0 0 1 ━ [ 𝘚𝘵𝘦𝘷𝘦 𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘵𝘰𝘯 ]

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝟺𝟶: 𝚃𝚑𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑 𝚊 𝙷𝚘𝚕𝚎 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙵𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎

One fell through the portal and scraped her elbows on rough gravel. She immediately pushed herself to her knees and swiveled her head around to take in her surroundings. She was sitting in the middle of a cul-de-sac in a quiet neighborhood dotted with split-level houses. She couldn't see any other living creatures, but she could hear the tinkling of children's laughter hiding behind the large wooden fences that separated her from whatever world she had landed in.

As she shakily found her feet, One still felt wracked by her discovery that she was the messenger. She had interacted with her past self before but when she was tapping the light bulbs to spell out "coming" it felt different, more surreal...As soon as she had fulfilled her task, she had immediately opened a portal to get out of there, and now she was...here? One had no idea where she was until she turned her head to the right and saw something she never thought she'd see again...

The brown house.

One felt her feet leading her towards the russet-colored building and willingly followed after. Seeing it now with her memories fully restored felt strangely alien, and somehow, she felt more uncomfortable seeing it this way than in its decrepit shape back in the Upside Down. It was like passing the same statue everyday without giving it a second glance and then one day looking upon it to find your face carved into the stone. But despite the anxious beehive swarming in her stomach, her feet kept walking until she came to the wooden fence that lined the yard.

One pressed her bright blue eye to a hole in the fence to peer inside and found nothing but an abandoned play set and dead leaves blowing in the wind. The rusty chains that connected to the swings creaked as they swayed with the breeze and the addition of far-off children's laughter brought to mind an image of ghosts swinging in the crisp autumn air. One took a step back in disappointment with a new frown painted on her face. She had been hoping to see somebody, anybody...some sort of definitive proof that she was finally out of the Upside Down and not just imagining things.

The children's laughter continued even after the breeze blowing through the neighborhood came to a standstill so One decided to follow the heartwarming sound. She didn't have to go far before she stumbled upon a park filled with families enjoying the fresh air and felt the frown on her face grow into a small smile. A flood of relief flushed through One's body upon seeing other human beings, but she was still careful to stick to the edge for fear of trusting what her eyes saw and to avoid colliding with the multitude of children that were racing around the park.