A Summer's Night - Part 3

PART THREE: TIME’S TWIST

I slowly opened my eyes.
         Where was I? What on earth was this place?
         I got up, slowly, feeling if everything was still okay. I did manage to get up, and let out a sigh of relief. I could get up. Good for me.
         “Hello!” I shouted without thinking.
         Stupid Eric.
         It was clearly a bit dangerous. What if something magical happened to be down here? Or up here? Wherever here was. Did I believe in magic? Never. It was absurd, something to show how creative humans could get.
To my relief, nothing – nobody – answered my call. It also saddened me. Was I stuck here forever? Would Omina ever come and get me?
Omina.
How could I have been so stupid? And to think, for a moment I believed her. For a moment, I believed in magic. Come to think of it, I still believed in magic. Because I was in a place that was completely white. There was nothing. I stood on nothing. I felt nothing. I saw nothing.
I was too confused to compute what was happening to me. My reflexes and reactions were too slow.
Everything was white?! There was nothing and nobody in sight?! And I didn’t believe in magic?! What was wrong with me?
Then, suddenly, the scenery changed. Everything changed. I was standing on a beach now.  I could hear the waves crashing. Birds circled over the perfect blue sea. Palm trees were scattered around the area. But, I saw no people. It was only me, still in my T-Shirt and jeans. What a great outfit to go the beach, hey?
Then, again, everything disappeared and it was white. Complete nothingness. Complete silence. It felt cold and almost dead.
“Hello!” I shouted again. I didn’t worry about who and what could be down here. I just needed to get out. Still nothing. Still the absolute silence.
I had a fright when the scenery changed once again.
But this time it wasn’t a white sheet or a beautiful ocean. I was in a car.  I was alone, it was dark outside and it was rather warm. And all of the sudden – out of the blue – someone else got into the car.
It was Michelle.


“Michelle?” I asked-greeted her.
         She said noting, she just cried, sobbing. “I’ll…I’ll…” she started, but broke it off with tears.
         “What? What’s wrong?” I stuttered, alerted, worried.
         She ignored me, just like that. She started the car and we drove off.
         “Michelle,” I said softly. “Look at me.”
         Nothing.
         It didn’t make sense. Where was I? Who was this? What was happening? Could this really be happening? Could this really take place?
         She took out her cell phone. She started to dial a number, but I couldn’t make out what it was. She broke off, whispering: “No.” She put the phone away, and her eyes still focused on the road in front of her.
         I reached my arm out to touch her, but it went right through her, as if there was nothing there.  “Michelle!” I shouted. What was happening? Where was I? Was this real? Or was I only dreaming? The latter sounded the most correct to me.
         But, still, I knew I was at full consciousness. This was all real.
         “I’ll show him! He won’t do that to me!” she started screaming, although her voice was faded by her heart’s ache. I tried to wipe one of her tears away, but, again, my hand went right through them. As if she didn’t exist.
         As my hand was still in front of me, I glanced at my watch. 7:15PM, Saturday 11 October 2008. Impossible. I looked at it again, confirming.
         It was twelve days ahead.
The next thing I saw didn’t make sense.
         Suddenly, I was outside on top of a building looking down on the traffic.
         Then, out of nowhere, two cars collided in a deafening collision.
         Everything started to fast-forward. I saw a bunch of lights, people, ambulances and cars moving at incredible speeds.
         The cars eventually cleared up, leaving only the open road and an ambulance behind. Time started to move at a normal pace again, allowing me to shift forward through the open space and stand next to the ambulance.
         The doctors on board carried a body into the ambulance.
         I saw a hand hanging, white and lifeless.
         It had a bracelet on it.
         Michelle's bracelet.
         Then everything disappeared.

In a matter of seconds, I went back to the ocean, back to the white, open space and eventually ended up on a road, with a white background and the sound of the ocean was audible.
         “Hello!” I shouted again, weak. I was still stunned by what had just happened.
         I closed my eyes. “No, no, no” I muttered, hopeless.
         I let out a huge sigh. I was doomed. I could just as well face it. I sat down, the long ever-stretching road quite comfortable. If only I could see Michelle one more time… was she even alive? Was all of this just a dream? I was probably in my bed right now, sleeping. Just when I was sure that I had found real love. Just as I was prepared to take a leap.
         But life doesn’t work that way. I can either ignore it, failing time and time again.  Or I can accept it and avoid the disappointments. But I never give in, and I never give up.
         “Anybody!” I shouted again without thinking.
         “Yes?” a cold voice spoke from behind.

My body flung around as I followed the mysterious voice.
         I found myself face-to-face with a man with greyish-white hair, a crooked back, but a perfectly smooth skin. Some parts of his body indicated he was a hundred years old, while other showed he was only eighteen. Seventeen perhaps.
         “I am Ayden,” he announced, his voice perfectly cold and smooth.
         “Who..who are you?”
         “Ayden. Ruler of the Realm. Maybe you have heard of me somewhere?”
         “No. And what realm?”
         “This realm. The Realm. It is the nexus of all magic. Every ounce of magic produced uses this place as a central server. Every time the landscape changes, every time you hear an explosion, every time you hear music playing, with no traceable source… it’s magic. Brilliantly, astoundingly magic.”
         That made sense, although it sound rather rehearsed.
         Omina used magic on me. I didn’t believe.  So I ended up here.
         “So you can do magic too?”
         “Of course I can. And how did you end up here, by the way?”
         He confused me more. His accent and manner of speech sounded as if he was a mere teenager, but his physical attributes suggested he was all but just that.
         “Omina teleported me...”
         He broke me off. “Omina? That old witch? Still greatly incompetent? Well I'd say..” Ayden said, almost as if bloating.
         “Yeah, and I didn't believe in magic, so I must have..”
         He broke me off again. “Wait. You are a non-believer?”
         “Well, I was.”
         “Magic is the brilliant essence that keeps the world spinning, and you don't believe in it?! That's a disgrace my dear Eric..”
         How did he know my name?
         “I believe now! After all I've been through, I really do believe.”
         “You could sound more convincing,” he told me, looking at the white skies. He snapped his fingers, and a beautiful beach was visible again. The smell of fresh skies filled my nostrils. I felt safe.
         Safe?
         Here?
         “Can you please take me back?” I asked, my voice still weak.
         “Of course I can,” he answered. “I am Ayden, ruler of the Realm.”
         “Yes, you told me.”
         “I am a warlock. The highest in the Rank of the Magic. I can do anything. Teleportation is child's play compared to my skills. How do you become a warlock, you ask?”
         “I didn't...”
         “It's not easy. Your mind must be open. Your senses must be extremely hightened. You must be extraordinary. Your ability with magic should be limitless. Your power must bow down to nothing. You strength must constantly increase, rapidly. I am a warlock. Ayden the warlock.”
         “That's..”
         “Great? I know. Now, where were we?”
         “Earth.. back.. home..” I stuttered.
         “Ah yes, that.”
         He snapped his fingers.
         The ocean disappeared. I was on my way back.
         Back to Michelle.
         Back to reality?

“Omina!”
         Ayden walked towards her, and hugged her.
         We were back in the field, just outside the same hut I saw about …
         That's when I realized I lost complete track of time. I looked at my watch, but it showed nothing at all. Only a blank screen.
         “What time is it?”
         “Oh, you again,” Omina looked strange at me. “What are you doing back here at my oh so humble home?”
         “You sent him to The Realm, sister.”
         Sister?
         “The Realm? What on earth was he doing there?”
         I excused the irony.
         “That was exactly what I wanted to know!” Ayden exclaimed. “The Realm is the sacred covenant of who we are. You cannot send a mere mortal there just for … fun!”
         “Fun? Fun? You thought I was doing it for fun?! I need to practice my magic, I need to become better. Teleporting a fruit from point A to point B merely helps develop my skill,” she explained.
         “Incompetent amateur…” Ayden began.
         “You are an amateur?” I asked her, shocked. “You told me you were so powerful and great. How could you take such a high risk on me? I could've died! If it weren't for Ayden..”
         “The Ayden,” he corrected me.
         “I might've been stuck there forever!”
         A long silence followed, my face most probably red. My heart was racing. I just insulted a warlock's sister. That wasn't very smart, hey?
         “Deal with it,” she said cold and heartless.
         “Where is Michelle?” I asked.
         “She’s back on Earth,” Ayden answered smoothly. “We are now in a transitional location between Earth and The Realm.
         “Wait, what?” I managed to say. “But this is the same hut, the same trees, the same everything. This must be Earth.”
         “Poor, uninformed child..” Omina began.
         “How did he get here in the first place, Omina?”
         “The green flash,” I said. And it all made sense. That’s why I couldn’t hear Michelle, and she couldn’t hear me. We were in different locations.
         Different planets?
         “Ayden, I can explain,” Omina began.
         “You did what?” he flared, his eyes suddenly red. In a matter of milliseconds, he cooled down. “No need. I shall address you later. Come Eric. You are going home now.”
         A small whirlwind of dust grew around us, spinning rapidly. Everything on the outside disappeared. Then it all stopped, and Ayden stared at me, as if waiting for something.
         “Is she really going to die?” I asked.          
         “It depends on you,” he told me.
         Just like that, we vanished.

Michelle was sitting against a tree, using her flashlight to read a book.
         I approached her from behind. Ayden was gone and I was safely back on Earth. It still feels unreal. Everything feels as if it never happened.
         “Eric!” she shouted when she spotted me. She must have heard my footsteps.
         “Michelle,” I ran up to her, opening my arms ready for an embrace. She jumped into my arms and I swung her around as I hugged her tightly.
         “Where were you? I just kept on talking, and eventually realized you were gone. At first I thought you pulled a prank, but then it took too long...”
         I put my finger on her lips, as if to silence her. “I don’t know. I saw a …” time for quick thinking “ … light and I followed it, and here you are. But I'm here now, safe. Did you miss me?”
         “You know it.”
         “Still want to stay the night?” I asked.
         “Of course. Why wouldn’t I?”
         I smiled. Losing myself at the sight of her breathtaking eyes.
         “Did the green flash scare you?” I asked, with a hidden smile.
         She stared at me, puzzled.
         “What flash?”