Raison d'etre

by Umbral Afro

Getting out (revised)

Raison d'etre

Ch. 1 Getting out

It was a nice winter's day; it wasn’t too cold, and the sun could actually be seen through what limited cloud cover there was on this day. There sits a lone house along a dirt road, all the curtains were closed, while an open window allowed the light, cool breezes to enter. The house was well kept on the outside; the cream colored paint on the home had been repainted only a few months prior, and the grass surrounding it was well kept; it retaining its color and length due to the cold weather. The only thing that stood out was that it was the only house on that road for about a quarter mile, and was rimmed by forest along its back sides.

Inside the home consisted of two bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchen/dining room area, and living room. Each or these rooms was kept clean, for the most part; the bedroom doors remained closed, possibly to hide that which shouldn’t be found, in the kitchen dishes began to form a small mound that breached the rim of the sink, and while the living room was only ever victim to scattered, and abandoned, plates and cups.

Behind one of the closed bedroom doors sat a lone figure in the darkness. It spent its days mostly in front of a lit screen, whether it is computer of television, and passes the time. Currently a lush rainforest could be seen on the TV screen; the scenery began to rush by, and then came to an abrupt stop at a dirt road. The figure then began to mutter something to itself.

“Okay, so now I go past here, up the hill, and there is the outpost.”

---

Later the front door to the house opened and a second figure entered into the dark. The darkness was then chased off when the light switch in the living room was flipped and the room was illuminated. The second figure now moved towards a closed door, there was no sound coming from the other side and upon discovering this second figure grinned wickedly. Suddenly the door was thrust open, and the inside light switch flipped.

“And one more to go- OOOOH MY GOD!!!!!” The first figure yelled

Now bathed in light and thoroughly blinded the figure slowly open its eyes and saw the second doubled over in a fit of laughter.

“Abner! What the hell?!”

“Couldn’t help myself Conor!” Abner managed between laughs. “You don’t see any light all day, I thought you might secretly be a vampire. So I had to see if you sparkled!” The last word was punctuated by Abner quickly opening the curtains to allow in sunlight.

Conor knew to not look towards the window, and instead paused his game (which he was sure he missed the shot and was now dead), and let his eyes adjust to the more than necessary amount of light in his room.

His room was kind of small; with most of the floor space in his room taken up by his computer desk, TV stand, and dresser there wasn’t much room to move around. He liked it that way though, in his smaller room he felt more comfortable. His walls had a couple of posters, a couple video game related posters, and that poster of Einstein with his tongue out. This is where he would spend his days, inside, away from the crowds of people.

“Come on.” Abner said, regaining some composure “You can’t always stay in your room all day. ”

Conor would spend every day this way, with all of his free time spent either on his computer, or with one of his only friends, Abner. It's not that he didn't like others it's that he wasn't able to properly talk to people beyond two, or three at a time. Whenever he was with a large group of people all he could manage was uttering a barely audible "Yes", or "No". He was a bit shy, but that wasn’t the reason why. It was that being around too many people caused his brain to kind of overload. Conor has empathic abilities (meaning he could feel other people’s emotions and thoughts), and when there were too many people around him he would feel them, in presence and in thought.

“Yes I can.” Conor quickly replied “I can leave at night to get exercise walking from here to my job at the late night stores, food is covered by you, and social interactions are covered by forums and thread posts.”

Connor, despite his shy personality was well versed in all manner of sciences, primarily psychology, biology, and physics. He could map out all he would have to do to keep his body and mind from deteriorating due to minimal human contact, and Abner knew it.

Abner was a very social person with an exuberant personality. He could become anybody's friend the instant he met them, and wasn't the kind of person to have himself constantly surrounded by others, though. He was one of the only people who Connor could easily talk to. Abner emitted a kind of energy that Conor felt as a kind of high energy that would normally quickly fry his brain, but at the same time it was tame and easy to deal with. Neither of them could explain it, and stopped caring after a while. Abner was the only one who tried to help Conor get over his shyness. He would plan ways to get Conor out of his house and interacting with others. These plans could be a simple trip to the mall, or including Connor in some of the things he did with his other friends. Abner even introduced Conor to My Little Pony Friendship is Magic so he could at least start to make some friends on his own. (Even if they only communicate over the internet)

---

Today's Operation: Bring Connor to the mall

Step 1: Convince Connor to go

Step 2: Go have an awesome time at the mall

Step 3: Repeat until Connor is over his shyness

"Come on Conor!" Abner pleaded.

"NO!" Conor snapped, his usual calm personality worn thin by Abner's constant barrage of failed attempts at getting him to leave the house.

"Dude we're just going to the mall, not the moon. You'll be fine."

"Like I was fine after the last time? Those people nearly crushed me!" Conor said remembering how the last time he went to the mall with Abner. He was nearly toppled over by a stampede of people after he short circuited from the barrage of different people’s feelings at once. Thankfully Abner saved him.

“Now that was your fault you forgot some of the rules of the mall while it's crowded.

• People will not hear you if you just stand there and try to talk to them

• Move along the walls whenever possible

• Only leave the wall to cross short distances

• If caught in crowds in the middle of the walkway go with the flow of the crowd, and move back towards the wall

“Also, you weren't in any danger you're bigger than anyone else there, just don't draw attention to yourself. If all else fails I'm here to help.”

Conor still wasn't entirely convinced, but Abner was right about a few things. Conor was a good few inches taller than anybody else, and made it a priority to not attract any attention to himself. Also, Abner was always there to help him out. Conor then sighed, a sign that Abner knew meant that what was left of Conor's resistance has been defeated.

"Yeah! Step one complete!"

"What?" Conor asked.

"Nothing, let’s go."

A short while later both Connor and Abner stood outside Conor's house; Conor adjusted his eyes so he could better see the sunlit landscape that he so often ignored, and Abner put on his favorite pair of sunglasses, ones that made a weird V shape and seemed to stick right onto his face despite them not having arms. "Off we go then!" Abner exclaimed guiding Connor into the outside world.

Connor was having second thoughts “Hey, why don't we do this late-" he was cut off by a sudden blinding white light that enveloped them, and then they were gone.

From there they both felt a strange tingling sensation accompanying the intense light blinding them. This quickly changed as they both began to cry out in agony. It felt like every bone I their bodies were growing, shrinking, and breaking all at once. What they couldn’t see was their fingers and toes receding into their hands and feet, that were simultaneously hardening into hooves. Their skulls were being pulled horizontally forward, creating a muzzle. Other physical changes occurred, and the pain from this event caused the two now half human half equine creatures to pass out.