I wasn't the same person this morning.

I don't mean it in the sense that some thing incredible happened that changed the way I see the world. Though, I suppose that would work. No, what I mean is I wasn't the same person this morning.

It's hard for me to wrap my head around this. My name is Pepperbloom. I am sitting at my desk, writing. If I look deep within my memory, it seems I always was Pepperbloom. It seems I always lived there. An yet, this morning, I was not.

I woke up being called Eos, a worker. I was in my burrow, not here in Nightmare Square but down south, close to the Block. From what I gather, Pepperbloom never lived down there. Still, waking up there seemed perfectly usual at the moment.

After waking up, I took my breakfast, and left for the workshop. I worked in a woodcarving manufactory. Not me right now, though. For the past two years, Pepperbloom was a shopkeeper in a curio cabinet. Anyway, I - Eos - spent the morning working, perfectly naturally. We had just received a shipment of tempered oak, things were busy.

I think I took my lunch break around midday. I don't remember where Eos usually goes to eat, but that day, I decided to try try the Nakaran, a Condor kitchen my friends had told me about. However, I suppose I took a wrong turn, and I ended up in a dark street going down, while I was supposed to go up.

Adventurous as Eos was, I tried to find my awy around. I was surprised to even find a street that I didn't know of in my neighborhood, so I went down and tried to see where it went. Then, just as I crossed a left turn, I saw her. A Sheherper, I think - a girl, maybe in her twenties. She was walking slowly towards me, eyes opened so wide you could see the white all around her iris.

I tried to call. As she didn't answer, I approached carefully. That's when it happened. I don'texactly know whether it was when I reached for her, when my hand touched her shoulder, or even after that. All I know is, suddenly, I wasn't Eos anymore. My name was Pepperbloom, I was ashopkeeper in Nightmare Square. And right next to me, ina street I didn't quite recognize, was a towering worker from the Block, starring at me with their eyes opened so wide I could see the white all around their iris.

Without thinking twice, I bolted. I only slowed down when I reached Sp. Lisma square, the small patch of wood near the Ring road. After that, though I certainly was shaken, the day pursued. I had lunch at the [name of the restaurant where Wakey's friend lives], bought something to bring home, then I went back to the cabinet. I sold a few exotic bugs to a knowledgeable collector; a normal day for Pepperbloom Donvegger.

I don't get it.

I mean, I know it sounds absurd. But the only logical explanation I can find is that somehow, something caused me to switch from Eos to Pepperbloom. I used to be Eos, and yet I am Pepperbloom now. And I always have been.

What I cannot help but ponder is, if I did switch place, then what did I exchange with? Was there someone in there, before? Was there something? Back there, for the short moment when Eos touched Pepperbloom, it felt like I was sucked out of my body, and into another. It didn't feel like I touched another person's mind, or soul, or anything like that. I only felt a deep, dark void.

Wherever they are, I hope Eos is okay. I hope they are inhabited by more than this hard, cold nothingness. However, I will not check myself. If there is one thing I hope, it is that I will never cross the thing that took my place ever again.