Welcome to Strangely by Rosaline Saul

She rubs the back of her hands against her eyes again and then, confused, she looks around. She was still going to... What was she still going to do? There was something, she knows there was, but no matter how hard she tries to remember, she cannot recall what it was supposed to be.

When a voice from behind her says, "Sorry, I'm late," she turns quickly to find the source of the sound.

She takes in the girl's tall frame, her round cheeks, her long, straight black hair and her piercing blue eyes.

"Hey! You can't just come in uninvited," she says a little too loudly. "This is my house... Isn't it?"

She looks around the small room, trying to see out of the crooked window behind the red chequered curtains, trying to remember if this is indeed her home.

"I should have been here when you arrived, but we had a situation at the Town Hall."

"I've always been here. Is this not my house?" She asks confused. "No. This is my home," she insists. "Why would I have arrived? From where? If this is where I am supposed to be?"

"I haven't even had time to change," the girl says, with a friendly smile. "Come. Sit."

She could not understand why this girl stormed into her house, apologising to be late when she was not even supposed to be here in the first place. It occurred to her that she was not even expecting her arrival, so how could she be late. Late for what?

The girl says, "I'm Emily. Welcome to Strangely, Jenny."

Jenny takes a step closer to the crooked table in the centre of the room, and slowly she sits down on a wonky chair. It dips down to one side as her weight settles on it. She asks softly, "Strangely?"

"Yeah. Your new home away from home. I'm sure you're a bit confused at the moment, but it will only take a little while for you to remember, and then it will be as if this has always been your home. There's just a few minutes' adjustment time." Emily looks at Jenny with a curious expression on her face. "Can you remember anything from before you woke up here?"

Jenny shakes her head from side to side.

"Pity. I'm on the Welcoming Committee and have to welcome newcomers constantly, but I'm not exactly sure from where you are all arriving."

Another girl storms into the room, and the crooked door bangs on the wall behind it. Her blonde, tousled hair hides her face until she twirls around to face the two girls sitting at the wooden table in the middle of the room. The shape of her face is angular and her green eyes glitter with excitement.

"Was Chris here?"

Emily looks across the room at the blonde girl. "This is Abby," she explains to Jenny.

Abby looks at Jenny as if she only now notices her. "Oh. Hi. Welcome to Strangely." She looks back at Emily. "So, was he here?"

"No, but he had some roses and a package delivered for you," Emily says, pointing to the items on a cabinet beside the door.

Suddenly, as if Jenny has always been here in Strangely, as if she has always lived in the crooked house with Abby and Emily, she asks Emily, "What was the situation at the Town Hall? The reason why you said you were late?"

"This guy arrived, and he was not happy about being here. Sometimes new arrivals go a little mental, but soon enough they settle in. You can usually see it in their eyes, the moment they realise they have always been here, just like you just did."

"It's sad when that happens. I wonder where we think we were before we got here." Looking up at Abby, who has her face buried in a bouquet of roses, Jenny exclaims, "Chris sent you roses? Nice to have a boyfriend."

"Oh, my goodness." Emily gasps as she leaps up from the chair and leaves it rocking a little from side to side. "I don't believe it. Tell me that's not the Book of Eudemon."

Abby smiles. "Chris found it, but he wouldn't say where."

Emily traces her fingers across the leather-bound cover. "There's an inscription."

Jenny steps closer to have a look. "What does it say?"

Emily reads the words out loud, "As four girls decompose, they find a crux nestled in a rose. Water, fire, wind and earth; together they all live in a crooked little house."

"I wonder what it means," Abby says.

"We live in a crooked little house." Jenny chuckles nervously.

"Well, you better hide that book. There must be a reason it was hidden away in the first place," Emily insists.

"Don't you two have to be at the Town Hall for Meet and Greet?" Abby says, diverting their attention away from the large, heavy book.

"Yes. Late again. I'll be late for my own funeral; I just know it. Come, Jenny. You ready?"

Jenny and Emily rush out the crooked door and onto a winding pathway leading them down the hill on which their house is perched. Flowers of every colour imaginable blossom on the slight hills surrounding them and sway with the green grass in the barely-there breeze. On the horizon, all around them, mushrooms of clouds billow in brilliant white splendour.

"I'm nervous starting my duties tomorrow at the Chambers. I wonder why they re-assigned me?" Jenny ponders.

Emily replies, "Not sure, but I know it sounds boring. I love doing meet and greets, it makes me feel happy."

Jenny laughs as she twirls in a small circle. "I like the way it looks like we are on an island, surrounded by clouds. All this green grass, with colourful flowers and with a backdrop of cloud, no matter which way I turn."