strayed too far, this time. Find your way back. Find your way back. Find your way back. Find your way ba-
You open your eyes but ever so slightly as the light immediately blinds you.
“Oh . . . Stars-”
The blinding light consumes the world around you as you finally come to your senses. You quickly come to a conclusion. This is not your home. Nor were you anywhere near your home. Did you even have a home? Slowly, yet surely, you make your way to your feet and let your eyes adjust to the brightly colored land.
You turn in circles, watching as the trees go on forever. A never-ending void of trees and shrubs. Once you turn towards the clearing you realize a small trail made up of stone and rocks. You feel a bit hesitant to follow through with it but it seems to be your only chance of finding any sort of civilization. Just find your way back.
You turn and look at the woods that end the trail. As you walk towards the trees, reaching out to touch the ragged bark, everything goes black. You wake up on the path once more just as you were before. You shield your eyes from the sun above as you get yourself back into your feet and stare just feet away from you at where you had just been. It seems as if you even try to leave, you loop back. You loop back.
Your breath hitches in your throat for a moment before you slowly turn around to the path and make each step carefully, making your way down what may lead to something generous or something horrendous.
As you take your last step, you pause. Noticing as the path forks off into two other directions. One straight forward, two on the opposite sides of you. Finally, once you raise your head, your eyes are met with brightly colored houses, a library, and what seems like a restaurant of some sort. You take a step forward, and then another, and another, right until you get to the mailbox at the end of the house that stood in front of you. You look down at the name on the mailbox and squint your eyes in confusion. ‘Siffrin Sidereus’. Was that your name? You trail your eyes back to the house and analyze it for a moment. Mostly blue, white and a hint of yellow. The house was decorated with stars and constellations, drawings on the sidewalk in front of the door with a drawing of a small person with light blue and dark blue hair, a poncho and boots. You recognized the poncho and the boots but you've never seen your face since you've arrived.
Carefully, you make it to the door and open it slowly. Inside, the house looked cozy, reminiscent of the outside, it collected wallpapers of stars and constellations, blue walls, blue and light yellow couches and chairs, a fireplace that was currently off, a stairway, numerous rooms leading to who knows where. You take a step inside and close the door behind you, searching in every room, to not only see where each one went to, but to also find a bathroom with a mirror.
When you finally ascend up the stairs and turn to your left, you open a door that leads to the bathroom. You steadily take a step in and look in the mirror. You very audibly gasp at the sight. You looked as if you were made of fabric and stuffing. Sewing seams were seen across the sides of your head, along your eyes — well, eye. The left one seemed as if it wasn't even there, sewn shut for eternity. — You lifted up your hands to find them plump and round, sewn closed all the way around. Your hair was even made up of some sort of fabric. When you opened your mouth, it was a one-way gate. No way of eating, no way of drinking. You press on your face, then your arms, then your legs, then your chest. Once you press your chest, you press on what feels like a plastic or maybe a metal box.
“H-Hello?”
The sounds you were making definitely weren't coming from any vocal cords, more like your chest. A voice box. However you breathed, wherever it came from, you were breathing extremely heavily. You can't look at yourself for much longer before you rush out of the room and down to the cozy living room you were in before. You helplessly plop yourself down in the chair that was placed in the middle of the room.
Creeeaaakk . . .
You look towards the front door which was surely closed earlier. The shudders on the windows excitedly open and shut twice. Specifically twice. Almost as a ‘Hello”. You slowly make your way outside and turn towards the house. The two main windows seemed darker than earlier. Then they moved. They looked. Right at you. Your mouth falls open as they stare at you. The shudders once again open and shut twice.
“Uhm . . . Hi?”
Your voice was shaky and almost incomprehensible, yet the house responded with a slam of the front door and fluttering shudders. This house was most definitely alive. You close your eye and take a deep breath before responding back to this house that you had no idea why you even spoke to.
“I'm going to look around.”
The house's shudders once again knocked against the windows in approval. You nod once and quickly hustle away, down the forked path. Your first stop was the library you spotted earlier. Walking inside you watch as bookshelves tower over your much smaller body. The building was dark and dank, musty even but it never meant you could clean it up eventually. You continue your way through the library, finding locked rooms and stairways to another floor of books until you find a clerks desk, a single lamp sitting by an uneaten apple and a stack of books. The apple on the desk seemed perfectly edible, as if it hadn't been sitting there for longer than five minutes. It seemed strange.
You finally end your travels through the library and make your way to the next house. A bright red, yellow and white house that was across the pathway to what is supposed to be your house. On the pathway before the door, it had another chalk drawing of a girl with black poofy hair, a light yellow bow and a red dress. Was there another person here? Before you decide to barge into a house that may or may not hold another being, you knock. You knock another time and there is no answer. No lights are on. No noises are being made. You slowly open the door and call out but no response. You welcomed yourself inside and looked around. This house was much different than yours. The dining room lead straight into a small living room with dark red walls, light yellow patterns on them and red and gold furniture, a smaller fireplace was placed in the corner of the room. The dining room had pure wood chairs and a table with a light yellow rug placed under it all. The windows were lined with yellow curtains and everything seemed just about as cozy as your home felt.
As you venture through the vacant house, you realize that everything is stocked and perfectly at that, as if someone had lived here before but there was no trace of anyone here besides you. You trail your way back to the front door and close it behind you as you look directly at the mailbox. No name. No patterns. No sign of anyone who would be living here besides the drawing on the path in front of the doorway. You stare for a moment, at the drawing, before turning your good eye towards the next house.
A one story house in which is smaller than the rest stood adjacent from yours. It was a little white house with a yellow roof and yellow window sills. It seemed clean for the most part. You follow the path towards the house and glance at the mailbox as you pass by. No name. You stop before the drawing and stare at it for a moment. A small person, perhaps a child, was drawn with dark ruffled hair, an oversized hat, oversized shirt, shorts and big boots. You seemed a bit confused as to why a child would be living alone. You open the door, hoping nobody lived here either. You find yourself in a small living room, black furniture that was differently arranged than the other two houses you've encountered. Small side tables were set up on the ends of a couch and a coffee table placed in front. There was a small fireplace behind the coffee table. A large kitchen was held in the room beside the living area. It was filled to the brim with pots, pans, spices, herbs and who knows what else.
You finish searching through this town you still have yet to know what the name is. You pass through the houses of a big, tall brown headed man, a thin, tall dark headed lady who looked as if she could run the library and passed by the restaurant which sounded good once you looked at the menu.
You sigh quite heavily, trailing down the path to your house, the door opens with a happy and welcoming ‘Hello!”. You take a step in and walk to where your room resides. Your brain felt fried after realizing that your made up of fabric and stuffing just as you thought. You look through drawers of clothes, unknowing of how they came about. They were splattered with stars and moons, which seemed to be your theme just as every other house had. You change into a set of pajamas as the day sky swirled to night. You descended down the stairs and sat in the chair in the center of the living space. You close your eyes, your head becoming fogged with questions and concerns.
This has to be a fever dream. This has to be. You're not some sort of toy. Not some sort of puppet! This world is not real. Good riddance! You don't even know if your real name is Siffrin! You don't know anything about yourself nor how you got here!
You let out a disgruntled, sad attempt of a sob. You lay your head back and pull your knees to your plush chest. Your hair doesn't ruffle. Your body doesn't put a single dent into the chair. Your lips don't part like a normal person's would when they open their mouth. Your tears don't fall because . . . HAH! A toy can't cry!
Slowly, you drift off into some sort of slumber, hoping to wake up as the normal person you were before this. If you were a normal person at all.
Knock, knock, knock!
Someone's knocking. Who in stars name would be knocking when nobody is in this horror of a neighborhood!?