The In-Between

Human

Casper lifted up the sturdy wooden stamp, it leaving a detailed engraving of a rabbit, with weird symbols above it, thought after questioning it, learning it just meant 'speed' in the dialect home to the in-between.

Spark showed his little cart in which he went around selling potions in at Markets, town halls and other places with shops. He told stories of rude, nice and weird customers, and the adventures he had been on across the universes. Casper soon realised that despite his quite young age, Spark had a lot of stories to tell, and gifted wisdom.

The two sat at the lounge as the sun was at its peak, chatting amongst themselves.
"And that was how I met my friend, Clyde" Spark finished his story. He had met a friend a while back, having the same fate as Casper did, being trapped in the in between. The brunette learnt that rogue portals had been alive on their planet for much longer than they thought, and were just too rare and stealthy to be witnessed.
"How did he adjust to.. y'know, this?" The kid asked.
"I have to admit, he was very snappy and on edge when I first met him, but that was expected. He's much better now and he has two friends living with him that got stuck with him when they all first arrived" The elf answered happily, Casper content and rather comforted at the knowledge that someone had been through the same thing they had.

Though, when looking back on their journey to the In-between, they remembered something they didn't want to.

The darkness.

The eyes.

him.

The whole mood quickly changed, Casper becoming on edge as they looked around frantically at the dark corners in the room. they swore they could see a faint pair of eyes, though they knew their own pair were just playing tricks on them.

"Just so you know, one of my friends is coming over today for a bit, so if you want to have a shower and use my brush or whatever else you're more than welcome to" Spark offers, not noticing the kid's scared behaviour. Casper appreciates the consideration as they almost immediately ventures to find the shower, trying to get their mind off of the creeping void.

Finding it quickly, being the room opposite to the guest bedroom, they take off their clothes and glasses, neatly folding them, resting them on the toilet seat before pausing as they look at himself in the mirror. Nothing they saw pleased them. they pried their eyes away from the mirror, hopping in the shower. they made sure to only have it slightly warm, as they didn't want to use up the hot water, lathering some of the body wash on their hands.

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Slipping back into their clothes and accidentally poking himself in the eye with their glasses, they leave their shoes neatly next to the two other pairs near the door. They go to the vanity and quickly find a brush, not realising how matted their hair was. Snow, grass and leaves fell out of it constantly, having hard knots to get through. After a couple of minutes they were able to get their hair back into its desired shape, a curly, overgrown haircut. Sighing as they exited the bathroom, their hands were shaking slightly as they were very nervous about visitors.

They walked into the lounge room and walked up to spark, slightly puffing out their sweater anxiously. "Spark, do my clothes smell at all?" they mumbled to the taller male. Spark gently grabbed onto the brown sweater's sleeve, sniffing it slightly.
"I don't think you do, but you're welcome to rummage through some of my old clothes if you want, I think there's still some left in the guest bedroom closet." Spark smiled softly at the smaller kid, watching them walk away to look at the clothes.

The brunette stepped foot into the familiar guest bedroom, the hinges creaking as they opened the cabinet. Spark was right, multiple sweaters, ponchos, singlets and more hung from clothing racks in the wooden cabinet, made for all different types of weather and crafted from a variety of materials. Looking through the clothes, they soon picked out an outfit to wear.