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“Hello, neighbor.”
You were greeted by a new face. Warm yellow binding to his soft felt skin like the brightness in his smile. Hints of orange blush seeping through the surface of the stranger’s cheeks. The lack of eyebrows or even a nose being the most notable feature on this stranger’s façade. Even so, his eyes were round, very round, staring quite long with his gaze unblinking. Why is he staring at you like that?
But more importantly… Where were you? Why are you here? This world seemed awfully too colorful from the likes of where you first were before you just woke up to this place. Why couldn’t you remember anything before waking up? The fuzziness of your memory still static to the chance of any reminiscence.
Setting the thought of worry and confusion aside for the time-being, you reach a hand out to the unfamiliar person… creature?
“Er— hello? What is this place?”, you mused as the stranger carefully took your hand. You flinched at the odd sensation of the stranger’s hand, the felt-like skin tickling the sensors of your palm with curiosity.
The stranger doesn’t answer. Instead, he tilts his head, the full round dark blue curl bunched up at the top of his head following suit to the gesture.
“Ha! Ha! Ha!”, he laughs. With each laughter hindered by a short pause.
Great, even this thing’s laugh is weird too.
“What’s your name, new neighbor?”, he asks, putting his arms behind the plain bright blue sweater covering his torso, golden yellow gliding along the collars down to the middle, complimented by a few stitched-on buttons to the left of his side. Your attention also slowly drew itself to the bright colors of his pants, streaks of yellow, orange, blue, and red making their way down from his hips to his ankles, which was to be met by his rounded black and white shoes.
Hesitantly, you mention your name. The stranger hums, amused at the newfound information about you as he now subtly fidgets with the tips of the red knotted ribbon hugging the round of his neck.
“And yours?”, you follow up, still keeping your gaze at him. Why does it feel so wrong to blink normally around him? There’s a heaviness in the deepness of his void-like stare, reflecting the depths of your flaws back at you like it’s nothing.
“I’m Wally Darling.”, he pauses widening his eyes ever so softly causing you to flinch a bit in surprise, “But everyone calls me Wally. You can call me that too, neighbor!”
Wally’s voice ushered such sweet slowness in the way he speaks. It conjured up the most potent liquid brew of confusion inside you as you jump around the sense of comfort and suspicion simultaneously the longer you interacted with him.
“Wally?”, you echoed.
“That’s me.”, he replies. “Let’s meet the others too, it’ll be fun!”
Despite the sense of unpredictable ground you have with Wally, you followed him. You didn’t know where you were from or where to go anyway, so you might as well, right? Who knows, by following him, you might just get the answers you’re looking for.
Following behind the pattering of Wally’s footsteps, you can’t help but notice how brightly colorful the place was. From the trees to the ground to each and every house that the small neighborhood was surrounded with. It looked as if you were inside a cartoon show, something you would have enjoyed watching when you were still very young.
Hmmm. Maybe you’re dreaming, you contemplated deeply. Maybe you were watching a nostalgic cartoon before falling clumsily asleep into your bowl of popcorn and your subconscious just decided to continue the missed episodes for you through this place.
“Howdy!”, much to your surprise, an incredibly tall new character approaches the both of you from the inside of what looked to be his shop of all kinds of goods. Your gaze first drew itself to the brightness of his green tinted skin paired with the bright blue fluffy hair, but before you could even question the oddity, the wave of his hand was followed by another, and another, and another…
What in god’s name— It? He? They? Whatever. Not only did it have two pairs of arms, but it also had terrifyingly odd two pairs of legs as well. His blue and white striped sweater wrapping round to cater each arm, covered by an orange apron fading into yellow and a confident red tie below it. His legs wore neatly pressed red pants that seemed to be tailored specifically to cater his extra limbs and two pairs of shoes bigger than the length of your forearm.
This thing looked like it could devour you whole if it so wished to but… oh! It’s giving you an apple?
“I see you’re new ‘round these parts, pardner?”, you take the apple in your hand, cusping the shiny roundness of the well-ripened fruit, “I’m Howdy Pillar, but everyone here just calls me Howdy.”
You mutter your name to Howdy, your voice directed to him but your gaze still stuck to the kind gesture painted in the shine of the sweet fruit.
Howdy chuckles at your amazed and seemingly grateful gaze to his offering before turning to Wally who was patiently watching the both of you interact.
“You showin’ them around, Wally?”
Wally nodded politely at the tall caterpillar-like character before sweetly calling out your name.
“Best be goin’ there, dove. Anyway, you’re always welcome to come ‘round my shop anytime you please!”, Howdy waves goodbye as Wally now leads you to the front of the most colorful post office you think you’ve ever laid your eyes on.
“Eddie? Eddieee?”, Wally calls out, using the very same slow smoothness glazed in his tone towards the humble building.
From then on, Wally introduced you to the entire neighborhood, from the reliable, kind and determined mailman Eddie Dear; frantic, frazzled, feathered Poppy Partridge; rambunctious, fire-cracker Sally Starlet; cheery, silly, upbeat Julie Joyful; smart and grumpy Frank Frankly; to the goofy, silly, and always having fun Barnaby B. Beagle.
At the end of the tour, you notice one big bright red house sitting in the middle of the entire neighborhood. The house was the oddest of all as it appeared to be just as sentient as the other living inhabitants of this world, with its two windows acting as eyes that could express such humanly emotions. Home, is what Wally called it…him. He was apparently Wally’s house and friend, you supposed.
You would’ve asked a bit more questions about this odd character but Wally seemed to notice your desire to prod, with such, he decided to lead you somewhere further into the neighborhood. Deeper into and past the lusciously colorful trees.
You laughed as Wally poorly attempts to mimic Frank’s smile followed by his signature hindered laughter.
The both of you just laid there amongst yourselves, enjoying the brightness of the soft textured grass as you gaze up at the sky that never seemed to know darkness. It never looked as if the sun dared to move from its high-noon position, only the clouds appeared to have the freedom to dance around it.
At this point, you weren’t even questioning the difference of this world from yours. If you’re being honest, it was already starting to feel as if you were home. A sense of belonging washing over you as you embrace the thought.
“Well?”, Wally pipes up, turning his rounded yellow head towards you, his curled smile never faltering in which ever angle he chooses, “How was the neighborhood?”
You hummed, implying your efforts to soak in the new sights and characters you’ve met inside this visually striking world. “Honestly? It seems nicer now that I’ve gotten to talk to everyone in here.”
You started to go on and on about how you loved how Eddie’s rainbow tie and pinkish hair complimented the plainness of his bright blue and white mailman uniform, how lovely the hues of red and rainbow soaked in Poppy’s majestic feathers, how the pattern on Sally’s sleeves reminded you of dance floors while her lovely large sun-shaped and rayed head acted as the disco ball, how poofy Julie’s long blonde hair and pink dress were, how eye-catching Frank’s yellow bowtie and nose were against his gray-ish theme, and how Barnaby’s light blue fur patterned with scattered colorful circles really made his rainbow vest and small orange top hat pop!
You weren’t able to notice it at the beginning or during the middle of your ramblings, but as you were nearing the end of your telling, you couldn’t help but notice Wally’s gaze at you. Earlier it was akin to a void, the deepness and mystery of it all being the scariest, but now, there’s a hint of softness to it. You wondered why there was that subtle endearment that he’s probably feeling towards your adoration of his friends.
“You stare a lot, huh?”, you lightheartedly jested at the puppet. “Don’t you know staring is rude from where I live?”
Wally’s eyes widened, the subtleness in his movements now dissipating because of your words. “Is it?”
You nodded, but still keeping that playful smile to keep the atmosphere light. “But don’t worry, I’ll let you off just this once.”
Wally hums in curiosity at your claim before you gently responded with, “I’m saying this because I think we’re friends now, Wally.”
“Friends?”
“Friends.”
He rolls over closer to you, tucking himself under one of your arms which catches you off-guard immediately. “W-what are you doing?”
“Barnaby said friends do this. We’re friends.”, he assured innocently.
Curious, you allowed Wally to guide your arm around his neck leading your hand down to relax near his chest. You could feel the softness of the felt in this sentient puppet’s skin as he laid there close to you. He doesn’t seem to have the need to breathe at all, even so, the stiffness in his body shouldn’t be taken at surface value as you know that he’s paying as much attention as he’d like to right now.
“This is called ‘cuddling’, as Barnaby taught me.”, Wally mused, the curl of his bunched up blue hair resting on your chest as he does with his head. His hair was painstakingly soft and honestly you were restraining yourself incredibly hard to not mess it up and play with it like some cat with a ball of yarn.
“Pfft. And Barnaby said friends do this?”
“Mhm!”
“You trust Barnaby’s words a lot, don’t you?”
“Of course, he’s my beeest friend.”
Oh, well, there goes your self-control. You have now reached for the top of his head, running your fingers through his curled hair that didn’t want to let itself loose but you still pursued the gentle fidgeting with the softness of the rogue strands poking out.
Wally didn’t flinch, nor did he even acknowledge the gesture you were doing to his neatly coiled lock, he was just resting there contently and sweetly on top of your chest, like a pet cat.
“Soft…”, you whispered still running your fingers up and around the texture of his bright blue strands.
“Hmmm, yes. Soft.”, Wally whispered back as you now notice his textured four-fingered hand running itself gently up and down the forearm that surrounded him.
Cute. Very cute.
Despite the adorable moment you’re sharing with your newfound puppet friend, you still can’t help but worry a bit about the missing fragments of your memory from when you first arrived here. You still don’t know where or what this place was or how you even came to arrive in the first place.
“Something the matter?”, worry glazed softness spoke slowly from the persona laying on your chest. Was he just able to tell your subtly grimacing face without even the least bit of direct perception? You would shudder in the feeling of small insect-like feet climbing their way up the back of your neck, but you worried that Wally might be able to tell that too so you tried your best to kept calm, relaxing in the close contact between you two.
“I just… I like it here but, I still want to go back to my world.”, a pause escapes from you for a moment, “Back to my home.”
“You are home.”
“Wally, I’m not home. This is not my home.”
Wally’s fuzzy textured fingers suddenly dig themselves deep into the skin of your arm, causing you flinch. There it is. There’s that sense of mysterious eeriness crawling up your spine again.
“W-Wally?”
“Please… you don’t leave.”, his clutch now starts to tighten around your arm, fear striking you as alarm bells start ringing loudly inside your head.
“What do you mean by that?”, you managed to muster up, still trying to keep the cool relaxed tone that you’re now failing to uphold at this point.
“It’s too late anyway.”
“Too late?”
“You were doomed the moment you entered the website. Ha. Ha. Ha.”
The website… The Welcome Home website. Fragments and shards of broken memories start to shove their way back into place in your mind, intensifying the already present dread that was drowning your soul.
Your remembered coming across the colorfully endearing website, sharing the restoration project of the cancelled puppet show “Welcome Home” back in the 70’s. You remembered stumbling upon the beautiful concept artworks of the old cartoon-like characters and admiring the style of how they were drawn. You remembered seeing clicking the hole under Wally’s house with a spiral drawn in the middle. You remembered seeing Wally “worshipping” Home. You remembered seeing the odd letters that were out of place. You remembered clicking into links that shouldn’t probably be seen. You remembered hearing watching eerie videos filled with screams of terror in the blackness of the site. You remembered listening to an audio of Wally singing. You remembered seeing Wally’s eyes. You remembered him telling you to stay quiet even if he couldn’t see you but you could see him. You remembered accidentally knocking over some items on your desk from the creepy sense of dread forming inside you, the noise at the time seemed amplified to match the pounding of your heart. You remembered just wanting to close out of the website after that, feeling nausea forming inside you from the suspicious attempt of the character to interact with you from the digital planes of your computer. You remembered blacking out immediately after, before falling into the abyss of this falsely comforting universe.
You remember everything.
Without thinking of anything else, you hoisted yourself up immediately, jostling Wally out of his comfortable position from you as you slowly back away from him.
“Friend?”, that damned sweet innocence in his voice was starting to piss you off as if he hadn’t just shared with you the most disturbing information you’ve had since entering this world.
“Doomed? No. I need to go back. I have to go back. This isn’t where I’m supposed to be!”, panic-ridden shouts escaped you as you crawled backwards against the grass, trying to escape him but you knew inside you that he holds the answers and you can’t just run.
You’re stuck. You’re very much stuck in your position right now with this unpredictable puppet and all you want to do right now is run, throwing caution to the wind, despite the chance that you’ll just end up coming right back to this cursed neighborhood. But you can’t, he’s your only hope right now.
And he’s also the biggest threat at the moment, something your instincts dare not fail to remind you.
Wally stands up slowly, walking towards you with an unreadable expression plastered across his rounded yellow face. “I’m sorry, friend.”
He kneels, then reaches a hand towards one of yours, lifting it up to his face to show you the blotches of fuzz now starting to slowly form on the back of your hand. “I told you to stay quiet, didn’t I?”
Gently, he closes the distance between your hand, twisting it slightly for the back of it to meet his mouth. The fuzzy texture of his curled smile pushing softly against your hand before you pulled it away from him with the most abrupt force.
“I-I’m going to turn into a puppet like you, aren’t I?”, you panicked, observing your shaking hand with now colorful patches of felt forming on to it, coating it slowly against your flesh. A tinge of burn starting to form from each orifice of your skin it reached.
Wally nodded, his eyes closing intently, before rising up again to meet your fear-filled stare.
“You’re cruel!”, was the only thing you could allow to escape from your mouth as panic kept on rushing like a forcing river through your veins.
Wally shakes his head innocently at your statement. “I never wanted this, neighbor.”
“What?”
“Home. Home wanted this.”
“T-then why are you just sitting there, telling me that I’m doomed, Wally?!”
“You are doomed.”, he looked down, it appeared as if he was trying to express sadness but his anatomy keeps that capability locked up far away from his reach. “But there might be another way.”
You perk up, leaning a bit closely to express interest in the matter, anything to draw your attention far away from your freaky looking hand that was now almost fully covered in felt.
Wally stands up, lending you a hand for you to pull yourself up with as he now drags you further deep into the colorful forest. His grasp around your puppet-like hand tightening as the both of you hurriedly made your way into the forest. The heavy feeling of eyes against your back creeps up to you with each step you both take further away from the neighborhood.
The colorful brightness was now fading into blacks and whites, themes of digital glitches flickering against the void that was now both the earth and the sky.
To your surprise, a huge glowing white spiral stood in front of you as Wally slowly releases your hand. The spiral shone ever so brightly, mesmerizing you for even just a moment before Wally snapped you out of it with his voice.
“You can return to your world through this, neighbor.”, he starts off, “But… the website will reset.”
“Reset? What does that mean for you and the others?”
“Memory wipe.”, Wally carefully started undoing the knot of the bright red ribbon around his neck, “Not for me, but for everyone else.”
He uncoils the ribbon, dragging it free from his neck with one short whip. “And not for you.”
Carefully, he hooks the ribbon around your neck, “Home doesn’t know about this area, neighbor.”
You watched as he delicately tied a firm, but not suffocatingly tight, knot around your neck with the red ribbon, “He only knows about the other entrance underneath him.”
He steps back, gazing at his fine craftsmanship before looking back up at your gaze. “Please, don’t come back. It’s for your own good.”
Emotions started welling up inside you just as tears start to do the same in your eyes, you reached out for Wally, hugging him tightly. His coiled hair still keeping itself bunched firmly against the top of his head as the bottom of it meets your forehead.
“Home’s hurting you, isn’t he?”, fear and pity tightening around your throat as you felt around the back of Wally’s sweater.
Wally didn’t respond, but you knew somewhere deep inside you that he had said yes.
“Go, now, neighbor. Before Home finds out about this place too.”
Wiping off the tears streaming from your eyes, you nodded and walked forward to the spiral. Carefully, you reached your hand out to it, your hand turning into glitches of white as it treads deeper into the portal.
You looked back at Wally, you wanted to bid him one last goodbye, but something was telling you that you shouldn’t be leaving this place anytime soon.
“Go.”, Wally assured one last time. It seems like he can read your mind inside this world, huh? Without a moment to lose, you allowed the embrace of the glowing spiral to cover your entire being.
A white flash covers your vision, ringing noises seeping through your hearing as you slowly awoke from your sleeping position on your computer’s desk.
By instinct, you reached for your neck, hoping to find the red ribbon gift that Wally left for you before your departure.
There it was, still tied firmly around your neck. A reminder of Wally and his forbidden world. “I have to go back.”
You have to go back, you have to go back, were the thoughts that continued to chant inside you as you frantically started your computer back up. Quickly searching up the website’s link as you unknowingly fidget with the one of the tips of the knotted ribbon around your neck.
“Welcome Home is currently under maintenance. We will return to you shortly!”, flashed on the screen as dismay trickled down slowly on to you.
No. No… You have to go back. You know that you now want to go back. You still don’t know what’s going on inside that world, but Wally’s behavior towards Home worried you to the very core of your being. Something inside you strongly wanted to go back and save him, bring him far away from the possible cruelty of that world.
But right now, you can’t. The website’s under maintenance, and even Wally himself had warned you to not come back. Unfortunately for him, you know your stubborn ass would find a way to enter back into this website sooner or later anyway.
Sighing out in a bit of frustration, you decided to let the “maintenance” run its course for the night as you slept soundly, keeping the red ribbon reminder close to you as you dozed off. For you know in yourself that the next morning, you will be meeting the very same colorful website, flashing the link which ends with the words, “welcome home, you”.