Alturak - Chapter 1

This is the first chapter of my first novel Alturak. It is now the 2nd Version.

Chapter 1 - Memories of the Metasands

An orange substance lie in every direction. Even after the eleven years I had been coming out to this private section of desert, it never ceased to amaze me. A harsh wind whipped my face, sending particles of sand jarring into me at a shocking speed. A sudden wave of pain ran through my body. Despite the pain, I found myself staying perfectly still as though I hadn't been hit. I supposed this was due to the many times I had already experienced this in my life. I lifted both of my hands to my face, dislodging the ingrained particles from it. I shuddered as I pulled my hands away from my face. The scene in front of me had completely changed. Before, a restless desert surrounded me. Now, I stood within a winding maze of ruins. I doubted that I would ever get over the sheer mystery of the Metasands.

The Metasands cover over ninety percent of the planet's surface. People generally shy away from the Metasands due to its absurd nature of transforming into a random location from the memory of whoever stands in its midst. Originally, researchers were fanatic and rushed to discover the mystery behind this. The sands didn't like that. The Metasands would create endless landscapes of sand around those who entered and kept them trapped until they died. Even though that was over a hundred years ago, and no one has died here since then, people are still reluctant to come here. Even I am a little wary coming, but due to unfortunate circumstance, this has become my only choice.

I come to the Metasands searching for what is known as a pire. A pire is a small device that displays the most powerful memories of a person. When people are near death, they create a pire as their way of passing down the history of our world and of their lives to future generations. How the process works is unknown until the time a person decides to create one and are mentally ready to die. At this moment, it is said that a Sinuin comes to explain the process and then snatches the person away from our world. It is also said that any witnesses will not be able to see the Sinuin.

Sinuins are credited as being otherworldly beings who sent Alturak to our planet. Of course, there is a catch to this "blessing". If after twenty years Desom is still standing, the Sinuins promise to destroy our world and all who inhabit it. Of course, there is no actual proof that Sinuins even exist other than the word of Malron, "the chosen one". When the Sinuins sent Alturak to our planet, they also sent a communicator with it. Apparently, Malron is that communicator and he is able to see the plans and wishes of the Sinuins. I'm still unsure as to whether or not it's true or not, but in less than two months we'll know. July twenty-ninth marks the twenty year anniversary of Alturak's arrival, though nobody is going to be celebrating.

I shuddered as I took one cautious step into my past. This particular memory was something that I had tried to erase from my mind. Apparently, the attempt was futile. A tingle of fear ran up my spine. I knew being afraid was foolish. The Metasands were only capable of resurrecting a particular location from a person's past, not the events. Still, even with this knowledge, fear managed to overcome me.

"Get a hold of yourself, Camrell. Nothing is going to happen." I told myself, unconvinced.

Everything was too perfect. I had seen the magical tricks of the Metasands before, seen the way it created near perfect replicas of various past locations. This one was different. For starters, it wasn't going away. The sands didn't waver at all as I walked slowly among them. Second, I could hear the screams of my tortured siblings.

"Snap out of it. It's only your imagination." I told myself.

Of course, the fear made sure that line would go unconvinced. Negative thoughts began to surge through my crowded mind, pushing out the pleasant ones. Thoughts of death and despair flowed freely through my brain.

"You deserve this! It was your fault in the first place!" A familiar voice echoed through me.

"How could you let them die like that? Have you no conscience?" Another, more feminine voice screamed.

It was amazing that I could even hear those voices over the ever-rising screams. I knew those voices, if not the screams, were coming from my deep sub-conscience. I tried to distract myself from the horrid screaming by trying to pinpoint who the voices belonged to. This seemed to anger the sands, causing the screaming to get louder.

Of course, when I originally had to face this scenario, the screaming hardly bothered me. At that time, when the ruins were more than a memory, I was clueless to the horrible events that were about to unfold. When I had heard the first scream, I had run further into the ruins to find it. This was where my true fear was born. I had stood in a giant room crowded with people. They were dancing, though, not by choice. From across the room, I saw a man quickly flick his wrist. The dancing stopped.

These events echoed through my mind. Apparently, time could not heal all scars as I had hoped. After the situation had originally ended, I tried to cover up my pain with a bandage of denial. I told myself that the events hadn't really happened. At first, this was a hard thing to do. The slightest and most irrelevant thoughts would resurrect the buried memory and the emotional cut would be reopened. It took time, but eventually, I learned to control my thoughts. I could block any memory, anything I wished to forget from entering my mind.

Unfortunately, the Metasands were capable of bypassing my system of forgetting. The sands had reached into the deepest and most secret part of my sub-conscience and recreated the most horrible place I could remember. There were some differences, such as that the original ruins were made of stone. The ruins I stood in now were orange and sandy, but that hardly made a difference. There were also some other differences, things I couldn't quite identify. I supposed that was because of a flaw in my memory, not in the sands' creation.

My thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a new sound, a sound almost as daunting as the screams themselves. A hideous din emerged from where I was sure the gigantic, crumbling ballroom stood. I couldn't imagine how this noise could even be heard over the shrill screams. This sound, unfortunately, turned out to be even more unpleasant. It was a laugh. I knew this laugh well. It erupted from the man that shouldn't be in the room. The man that had all too quickly ruined my life. The man that had taken the lives of my two young brothers.

The screams continued to pierce my ears. They reached into my very soul and began to drain the life from my body. I froze in terror as I realized how far I had truly gone into the familiar ruins. In front of me, the sands took a sharp turn to the left. Among the orange wall in front of me, red stains appeared, duplicating the vivid image that was scarred forever on my brain. Water began to form in my eyes, threatening to spill over at any moment. Another sharp scream rang through the air. Instinctively, I fell to my knees while covering my delicate ears. The screaming didn't stop but continued to get louder. I felt as though my ear drums were about to burst.

The water that had been filling my eyes finally broke free and ran down my face. It streamed down, washing the dirt free where it went. I moved my hands to try to wipe the tears away. Both of my dirt-covered hands rubbed gentle but firm across my red puffy eyes. I worked quickly to transfer the water away from my eyes. Unfortunately, as soon as I had cleared away the first set of tears, a second set emerged. I quickly gave up on getting rid of the tears and went back to covering my ears.

After the realization that covering my ears could not stop the screaming, I began to dig into the sands. I was going to dig deep into the sands and bury myself. It was irrational and ridiculous but I knew if I let the memory go on for much longer, my suffering was going to grow even greater.

I continued to dig deep into the ground. My fingers grew raw and I knew they would soon bleed. I didn't care. Almost anything was better than facing their screams again. Suddenly, my hands hit something hard. I began to dig faster. Quickly, but delicately, I removed the dirt surrounding the object. I reached down into the depressingly small hole I had made and took out the pire. Suddenly, the screaming stopped. I looked up in time to see the wall in front of me collapse onto me in a sandy heap. Sand flooded over me, covering me completely.

I lay extremely still under the sand. The echoes of my screaming siblings rang through my head. I hadn't realized until this tranquil moment that I had stopped breathing. Slowly, I resumed, letting my breath synchronized with the sound of the blowing wind above the thin layer of sand covering me. It surprised me to suddenly find myself still clutching the pire. Carefully, I tucked the pire into a pocket on my black coat.

Suddenly, a surge of fear came over me. Tears continued to run down my face. Questions flowed through me. How could the Metasands resurrect not just the place, but also the events? Why had the Metasands chosen that memory? Was it possible that maybe it wasn't the Metasands bringing back the events, but perhaps it was my own doing. These were questions I feared would never be answered.

In my mind, the memory played over and over. I tried with all of my brainpower to force the memory out, but it was futile. Eventually, I gave up on trying to rid myself of the memory and instead focused all of my concentration on it. Sure, this caused me pain, worse pain than I had ever experienced, but maybe I had to deal with the memory to get it to leave me alone. In my mind's eye, I stared at the man from the ballroom, studying his features carefully. On his face was a twisted grimace. This horrid smile complimented his eyes, made the fury stand out.

His laugh sounded through my head. It shocked me how well my memory had stored that laugh. I wondered if my years of trying to repress the memory had made any difference. What was even more amazing was how well I had stored the images of that night. I stood in the middle of the room, everyone turning to look at me. The man raised his hand, and the dancers fell to the floor. His smile spread, becoming more sadistic every second. His hand began to twirl. It started slowly, but grew faster and faster until it became an unrecognizable blur.

Perhaps my time pushing away the memory weren't completely useless. Instead of displaying the worst part of the memory, my mind wandered away from it altogether. It flashed forward to sometime after I had been saved. I saw myself clearly, saw the emotionless expression on my face. Another flash, showing me what I had looked like just one year ago. On my face was the same lifeless expression. I shuddered, trying to force the memory out. How could I have been so lifeless? Was that what I looked like now?

I already knew the answer. It was there, under the sand, that I made a resolution. I wasn't going to be lifeless anymore. I wasn't going to hide my memory from my mind. I would confront it and deal with the pain. I knew it would take time, but eventually, the memory would become nothing more than a bad dream. I froze when I realized a smile was bigging to form on my face. I actually enjoyed it. I had missed smiling.

I now lay still, not really thinking about anything in particular. I closed my eyes and listened; listened to the sound of the gentle breeze. I was surprisingly content, almost happy. My smile grew bigger yet when I noticed that the tears had stopped coming. I was done crying, done being a lifeless corpse. When I returned to "The Underground", I would apologize to everyone who had put up with me for the past 5 years. They were always kind to me, always smiling. Perhaps that was their way of trying to cheer me up. It made me suddenly angry. These people should have never been banished. I couldn't allow this twisted society to treat people this way any longer. I would speak to Malron and demand he allowed those who had been banished back into the city.

I found this situation, lying under the sands, surprisingly peaceful. The nightmare was over and the screaming had stopped. I sucked in a deep breath releasing it with an exaggerated yawn. It was at that moment that I realized how late it truly was. I began to get up and then collapsed back into the sands. Were the sands always so comfortable? I laughed. To think, something that had caused me such emotional turmoil could bring me such comfort now. Another yawn escaped me. Despite all better instincts, I let myself drift into unconsciousness.

A dream began to form in my mind. I was standing in the Metasands, though something was different. It didn't hit me at first, but after a few minutes of standing motionless, I realized that the sand was green. This was extremely intriguing. The sands appeared to be stretched into strange blades. I reached down to lift some up but the sands appeared to be attached to the ground. I became furious with the sands. I bent down and began to pull on them. I put all of my muscle into it, expecting a great battle. I fell back in surprise when the sands were easily separated from the ground.

I lay, silent, studying the few pieces of the unique sand I held in my hand. I brushed one hand across them. They were strangely soft, not grainy like they usually were. I moved my gave downward to see the part I had pulled out of the ground. The further toward that end I looked, the paler the sands got until the sands were completely white. I flipped the substance over, not wanting to think too deeply about it. The sands appeared to be extremely thin on one of the sides, while being thick on the other. A sudden realization came into my head and I knew what I was holding. In my hands were blades of grass.

This was a remarkable discovery. The legends stated that since Alturak arrived on our planet, there has been absolutely no grass anywhere. Our ancestors once bargained with the Sinuins. They begged for some way to destroy Desom. The Sinuins, though reluctant, eventually agreed to send down the light to banish the darkness, however, the world would have to be a horrible price. All the plants on our planet were forced to die. This was a huge, but necessary, sacrifice. The people of the planet doubted that they would ever get to see another plant. Yet, here within the Metasands, I was holding grass.

A sudden gust of wind blew the blades of grass from my hands. For a while, I watched them dance away in the wind, flowing in an unpredictable manner. I remained seated where I was until the grass faded from my sight. A deep sigh of sorrow erupted from my body. Though the grass was gone, I continued to stare into the empty space in front of me. After what seemed like hours, I eventually stood up. I began walking, intent on getting some more grass so I could study it further. I bent down to pick up another blade when it shriveled up before my eyes. My eyes grew wide and I began to look around me. That's when I saw.

In place of where I had originally taken the few blades of grass, a gaping hole stood. A dark mist was rising from the hole, killing the grass as it spread. I stared deep into the thick mist, looking for the source. Suddenly, A laugh bellowed out from the hole, knocking me onto my back. I half got up when another laugh forced me down. Nervously, I looked around for something I could defend myself with. After a few seconds, I realized that I wasn't going to find anything in time. I highly doubted that any amount of grass could keep me safe. Panic overcame me as I realized that the hole was growing. Slowly I began to squirm back, away from the laughing mist. I was too slow. The hole was going to reach me. Without thinking, I got up and began to run. I quickly chose the closest green grass as my target and sprinted toward it. I ran as fast as my legs would allow toward the green grass ahead of me. My heart began racing. The rate of my breathing increased dramatically. Even though I was putting my best effort forward, I wasn't making much progress. I realized that the hole was growing faster than I had originally believed. Within a few seconds I would be falling.

"Camrell! Don't you dare die now!" A voice rang through the Metasands.

I looked around to see a ghostly figure standing just ahead of me. The figure was a young girl. She had long blonde hair that was tied up into a ponytail. A long flowing dress covered most of her body. The dress was blue and white, reflecting the popular style of an earlier time period. Even though the dress was beautiful, I couldn't help but stare at her face. Her complexion was rough and pale, almost chalky. I knew who this girl was. She was my sister.

When I was born, the doctors said that my mother was having twins. I was the first to arrive. Because my sister was to follow shortly after, I was taken out of the room immediately. My sister, Storm, was born with a rare disease known as Cynorkona. Because of this disease, my sister had died at the age of eight. My parents always loved her more than they did me. They considered her their "miracle child". I was always given the cold shoulder and treated a lot worse than her. Yet, here she was, looking just as she had before she died.

"Keep running Camrell! You can do it!" Storm yelled at me. Why was she being so nice all of a sudden?

Physically, I was in no condition to continue running. My joints ached and my legs were tired. My heart felt as though it was going to burst through my chest. Giving up would be so satisfying, giving my legs a much needed rest. Mentally, on the other hand, I was no where near ready to quit. I had to reach the end of this dream. I had to know what it all meant. Even if I wanted to stop running, I don't think I could manage. There was so much adrenaline pumping through my body that I just had to keep going.

"Camrell! The mist!" Storm shouted.

I looked up to see that the mist had spread much farther than I anticipated. Looking into the face of my dead sister had distracted me from my goal. Instead of green grass, only black remained. It looked as though the whole world had caught on fire and every living thing had died. Looking back to the mist, I realized that it was beginning to swirl. I stopped, knowing what was about to happen. I'd had this dream before, only just remembered it. The mist suddenly dove at me, hitting my body with a great impact. My body was sent flying through the air, then falling into the black abyss of the hole.

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Authors notes:

1) The chapter is 3428 words... A lot more than I would have guessed.

2) Please tell me how you felt about the main character Camrell.

3) Any information on pacing and such is very welcome.

4) Chapter 2 should be up next Tuesday, January 13th.