The Short House part 1 (Patreon)

[If reading is not your thing no worries this is just an extra like the world notes. This is also a first draft so I haven't proof read it and you know how many typos I tend to make in small amounts of text.]

A Space between a Space

The spot between 1340 and 1345 Cordnail Street was and is a strange place. Not strange by a glance but rather once you really focused in on it. Certain features on the front of the strikingly modern building was free from early Victorian influence like the shops and businesses that surrounded it. It was also rather non uninformed in the sense that its corners and roof broke the otherwise perfectly straight skyline of the buildings up and down the street.

That was because it was designed... well for lack of a better word "badly." The building was 3 stories tall but due to its odd proportions and height looked more like a 2 story building until you realised that 3 rows of windows separated the floors. Its architecture was also striking in that it looked rather bare and free from decrotive trimmings that were so common on the other buildings on the street. It was a very plain white with an almost unmistakable synthetic look as though it was plastic poured into a mold than left on the street.

Besides the design of the building there were many other notable occurances that marked it as a place not meant for regular people. The daily visits from strikingly tall figures with large packages and occasionally one would see small creatures scurry at night from the building which many called "Cordnail Rats." These small creatures never ventured into the considerably busy street during the day but rather infested the stone work paths by night. Many businesses had hired exterminators after food or small supplies would go missing at night but no evidence of any such rats was discovered. That was the difference between regular rats and Cordnail Rats. No one ever saw hair nor hide of a cordnail rat. You just knew they were there.

All these factors included could lead one to assume that the building would be rather unpopular but you'd be mistaken. The building, against all odds, had more than just the odd visitor and hosted a collection of different individuals besides the Tall ominous figures. The collection was various and as different as could be. Men and women of various ages would enter and some even came back occasionally. The core inhabitants of the place though was well known as a group of consistent guests could often be seen entering and exiting the building throughout the week.

These individuals were as percular as the building itself and talked loudly about strange things that by the time one listened in had lost all meaning without context. Talk of "big things," "coffee pools" and "Tiny rights" spotted the conversation but no sense could be made of it to any outside listener. All of these things gave the place a very... unsettling feeling like something that wasn't supposed to exist outside of stories told by books or movies. This feeling is what kept most at bay from investigating further but that didn't keep everyone away.

One such person was Reika. This girl was young maybe early 20's and sported bright red hair with a pony tail and a stocky build that just missed the mark of what some would call "curvy." She was tall for a woman and carried alot of weight on her chest that swayed in an uncontrolled fashion that the girl was obviously all to aware of. She was also odd but not odd like we have described but rather like... a puzzle piece that only partly fits the mold. The shape and color was right but something about the way she walked and held herself made it clear that she was uncomfortable in her own skin. She only could vaguely acknowledge greetings from people she passed and as she got further and further down Cordnail Street it was becoming clearer and clearer about her purpose and destination.

For no one so unusual could ever end up anywhere but the building between 1340 and 1345 and as if like a great large predator with a gaping maw the girl was consumed by the strange places doorway and somehow the places oddity seamed to grow as though the girls strangeness had somehow fed the buildings mythos. This would not be the last time the street would watch Reika enter the building. In fact her visits became as frequent as the usual crowd that populated the building until finally her coming and going was unified with the buildings presence on the street. Whether this new visitors appearance played a part in everything that was to come was unclear to most and even to those involved it wasn't clear. One thing was certain though. One day after entering the strange place Reika was never seen again.