Deep Sea Embers

After bringing all the newly added luggage to the living room, Heidi came to the dining table and looked at Morris sitting opposite the dining table in a daze.

She hasn't seen her father for a long time - although she can still contact him occasionally, even with that intermittent contact, the last time seems to have been a long time ago.

Her father's sudden return home felt a bit unreal to her, like a dream.

Morris sat at the dining table, eating the freshly fried sausages and bread slowly, chewing each bite carefully for a long time. After a while, he raised his head and looked at his wife sitting next to him and the woman sitting across the table. The daughter, with a smile on her face: "I haven't had food from home for a long time."

"There's not enough to eat, but after finishing this meal, we have to go out," the wife next to me said with a smile, just like the days long ago when the couple discussed going for a walk in the park after lunch, "We're going to Recent shelter reports - the neighborhood is becoming more and more uneasy, and those people who are confused...are becoming less and less human."

"They have lost their awareness of themselves, and the world is gradually forgetting what 'human' is like, and the result is that," Morris said calmly, "The cornerstones and anchors laid by the gods are rapidly failing. Those who have not woken up will deviate further from 'normal' as time goes by...but in their own 'feelings', nothing has ever changed."

Heidi had a trace of sadness on her face: "...Is it hopeless?"

"Don't worry about them, Heidi," the father across the table just smiled and shook his head, "It's all temporary and everything will get better. The captain is thinking of a way - my return to the city-state early is also part of his grand plan. ring."

"...It seems that you have experienced a lot of things outside," Heidi hesitated and couldn't help but said, "Have everyone else come back too? Vanna is back too?"

"Yes, Vanna is back too. Except for the captain, Alice, and the pigeon, the other 'crew' have returned." Morris nodded slowly, "Vanna has already gone to the cathedral, and then she She will go to the city hall. After arranging things there, she will take the initiative to contact you. Nina and Shirley have also gone home. We have agreed on the contact time and contact information, and Sailor and Agatha... are also... They have their own arrangements and tasks.”

Heidi had a trace of curiosity on her face: "...can you tell me about your journey?"

"Of course - the world doesn't have much time, but there's still enough for a sweeping story."

In the mist that filled the city, the figures of the two girls ran all the way through the streets of the lower city.

They passed through the intersections where suspicious dark red masses were piled up, walked between the buildings with countless eyes blinking like living creatures, and the walls undulated and squirmed, bypassing the blind and unconscious people wandering on the streets. Shadows of self-awareness, low and confused murmurs and occasional loud noises came from the fog, hovering around them as if chasing uninvited guests.

"This is worse than what the female pope said!" Shirley felt that the atmosphere around her was creepy. In order to be brave, she transformed herself into a terrifying demon form. At this moment, she was carefully walking on twelve long skeletal joints. Stepping over the beating piles on the ground, "She only said that the city is full of people who have lost themselves...but she didn't say this kind of 'losing themselves'!"

"The situation is changing gradually - we have been drifting on the sea for such a long time since we left the lighthouse, and the situation in the city must be deteriorating," Nina said as she followed Shirley and couldn't help but look up. My friend, who was in a terrifying form at this moment, said, "...then again, are you scared? You are much scarier than that shadow just now."

"What's scary? I call it handsome, but I don't call it scary!" Shirley retorted immediately, then propped up her body and looked around with some emotion, "But then again, this situation is not There is an advantage - I can run around the city with this appearance openly, and they will act as if they haven't seen me. Even if some 'sane' people see it, they will only regard it as part of the distortion, not Someone yelled and rushed up to give me a shot..."

"You'd better be careful. If there is another priest patrolling the city with the same behavior as Miss Fanna, and he sees a deep demon like you, he will directly come up and strike with a sword..."

"Then just make him look like a sunshine," Shirley carelessly raised a skeletal limb and tapped it on Nina's shoulder. "Let him know why the world is ending and there are still two beauties with bright sunshine in the city." girl……"

Nina didn't want to deal with her friend who had an unusual brain circuit.

The ringing of "ding-a-ling" came from the fog, interrupting the communication between the two girls. They looked up at the direction of the sound at the same time and saw a steam bus with a bright yellow shell appearing on the street. There were more than a dozen pairs of messy hands and feet growing under the bus body - the bus crawled on hands and feet on the mist-filled streets, bursts of white mist spewed out from the rear, it stopped at a nearby platform, and the middle part of the bus was torn open Come and show your countless sharp teeth.

"Want a ride? Want a ride? To the museum!" the steam bus shouted to Shirley and Nina. "Reopening between curfews, with a dazzling exhibition of paintings and textiles!"

Nina looked at this scene blankly, while Shirley next to her was stunned for a moment and then waved her hands vigorously at the swaying bus: "No! I have too many legs to get on the bus!"

"Okay, okay, bye, bye, I'm going to the next stop!"

The steam bus with a bright yellow shell shouted happily, and the "door" with countless sharp teeth in the middle of the carriage closed again. Then it spit out a burst of steam, lifted up a dozen pairs of hands and feet under the carriage, and crawled away quickly. At the end of the road.

Shirley and Nina looked at each other.

Agou's figure emerged from the shadow between the two of them, and said in a muffled voice: "...the deep sea now may be a little more normal than here."

Nina said nothing more, just took another step towards the home in her memory.

She and Shirley ignored all the weird shadows and sounds. After a while, the extremely familiar small shop in the lower town finally appeared in the sight of the two girls.

Among the surrounding buildings that have been covered with all kinds of weird shadows and accumulations, and have almost been transformed into some kind of "living things", the small antique shop still maintains its appearance a long time ago, like a A reassuring safe house with a warm and bright light shining in the glass showcase.

Nina walked forward quickly and pushed open the unlocked door - the bell at the door rang loudly, and everything was just as she remembered.

"Uncle Duncan! Shirley and I are home!" she shouted into the quiet antique store.

But there was no response from the store.

"Uncle Duncan, we're home!" Nina shouted again.

This time, she finally heard the response - but she couldn't tell for a moment whether the voice came from the bottom of her heart or from somewhere in the store: "I'm behind the counter."

Nina was stunned for a moment and subconsciously looked up at the counter next to the stairs.

She saw a thin and hunched figure, as if blending with the surrounding shadows, sitting quietly behind the old and mottled wooden counter.

Shirley returned to her human appearance and walked into the store with Nina. They walked through the shelves that seemed to have not been cleaned for many days and came to the counter.

"Uncle Duncan..." Nina stepped forward cautiously. She saw "Uncle Duncan" behind the counter slightly moving his eyes, but otherwise made no other movements, which made her a little worried, "Are you okay? "

"I have cut off most of the contact with this incarnation," Duncan's voice sounded in Nina's heart, "but I have retained the last vision for the time being, sitting here so I can watch you and Shirley get home safely— —Did anything happen on the way?"

Nina stood there in a daze, with a complicated expression in her eyes, but gradually, a warm smile reappeared on her face.

"No," she said with a smile, standing directly in front of the counter so that "Uncle Duncan" who was still at the end of the world could see her more clearly, "there are a lot of changes in the city, but nothing dangerous - Morris The teacher has arrived home safely, and everyone else is fine. Shirley and I just came from the shopping mall, and many people there have already taken refuge."

"That's good. The range I can see now is very small. I've always been curious about what's going on outside the door."

"How is the situation over there?" Shirley came over from the side and couldn't help but ask, "Have you and Alice found what you were looking for?"

"We have found it, and now we are preparing to leave here and head to the last stop."

"Last stop?" Nina and Shirley said in unison.

"Yes," Duncan said slowly, "Soon, you will be able to see the Lost Home again - at that time, it will become the most eye-catching light in the sky."

The uniform gray-white background closed up outside the ship's side, and a slight vibration was heard from the hull of the Lost Home. Then everything returned to calm - in the seemingly ultimate "stillness", the ship embarked on its final voyage.

Duncan stood on the bridge at the stern of the ship, and Alice stood beside him. The latter was holding the steering wheel tightly and controlling the direction of the jump.

"We will return to the border first, but we will not enter the Infinite Sea - the Lost Home will 'lift off' in the Eternal Veil, and we will cross the entire world from a very high place until we reach the Creation of the World..."

Duncan raised his head and looked into the distance, as if looking through the gray-white transition channel, looking at the end of time and all things.

“Then, that ‘blink of an eye’ moment comes.”

"Lifting into the sky? Creation of the world?!" Nina's shocked voice sounded in his heart, "Is this... okay?"

Then Shirley's exclamation came over: "Can the Lost Home still fly?"

Duncan laughed, the corners of his mouth curled up.

"It's okay - the sea of ​​clouds is also the sea."