5th May 1999
As the last ray of the sun vanished behind the tower’s peak, a sudden rage seemed to fill the crowd. Peter had never seen them as united as today, all of them fighting to ban the inhumane experiments that were happening in the tower. People were being used as test subjects for some biological projects, which were to be used in warfare. But Peter, unlike the people around him, was not filled with anger; he was filled with sadness for the injustice that happened to them. As he stood there in the breathless crowd he spotted a girl who like him looked confused at the anger around her. Her long black hair and her brown eyes shocked him. Something so beautiful in this terrible fight. Suddenly the crowd started moving in all directions, some terror at the centre of it. From the rooftop he saw metal canisters filled with some unknown gas falling in the crowd. The crowd pushed as ants would when a fire was near and the last thing he spotted before he was knocked out was a wave of silky black hair and a spark in those brown eyes…. He had a feeling he would see them again.
8th March 2008
Peter woke up in fright. His hands and face were filled with sweat, his eyes wide in terror and his body shaking as if by a sudden chill. He had the same dream again. It was becoming too frequent to go unnoticed. In the dream he saw the Presidents’ home with its guards at the door at the dead of night. Something was stirring and its hatred was growing with every passing moment. The door to the house would be open and inside he would spot a dark brown chair moving silently as if some invisible force pushed it. A Flash, and a symbol of an eagle on fire would appear, its crimson eyes voicing the pain it was feeling as the fire curled around it. Just before it died it gave out one last screech, a noise which would forever imprint itself in Peter’s memory. Then darkness would come, along with a feeling of uneasiness and he would be at the bottom of a dark ocean, feeling the rhythm of the waves pushing him. And out from the debts an ear splitting roar of anger echoes around the abyss and an image of a creature the world had never seen. Its dark malicious eyes full of hatred, its uncountable arms each full of spikes filled with dreadful poison pulsing with an eerie green light. Then Peter would find himself awake shaking in terror.
What meaning did this dream have? He had begun to dread sleeping, knowing what would follow. He was suddenly brought back to the world by the sound of his alarm clock. He stood up, dressed for work and had breakfast. But the dream remained on his mind… nagging him as if trying to give him a message which he could not understand. As he stood close to his car door a man approached him. His dark black suit and serious face showed that something grim was happening.
“Hi, are you Peter Ascarnen?” He demanded.
“Uhm yes…. Have I done anything wrong?”
“Just come with me. The survival of humanity will depend on it.”
"Who are you? Why should I trust you or even believe you?"asked Peter.
The stranger let out a sigh, put his hand in one of his coat pockets, and got out a card with G.M.R written on it. Below it there was inscribed: Top Secret. Governent Project.
"Is that proof enough?"questioned the stranger.
Peter nodded and, looking both confused and mortally afraid , followed the man. He felt that something life-altering was about to happen and it was all connected to his dream.
As he entered the stranger’s car, shutters covered the windows blocking out all light.
“Hey what’s going on?!”
“The place we’re going to… it’s best not to know where it is and also to avoid any nosy people who might try to interfere.”
As they drove on, Peter looked around in the car, astonished by its advancement and technology.
“So…. What’s your name?” Peter asked, trying to start a conversation and learn about the stranger.
Through the rear view mirror Peter saw the man smile and the stranger responded, “To normal civilians I don’t exist. If you want some information you’ll have to wait a bit longer. The boss will surely explain everything.”
They seemed to have been travelling for hours until Peter felt the car go to a sudden halt. The man opened the door and Peter followed him inside. The place seemed just like a normal house, but when he entered he found a busy workplace. As the man led him to a room, Peter saw two men follow them……
They all sat down around a table, offering a seat to Peter.
“So Peter, I assume you’re wondering who we are and why you’re here?”asked the tallest of the three men.
“Yes…. Have I done anything wrong?”
“You?... No you haven’t but we need your help. I am Chris and these are Thomas and John", he replied.
As he pointed to each of them as he said their names, Peter learnt that the man who came for him in the morning was Thomas. John seemed less talkative and the way he was tugging at his aubern hair and creasing his eyebrows made Peter wonder whether he was worried about something.
“Now the following may seem hard to believe and very dramatic, but Earth is on the verge of an invasion, and not just any invasion, an inter-dimensional invasion. You see years before humans were created, the Earth was inhabited by other beings, what you would call mutants. We know this from scripts which were unearthed three years ago, containing their history, their ideas and their destruction. The mutants were very advanced, much more advanced then we are today. At one time in their reign they discovered how to see and enter different dimensions. And so a gate was build, known as a Faln Gate. With it they explored and learnt much about the other dimensions but at such a terrible price……
With these words Chris looked up at Peter and stated, “What you heard and are about to hear is strictly confidential and government business only. If you wish to hear them you’ll need to accept the task we want you to do."
Peter, startled and confused, asked, “But what is the task?”
“The little we know about it shall be told to you, in due time”
”Ok then, fill me in”
“You know, by this you’ll be accepting the…. Let’s call it the mission.”
“Yes I understand.”
“Very well then the scripts we uncovered tell us that when the mutants opened the gate they didn’t know that life lived beyond it. And they were attacked, most were killed. The few that survived attempted and succeeded in closing the gate but it was only a small achievement. Their cities were destroyed, their people exterminated and their lives ruined. And so they lost hope and disappeared from the face of the Earth. We do not know where they went or how many survived nor if they still exist.
What we do know is that the ‘lock’ on the gate is decaying and soon the portal shall be open again. That is where you come in Peter. A script we found shows a symbol of a way to close the gate. From sources which shall be revealed in due time, we were told that to close the gate we’d need someone who was present in the 1999 rebellion, who’s surname was Ascarnen."
Peter stood staring blankly at the wall. Perhaps his dreams would be explained and he’d be free from his constant worrying...perhaps…
“But what can I do exactly?”
“That is yet unknown to us. Only a fragment was found of the tablet showing how to close the gate. We believe that we know some of the locations of the other parts though not all of them are in our dimension. A car shall pick you up in half an hour. In the meantime Thomas shall give you the briefing of the first fragment we’re searching for.”
Peter was still amazed at what he just heard. His life had taken a sudden turn in the past 2 hours. He was still unsure if this was a dream or some type of hallucination he was having. Suddenly a voice knifed his thoughts.
“Follow me please.”
If the whole thing is a dream, how can it be 9 years earlier?