Hurdling toward the entrance, those--strange fractals overcame my vision once more. I came face to face with my body in the hospital room, nurses crowded me, machines beeped fervently, a crash cart was rolled in, the hurriedness of the room palpable. I turned around, sensing something off. Just then, I heard the flat line across the wall. The fractals cleared once more and a steadiness entered my stream of consciousness. This is a distraction. I took the bait.
I turned back to discern what my gut was telling me, the door was closing. At a second glance, this wasn't Earth's door. It was one of iron and lead, like a seal of solid metal.
I didn't give myself a second to hesitate, my soul trembled like a caged animal, desperate for any form of survival. My legs flew, the splatter of the velvety plane reacting to the pounding of my feet, launching to reach the door. I caught a glimpse of that creature cloaked in shadow from last time, its arm moving to help the door along in its journey to trap me here. I shot out of the entrance, colliding with the being. We tumbled into the Void, I heard a gasp from the creature. As I moved to stop the motion. I pinned it down, aiming to unmask it when, my hand met nothing, the swirls of smoke dissipated onto the plane.
I spent the following minutes desperately trying to search for the entrance to Esmor. The Void, once a realm I could traverse with ease, now felt like an endless labyrinth, its boundaries constantly shifting and blurring. Every time I tried to project, to find some sign of the door that could tether me to this new reality, I felt myself slipping further into the dark, unmoored and lost.
A window in the distance appeared, and I strode toward it, to the single cut out of light in the inkiness around me. I could see everyone standing over my enid form, panic contorting their features. Seren knelt beside my...glowing body. I couldn't make out what they were saying, only seeing Seren barking orders as the others gave us some room. Seren's eyes now glowed too, her head tilted up to the sky, no longer looking at me.
Suddenly, a blue thread dangled in front of me. I reached for it, wrapping it around my hand once, twice. At the contact, I could suddenly hear, ever so faintly, Seren's voice. Still unclear of her words, I imagined it only made sense to hold tight with all I had. A tug came from the other end of this thread, and like a lightbulb in a basement that is switched on and off by a string, at that pull, I was once again shrouded in darkness, the window disappearing entirely.
YOU ARE READING
The Call of Home
Fantasy"My senses intensified as a familiar buzz overwhelmed my mind as pins and needles overtook my body as I lay in bed. I propelled what I can only describe as my consciousness forward out of my physical being going up, up, up. My soul peeled itself fro...
