Chapter Text
The cloudy sky. Pouring rain, falling down into the ground.
Some days you just don’t feel like anything is worth it; you just want to lay down and disappear off the face of the Earth, even if just for a little bit. It was one of those days.
Even as the rain hit the window of his car, he couldn’t help but feel like this wasn’t worth it. Moving to a new town, starting a new life somewhere he’s never been before.
His short, brown hair was styled in a way that made him look professional, with some gel applied to keep it in place towards the left. He looked at the rearview mirror, looking back at himself. His clothing was somewhat formal, wearing a beige coat that went down to his knees with a black, collared shirt underneath it. His gray jeans didn’t stand out too much, and he wore black shoes.
He didn’t want to seem out of place, but he didn’t have much else to wear in cold, rainy weather.
With no family to leave behind it wasn’t too hard a decision to make but moving from a big city to some place in the middle of nowhere is something you need to get used to. Not seeing people all over, all the time, constantly having to deal with unreasonable people, people that would just drive him up the wall, and some others that he didn’t trust with anything at all. Not having to work all day just to attempt to afford basic necessities was something he was hoping for too. That was one of the reasons he decided to move in the first place; he couldn’t live back in the city anymore with how things were going down the drain lately, even more so than usual.
He would prefer if he didn’t have to do any of that routine anymore. But that remained to be seen.
Rumors were that this particular town had something special about it, that it was a magical place that could change your life for the better. He knew it couldn’t be true, it was too good to be true; but he wanted to believe there was some hope, however small, that he would live a happier life in this place. Despite that, some doubt was always at the back of his mind, for however long he had been planning the trip.
Driving down the wet road, there were no more buildings to be seen for miles. The only thing that could be seen on either direction was the road, vegetation, mountains, and the cloudy sky.
This town was really out of the way of anywhere else. It was a place you would only hear about in passing. It was never really a popular place, never attracting any tourists or that many people.
A few hours of driving road after road later, buildings begin to be seen once again. The rain had stopped some time ago, only the cloudy sky remaining in place as the town reveals itself.
The car stops, having already arrived at its destination. There doesn’t seem to be any place to park anywhere, so he parks somewhere near the biggest building in the town. As he gets out of his car, the quietness of the town sets in, as not much noise can be heard around, the only thing making noise being the river flowing nearby and the sound of the wind rustling the various trees and other vegetation in the vicinity.
After looking around at the surroundings, he laid his eyes upon the biggest building in town. Moving closer to inspect, he sees a sign at the front of the building with the text “Town Hall” written on it. It’s a tall beige building with brown windowsills, and a white staircase leading to two big, dark brown doors.
Upon reaching the doors, he sees a sign hanging from one of the doors, stating “The Mayor is in!”. Opening the doors, he enters a big room with cream walls, decorated with various paintings, some leather couches, a few tables with magazines and flowerpots on top of them, and a large red carpet in front of a big desk with chairs on both sides.
At the end of the room on the other side of the big desk, there’s someone else in a smaller desk doing paperwork of some kind. He steps forward towards the big desk and calls out to the one doing the paperwork. “Hello, is the Mayor around?” he asked.
On the other side of the room, the one doing the paperwork turned around and smiled before saying “Yes, I am. How may I help you?”.
Despite being surprised at the one he had thought to be the secretary, he continues. “Well, I’m not from around here, so I wanted to ask if I can solicit a residence in this town.” He says, sitting down at the chair as the Mayor sits down on the other side of the desk.
“Well, I do think I can help with that.” She replied, crouching down to grab something from behind the desk and putting it on the desk as she continued, “You’ll need to fill out some paperwork here before a residence can be handed over to your possession. Don’t worry though, it’s all just formalities and such, but be sure to read it all.”.
She stands up saying “Take your time. I’ll be here if you need me for anything.” and walks back to her small desk to finish the rest of the paperwork.
As she sits back down, he begins reading the paperwork carefully just in case anything fishy was going on. He figured it couldn’t be that easy, there had to be something to trap him there. No one goes around just giving out free houses, especially not the mayor of a town. Though, to be fair, not many people seemed to come through here at all, so maybe it wasn’t that bad, and it could all be exactly what he was looking for.
Reading through all of the documents, nothing seemed off, except the fact that there was nothing stating he should pay for the house as soon as possible. There was just one mention of this, stating that “All due payments are to be done whenever the resident wishes, with no time limit unless moving out of town, in which case the current owner must pay off the value of their current debt before moving out.”. That was probably the catch. But it seemed… too good, still. It didn’t seem like much was at stake other than however many Bells you had to pay back for the house. Maybe that was it, maybe the houses were worth so much you wouldn’t ever be able to pay them back, and that’s why no one ever comes by here, or seems to leave.
He continues the train of thought for a few minutes before deciding to just go with it and hope for the best. This was his last resort. There wasn’t an option to go back to the city, or any other place, having no real relatives to speak of. Taking a last look at the paperwork, he grabbed the pen on the desk and signed his name in it. “Um, Miss Mayor, I’m done.” He said over to the yellow Shih Tzu still doing paperwork, who looked over to him.
“Alright, let me go over there and make it official then.” She declared, moving over to the desk, and taking the documents. Doing this, she grabbed a seal from behind the desk, and put it on the documents. “It’s all done. Thank you for becoming a part of our little community here in Rose Town.” She said. “Oh, I almost forgot to introduce myself. How clumsy of me.” She added, “My name is Isabelle, and I’m the Mayor of this here town.” Isabelle said, before asking “What’s your name?”.
“My name is Trevor.” He answered, offering his hand to shake. “Nice to meet you, Miss Mayor.”.
“Nice to meet you too, Trevor.” She replied, “You can call me Isabelle if you want, I don’t mind.”
Trevor nods as Isabelle continues talking, “I’ll give you your keys in a moment, so you can go straight to your new home and unpack your things.” She said before noticing Trevor frown slightly. “Is something the matter?”.
He looked back up at her, realizing he was frowning and responded, “Uh, no, it’s just that I don’t really have much furniture to unpack.”.
“Well, if you need any furniture you can go shop at the local store.” Isabelle said, giving Trevor a map of the town and pointing at a marked building on it before continuing, “They should have something there to fill your new home for the time being.”.
Trevor nods and stands up. “Thank you for your time, Mayor Isabelle.” He said as he took the map.
“It’s my pleasure. Here, these are the keys to your new residence.” She said, handing Trevor the keys. “I marked your home on that map just in case you need any help getting there. Hope you enjoy your stay in our little town.” She said with a smile, as Trevor walked away.
Stepping back outside, Trevor makes his way to his car and climbs in to drive over to his new home marked on the map. He still can’t believe it’s gonna be that easy, but maybe, just maybe it would be alright.
Driving around town wasn’t much of a hassle, but it did feel like more time passed between his visit at the Town Hall to getting home, though that was more because of taking in the open, natural surroundings on the way and getting to know the way than it being a long way there.
Had it not been for the light, he would’ve thought hours had already gone by.
When Trevor got home, he stepped outside and looked in awe at the property. It was bigger than he expected it to be, though not enormous by any means, it was a decent enough place for one person to live in. Once he regained his composure, he thought “Well, it can’t be that good. Something must be wrong on the inside.”.
He stood there, in the entrance, looking at perfectly fine-looking walls and the inside.
“Well then. Now I feel bad.” Trevor said, “Why did they give me this house? It’s in perfect condition, surely someone else must need it more than me!”.
“But even then, there’s still the missing furniture. I have to provide that myself, so that’s probably where the prices start to go up over the roof.” He thought to himself. “Right?”.
Despite all of Trevor’s growing disbelief, he decided to bring out what furniture he already had on him and place it somewhere inside before going to the local store like Isabelle had suggested to hopefully get some new furniture to make his new home feel less empty.
He placed down all of his furniture and sat down on the bed to check on his social media for a few minutes before heading out.
Once outside, Trevor decided to just leave the car at home and walk over to the store. It wasn’t too far away, and he figured he might as well get to know people around town on his way there. He wanted to at least try to integrate himself into their little community as well as he could.
On the way, Trevor noticed that there’s no pavement, and barely any houses had cars near them or any sort of transportation. There was just a dirt road at most, and some bridges to cross the river that went around town.
There didn’t seem to be many people present outside at the moment, or at least on the path Trevor was taking. Maybe they were busy at home or at work? He assumed they had to have work to sustain themselves, at the very least.
He only met a few people on the way and introduced himself to them, but there were no more than five residents around. And he thought it odd too that he was the only human so far to be found around. Maybe he just hadn’t met any. He’d feel weird being the only one around, so he hopes there were at least a few others in town, so he didn’t stand out as much.
Trevor didn’t exactly like being in the spotlight for an extended amount of time. He’d just have to prepare for the worse regardless. He knew with his luck he would be stuck as the token human of Rose Town.
When he finally made it to the store, Trevor looked around for anything that might catch his eye and decided to pick a table and some food. He went up to the counter to pay for his stuff, hoping it wouldn’t be too expensive.
At the counter was a white duck, sitting down checking his phone while waiting for customers to go over to pay. He looked up at Trevor and put down his phone as he noticed Trevor was there with furniture and other items. “Hey there, haven’t seen you around before. You new?” he asked.
“Yeah, I just moved in today.” Trevor answered, “The Mayor told me this place was a good place to start looking for furniture and such.”.
“Ah, yeah. Izzy’s a good one, you can always count on her.” The duck said, “She’s a good Mayor.” He added. “By the way, have you met any other people here so far? If you just moved in, I figure you should get to know the folk, no?”.
“Well, I have met a few others by now, on my way here.” Trevor replied. His face wasn’t showing much, but he began to feel somewhat uncomfortable at the growing amount of interaction.
“Ah, I see. Well, don’t think I’ve introduced myself yet so, the name’s Eric. Nice to meet you and all that.” Eric said, introducing himself.
“I’m Trevor.” He said simply, trying to get to the point already. Maybe it was evident at this point, as Eric decided to cut the conversation there.
“Anyways, enough rambling, what’ll it be for you today?” Eric said.
Trevor put the furniture and food down on the counter as he began taking out his money. It was a good thing a lot of these things could be shrunken down into those leaf things, so he didn’t need to bring his car just to move some furniture. He still didn’t know how leaves worked, but he appreciated that their existence made it easier to bring things with you.
“That’ll be 5000 Bells.” Eric said, interrupting Trevor’s thoughts.
“Huh? That’s all?” Trevor asked in disbelief. “I thought these things would be more expensive. Well, here you go.”. He said, handing the 5000 Bells over to the duck.
“Thank you for shopping here with us, hope to see you around, new guy. I work here a lot, so you’ll probably see me here again at some point.” Eric said.
Trevor nodded and walked away from the counter, towards the door.
Soon enough, Trevor was back outside after waving goodbye to his new neighbor. He pocketed his new items and walked back home, listening to the sounds of the wind go by. The rustle of the trees reminded him of his time back in the city. The way the trees on the driveway would move with the wind every time he came back from school, and every time he came back from work too.
Melancholy sets in as Trevor walks past a few houses in town, reminding him of the way the city used to be full of life and hope back when he was a kid. The way that he would run around and play with other kids after school, all the way until it got dark and their parents took them back home. Except for him. But it was alright; he always had someone to go back to at the orphanage. At least that’s how it was for a while.
His thoughts had him so distracted he didn’t notice that he was about to run into someone. By the time he realized, he was already in front of them and wouldn’t be able to stop in time. And so, they crashed into each other as Trevor quickly offered apologies. “I’m so sorry, I wasn’t watching where I was going.”.
“Oh, it’s alright.” A gray squirrel responded, looking back at Trevor before offering a hand to him. “Greetings. I don’t think we’ve met before, are you new here, by chance?” She asked politely.
Trevor stepped forward and shook her hand after some hesitation. “Yea-Yes I am. My name is Trevor, nice to meet you.” He replied.
She chuckled. “My name’s Tanya. A pleasure to meet you too.” Tanya said in response. “It’s always nice when we get new neighbors. The last time we got one feels so long ago already.” She added, tilting her head to the side, and looking at the sky as if lost in a daydream.
Trevor looked on, and remembered he was going home before he ran into Tanya, quite literally. “Hmm, I should go back home. I still need to finish setting everything up over there.” He recalled.
“Well then, I’ll stop bothering you so you can go ahead.” She said. “I don’t want to keep you here if you need to be elsewhere. See you later.” Tanya waved goodbye and walked away.
Trevor waved goodbye to Tanya and stood there a couple seconds, looking at her go away. “How come people were so nice in here?” He thought and frowned. Why would they go out of their way to be so nice to him? It wasn’t only one or two people, but everyone he met so far was just like that. Pushing those thoughts away, Trevor started walking back home again.
He got his keys out and opened the door to his house. The inside of it was mildly decorated already from his earlier unpacking, but it still lacked personal touch and other such things.
After closing the door behind him, Trevor stood there in the doorway, lost in thought yet again at every part of his trip and what came before. None of it made sense. Nothing felt right. It wouldn’t ever feel right, he thinks. There’s no reason anyone would try to help him just like that without an ulterior motive. There’s no way he would get off the hook that easily. The world wasn’t nice, and he knew that first-hand. Something was happening in this town; it was just too good to be true.
But regardless of his thoughts on the matter, he eventually decided to go along with it for the time being. He assumed the worst, but he had to try to hope for it to be alright. His heart was racing, so he decided to go sit down at his bed to calm himself down. Walking from the doorway to the bed, he felt his heartbeat every step of the way, reaching into his mind and making him more anxious with every step. Every second felt like an eternity, as if fighting against an invisible force trying to keep him away, but eventually he made it and sat down.
Trevor waited for his pulse to relax before sighing and getting up to set his new table. After the table was up, he climbed onto a chair and sat down to eat his dinner. He needed some time to himself.
He was just being paranoid, that’s all. He needed to calm down.
“That was really stupid. I should stop worrying so much.” Trevor thought to himself with a frown on his face, while resting his face on his hand. His eyes slightly teary, he kept prodding at the food with his fork. Trevor grit his teeth, feeling unreasonably upset before a grunt escaped his mouth.
“UGH. I’ll just go get my stress ball…” He decided, walking over to his pack on the floor nearby and rummaging through it. He found the thing he was looking for, and made his way back over to the table, holding the ball and pressing down on it with one of his hands. It had signs of use across several parts of it, wearing out where force was applied. Trevor always carried it with him to use whenever he needed it, or when he just wanted to fidget around with something.
A sigh could be heard as he sat back down, his face sporting a more relaxed expression than before. He continued eating while playing around with the ball in his other hand. Once he was done with his food, he left the table and went over to his bed, not wanting to bother decorating the rest of the house just yet.
Moving his backpack over to the side of his bed, he took out another item. Trevor looked down at it, his old headphones; he had had them for years now, they’ve never broken down somehow, or at least not completely. But they were old, so he didn’t know how much more they would be able to handle. “I should probably get some new headphones when I get the chance.” He thought to himself as he took out his phone and plugged them in.
Sitting down on the bed, Trevor put on his headphones and went through his music app to find the right playlist for the occasion. Once he found the perfect playlist, he hit play and laid down into his bed facing the wall, scrolling through social media while listening to the music.
After about an hour of scrolling through various apps, he put his phone down and continued listening to his music while thinking about his day.
He had met a few neighbors in this new town. It had been quite the day, though not much of it was because of them, but because of his own insecurities. They were nice, welcoming, and just overall good people from what he could tell. But something in the back of his head still told him to doubt, no matter how good it all seemed to be. He had seen people that acted like close friends in public suddenly turn distant and cold once they were alone, so he just wanted to make sure he wouldn’t make the same mistakes.
But even then, that was a long time ago, in such a different environment, one that encouraged the kind of behavior that makes people screw each other constantly just so they could earn their spot in society. Regardless, he wasn’t in a heavily transited city anymore; this place wasn’t like that. It was a place practically in the middle of nowhere, and he had come for a reason.
Listening to a random tale of a place that could change your life probably wasn’t the best idea, but it was the best he had. He needed to start to trust his instincts, and this seemed like a good place to start. And all the constant self-doubting was starting to annoy him anyway.
He did wonder why he got such a good deal with his house and all that, but the Mayor didn’t seem to be lying about it; in fact, she seemed to be pretty upbeat and energetic. That’s something to admire that, at least. Even with such a good deal, he was still a bit disappointed with how small his house turned out to be, but it’s still so much more than he could hope to afford elsewhere. It’s a surprise not many people came by, with all the benefits he got. He’ll just have to ask the Mayor the next day if she’s available.
There’s still so much left to see and live in such a small town. On his way to the store and back, he had seen that the town was quite packed together, but still separate enough to allow everyone to have their own space. There were several stores and houses in the distance, with trees, lakes, and rivers everywhere; it was a beautiful thing to witness, especially after hours of driving across a mostly empty landscape.
He couldn’t believe it, but he did have to admit that he was somewhat excited to finally gather the courage to move from the city and experience whatever was up ahead. But also, quite nervous. How could he not be? He was moving into an entirely different place, meeting lots of new people he was supposed to interact with day to day, and establishing his place in town, all in one day. In spite of all of that, he couldn’t help but think about what he was going to try the next day, and what type of people he would meet out there. He had only seen three others so far, but he knew there were at least 8 people in town, so he had to go meet them at some point.
And then he also needed to ask some questions to the Mayor, explore the rest of town, and find out what he would be doing for however long he stayed in town. There had to be some kind of job he could do to earn some money just in case he needed some more. He didn’t come with much to begin with, so any extra Bells would be welcome.
There were a lot of things he needed to buy too, more furniture, food, new clothes, and other things. Though he also didn’t have much to pass the time with, he only had his phone apps and not much else on him. He should probably get a TV too, if there’s even signal in such a faraway place.
More thoughts about his new life in Rose Town came and went as the night progressed, until Trevor drifted off to sleep. At least he had remembered to put his headphones back into the backpack.
He slept the night away, dreaming in peace about the day to come.
The next morning, Trevor woke up slowly, taking in the sunlight coming through the windows of his new home. It seemed to be early morning, so the sun had just come out. He had never been an early bird, but he felt a strange sense of relief and relaxation.
Getting up from his bed, he made his way over to the door after getting dressed. He opened it and headed outside, greeted by the early morning breeze and the morning sun. He basked in the sun for a few seconds, before looking down to find a basket sitting down on his doorway.
Lifting the basket up, he looked at it, noticing a note on top of it. He took the note and read it.
“It’s not much, but you can have this! Hope you enjoy it, and welcome to town!!! -Signed, Mayor Isabelle.” It said with a cute drawing of Isabelle herself on the bottom by the signature.
Trevor smiled. He put the note back down into the basket and checked its contents. Inside it, there were a few fruits, some basic food supplies, some daisies, and a cute yellow wallpaper with paw prints on it.
He couldn’t help but smile. The Mayor didn’t have to go through all that trouble, and at such an early hour of the day, just for him. But he still appreciated it.
He kept on smiling and looked up at the sky.
The clear, sunny sky. Sun rising, shining down on everyone.
Some days, you just can’t help but smile; you just want to think that everything will be alright, that nothing can go wrong for you today. It was one of those days.