Fantomfiction 🍄🦋🥀

Chapter 21🍄 - Special-bonus chapter

Trevor's POV
Song: SO DONE- the kid LAROI

I've been walking along this road for about 30 minutes now and at no point has it gotten to an end. I'm wondering if that person I talked too on the phone wasn't just delusional.
I'm thirsty, I'm tired and I can't find this damn temple anywhere, if it's even real. I mean, a temple where you "connect your spirit to the bright dimension" doesn't sound very convincing. Then again, I didn't believe in salt therapy and I wouldn't be here without it.
I tried to get my hopes up by thinking positive.
I can see gorgeous trees, the blue sky and bugs swirling all around me- okay, this isn't working! It's disgusting here; so humid and hot and it's just the same stupid trees all around here!
I decide to rest my legs and sit down. There have been no cars, no humans, nobody, so I just sit down, in the middle of the road and turn my face to the sky. The sun has been setting and if I stay out here much longer, I'm probably going to be eaten by a tiger.
That's when I see someone coming my way from the same direction I was coming from. A man on a bike. He stops where I am standing and tries to talk to me but I don't understand him because he's speaking a different language.
So, I say the only word I think he might understand: tod khemjee?
His facial expression goes from confused to friendly. He gives me a nod and moves his head saying "Follow me".
So I do. I follow him. What else can do? We're going the same direction so it will be awkward. We walk for two minutes or so in silence until we arrive to the place I thought I would never see. The temple. I had seen it on the internet. The people in this temple, they call themselves the Güür, they're able to get over the barrier that separates the spirit world and this one. After a lot of reading, I understood, they were in the same dimension as ghosts.
In the temple it was cooler than outside with the burning sun, but still horribly humid. I saw some people walking around, looking normal which I did not expect from this place. The people are also not dressed like a typical monk would or anything. They were wearing normal clothes, similar to the ones I brought. What does stand out is the amulet they all wear around their necks. It seems like each one is personal. Some are green, some are blue. The man that brought me here went into the first door in front the gate and came out without his hat and wearing an amulet too.
He speaks to me then took my arm. We go to the top of the temple, where the amulets aren't blue or green, they're purple for some people. I saw a man standing on a sort of tapestry with the same symbols on it as his pink amulet. His is the only pink one around , which makes him special, probably like a leader. A chosen one. Their prophet.
"Tea?" He asks me. "Er, just water if you have.", I answer and sit down on the chair he pulled out for me. He served me a glass of water and I drank it in a gulp. He sat down in front of me and started asking questions after telling me his name was Batuhan.
"Trevor, was it?"
"Yes"
"Well, on the phone you said that you had an encounter with people from your past?"
"Yes, I worked with three boys a long time ago and one night, they died. I saw them recently. I can't explain it."
"Well, maybe we can." The man stood up and looked out the window. "Here at tod khemjee, we have control over our spirits, sending them to 'the bright dimension' so they can communicate and see the people there."
"Really? You can help me talk to dead people?"
The man chuckled and made a 'calm down' motion.
"Not everyone who's dead is at the bright dimension. The people with no regrets or who have lived a fulfilling life are in the afterlife; and depending on which culture you're from, that means different things."
I nod in understanding.
"Of course, no one has ever been able to report back. There's no communication, so no one knows what happens when you leave the bright dimension.", he clarifies.
I don't know what to say so I'm glad when he sighs and asks me: "Trevor, let me ask you. What is your goal? Why are you here?"
A question I've been thinking about on the way here. My conclusion?
"I want to know how I can never see those boys again. I need to cut off my eye at the bright dimension or what ever."
He sighs. "Trevor, you have a natural gift of seeing these boys. Not everyone can look into the bright dimension like you can. You didn't have to commit to any training, you just have the gift of seeing both dimensions. Do you truly understand what great gift you're giving up? You wouldn't be able to see half the people in this room!"
I looked around. Were these people really ghosts?
"Wait, they're ghosts?" I asked him, pointing at the men conversing at the large window. "They're not. But for example they are. Anyone whose medal is yellow or orange." I looked around and furrowed a brow. No one is wearing a yellow or orange medal. They're all purple. "Is something wrong?" he asks me after seeing my distraught face.
"Yeah, ehm... I don't know how to say this... I can't see ghosts"

We got things sorted. We searched the boys on the internet and found out that it's not us who can see into the bright dimension, it's them who can come over to our dimension.
"But how is that possible?!" I ask him.
"Many decades ago, our founder, Arban, lost his wife to an illness. He went into a state which many called depression, but it turned out to be meditation. With his controlled mind, he crossed over to the bright dimension. He met many ghosts and after understanding all he could about it. Sadly he found out that his wife was in the afterlife, which he called the cloaked dimension. After gaining the power to see in both dimensions, he guided others to a gift that was useless to him."
"No offense, but, like, what does that have to do with anything?", I just want peace dude. 
"For things to make sense we must start at the beginning. How do you expect to understand a story, if you start at the middle?"
I roll my eyes. He's right. "Alright... proceed".
"After training many students, Arban became old and died himself. In the bright dimension, he was still able to communicate with his students since they had access to the bright dimension but-"
"He wanted to reach everyone here", I connected the dots.
"That's right. Arban found a way of bringing his soul over to this dimension and started recruiting ghosts to become his students. Together, those ghosts worked on fool proof ways to cross over to our dimension. Some found a good meditation method, which became widespread in Europe too. That's when all those myths about ghosts started, the victorian times. People crossed over and those methods became even harder to get to, so it kind of died down. This is one of the only places that teaches that method but it could be that your friends found a way to do it, without training. A few people have that gift."

"Thank you so much for giving me clarity", I spent a bit of my week at the temple, reading up on the surprisingly interesting history of the dimensions. It was time for me to leave though and Batuhan led me out of the temple. "Thank you for sharing your experiences, Trevor. We are thankful to you for adding to the knowledge of the dimensions. Maybe we will send some men to America to check how your friends got such extraordinary powers.", he chuckled but him calling the boys my friends echoed in my brain.
I worked through so many years of survival guilt and now they probably know I published the songs after they died. I hope they realize that it seemed like the only way to get over the tragedy that happened that night. I guess I'm going home and steering clear of the boys. I don't have anything to say to them and I kind of got the closure I need. They're clearly doing well at their new shot at life. Performing at the orpheum. The past will be left in the past.