Tales To Tell In The Dark

A New World

I am a regular person, like you, but unlike you I need to tell a story, my story...

It all started on what I call an average day in New York. The cars were honking at each other, street vendors were selling hot dogs, and an occasional crazy person would walk down the street, raving about the end of the world. Frankly, I was used to it all. When you live in a place as crazy as New York, you learn how to ignore what would seem like an oddity to other people.

It was a day off, and I had decided to walk around and look for an adventure, which was surprisingly hard to find when you constantly had to look at your watch and make sure you're not running late for a job. These were really my only days to goof off, and today I was taking advantage of it. I walked down a few roads before growing restless. Everything seemed way too normal. Finally I decided to go to Grand Central Station. Strange things were always happening down there, and I thought I might be able to find a good time.

When I got into the main concourse, I looked around. All around me were people of different backgrounds, trying to get from one place to another. There was an Asian man, standing still, with a confused expression on his face, as if waiting for someone who should have been there. There was a woman, calm and well dressed, who walked easily through the crowd, obviously another resident like me. And then there was him, standing in the corner of the giant room, his black tuxedo standing out like a dark speck against a sheet of bright, vibrant colors. He obviously wasn't coming from work, it was too early for that, yet it was also too late for him to be coming to work. He just stood there, in the corner, observing everything that was happening.

I stared at the man, entranced, and almost fell back in shock when he looked over at me, smiled, and gestured for me to come closer. I walked over to him, now very nervous, and stopped when we were in front of each other.

"So," said the man, "are you here for a ride?"

I doubted he was talking about a train, so I nodded my head, and he began to lead me away from the crowd. He stopped at a seemingly plain wall, waited for a second, and then tapped the wall three times with his shoe. The wall immediately opened like a door, eerily reminding me of the Harry Potter books I read as a kid. We walked through the opening, and the wall closed behind us. By this point I wanted to scream, but I had a feeling that things wouldn't end well if I did.

We were now in a white room, which looked like it had been carved out of one giant crystal. In the center of the room was a table with two chairs on either side, which we both sat down in.

"Well," said the man, "where would you like to go?"

I had no idea what to say, so the man simply smiled and spoke again.

"I see you're new here," he said. "How about I show you what there is to see?"

Before I could respond, the room evaporated, leaving us in empty space. Suddenly, the area was engulfed in flames. I screamed in terror and closed my eyes, until I realized the flames hadn't harmed me. I opened my eyes, and gasped at what I saw. We were in a room a vast valley, as green as you can imagine. The grass was tall and unbent, as if it had never been touched by humans. I heard a noise, and anxiously turned around in my chair, only to be stunned again. Out of the trees came a deer, tall and elegant. Only this deer had golden horns and silver fur. I felt the need to get out of my chair, but was stopped by the man in the suit.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," he said calmly. "We still have so much more to see."

With that, the world shifted again. This time we were in another valley, but something was different. There was no grass, there were no trees, and there were only red, jagged rocks. The man in the suit looked around, smiling pleasantly, as a hideous screech pierced the air around us. From over one of the rocks came... something. I don't know how to describe it, really. It was like a spider, but with a thick armor plate, and huge, sharp claws. It screeched at us again, and leapt forward. I screamed in terror as I got a good look at its face, which almost looked human, but burnt and mutilated. Just as it was about to reach us, we changed worlds again, this time to cliff on top of a mountain. Below us was a huge, beautiful city, which glowed like a giant lamp. From it, beautiful music was being played, and I couldn't help but be lured out of my chair by it. I walked over to the cliff, and stared down at the city.

It was then that I felt a cold breeze, and as I looked up, I saw a dark cloud on the horizon.

I looked on in horror as this cloud, which I then realized was a swarm, dove into the city. The music was soon accompanied by screams of terror, and I ran back to my seat, no longer entranced. I begged the man to continue the journey and teleport away, and in a second we were in a new world. This one was green and beautiful like the first, but was much more forested. When I had calmed down, I looked at the man. Before I could speak, he answered me, as if he had read my mind.

"Yes, we did just travel to another world," he said, "and yes, those people will not live to see the sun rise again on their planet."

I sat there, stunned. I had just seen an alien planet.

"Would you like to see more?" the man asked, and I quickly nodded my head in an affirmative.

The next few months are a blur. I saw wonders and horrors, green worlds and black voids. When we finally got back to earth, I felt like I had been gone for eons.

It was then that I tried to leave. I had had more adventure than I could take, and was ready to go back home and spend the rest of my life in peace. But when I did, I found I couldn't move from the chair. The man in the suit got up, and left. Except he wasn't in a suit anymore. He was in my clothes, and I was in his. I had become him.

The bastard had tricked me! I was him, stuck in his fucking shoes and suit! I was trapped, forced to go on forever, traveling the universe without end I tried as hard as I could to get out of the room, but I couldn't find the door. After a few hours of raving hysterically, I decide what to do. I had to leave. There was nothing else I could do. Except for write a note. A note of warning. Because I know one day I'm going to snap, that I'm going want to come back home, and the only way to do that is to trick someone into taking my place. So I'm sending this message, hoping it gets online someday, and hoping that you'll take it seriously. Because you should never trust a man in a suit, because if you do, you might just see a whole new world.