One entity entered the marshes that day. A boy, desperate, fleeing pursuers. Lost. He heard something slithering through the reeds, and felt a presence in his mind. A creature, desperate, losing its habitat to alien colonisation. A creature able to abandon its body entirely and reside in another's mind. A creature with knowledge of the marshes, where to hide, how to escape. A creature offering a symbiotic existence, a way out.
One entity entered the marshes that day, and one entity left.
You know when you get a song stuck in your head? I can hear that. I can hear everyone's earworms. Sometimes I hear the pleasant lilt of a piano sonata, and sometimes I'm awoken by the first bars of a theme tune over and over. I avoid crowds because the discordant cacophony becomes overwhelming. You want to know the weird thing, though? You two are always in tune.
The side door of the hotel opened as Starlight approached, and they slipped inside. They were replaying their catastrophic day at work in their mind, so caught up in their thoughts that it took them a moment to notice that Home's lobby was empty.
Home had set its overhead lights to Starlight's favourite colour, and the soft green hue reflected off its furniture and polished floor. The door clicked shut behind them and green arrows appeared on the floor tiles. Before following the path Home had laid out for them, they took a moment to press a hand to its wall.
They ran down the lake path, the sounds of metal against dirt echoing in the still night. They shielded the silver creation in their hands as best they could, aware that it couldn't function out of water for long. The robotic fish was only a toy, not intended to last more than a year, but when they'd found it floating belly up in its aquarium, they'd gathered every spare part they could find and worked through the night to repair their pet. They reached the water and knelt, submerging the fish. It lay still in their hands, and they were convinced they had failed until one fin flickered, moonlight gleaming on the metal scales. Slowly, the fish awoke and, once fully powered on, swam into the depths of the lake. They watched until the fish left the range of their infrared sensors, their circuits humming with joy.
I had been captured. Hands tied behind me, evil scheme in ruins at my feet. The good side had well and truly won.
“There's one thing I don't understand, in all of this,” Heroman said, as he checked the knots were secure.
“Which is?” I replied.
“All of this, the elaborate plans, the scheming, the stolen top-secret technology. All so you could teleport into the house of anyone who posts anything on the internet? Why? What was it all for?”
“In my coat, over there” – I nod to the corner of the room – “is my phone. Turn it on. Then you'll see.”
Heroman scanned my coat with his X-ray vision and, sensing no threat but still wary, did as I asked.
“It's a husky,” he said, confused.
“The flomp ears! The soft, soft fur! That smile! They're perfect, but this husky lives on the other side of the world!”
Heroman still looked bewildered.
“Don't you understand?” I could feel an evil laugh bubbling up inside me. “I want to pet them! I want to pet them all!”
“Beware the witch of the dark woods,” the villagers warned me as I grew up. When I couldn't take their words and actions any more, I fled to the woods. Soon, dusk fell and the temperature started to drop, and I found myself hopelessly lost. As I searched fruitlessly for shelter, shivering, I suddenly became aware of the old woman watching me. I hadn't noticed her approach. She smiled, and I instantly felt calmer. She invited me back to her house, and with no other option, I accepted. We had a great evening full of food and laughter. I'd never slept as well as I did that night. In the morning, she pointed me onto the path back to the village. The last thing she said, as she waved me off, was a warning. “Beware the villagers.”