VGLW

Part 1

Chapter 1:

Growing up, Colby had always had vivid dreams of exotic events reminiscent of a fairy tale, but never knew the reason. In one that seems to recur, time and time again, he is walking through a colossal white castle.  He is wearing strange garb reminiscent of another time, another place, or perhaps both.  The castle is simultaneously archaic and futuresque in appearance, not matching the shape and design of anything he is familiar with, but reminiscent in beauty and intricacy of a glorious cathedral.  He comes upon five people.  He cannot see their faces, but he knows in his heart of hearts that they are his closest friends.  They greet him in a language that feels familiar, though unintelligible.  Nonetheless, their warm demeanor does not betray their benevolent intentions, and the meaning of those indiscernible words seems to transmit itself directly through means of intuition. They begin to walk together down the halls to what he can only presume to be the grand throne room itself.  Before they arrived, the buildings began to shake and crack. A powerful gust of wind bursts through a wall.  He shuts his eyes to keep out the dust, and as he opens them, he appears transported forwards in time.  He awakes in a field of fire and ash, blood, and death.  Intuition tells him that the countless bodies littering the somber landscape all around him are those of his closest companions, though he has never seen them in life.  The eerie glow of what seem to be two massive eyes appear in the midst of a dark cloud.  The silhouette of an immense monster begins to enter view. As the mist clears, its cavernous mouth, full of teeth like a hundred knives, eclipses the sky.  From the center of its dark maw a light breaks through the darkness and consumes all things in a brightness that burns all to nothing.

The horrific drama of another nightmare was suddenly and anticlimactically cut short by the unpleasantly familiar tone of the morning alarm.  Colby rushed to turn it off, then sat up in his bed and rubbed his temples in an attempt to soothe his morning headache.  "What was that all about?" he thought to himself.  He replayed the scenes in his mind but was unable to draw any obvious connections between the events therein and whatever personal experiences or feelings may have inspired them.  He began to go about his daily routine in a typically jaded manner.  The unsolved mystery of his strange dreams juxtaposed by the enervating drag of day to day life were starting to take their toll on his mind.  Pushing through, he willed himself out the door, down the driveway to a certain familiar red vehicle, and on his way down the road to his workplace.  After a brief stint in college he had taken on a position at a local company, and was well on his way towards a comfortable life.  Reassuring as this prospect might have been, Colby couldn't help but feel deep within himself that something was horribly wrong, and it ate at him deeply.  Though there was nothing particularly unusual or difficult about the assignments themselves, Colby's struggle to focus on the tasks at hand turned his workday into a taxing ordeal that seemed to drag on for an eternity.  After staying at the office much later than usual in order to meet a last minute deadline, Colby hastily made his way back to the car.  Eager to go on an overdue grocery shopping trip while stores were still open, he drove off in a hurry.  Pulling into the parking lot, he chose the first parking space available and stepped out the car door.  As he exited the vehicle and briskly walked towards the building, he found himself buffeted by a gentle gust of wind, and the cool atmosphere of an autumn night seemed to lift his mood for a brief moment.  He gazed up at the full moon and allowed his mind to wander.  Suddenly the mood was interrupted as a hurried shopper bumped into him by accident.  She apologized profusely, enough to make Colby feel guiltier than herself, though she was the one that had bumped into him. Flabbergasted, he apologized himself for not watching where he was going.  Suddenly, Colby realized that the keys he had meant to place in his pocket were missing.  Had he dropped them somewhere by accident?   He realized his phone was missing as well, but couldn't recall bringing it with him anywhere since his commute to work that same morning.  "It must still be at my desk!" he realized.  Colby rubbed his temples and breathed a heavy sigh.  "No keys, no phone, how exactly am I supposed to get home?" he thought to himself?  At the bare minimum, he had not misplaced his prized leather wallet, which had remained in his front pocket for the full duration of the day.  He decided to buy a snack while he still could and then search the parking lot for his keys.   Try as he may to find them, they were nowhere to be found.  Colby slumped to the ground and spat a brief curse to himself.  He opened his wallet and found a few leftover bills.  "Well..." he thought to himself. "I can at least try my luck with the bus."  Colby walked to the nearest bus stop and sat on the bench defeatedly.  He hadn't taken public transport in quite some time, not anywhere locally at least, and dreaded the prospect of getting dropped off at the wrong location.  Little did he know that even that was too good to be true.  As minutes turned to what could have been an hour had Colby had a watch to check, he finally realized that the busline simply didn't run this late in this part of town.  With nothing left to do but walk, he begrudgingly started along his journey.  By car the trip home would have been a mere twenty minutes at most, but on foot, it could be hours before he made it to his destination.  Colby didn't like having to cross through "shady" parts of town, especially after dark, but under the present circumstances, he didn't have much choice in the matter.  As the night dragged on, he kept his head down and shuffled along, trying his best to avoid notice.  He had taken this route half a hundred times, but was used to navigating by landmarks.  Without being able to see things clearly under the light of day, he wasn't so sure he was even on the right path.  It seemed to Colby that he was the only one out at this hour, but he couldn't help but feel as if he was being watched.   As he rounded a corner, his fears suddenly traded places with reality as a firm hand wrapped around his mouth and he felt a steel protrusion thrust against his scalp.  "Give me all your money right now or I'll blow your head off." whispered a deep, gruff voice dripping with acid aggression.  Colby froze, expecting to be overwhelmed with fear, though in this moment he couldn't feel much of anything consciously, though his fight or flight response was going into overdrive.
Suddenly, bright arcs of electricity surged all around him.  A loud boom pierced the air all
around.  Colby whirled around to see his attacker convulsing on the ground.  Colby himself is unharmed, but he could have sworn he heard the gun go off.  Unwilling to take any further chances with his life, Colby bolted down the street.  Adrenaline pumping through his veins, his body pushed him to keep running without stopping or slowing down for even a moment.  Eventually he reached the door to his apartment where he hastily uncovered a spare key hidden beneath the doormat and locked himself inside.  His heart racing, he collapsed into a kitchen room chair and began to finally catch his breath.  As he did so, he began to replay the scene of his altercation over in his mind.  What on earth had caused that freak electrical surge that had managed to spare himself while taking down his attacker? Was it a lightning strike? A utility failure?  His mind fluttered through a dozen scenarios attributing the events from anything from a severed powerline to a divine intervention.  Colby shook his head and ran his fingers through his hair.  He resolved to attempt to get some sleep, then to arrange to take public transport to his work.  Getting his car and car keys back was another story.  Once he had gotten a hold of his phone he’d make a report on what had happened to him more out of a sense of duty than self advocacy, as he was thankful simply for the whole ordeal to be over.