Keystone: Gateway Chronicles Book 1

Chapter 1

Sami couldn't sleep. Again. She stared at the ceiling and resisted the urge to look at her phone for the hundredth time. There were no new messages and checking the time wouldn't make morning come any faster. She didn't want to look at any depressing news or watch any silly videos. She truly wanted to sleep, but her mind was racing.

"This can't be happening," she said to the ceiling. "Surgery? Hear that? They wanna cut my head open."

That would be a mistake. The words came to her as if they were her own thoughts, yet they weren't her thoughts. They came from Him. From Codex.

"You didn't have much to say at Dr. Patel's office. Scared of him?"

No.

"You know it's all your fault," she pointed out.

The surgery won't work. You know what you have to do. There's only one way to be cured.

"I don't know why I even listen to you. You're probably just a figment of my imagination. I'm probably insane."

You know that isn't true. Our fates are intertwined, Samira. We must rely on each other.

"You're so full of shit," she said, but without malice. Brain surgery or... the other thing. She got up and went to her desk. The bottom drawer was locked but she opened it with a key she kept on a necklace. As the drawer slid open, pale blue radiance spilled into the room. The object inside was beautiful, an orb about the size of her fist that glowed with its own inner light. If she hadn't created it herself using basic electronics and a laptop computer she would have thought it was magic instead of technology. She left it where it rested and closed and locked the drawer, plunging the room into darkness.

You must use the Keystone, Codex urged her. You're running out of time.

"Don't rush me," she mumbled. But, yes. She had to use it. She knew this, but she didn't want to admit it. Tomorrow? Could she really do it?

In the morning, Codex said. She could feel the intensity of his words, even though they were just thoughts in her own head.

"I'm not ready," she said. "Just... leave me alone, okay? I have to think." Of course there was no getting rid of Codex. He was stuck in her head, as much a captive to her as she was to him. She was never truly alone. "I'm still not sure I'm even going," she warned him. "I might just have the damn surgery."

Then she had a seizure. It was unexpected because she'd had one the day before and it was rare to have one again so soon. A sense of "wrongness" and impending doom washed over her, then her vision blurred. She didn't want to believe she was about to have a full blown seizure, but then she heard indistinct voices, smelled the acrid odor of electric sparks, and she couldn't deny it any more. She hurriedly climbed into bed. The aura only gave her a few seconds warning before everything went black. The colors came next, a repeating pattern of five colors. It was always the same pattern, always the same colors, each vivid and somehow perfect, repeating over and over.

She regained consciousness feeling confused and groggy. Her body ached like she'd just finished a hard workout, and she tasted blood from biting the side of her tongue. Sometimes she bit her cheek or lip, and she'd almost bitten the tip of her tongue off one time. She couldn't be sure how long she was out but it didn't seem like more than a few minutes.

You're running out of time.

Sami sat up and tried to get her bearings. The seizures always disoriented her. It was like waking abruptly from a deep sleep in an unfamiliar place. The realization of what she had to do, the submission to the facts of her plight, did not help. She fought back tears while she waited for her senses to normalize. "Fine," she said, feeling helpless and frustrated. "I'll do it in the morning."