“Mmmmh…” My mumbled words escape my lips while I lie lazily on the couch. Waking up sucks. Off to the side, just beyond the living room table, I could see my sister at work. Typing away on her laptop, her untied deep black hair swishes as she glances at me.


    “You’re awake.” is all she says in a monotone voice. Continuing to stare at her laptop, she patiently waits for me to resurrect myself for the morning. That -however- would be a few more moments.


    “You let me sleep on the couch…?” I say lazily. My eyes close to listen to the small hum of the central heating in the house. Smirking, she says,


    “Yeah, wanted the bed to myself.” which causes me to scoff in fake offense. As I glance over at her, I see she’s still in her pajamas and her bare feet tap against the floor while she works.


    “Well your wants are going to kill my back, dude.” I retort. The couch really didn’t do great things to my back. As I swing my socked feet off the couch and sit up, a hand goes to my lower back while I straighten myself.


    Reaching forward, I fumble with the table’s drawer and grab a small bag of white powder from it. Gently, I dip my pinkie inside it and sniff some of the powder from my hand. With how often I do this, it doesn’t do much. Still, it’s enough for me to summon the energy to organize a couple of lines of the stuff.


    After using an old rusty razor from the very same drawer to organize my coke, I all but slam my head against the table. Some of the coke spills out over the table, mingling with some of yesterday’s used goods. Lin will probably want me to clean that up. For now, I pick my head up and lean back into the couch while the drug courses through my blood. Lin looks at me again while I wipe the specs off my face.


    “You shouldn’t need coke to do chores,” she says, referring to my womanly duties of household cleaning. Given that she was so important to the camp, I didn’t need to do anything but keep her happy. This usually involved things like cleaning clothes and doing dishes. Not a bad life, but I’ll be damned if I don’t still complain each day.


    “Not needing drugs to live in Kirsten? Please.” I cough out while the bad-tasting powder makes its way to the back of my throat. Sniffling a few times, I toss myself upright while the shaky energy flows through me. Pacing around the living room, I suddenly feel like I could burst into a light jog.


    “Alrighty, my highness!” I say, before landing at Lin’s side and grabbing her hand from her work. Bending down on one knee, I plant a kiss on her soft pale hands. Almost makes me jealous how smooth they are.


    “What can I do for thee this morning?” I finish my sentence while letting go of her hand and standing up. My efforts in the theatrical arts are rewarded with a soft smile from my sister.


    “You can be an adult and take care of the mess you two made in the kitchen last night. I’m hungry,” she says. Despite her smile, her voice still comes across as monotone. Sometimes it made me wonder if she didn’t like our arrangement, but I start to think it’s just the way she is. Dramatically, I pull my hand inwards for an elegant bow.


    “Very well, my liege. I shall take care of them fort-width! For with? Forthwith? ” Somehow, my confusion earns a small chuckle from her. Seeing her cute smile brings one to my own face.


    “Thank you, Lia.” she quickly says, before turning back to look at her computer. It takes a few seconds, but she gets back into the zone of typing. Softly placing a hand on her shoulder, I rub my thumb -equally as pasty white as her hands- along her shirt fabric. After that, I twirl in place and begin heading to the kitchen.


    Our living room is divided from the kitchen by a half wall. Rounding that wall, I can see our disaster zone of a kitchen. Evidently, my cooking last night never got taken care of. Whoops. While the fridge is shut, on the counter next to it is an empty carton of milk. Alongside that is some dishes I’d need to put away, and a stove that desperately needed some scrubbing. God, I had my work-


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    “What the fuck!?” I say, as my eyes finally fall on the sink, where there’s an amorphous black mass resting inside. Bubbling and writhing, it physically causes me to recoil in disgust.


    “Yeah. You forgot to clean last night.” Lin says from the other room. Audibly, I can hear her continuing to type as she speaks. Impressive multitasking that I couldn’t hope to measure up with.


    “Okaaaaaay. I don’t remember getting high enough to forget the black sludge in the sink,” I say while cautiously stepping forward to observe the mass. It was a deep void black with strands of gravy writhing around. Occasionally it bubbled up. From the living room, I hear the typing come to a stop and footsteps making their way to the room.


    “What do you mean - oh,” she says, rounding the wall into the kitchen. Crossing her arms, she has a troubled look on her face.


    “That… Wasn’t there last night,” she says, tapping her foot while she watches me approach the mass. Very carefully, I grab a nearby dirty fork and poke the sludge. That’s when I’m given a heart attack by the sludge. Quick and sudden, it jumps onto my hand.


    “Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck. Get Roy!” I say, already regretting my words. If anything, Roy was going to shoot my hand off. My sister thankfully instead grabs a pan off of the stovetop and briefly considers bringing it down on my hand. Almost as if recognizing the threat, the creature slops off of me and recoils in fear.


    “What. The fuck. Is that?!”I say as my words come between ragged breaths of fear. Running my hand over the arm that was grabbed, I don’t find anything wrong. In fact, I don’t find so much as a residue left over from the creature.


    “It’s an Artifact.” she says, still holding the pan in a weapon stance. It’d be cute how she imitates martial fighting if it weren’t for the fact that there was a creature on our floor. Shifting my weight between my feet, I can’t stop from fidgeting. Because of the sudden adrenaline rush, I feel my heart beating through my head.


    “A-are you sure? We’ll actually have to tell Roy then.” Since we couldn’t rely on the government to help us out for artifact attacks, he was the one we reluctantly went to when things went awry.


    “Not… Danger…” the creature says. Its voice sounds like something between bubbling tar and running water. Almost like it has a broken accent and it’s never spoken Kryan before.


    “It speaks. Artifacts don’t usually speak.” As Lin talks, I notice her brain shifting gears from panic to problem-solving. It’s as if she’s trying to recall some memory within her brain.


    “Well… it certainly isn’t a normal animal,” I say. Although there were plenty of weird creatures on the planet Ambria, none of them were known to be sludge creatures. I’d know, because Orlen would’ve talked my head off about it by now.


    “Come to… Help weaver…” it says, as realization crosses my sister’s face. As if placated by this phrase, she lowers her ‘weapon’ and sets it back down on the stove. Then she crosses her arms while holding a hand to her chin in thought.


    “Who? Who’s the weaver?” Lin responds while I wrack my brain to remember where I heard that term. It definitely had something to do with the artifacts, but attacks were so rare that I don’t really think about them often.


    “...Pylia… Come to help her…” it says, slowly inching its way towards me. Lin steps in front of me, as if to guard me. Backing up, she pressures me to do the same.


    “You’re not touching my sister.” her cold voice commands. The creature writhes in place, looking slightly distressed.


    “Only want… To help.” at this utterance from the thing, Lin shakes her head back and forth. It’s times like this when I really wish I had her outside-world knowledge. Silence elapses for several seconds while the two stand off.


    “Better life. Here is bad… There is good. I can help!” it finally says cheerily. At this, my sister visibly shakes slightly, and then seems to contemplate for an eternity on what the thing said. I’m about to speak up myself when she finally says


    “I’ll… Some of the artifacts are friendly. I never looked into it much, but it might actually be able to help us.” Seeing her relax, as well as feeling my own heart finally calm down, I gently sidestep her to see the creature.


    “So… We’re keeping Goop here as a pet?” I say, a smile crossing my lips. He wasn’t so bad-looking when not surrounded by garbage and dirty plates. It sloshes happily on the ground.


    “I… Yeah. I guess.” Lin lets out, dumbfounded. Presumably wandering off to do some research on Goopy, she heads off into the other room. It isn’t long before I hear typing from the other room. Now alone, I kneel on the floor and reach a finger out to the puddle on the floor.


    “You’re not evil, right?” I mutter, mostly to myself. Nevertheless, the creature replies in the form of words that sound more and more like Kryan. Sliding back and forth on the ground, he exclaims,


    “Friend!” and elongates a few tendrils from his main body to meet my finger. Not so threatening, given how stu-er- silly it is. As I stand up and begin walking to the other room, Goop begins to follow me. Smiling back at it, I watch as it traces my footsteps to the couch, leaving a small clean dust-free trail behind it. As I sit down, I take a quick look at Lin. Guess I’ll be waiting a little bit. Pulling out my phone, I proceed to ignore my chores and call up Orlen.