August 2nd

After packing away her leftovers from lunch, Ronni leaned against the counter and contemplated having a glass of wine. At 1pm, time seemed to go slower when working from home. She went back to her living room and picked up her phone that lay on the sofa. The thought of diving into bed and avoiding people crossed her mind.

“ You could do without them all” he said.

Ronni jumped,kicking the ottoman in front of her and almost knocking her laptop that sat on it. There was no one at home and she knew that.Still, the voice was not hers, and it was not totally unfamiliar. She had not given the command,electro-chemical signaling telling her mouth to talk. So it hadn’t. But those were her thoughts. She glanced at the window to her left, and the small hallway to her right, as if assessing exit routes in her 800 sq foot apartment.

“Don’t mind me Ronni, the voice continued, “ I had to take a break from the inside for just a bit, and finally indulge in that cigarette you keep thinking about. I found this bottle of fermenting red you have, too. You’re not going to drink that.”

And there it was. Or there he was. He appeared from the corner of the island counter in the kitchen and stood there. Ronni looked at his profile, this brown furry endomorph that resembled a rat. His extended belly was furless in the middle and dropped to his stumped hind legs where his arms found their resting spot, perched casually on each side. He appeared something of a lab experiment between man and rat that went awry. Ronnie stopped there in her observations.The more she focused the more she feared she’d figure out how this thing was somehow distantly related to her.

The thing stood there and nodded the way people do when indicating they’re listening to you and hope you wrap up your point soon. “ Yes, I’m like the lab rat monster from that prank show you loved to watch.”

He sauntered over to the living room, a stemless glass of red wine in one hand and a cigarette in the other. “ I am in a way just that,” he said. “I am completely drawn from your imagination.” Imagination and a little bit of dark matter that’s around for me to consolidate into.”

Once right by Ronni’s side, he lifted one leg up and gracefully gave a jump to secure his behind on the sofa. Ronni remained where she was, having not moved one inch since first hearing another voice in her apartment. She remained perched as well on the couch, as though playing a game of Simon says and Simon hadn’t mentioned anything about carrying on with dreading work. She still had not processed what sat beside her and what worried her more, she wasn’t sure she had full autonomy over herself while he remained present.

The thing shrugged and gave a half-hearted smile, acknowledging Ronni’s current crises and his opinion on the futility of it all.

He suddenly stopped smiling and took a large inhale of air, inflating his belly even more before exhaling out slowly through his mouth, ‘shhhhh’.

“Breathe” he told her,

With the kind of forthrightness you hear from your mother when she’s done asking you to behave in his voice, Ronni inhaled slowly.

“ I will be back in there in a second, ‘’ he said. “ I just needed a breather.” He drew his wine toward his mouth, twirling the glass in contemplation. Sometimes you go too deep.

Ronni felt her shoulders relax as she exhaled and her lungs deflated.

One, two, three, four,…

She inhaled again. One, two, three, four,

There was silence in the apartment, besides the frenzied hum that came from Ronni’s computer and its overheated battery.

“ Last night, he said, fanning the air with his hand that held the cigarette, “you went to the mosh while falling asleep. I typically exit out, no problem, but you pulled me into it. I could not exit even when I tried. Honestly, I didn’t resist too hard. I wasn’t sure what would happen if I did, but it was too deep.” He paused and closed his eyes. There arose in the room a murky blur of memories, spirits, and illusions. Ronni’s pupil’s swelled with what appeared to be recognition before she withdrew her eyes,refusing to acknowledge them anymore. “ Not my domain there, ‘’ he said, opening his eyes and staring straight ahead. That’s for those that can swim down there.”

Ronni had stopped the breathing exercise and now looked at the thing.

” You’ll begin to be unable to tell the difference between the physical and non-physical.”

The corner of Ronni’s eyes twitched.

He cocked his head left and right like a pendulum, “What’s me and what’s the worst of you.”,

“ Fuck you.” Her mouth finally moved.

He shrugged as if to suggest that the insult was fair, before he continued on.

“ I’m kind of glad you like me. Or hell, maybe you just don’t have any guard “ You don’t think twice about letting me in and believe it or not, a lot of people do.”

The thing hopped gracefully off the sofa and stood right in front of Ronni. His height met hers sitting down and he peered into her eyes. “ I guess the downside to that is letting in those images you sometimes see when you close your eyes. It’s the waters surfacing. You can keep them at bay with practice. We can do anything.”

Ronni watched him slowly disconnect from her eyes and saunter back to the kitchen, sluggishly like a cat after a long nap. He turned the corner and was gone.

“ I’m back,” she thought. “ I’m back.” She kept saying it over and over, this time out loud , alone in her apartment, as if to remove the last bit of uncertainty that lingered. “ I’m back.”

And they were.