And Time Stood Still - Part 1

     “You’re burning up,” Lydia told her Uni, her hand resting just beneath the Uni’s horn.

     “I think I just need some sleep…” Penelope the Pink Uni insisted. The raspiness in her voice betrayed her.

     “I think you need some medicine,” Lydia said firmly, “Do you think you will be okay if I go to the potion store? It’s not too far…”

     “Yeah, I’ll be fine. Say hi to the shopkeeper for me!” Penelope replied, a cough punctuating each sentence.

     “I will. That Cybunny sure is curmudgeonly, though. Hopefully, I won’t be too long,” Lydia answered, caressing Penelope’s mane. Her hand lingered for a second before she stood to leave the Neohome.

     “Be right back”

     --

     Penelope could feel the fever burning behind her eyes. She shut them and saw flickering circles. Half-amused, she pretended that they were fireworks. She began to count them, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. She was asleep before she could reach 6.

     Meanwhile, at the Brightvale Potionery, Lydia was attempting to haggle with the Cybunny. He had a look of impatience on his face. He thumped his left foot in rapid fire.

     “Listen here, dearie, I’ve got customers that would pay double for that Warm Amber Ointment. Don’t you try to con me out of Neopoints just so you can go reselling that for twice what you paid!”

     “Listen, I’m not trying to be difficult, and I’m not restocking my shop. Penelope is really sick, and I don’t have the Neopoints to pay full price,” Lydia explained; a note of desperation tinged the last few syllables.

     “Oh, really?” The Cybunny said, a deep look of scepticism crossing his features.

     “Yes, really. I don’t want to go too far in case she needs me. Can you please just accept my offer?” Lydia felt her own patience wearing thin.

     “I don’t know…someone just offered me Neopoints over the selling price, and I do have a business to run,” the Cybunny responded.

     “You know what? I will go somewhere else. It’s fine,” Lydia said. But the look of concern that crossed her face as she said the word “fine” implied that it was anything but. She bit her lip and wondered how long it would take to get to Neopia Central. Far longer than she was comfortable with, but the shopkeeper was leaving her with no other option.

     Something in this look of concern seemed to soften the shopkeeper’s resolve. Hurriedly, he pressed the Warm Amber Ointment into Lydia’s hand and took the small sum of Neopoints out of her other. He raised a finger to his lips in a shushing motion as if to say, “don’t tell anyone”. When Lydia opened her mouth to thank him, he gave a microscopic shake of his head and a small shrug. Then, he motioned to the door and mouthed the word, “Hurry.” Lydia took one second to look the Cybunny in his eyes and nodded before rushing out the door.

     --

     Lydia ran down the cobblestone path that led to their Neohome, taking care not to spill any of the medicine. Her feet burned as she sprinted, but she knew that Penelope was waiting on her. Out of breath, she approached the door of their little off-kilter Neohome. She burst through the door and paused for just a second to smooth out her hair and catch her breath. She did not want to worry Penelope. She walked up to a mahogany door that was slightly ajar. Lydia could hear the soft rustling of a snoring Uni. She smiled and quietly entered the room. She placed her hand on Penelope and gingerly shook her awake. Penelope opened one eye.

     “Medicine,” Lydia said simply.

     Lydia poured a small amount of the Warm Amber Ointment into a cup and tilted it next to Penelope’s mouth. Penelope grimaced. Nothing could have prepared her for the bitter taste of medicine.

     “Good job,” Lydia whispered, “Now try to get more sleep”. She turned out the lights as she left, taking one moment to look at Penelope before pushing the door not quite closed. Penelope’s vision was blurry with the beginnings of sleep, but she could still make out the curve of Lydia’s soothing smile. Penelope felt her own lips turn up in a smile, and then she was asleep once again.

     --

     Penelope was roused from her dreams by the uncharacteristic pattering of rain on the roof of the Neohome.

     “It’s only the month of Swimming…It shouldn’t be raining in Brightvale,” Penelope murmured. Her throat felt better, and she no longer felt hot. It seemed the Warm Amber Ointment had done its job.

     Something was wrong. The world seemed different somehow. Cold, empty, grey. Penelope shook her head. There was nothing to worry about. It was just a weather anomaly, something to gawk out for a few days and then talk about years from now. The summer that it rained in Brightvale, what a year! The wind whistled against the windows, but the world felt somehow frozen. It was not the same tranquillity of an unexpected rainy summer day where one might curl up in a plush chair and listen to the pitter-patter of rain. It was a sinister quietness--the type of silence that is pierced only by the fierce fluttering of anxious heartbeats.

     Penelope felt strangely light, as if the world no longer had any gravitational pull. The floor wobbled underneath her. She peered at the floor and cautiously put a hoof forward. The world seemed to stop spinning. It seemed to have stopped completely. Only the soft tweeting of Beekadoodles disturbed the strange stillness. She approached the front door and pushed gently. It creaked as it swung out.

     The park down the street that was normally filled with Neopians and their Neopets was empty, and rain poured down. Penelope watched as it hit the swings ferociously. The sandbox had turned to mud, and rivulets of water were cascading into the grass.

     “Well, it is really raining. Maybe everyone’s at home,” Penelope muttered to herself. It was the type of reassurance that only serves to delay facing the facts. The second the words left her lips, Penelope knew there was no truth in them. But still, she turned down the cobblestone path and approached her neighbour’s Neohome.

     She knocked in a rhythmic pattern. The door swung open. Penelope hesitated at the entrance. There was no knowing what danger may lay ahead. Still, she entered the house. Everything was exactly as she remembered. The pink and blue rug was in the middle of the room; a rocking chair gently swayed with the wind next to the fireplace.

     “Anna?” she called out cautiously. Her best friend would always answer her; she was sure of it. She had never kept Penelope waiting before. Lydia had often referred to the two Unis as “attached at the hip”. Penelope wished now that that hyperbole was reality.

     The wind blew a bit harder, but no answer sounded back to her. There was simply no one there. Penelope exited the house. The wind was blowing harder now, and her eyes burned with the salt of tears on the verge of escaping.

     “Okay…one cry, and then I need to pull it together,” she whispered to herself. A loud, guttural cry emerged from her throat, but only for a second. She stifled it quickly, breathing quickly.

     “There’s no time to fall apart,” and with that, she started into town.

     --

     Penelope looked at her map of Neopia. She had already scoured every part of Brightvale, seeking out just one morsel of familiarity--a voice, a face, anything. But there was nothing there. She moved from land to land, scavenging what food and drink she could. Sometimes she would spend the nights curled up in the stockroom of a shop. Other nights she would find a Neohome and search through it. There was never anything there except the whisperings of the past lives. A game of jacks on the floor. A book flipped to page 263. An unfinished cup of tea in the living room.

     Days passed. Then weeks. Then months. In her pocket calendar, Penelope marked off the day. It was now the 14th of the month of Swimming--one day prior to the day that everyone had seemingly vanished without a trace.

     She lay, forlorn, in the shallow water of the fishing cove. She had searched the ends of the world, from Moltara to Maraqua. The only thing that was left of Neopia were the structures. There was not a soul to be found. The shore was strewn with all the debris that had gathered over the months. The sand was undisturbed. In all the clutter, Penelope found nothing.

     She approached the frothy water. It swayed in and out in a gentle current. Penelope placed a cautious hoof in the water. Lukewarm. Slowly, she immersed herself in the water.

     She lowered her head beneath the water and blew bubbles in a weak attempt to cheer herself up. The popping of the bubbles barely dented the oppressive silence. Her legs ached. Her stomach growled, not quite full from the food she had scavenged earlier. Her eyelids suddenly felt as if the weight of this empty world was pulling them down. She closed her eyes and sighed into the murky water. She could just stay here forever, and it would make no difference. It would feel so good to let the water take the weight off of her weary soul.

      “Hey!” a voice called from the entrance of the cove, startling Penelope.

      To be continued…