The Captain

I don't remember that part too clearly. There was some sort of accident, and I remember my family and I had to move away from that neighborhood. I can't tell if I repressed it, or if it all happened so quickly that its just hard to recall. But I do remember the day I woke up in the new neighborhood. It was a strange feeling. Like, I knew I wasn't supposed to be there, and I had some vague memories of a struggle, thrashing and struggling to breathe in these strange bright rooms. But I had woken up in a new neighborhood.

It was so... pleasant. The grass was green, the sky was blue, there were plenty of homes to live in, plenty of food to eat, and plenty of other people living there happily, like it was all so normal. It made all those vague memories from before feel like a nightmare I had just woken up from. And for a while I accepted that. All those memories were just bad fever dreams, thank goodness. But the longer I lived here, the more I noticed that I couldn't shake off as anything other than... wrong... The first thing I didn't even notice until a few days in. I was still intently exploring the home I was living in, one that felt so familiar and comfortable that my brain just latched onto the idea that it was mine, when I noticed that every day people left their homes to do... something. They'd all gather at the same part of town for a few minutes, maybe an hour, before returning to what they were doing. So I decided to follow them. Remember when I mentioned the food? I hadn't questioned where it was coming from, my neighbor was nice enough to bring me home some on my first few days. But on that day I found out... Every day, around the same time, somewhere in the late-morning, a tall creature strolls into town. It shambles like it hardly knows how to use its limbs, and looks around with this single, dead, glassy eye. Its lips bubble with a foul gas that I can't identify, and its skin is rubbery and lifeless, like its wearing a pallid suit to try to blend in as best as it can. And its not doing it well. Normally this would terrify me, it sure did the first time I saw it. But then I watched as the townsfolk and neighbors flocked around the creature. It handed out food, plenty for everyone, making sure everyone that approached it was satisfied. In time, I even began to have the guts to approach it to grab enough food to bring home for the day. It was so normal after a time, that it stopped feeling strange. I had to actively tell myself that this wasn't how things should be. Just so I could remember. But then I found the second thing. The second piece that shouldn't be.