Prelude- Chapter One The Black Sphere

Stepping forward and staring. Staring at the odd ground that lay before me. The colored ground has a rusty reddish-orange color mixed with yellow. I was stunned my it, crouching down to feel it, and startled immediately to feel it glassy…yet sandy….like a fine glassy sand. It dawned on me to look around and observe to what appeared to be a canyon. I awoke as I took a step forward. Another strange dream. With a sigh, I stretched above me to get my phone, it was 5:23 in the morning. “ Well I have to get up soon any way so might as well make the coffee”, I thought. Wearily I descended the steps and started my routine early. Coffee brewing, I sat down and starting bringing up articles on my phone. Typical routine, I fixed a cup of coffee, drink as I read. Ideas for entrepreneurs, politics, sports. 7:00 a.m. time for breakfast. 7:30 shower, shave, teeth, and hair. I need to Leave by 8:15 it’s 8:04. I drive a green 1997 Honda Accord, the running belt squeaks when I start it. I drive 35 minutes to work, 15 minutes to get to the city, another 20 to get to downtown. I take the freeway. Before I know I’m in downtown, “ did I really not notice myself in that sea of traffic?”, I wondered becoming aware of how far I travelled. It was curious once I really thought about it. The people around were all strangers, all happened to be sharing the road now with me. Maybe I had gone down the road with some of them at the same time before? Who knows. I tried to get some good glimpses of the faces around me. A momentary glance.

A white truck got my attention. It was suspended with cage mesh on the back, stickers covering the rearview mirror. The stickers suggested that this person enjoyed off-roading; I wanted to see the driver. A white guy with black shades and a black hat sat at the wheel. He had long brown hair with a beard, tattoos and drummed with the beat of the song he was listen to. “ I wonder if he’s going to work right now”. Why this sudden curiosity? “ Well who knows”. Turning on my blinkers I changed lanes to get off at twelfth street. I worked at an insurance office as an assistant. This meant that I mostly answered the phone and explained to people that this office didn’t handle claims. It also meant I was the keeper of the coffee. “I drink too much coffee”. I started the insurance gig while at community college. The idea was to get a good internship under my belt before I transferred. It’s been a year since I’ve taken a course in college. My internship turned into a job. Working at this office is simple. I have no authority, I’m not licensed for anything. I just know some basics facts and let the others handle the hard work. Before I was all too aware I had shuffled into the office.

Normal day. The mail arrived on time at 10:44, usually it gets here at 10:45. The postman’s name is Cyrial pronounced like cereal Cyrial himself saying his mom did that on purpose. “How’s it going today Cyrial?”, asking while exchanging the letters, “Oh you know another day, another dollar”, Cyrial’s usual response. I took the mail to the office boxes. It really wasn’t a bad gig. Jerry a team member who recently got licensed to sell house insurance came up to me. “Hey Mena did, I get any packets?”. Wordlessly I handed him his mail. “Good looking out man hey by the way there is some guy in the front, you should go help him”. My eyes briefly landed on Jerry, “Right I’ll go see about that”. I hated that. What’s the need to telling me to help this person it’s what I do every day. I sighed as I walked down the hall. Sure, enough an older man was in the small lobby of the office. It wasn’t really a lobby but a small portion in the front where a shabby leather chair was cramped in front of the reception desk. “Hello sir, how are you today, what can I do for you?” The man looked at me, then passing over my face, looked over the walls of the office. His eyes returned to me. “Yes, I would like to know how one conquers death?” He said this calmly with a slightly bemused expression, his brow was knit, yet a sly smile showed itself in the corner of his mouth. I decided to go along. “Well sir, with healthy life choices an individual may live a long full life”. The old man now smirked. “You misunderstand, I want to know how to conquer death, how may I overcome it, how may I achieve immortality”? “Well sir I am sorry to say that I have no such knowledge, immortality is as much a mystery to me as to you”. “What is this guy’s game”, I thought to myself, “and why do I have to deal with it”. The old man broke my thought,“ SO”, he let out with a sigh, “Since death seems like a likely shot I might as well bet on it”. During this whole interaction, we had remained standing at the reception desk. “What can you tell me about life insurance, I want to bet on my death”. Taken a little aback at the manner of the old man I began, “Well sir life insurance is not so much about better on death, but more about preparing for life…”, he cut in, “Oh woo you are not half bad at this”. This guy was starting to frustrate me, “Sir?”, I concentrated on my customer service. “I like that, I like that, ‘Life insurance is about life’, very good very good well I am no longer interested good day to you”. He approached the door, opening it and paused mid-exist, “It three, just so you know, three people usually share that road with you every day”. And just like that he walked out the door.

For the rest of the day I thought about the old man and strange scene that had played out in that cramped lobby. “Just what the hell did he mean by”, I wondered, “What did that mean, ‘three people’…’everyday’…. did he know my thoughts”? “Ugh what the actually fuck”, I said aloud exasperated. That whole episode was strange and confusing. “Just more annoying shit”, that did not console me. I was trouble. Trouble by that old man trouble by the what he had said. “How could he have thought to say that if he did not know my thoughts”, I went through it again, “I know I was thinking about driving at the same time as people”, I was, “I know that I did not say anything about my thoughts to anyone at work”, I didn’t, “I didn’t even say anything aloud”! The more I thought about the worse it became, just how the hell did that guy know what I had been thinking about? I threw myself spread eagle on to the bed. Groaning I accepted that I would not come to a satisfactory conclusion. “And just what was with all that crap he was asking”, I said aloud to the empty room, “conquering death and all that, nothing about that was ordinary”. Lying on my back I stared at the patches of sunlight that beamed, fractured, on the wall. My eyelids felt heavy, the room was warm, I let myself relax. The sunlight was high overhead, larger than usual, overpoweringly bright. I took some steps forward, I felt heavy and dazed. The sand beneath my feet crunched like snow. Snow? I looked down. The reddish-orange surface shifted at the touch of my foot. I look around, canyon wall rising around me. Toward the left was a shady spot I crept to it trying to keep the sun from my eyes. In the shade, I took a deep breath and looked around once more. It didn’t tell me much more than what I already knew. Shielding the sun from my eyes I looked at the sky. Blue…. blue with a greenish hue? A feeling of disorientation had already been present, now it was mounting. I sank to the ground I want to sit. I looked at this sand, if it was sand, I reach to it. I want to see want if felt like. My finger momentarily hovered over the surface before I lightly brushed it. “Oh”, not what I expected, the sand felt cool moist despite the glaring sun. I grabbed a handful, mashed it, made it to shapes, let it trickle through my fingers. “Well I really have no clue what the hell now” saying this out loud, I remained rooted. Suddenly l felt as though someone where watching me. I looked up to see blackness, a black circle above me. I stood, staring into the circle, at first, I felt the impulse to run but it quickly subsided. I look straight ahead into the hole, what was this new thing? I looked around to the canyon once more and my heart leapt in my chest. I was back in my room.

I looked up at once to see if the black circle had gone. It had. “Ok so I must have been dreaming”, it was a reasonable explanation. “Huh shit”, I let out with sigh, “that didn’t feel like a dream”. But it must have been. “Yea, but I could feel everything”. But the perceptions were wrong. “Yea, the sand was cool even though the sun was so hot”. Had I even felt any heat? “Well I am not sure”? “Boy kid, you keep this up you really are going to lose it”, the voice came from the top of dresser. “WHAT THE FUCK” I yelled leaping from where I sat on the bed. I looked at the figure sitting high upon my dresser, the figure of the old man. I wanted to say something but didn’t know what to say. Gawking with my jaw hanging I decided to throw the first thing I could grab at this thing. The stand next to my bed had a book which was the best projectile in my judgment. I grabbed and vaulted it. “OH ho ho, now you are really throwing the book at me hahaha”, the Old Man laughed with mirth. He glided from the dresser spectrally touched his toes lightly before bounding to another corner of the room. His laughter reverberated throughout the apartment. Shocked as I was I didn’t move and wouldn’t speak. I only stared. “I knew it, I knew something about all this was off”. I was calm in my inner thoughts despite what appeared to be a ghost careening around my home. I was calm because I looked up and saw the black circle again. This time I was not afraid at all. The apartment was quiet the Old Man gone. Looking in the black above I notice it lowered, it was a sphere not a circle. I reached toward it. There was nothing to touch but I felt a coolness at my fingers. “So, have you figured out what this is”, the Old Man was next me without looking at him I answered yes. “Well then let’s get to it”. The sphere had been growing larger, it reflected the apartment perfectly. “Where are we going?” Finally looking into the Old Man’s eyes. They were light blue, white and grey, the grey skirting the iris in zig-zags, crazy eyes. Crazy eyes which he promptly rolled, “The most cliché question you could ask, well let’s get going”. Around me I felt an odd pulling sensation, but I also felt weightless, I like I was getting dragged through water. We were inside the black sphere.

#Story #ReapersSeries