The Seventeen Effect

Chapter 4

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Chapter 4

The figure gestured me over with its hollow hand. "Come," its voice echoed as its feet moved forwards through the mysterious area. Cyara was wishing at the moment she could undo what she said, but the figure's forcefulness and lack of questioning crushed her hopes. Her gut was beginning to get that feeling again, the feeling she had when she was alive. Would something go wrong back on Earth?

As she continued to think of the possibilities, the figure kept going as if he didn't notice she was standing still that whole time. When she stepped into reality, she yelled, "hold up!" Her arm was outstretched as if trying to reach out and stop it from seven meters away. She speed towards it and went on side by side. She had so many questions she just needed to be answered.

"How is this going to work?" Cyara began. "Everyone is aware as of now I'm dead. How am I supposed to come back without scaring anyone?"

The figure shook its head, indicating the girl had got it all wrong. "No, no. You aren't going back to your dimension, but a different one instead."

Cyara stopped in her tracks for a moment, and the figure glanced back at her before they continued walking. "What do you mean by 'dimension?'"

"There are three dimensions, Cyara Anders," the figure proceeded to explain. "The Genesis Dimension, which is the one everyone starts in, the one you lived your life in. The other two are the Vida Dimension, and the Morte Dimension. Those two names were chosen by a Portuguese man who was the first to ever enter both dimensions."

"Did you know him?" Cyara asked curiously. She noticed the mist was becoming less and less thick. However, the colors were becoming duller and duller with every step she took. The figure nodded.

"He was a man from the early fourteenth century. He was a farmer, and died quite young," the figure stated. He then announced, "I've been around for all of time. I've seen everyone who met the requirements to come to this stage of their death."

"The requirements? What are the requirements that you need to meet to be able to come here?" she questioned.

"There are different requirements for each of the dimensions. In order to enter the Morte Dimension, the one you will be entering, you must die soon before something important occurs in your life. In most cases, a seventeenth birthday wouldn't count, but since your excitement for it exceeds others', you were able to come here. The Morte Dimension is one that shows you what would happen if you hadn't died when you did. The Vida Dimension signifies your life, even though it's after death. This one is for people who had extremely critical roles in changing the world, such as presidents and world leaders and priests. This is also for people who detested themselves to the extreme. This dimension shows what would happen if you were never born; this is the rarest dimension to go to between the two. However, you only live one day, like the Morte Dimension, in that one as well."

Cyara had a hard time taking that all in. She was going to the Morte Dimension; the most common between the two. She was upset that she couldn't see what the Vida Dimension looked like, but it only made sense she couldn't; she wasn't any important leader or one with low self esteem. They trekked in silence as the gray colors began to kick in.

"So I have until the midnight after my birthday, and then I come back?" she finally asked. "Because you said I could live for my birthday?"

"No, you died at 11:01 at night, and a day is exactly twenty-four hours," the figure said. "And because of this, you will have to come back at 11:01 at night on your birthday, with no exceptions. That's just how the dimensions work."