Down the Twilight Path

A Chance Encounter, Part 1

A/N: Welcome to the first official chapter of Down the Twilight Path, a fanfic with more delays and production problems than I thought was humanly possible! But now we will finally begin the story proper: Act One of our six act story. We begin in the cozy world sandwiched in between light and dark, Twilight Town. Our troubled young protagonist lives here, and is going to embark on a life-changing journey soon. One in which he is way in over his head...

Part One: The Boy Who Knew Nothing of the World

Act One: Introduction

Scene One: A Chance Encounter, Part 1

"Jason, wake up!"

The sound of someone banging at the door filled the room. Jason thrashed in his bed, briefly confused, before he shook the cobwebs of sleep off him and realized that it was his sister at the door, shouting his name.

"I'm fine, Eileen," he said. "I just had that nightmare again."

The banging stopped and a heavy silence filled the air. "That's not what I would call fine, Jason," she answered. "But today is that day...if you don't want to go to school today I understand. I could come up with an excuse for the teachers."

Jason pulled up his knees to his chest, honestly considering this. To have his older sister make such an offer was the biggest indicator of how that day affected them, even today. But what good would it really do to just stay inside all day? No, today of all days...The best thing to do was to remind himself that he still had his life, and people that he cared about, that cared for him back.

As Jason got out of bed, he repeated the sentiment out loud to Eileen.

"I'm glad to hear you say that, Jason. I need to get to work. I left some breakfast for you, so eat something before going to school. And if you're feeling up to it, you can come with me to the hospital later to see Mom and Dad."

With this, Eileen left to get ready for her job. Jason took this chance to continue to get ready for the day ahead. As he did so, he began to remember the other dream he had the night before; the mysterious glass pane floating in the middle of nowhere, and the disembodied voice that had asked many specific things of him for an unspecified purpose.

That voice seemed to want to know about me...except whenever I answered its questions, its next response gave me the feeling that it already knew the answer I gave. So why the questions then? And why me? Normally I wouldn't be taking a dream so seriously, but even for a lucid dream that felt far too real.

So if everything in the dream actually happened, then there are a lot of questions that need to be answered, including who the Voice belongs to and why it chose me for whatever it's planning...

Jason paused in front of the mirror and looked over himself: Bright red hair, green eyes smattered with hazel flecks, a face his sister described as eternally scowling, a build he considered decent. As for clothes, there wasn't much to note with a green long-sleeved shirt and simple black jeans. Whatever reason the Voice had for talking to him through a dream, Jason couldn't discern it.