1 A New Beginning (2/2)
”Huh.”
Light flooded my vision as my eyelids flew open. Startled, I sat up.
”Where am I. Where's Brad?”
My mind was a jumbled mess. Memories flooding in before arranging themselves neatly in my mind.
”Huh? You have always been such a heavy sleeper.”
I know that voice. I haven't heard it in years. Not since…..
I quickly turned my head. This can't be. It's not possible. My hands began to shake.
What is going on?
”Mike?”
”Who else would it be moron?”
How can this be real? He died right in front of me. I buried him myself. I agonized over his death for years.
Still, there was no denying it, this could only be my best friend Mike. We were friends for years, even before the migration. I had started my first job at a garden center, but I had always been a weak kid, skinny, with pale skin. I always preferred burying myself into books over getting involved in sports. I had a hard time lifting any of the heavy stuff like bags of mulch or potted plants. Mike would always help me out.
Mike was much stockier than me, a little short, but he had always been strong, even at a young age. He had a rough tan, short brown hair, and a full beard even though he was just 18.
”What?!?!..... What are you doing here Mike?”
”What do you mean what am I doing here?.....Are you still asleep?,” he stared at me.
Suddenly reality struck, like a glass mirror shattered across the floor, the truth became unavoidable. The differences I couldn't notice before became glaringly obvious, demanding my attention. Mike's left eye wasn't mangled, the scar that disfigured the left side of his face, vanished. His skin and face radiated the youthful vigor of a teenager.
I looked down at my hands. I repeatedly turned them over, as if this was my first time seeing them. All the calluses and scars I had grown painfully familiar with, gone. It felt surreal, as if at any moment the calluses and scars would magically manifest.
However, after several moments they remained the hands of an average teenager. The hands of someone who had not yet witnessed the cruelty of reality. Someone who hadn't used them to fight for their survival.These were my hands. It had been so long I forgot what they looked like.
Where... No... When am I?
”Troy, what is wrong with you?.... We need to get going!”
He looked at me as he shook his head, ”It's a good thing I stopped by. I just knew you would oversleep. I swear, if you weren't my best friend I might've left for Agartha without you.”
A torrent of emotions suddenly paralyzed me.....
It's today.
The day that radically changed my life, my definition of normal, what it meant to be human.
Today is the day that thrust me into a powerless existence. Today is the day that sparked a life of misfortune and abuse. Today is the day that sealed my miserable fate.
No longer.
No longer will that be what today represents. I will change the meaning of today.
Today will be the day that thrust me to the apex of human existence. Today will be the day that sparked a life of strength and determination. Today will be the day that sealed the fate of my enemies.
Today is the day I left for Agartha, ten years before my death.
Agartha, another world, a world that changed the course of humanity.