I admired my neatly crafted truck that stood still on the nearby road. Rugged tires muddy from use, hanging chimes ringing faintly along the cold gushes of wind. Putting down the half-empty cup of trashy coffee in my hand, I stood up. Getting inside, I started my engine. The rumbling roar of my truck always infused me with joy as I considered it like my son. It was time to go on another awaited journey. One I was really looking forward to. Although the job of delivering packages to different cities sounds simple, it comes with unexpected surprises and adventures.
Usually, I stick to selling my own handmade products and traveling around places but I have enjoyed delivering these past few months. When I drove on the road with no final destination in my mind for the first time, I realized how I could see myself living like this forever. I started driving, rolling down my window. Trees ran past and I glanced at my red hair strands dancing along the wind in the rear-view mirror. Not all people can keep moving throughout their lives. They long for a place they can call home or where they can belong. I am not really looking for a home. I have come as far as having two storage lots for deliveries and a small workshop. They are close enough.
What does it even feel like? Never-ending rain? I wondered as I stopped for my first break after driving for 6 hours. Spending my whole life without a single day of sun feels uncanny and almost annoying. I cannot imagine it but it’s the daily reality for the people of Asterope. I acquire a lot of information from people I meet around cities. Some share interesting facts and some just survive on gossip and rumours of the town. There were stories that despite the rain, Asterope was mesmerizing and magical. A place that felt like a dark painting you could enter. That’s how my fascination with it grew. In total, I had visited 24 different cities for my job, all with their own qualities and distinct environments, fulfilling the requests of my beloved customers, yet none of them were quite as interesting.
After another break and a very long drive, I stopped for a final rest before the next stop which was Asterope. I lay on my truck’s roof observing the red clouds in the night sky moving in slow motion. Eyes closed, enchanting notes of passacaglia floating in the air made their way into my ears from the truck’s stereo. I fell asleep. Back on the road in the morning, I finally could see it from a distance. The city was engulfed by enormous black clouds. My truck bobbed up and down due to the uneven road. A tinge of excitement flowed in my veins.
Finally, the wheels stopped as I stood in front of the sign that read “Welcome to Asterope”. It felt strange observing the bright sunrays behind me while loud thunder sent shivers from a few steps ahead of this sign. Thankfully, I had just built a new waterproof cape I had been meaning to put to use. Driving ahead, soon my windshield was blurry with raindrops and streetlights. The roads were shimmering with neon, some lights blinking slightly. I came upon a dimly lit alley to park my truck and finally stepped on the damp land, closing the truck door behind me with a light thud. An earthy scent entered my soul as my eyes settled around the fog.
With my backpack secure on my shoulders, I started to walk around in anticipation of exploring this unfamiliar neighbourhood. It was oddly empty with only a few people walking at a distance with modern-looking umbrellas attached to them. I faced the clouds, a few frosty raindrops touched my skin and flowed down to my hair. Streaks of pink and blue aura were glowing in between dense clouds covering the sky. It was the darkest night I had experienced in a long time. The address was not that far so I started walking. The sharp thunder and beats of raindrops felt abnormally silent. My slow footsteps in the puddles were louder. I suddenly noticed an ice cream shaped lamp that was rotating in the top right corner of a small shop. I made my way towards it but the light flickered and switched off. The whole shop turned into pitch-black nothingness like it was suddenly closed. The transparency of the windows turned into a solid wall. The sudden lack of colours almost made me feel like it never existed in the first place.
My calm mood had turned into confusion. The cars passing by had mirror-like windows. Reflections of blackness and faded headlights. I walked a bit faster. Step by step, watching the symmetrically built buildings. They were unduly dark or overly bright like the painter didn’t add ample details. People never reached close enough, constantly disappearing onto different paths. The rain’s speed was unchanged. I never envisioned this city would have this strangeness intermixed in the air. After walking for a few more minutes, I came upon a small park where certain plants were outgrowing. A tree stood very still in the centre even though I could feel a breeze. I closely examined the leaves of the lonely willow tree. It was impossible to tell if it was healthy or not. They looked withered yet quite green. The willow just stood there like a ghost too tired to move. I plucked a small branch of a shrub and it immediately crumbled into pieces and fell on the ground like grains of sand. Something very odd was going on.
After walking for approximately thirty minutes, I finally arrived at the delivery address on my letter. Regretting leaving my truck behind, my eyes adjusted to the land that lay empty with nothing in existence. An empty muddy land. No house, no faces, nothing. Perplexed, I stood there like a statue, silent and clueless. My peripheral vision caught a slight movement near the neighbouring wall which was painted with distorted graffiti. A person was sitting on the ground, with his back to the wall. Pressing keys on a device under an attached umbrella similar to the one I had seen earlier. The faint light from the screen highlighted his skin and tinted eyes. His presence felt alive after encountering nothing but dark bizarreness since I had arrived.
I moved forward and he jumped up, startling both of us. His green eyes were made of glass, wide like he encountered a horrifying spirit. Our eyes talked but we did not say a word, just staring into each other’s souls.
“Who are you?” his voice raspy. I snapped back to reality as he waited for a response.
“Who are you?” I simply repeated his curiosity back at him.
“You are not from here,” he said while standing up.
“No” I involuntarily replied as I was nervously trying to make sense out of this place.
“Why… did you come here?” his words almost showed concern while he moved a bit closer.
I stepped away wondering if he was just nosy or if I should be running away.
“I have my reasons.” I slowly held the paper with the address towards his face and continued.
“Do you know this place?”
He turned his head and grabbed the paper with two fingers. Just after reading the first few letters, he immediately looked at me again.
“Where did you find this?”
“That’s not important.” and none of his business.
“Maybe you… are the answer,” he said in such a creepy way that I decided to take the page back but he jerked his hand away.
“Just give it back if you don’t know—”
“Why are you looking for this place?” he spoke over me.
“Why do you want to know?”
“This land right here is the address you are looking for,” he said while staring into my soul.
“Thanks,” I replied, wanting to get my paper back and leave.
I extended out my hand and he placed the paper on it, his gaze still fixated on me. A sense of hesitation hit me for a second but then I started to walk away when suddenly he spoke again.
“Wait!”
I stopped and turned around to meet his glass eyes again.
“Do you actually know how to get out of here?” he asked.
“What do you mean?”
He paused for a second.
“When did you come here? To Asterope?”
I was utterly confused but I could sense a mix of curiosity and worry in his question.
“Like an hour ago. Why?”
“Didn’t you notice anything off about this place?” he said.
I paused for a moment, recollecting the strange occurrences and abnormal objects I encountered on my way here. I turned around and looked at the road again. It was dark and lifeless with ghost cars still moving endlessly.
“This may be hard to believe but it’s glitched, this city,” he replied.
“What?” dread built up inside me at this sudden announcement.
“It’s stuck in time and looping cycles. I had a feeling no one knew about it outside Asterope since nobody came to help. I thought I would never see another person again.”
My brain couldn’t process the new discovery I had made. He seemed confused and happy at the same time. He must have been alone.
“If you don’t believe me just look at the sky. The clouds that never move forward after a certain point and come back to the same position. The lightning is repeating on a schedule too if you listen carefully.” He continued. Odd statements, yet they were true. The sky was like a gif on repeat but I never looked up. The thunder echoed strangely.
At that moment, I stood still with my shoes buried in mud. I was in this unknown place with a stranger showering me with strange knowledge that made perfect sense. Nothing was normal about this place, the rain never stopped and yet people believed it was a unique city. A magical experience. I had no idea what I had gotten myself into and was just hoping to have a nice trip. And now I am apparently stuck inside this insane city.
“People are lost deep inside this glitch that’s eating this city alive,” he started talking again. We had sat down for a while as I was taking this in.
“I tried to leave but I couldn’t. The only clue has led me to this empty meaningless place,” he sounded exhausted. That’s why he was sitting here. His company was the only positive thing left in my mind trying to avoid panic.
“How did you find it? The address,” he asked.
I cleared my throat and sat up straighter.
“I am a traveling merchant of sorts and I deliver packages to different cities. Yesterday I received a request to deliver to this address in Asterope for the first time, ” I explained while staring into the vast city that looked like an abyss.
He stayed silent.
“My truck!” I jumped suddenly, remembering I had left it in a random alley. My hand-built truck which is so beloved to me left out there. I frantically stood up and started walking.
He stood up too and without a word, started following me. We hurried back to the alley through roads that were now feeling somewhat unfamiliar. The cars were fewer and we could hear loud thuds randomly from deep inside the buildings. They seemed different in shape too.
“Where is it?” he asked me after a few steps.
“I parked it in an alley over here somewhere” I replied.
“Why would you leave your truck behind?”
“I don’t know! I was just really excited about walking on the streets and taking in the beauty of Asterope, the painted city. But it is turning into a nightmare.” I whined in frustration.
“I get that. Don’t worry, we will get to your truck,” he said in a low tone.
As I walked further, I realized I was lost. I couldn’t locate the road I came from. We were in an area that seemed too weird. All the lights were either flickering or slowly losing power. It was like the painter of Asterope smudged the city with thick black paint which was slowly sinking in the environment. Somehow everything was still visible which was disturbing. Some people with shadowed faces were standing like inanimate objects and I was too scared to approach them.
“I think I don’t remember the way back. No! No… I am sure the road was here” I said to him while panic slowly started to boil my insides.
“No, I think something is wrong,” he said while examining the area closely as he stopped walking.
“Something is very wrong. It seems to be getting even more peculiar and glitched. I have never seen these roads become this odd,” he continued with tension in his voice.
“What do we do?” I asked him with a worried face.
“Just trust your instincts and walk to the alley where you remember you left the truck. I think the city is transforming in some way but if we are still okay then your truck might be too.” He assured me. I faced the front and started walking fast, ignoring the abnormalities this time as much as I could.
After 15 minutes, I finally saw it. My work of art, my precious truck. It was untouched but the alley was completely different from before. It had become wider with new appearances of poles and wires hanging around. I quickly went inside, followed by the stranger entering the seat next to me. I realized how without saying a word we were suddenly a team.
“Are you coming with me?” I asked him as he looked around the interior of my truck with an impressed expression.
“Don’t you think we should work together to escape this place?” he replied while attaching the seat belt and making himself comfortable.
I was too eager to drive to the entrance so I decided to go with his suggestion. I started the engine and moved through the defective roads. They seemed more uneven and changed. I parked on the side for a moment and opened up my map on the small screen placed beside the steering wheel.
“Polaris”, he said out of nowhere.
“My name,” he added. A nice name, I thought to myself and didn’t tell him.
“Kora”, I replied, realizing a bit too late that I had shared my real name with someone I barely knew.
“That’s a nice name,” he smiled at me for the first time.
After an awkward pause, I showed him the request that I had received. The mysterious customer who was the reason I had walked into this glitched city. I didn’t really like company and usually preferred solitude. I barely ever had people enter my truck but Polaris had made himself comfortable. He was strange but oddly nice. At that point, everything felt wrong and out of place anyway.
“How did someone send this request to you from Asterope? It doesn’t make any sense,” he said. A line we will probably be repeating for the entirety of this trip.
After having a rough idea of the route, I drove back to where I thought the entrance was. As we approached the opening, there were structures there, that I had not seen before. It was not an opening anymore. We truly were lost. Polaris suggested to drive around and so we proceeded to drive. We circled in loops, going nowhere, discovering a distorted mess. Not able to spot a single being on the sidewalks.
“How are you not lost in the loop?” I still couldn’t completely trust Polaris. He was an anomaly in this whole situation.
“I am not from here either,” his reply did make sense.
“What are you delivering?” Polaris asked.
I wanted to know too, but I have always respected the privacy of my customers. I have opened only one of my deliveries in the past which was an exceptional incident as the package started moving around.
“I don’t know either. I never peek at the deliveries.” I replied.
“But we are stuck… and I do not like the thought of being here forever.” I continued.
Feeling a sense of rebellion, I took the box out of my backpack. It was a small wooden box shaped like a chest, shut with a simple opening mechanism. We both could feel a rise of anticipation in each other’s faces. It looked old and dusty, which I did not notice when I collected it earlier in the day. A strange symbol was embedded on the top lid. I slowly pulled out the lever-like handle and pushed it open.