In a small cottage near nothing else, lay a little girl on the floor, sleeping. It was sunny outside and the sun worked angrily to make the heat even more unbearable. At least that was what the girl thought. The sun was something evil, trying to burn, and make everything hurt. The moon on the other hand, brought cold, water and sometimes even snow. The girl preferred the snow. The sun made her tired and heavy.

 

When the girl needed something, food or clothes, she went and looked for it. Sometimes when she wandered around the cottage, she found something really pretty. She made sure to look properly at the pretty things before she fell asleep at the end of the day. Those are the things that most often disappeared before she woke up. The not so pretty things only disappeared sometimes, mostly after a long time. The food very rarely disappeared.

 

The girl is me. Even if it is just to myself and I know that no one will ever hear this, I feel the need to tell my story. I want to tell it, so that even if I disappear, maybe... some part of me will stay. Not that staying here is something I desire, but at least I exist here. I have no idea what happens after you disappear from this place.

 

There are no others like me around. There are no other houses around. I have tried walking, tried to see other places than this, but I am too afraid to wander away from the cottage. What if I never find it again?

 

I had a friend once. He had such a kind face. I named him Teddy because he reminded me of that name. He couldn't walk or talk, but at night when I talked to him and held his hand, I felt as if he understood me.

 

He was with me a time. I don't know for how long since I have no way of measuring time here. I should have known though, that he was not going to stay forever. One morning he was gone. That was the first time I can remember, that I have cried. It was not a pleasant thing. I hoped I would never have reason to cry again.

 

I often wondered how it is that I knew things. Like talking. I had words for almost everything. I have had words for as long as I can remember. From where did I get them? Where did I come from? Maybe I have been here forever...

 

Sometimes I dreamt of another place. A place with people like me. A place with things to do, people to talk to, smiles and... love.

 

For some time ago, I don't really know how much, I had a dream that changed everything. The dream was nothing special really. All I remember is an image of a person. It was as clear as if it was a precious memory. She somehow seemed close to me, yet so far away. I wanted to be were she was. The dream made me feel so safe, so happy and so loved that life was no longer bearable when I woke up. When I realized were I was I felt so empty. I wanted so badly to feel safe and loved again.

 

After that I started planning. It did not matter anymore if I died or didn't find my way back, because nothing could be worse than not trying. So I decided to leave this place behind, and walk until I found something other than this. Somewhere, far away, there had to be something. So I gathered as much food I could carry, and I found some things that I might be able to carry it in. If it was not enough then hopefully there would be food to find along the way. Water was a bigger problem. I planned to go during the time of the moon, so hopefully there would be snow that I could eat if I needed it.

When the next time of the moon came, I was ready. When I noticed that it was getting darker and colder I left as soon as I could. There was no knowing of how long the cold was going to last this time.

 

For a long time, I could still see the cottage. That was somewhat reassuring. If the sun suddenly had come, then I would still be able to turn back to the protective shadow inside. But the sun didn't come. It grew colder and colder, and the dark spot that was the cottage slowly disappeared. I was not sure which way to go after that. All I knew was to get away from the cottage.

 

After a while I could almost not see at all. The darkness had taken the land, and the snow came. I had thought that I was prepared for the cold, I knew it was coming. But I had never slept outside before. The cottage had provided some amount of protection against the cold. Nothing could have prepared me for this. But if I tried to never sleep for too long at a time then it was not unbearable. I reminded myself of what it would be like if I had chosen to walk in the heat, and endured it.

 

It felt like there was no end, and the only thing that kept me going was that dream that had changed everything. I kept the memory of it alive and vivid by thinking of it all the time. There was nothing else to think about, there was just walking forward. Sometimes I didn't even know if I was walking straight or not. It didn't matter. All that mattered was trying to find something, or someone.

 

I walked again and again until I was exhausted. Then I sat down, ate some food and some snow. It was horrible to eat the snow when it was so cold everywhere around me. I ate it only when I was very thirsty. I didn't want to help the cold spread in my body.

 

I dreamt more often now, and the dreams felt more real every time. It somehow felt as if I was getting closer. I focused on those dreams all the time to have something to do while walking.

 

But my legs grew more and more tired, and it was harder to wake up every day. One day I realized there was no more food. I tried to dig in the snow to find some food but my fingers hurt so much that I had to stop. I kept going, hoping I would soon find something. My head started spinning and one day I fell and just couldn't get up again.

So there I was, thinking to myself, not knowing what else to do. My legs wouldn’t carry me any more and the cold had spread to every inch of my body. The snow violently whirled around me in the strong wind, and the tiny snowflakes hurt my cheeks.

 

Slowly the world disappeared around me and I guessed I was losing consciousness. But oddly enough I could still see. Was this a dream? The snowflakes suddenly didn't seem so threatening, and after a while they disappeared completely. It felt warm and I could smell dirt and feel the sun in my face. I'm in a forest, I thought, without really knowing what that was. I tried opening my eyes and saw shapes around me. Maybe it was trees?

 

For a moment it felt that I had found what I'd been looking for. That I had come to that warm loving place of my dreams, that I was home, that I had a future again. For that was what I had wanted all along. Something to live for. A future.

 

Then I knew I must be dreaming. But it was such a nice dream. I didn't want to wake up. This dream was better than any dream I had ever dreamt. I could feel the ground and the warmth, and smell the air. Maybe if I fell asleep now, it wouldn't be such a bad thing?

 

And I let everything become dark.

Sometimes people loose things and forget about them. When they look for them, the things seem to have disappeared. They have to be somewhere, right? They don't disappear entirely, of course?

They do disappear from our world. When there are no longer any ties to this world left, they instead appear in another world. No one has ever been able to find this world. But some people claim to know it's there.

There are no humans in this other world. It is not made for living creatures. It has never happened that a human has lost all it's ties to their world that completely before death have occurred.

The things end up in the land of the lost things. A world of things with just a past. A place where things loose their future.

There are no humans in this other world. It is not made for living creatures.