Across the Threshold

The Traversal

Shade
(Currently in a modern setting)

Shade was bored to death. He hated his job. Life as a cashier was not exciting.

His favorite part of every day was the end of his shift, a time that could never come soon enough. Today was a worse day than ever. Nearly nobody had come to the store that day, leaving him with hours of just staring at the wall.

His replacement walked over to relieve him. He greeted her but, though they had met before, he couldn't think of her name. He was too tired to remember right now.

Shade walked over to his locker and picked up his stuff. He was ready to be home, wanting to sleep or eat or at least do something. He turned to the door, and started walking out. He spotted one of his coworkers, James, coming in for his shift.

Shade held up his hand in greeting. He and James weren't friends exactly, more like acquaintances. James waved back happily.

"It's a slow day today," Shade told him, "I must have had only ten people all day."

"That bad huh?" James replied, "I'll find some way to stay awake I guess. Well, at least it's better than having the place so crowded that you can't hear yourself think."

That got a smile out of Shade. James was always looking on the bright side. No matter what happened, James always found the silver lining.

"Well, I gotta get back home," Shade said, "Good luck."

"From what you've said, I'll need it." James joked. He smiled and waved. "See you around Shade." He walked over to the main desk to check in.

Shade smiled as he left the store. Talking with James had really lightened his mood. Maybe today wouldn't be so bad after all.

As Shade walked out to his car, he noticed that something felt off. He couldn't put his finger on it, but the feeling was definitely there.

As he stepped down off the curb to his car, Shade felt a shock wave blast around him. It didn't affect anything, but he could feel the energy pulsing around him. He felt as if it was drawing him forward, towards some other place.

While Shade stood there, trying to understand what was happening, everything around him started to fade. It started with the things in the distance, like the buildings of the city and trees. But soon, the things right in front of him were disappearing before his eyes. Soon, he was floating in an endless void.

Shade just floated for a while, with that strange energy still pulsing around him. Then, the energy started to fade. No, not fade. Was it going inside him?

Either way, as the energy dissipated, Shade's confusion lessened. As the last of the energy drained away, he even felt at home in this void.

Soon, things started appearing. Small things at first, a bush here, a small tree there, but just like with the disappearance of his home, more things started to appear rapidly.

As a world came into shape all around him, Shade could see that it was not back home. He was somewhere else entirely. He was in the middle of a forest. And to make matters worse, he was surrounded by four people, all of them armed and none of them happy.