“Trust your strength, and have faith in your destiny.” – Sir Fratley (FFIX)
The “Real” World
8:00pm EST
The storm outside raged a war of thunder and lightning, the sound rumbling through the nearly abandoned halls of the Southern California Paranormal Research Center. Most of the workers had gone home for the night, to spend the stormy evening with their families. One door, however, deep in the bowels of the building, closed against intrusion, concealed an experiment that was very close to completion.
So it has come to this.
Patrick Simmons stood in front of a device that looked like a great upended ring. All appearances would indicate that you could walk straight through it and emerge unchanged on the other side; however, the strange metallic doorway had potential, until this night untapped. It was the passion of his overactive imagination, brought on by a zeal borne of dreams of a past he had once forgotten.
The scientist, at twenty-four years of age, stood at five-foot-seven with an athletic physique. His blue hair matched his blue eyes, and though he did not look like a “normal” human, often being compared to some “punk” or “freak of nature,” he definitely acted the part of normalcy. He had anger and hatred, love and joy, sadness and pain, like all other creatures. However, he found himself drawn to very few people, as his thoughts were consumed—unto madness, according to some—with a destiny as yet unsiezed.
The dreams which haunted him were not of this world. They were from a land where magic reigned supreme and those who were not users of this craft were tossed aside, banished to live on the cold plains of the earth. He had only fragments of this place in his memory, of this “Utopia,” flashing through his deepest dreams like disconnected photographs, and bringing more questions than answers.
The time has come for me to embrace the darkness in order to see the light. My future…my past, they are right in front of me. If my past leads to my future, will the future then lead to the past? Then what of the present? Perhaps it leads me in circles.
Patrick shook his head, banishing these thoughts for more pressing concerns. With one last deep breath, knowing years of work came down to this… he pressed a small red button on a console not far from the ring.
With a hiss, a small, electric model rocket soared into the sky, trailing a length of copper wire, blasting through the open window and into the night sky. Patrick watched it with eager eyes, breathing shallowly, waiting, waiting… The rocket disappeared from sight in the driving rain, but just as he was about to give up hope a flash of light, with an instantaneous crash of thunder which rattled every object in the room, answered his prayers. He threw his arm over his face to protect his eyes from the light.
A current, millions of volts, all the power of the heavens, arced through the wire and supplied the ring with the massive energy input necessary to start it; and in response, the ring began to hum, vibrating ever so slightly, seeming to shimmer with an unearthly glow. Patrick Simmons smiled softly, as he recognized his success.
But he turned his attention quickly to a second device, much smaller and more simple than the first, and frowning, weighing the possibilities, he finally flicked a switch, activating an LED display which began to count backwards from 200.
Man has no right to the gates of time or space. This victory will never be known and my disappearance unexplained. I’m sorry, though, Jack, that I could not have explained myself further. I hope you can forgive me.
Saying a silent prayer that all his calculations had been correct, knowing that he would not have another chance; Patrick grabbed his bag, which he had packed with a few vital supplies earlier in the evening. He walked quickly to the ‘gate’ he had created. The opposite side of the room could be seen through it, through a field of shimmering purplish energy, pulsing and flashing erratically. He swallowed, working up his courage. The words of Odysseus came to his mind, though he did not know why.
Twenty years gone, and I am back again.
With that, he took six quick steps, into and through the gate, disappearing completely, hoping never to be seen again by “human” eyes.
The LED countdown ended a moment later, obliterating the hard work and research of a scientist that would never come to be known.