Not Here

Prolouge

I can barley remember a thing.

The sun light. The leaves. The trees. The people staring. The cameras. The tall man in a black coat. The woman with a clipboard, just like the ones teachers at school had.

"Come here, boy," a man said, with a yellow hat the shape of half a lemon. "Try this area."

Around the block he saw people with their families. He noticed a few faces. His doctor, Mr. Johnson. His teacher, Mrs. Fink. The principal, Ms. Williams. The man who his family always brought Albert, the family pet, to when he was sick. And there were also some people from school too. Like George and Daniel and Tyler. His three best friends forever and even after forever. There was also Klara, the girl from the park who lived a few blocks away. And Eliza, their neighbor. His parents and brothers were behind him.

No one came near Andrew as he walked up to the big white circle that was drawn on the ground.

It's a lie! They said. See underneath? A child? They screamed at his father when he went to tell them of what he thought. Sir I believe that you have gone mad.

But there was only one way to test it.

Test what? What was he going to test? How mad his father was? Well, he could get really mad at times when Andrew didn't do what he was supposed to do. And when he ate the cookies without asking. And when he threw a ball at Eliza on purpose and didn't say sorry right away. But telling people his son's ability wasn't mad was it?

Andrew turned back to look at his parents and saw that his father's face was normal like everyone's faces in the crowd. He wasn't mad. Was he? No. He seemed worried.

"Come on kiddo," the man with the hat said again.

"We don't have all day," murmured the tall man in black.

Slowly and carefully Andrew walked up to the circle and looked at it. Once more, he looked at his father, as if for approval. He nodded towards his son, and gripped his wife's hand.

Andrew turned back to the circle. And jumped into the middle of it. Like how they jumped during hop scotch.

For a second there was nothing. Then there was laughter.

"Oh, dear!" A woman's voice said. "I can't eat that!"

"Me! Me! Pick me! I want to go! It's my turn back off!" A child's voice.

"Quiet! Stop running! Or else I'll be the one who eats them all!" Another woman's voice. 

Andrew wasn't confused. He knew that there was going to be something like this. His father had told him that they where here to show everyone his treasure hunting skills.

Then, a second later, there were images.

As far as the eye could see, there were light bulbs. Hanging upside down, all on a black wire, one on each side of the block.

If there wasn't a light in one area, then there was darkness. Nothing but darkness. There were tall buildings on each block. All of them had many windows. The insides of the buildings had small lights in them, most likely from candles, and there were a few that had no lights at all.

A woman walked by pulling a little boy along with her.

"But Mama!"

"Hush it!" the woman scolded. "Or you won't get any peaches! I'll give them all to Esme!"

They walked on and climbed up a few stairs into a house. Then, all of the light bulbs turned off and there was complete darkness.

Then there was a man's voice, heard all over the area and in the houses, "it is time for sleep, citizens. Good night."

The voice went away and once more there was nothing.

Andrew shook his head, bringing his thoughts back into the present where everyone on the block was there staring at him.

The man in black stood tall looking down at the boy; the woman with the clipboard had her pencil ready to write; and everyone else around them seemed to be leaning towards the five year old boy.

He looked at the man in the yellow hat and stepped out of the circle.

"Alright boy," he said in a soft voice. "Can you tell me what's there?"

"What's where?" Andrew said in his light and shaky voice, confused on what these people wanted him to tell them. He barley understood what he'd seen, so how was he supposed to explain it to these mean looking adults?

"Under the circle."

His father walked up to him. "Son, did you see anything after stepping into the circle?"

The little boy nodded. "There were bulbs and people walking into homes. And when every person was in the homes, the light went out and the man said good night."

The woman was writing this down and the man in black was staring at the boy.

"Good job, kid," said the man in the yellow hat. He stood up straight and looked back to the construction site. "Alright boys!" He called out to the men. "Start digging!"

Andrew was then picked up by his father and led home as the men in yellow hats began to make a big hole where the circle was.

A few days later the boy was called a miracle. The entire town knew about the discovery he had made. He predicted that there was indeed something under the circle and there was: a town. A few hours after the digging had stared, something that looked like a building had been uncovered only thirty feet under the ground. They dug around the building, and found out that it was about 50 feet tall.

Archeologists had studied that city the boy had seen and they'd studied its location. Of course, all of their ideas had doubts and there was always something that could go wrong. But after a man came in one day, claiming his son could see anything that lay beneath his feet, they decided to give the boy a chance.

And the man who'd been labeled as mad, was now the father of a hero. A future archeologist. An explorer.

The boy's ability was tested of course. They dug holes as far as they could dig and put random things into it. Sometimes they put in toys, like a stuffed bunny, and Andrew would laugh and tell them what was there, saying that it was funny for someone to put that so far in the ground.

This went on for a few weeks and it was confirmed that Andrew was indeed a miracle. So every weekend, he'd be walked around town with a few men, his mother, and his father. Whenever Andrew would see something, they'd stop and let him do what he did best. The visions only lasted a few seconds in real life, but to Andrew, they felt as if hours and hours had gone by.

As the archeologists became more and more confident with the boy, they brought him everywhere. To explore. To make sure that the plans they made were correct. And also to see new places. To see if there was something else in areas.

But the forest was one place that no one had thought of letting the boy explore. He wouldn't explore alone—the archeologists would be with him. Yet the forest wasn't on the list of places where they were going to take the boy. It wouldn't be on the list for a few years.

But when the forest did come onto the list, the archeologists all wished that they had never considered the area at all.