The Story of Daniel - Chapter 2
#2 of The Story of Daniel
The Story ...
The Story of Daniel - Chapter 2
Alex Oakfield and his wife Karen were just walking out of the mall as the sun began to set. They were laughing happily as they remembered the cashier, spilling coffee all over himself when he saw the large load of items they were purchasing. With their arms now heavily laden, they couldn't see their car clearly, and had to walk slowly to avoid tripping over something and dropping their bags.
Alex was a tall, middle-aged man around his late thirties. He had brown, close-cut hair that only had a hint of gray. He also had a rather fit build that seemed to suit his calm and collected behavior. His wife, Karen, was only a little shorter than he, averaging at around six feet even. She had long chestnut hair that swept along her back as she walked, swishing from side to side. Usually she was very happy and uplifting, able to cheer anyone up with her bright personality. Today however, she seemed to be troubled, her expression telling him that she was concerned about something that had been on her mind for quite some time.
"Honey, are you alright?" Alex started. "You seem a little bothered. Is something wrong?"
"I think I'm just worried about Daniel." Karen began to say. "We took an awfully long time and he is bound to be bored to death."
Alex sighed. 'So, that was it'
"Yeah, I know. Tell you what, why don't we all go out for some ice cream once we load these bowling balls into the car." He said, obviously struggling with his heavy load and drawing a giggle from Karen. "That should make it up to him." He finished confidently.
"Yes, you're probably right." Karen began with a smile. "I figure we could try out that new ice cream shop that just...opened...down...." She suddenly stopped. Staring fixedly at some point that Alex could not see with a mixture of horror and dread on her face.
"Oh god..." she said, dropping the heavy bags. Their contents spilling over the rugged parking lot as she sprinted towards the car.
Alex fought through the heavy bags to get a better look at the car. What he saw nearly made him drop his load. (Double entendre intended.)
The car door appeared to have been forced open and Alex could see a body lying on the ground a few meters away from it. Alex dashed the bags to the ground with a 'crunch' as they toppled over, mixing with their counterparts. He then raced to the body along with his wife.
He stopped above the figure with his wife as he gazed at the man intently, trying to make sense of what he was seeing.
The body was not of his son, as he previously thought, but of a tall man in a dark sweatshirt and dirty brown cargos. He was around 5'11" and seemed to be in a rough state. He could tell that he was breathing, due to the regular rise and fall of his back, apparently sleeping, yet the sleep seemed unnatural. Alex crouched next to the man, now finding bruises near the base of his neck. He guessed that the man was beaten up, now lying unconscious at his feet. But that still didn't explain where his son was.
Now mustering up a little more courage, Alex flipped the man onto his back. A rugged, fair-skinned face met his eyes and he was able to examine the man in more detail. He had charcoal black hair that was tinged with ash gray, slight wrinkles seemed to scar his face and deep shadows clung to his eyes. He appeared to be in his mid-forties and was comatose at the moment, sleeping peacefully.
Alex's thoughts raced as he tried to contemplate the scene before him. 'Who the hell is this? Where is Daniel? Did he do this? ... AND WHAT'S WITH ALL THE BLOOD?!?' Alex thought, suddenly taking notice of the pool of blood around him.
He glanced up at his wife. Poor Karen looked petrified. 'Damn, she must be worried about Daniel. Then again... so am I.'
He then noticed that she was currently gazing at something next to him, completely at a loss for words, with her mouth agape.
He followed her gaze, his eyes resting on the bloody knife. His stomach clenched as if gripped with a cold, iron fist and fear descended upon him, finally breaking down the cool composure he had been straining to retain. His fists began to clench up as a cold sweat broke out upon his brow.
'That isn't Daniel's...' he thought, now panicking as horrific images began to flash through his train of thought. He could almost hear Daniel screaming as the man plunged the knife into his son.
Alex shook himself violently, trying vainly to disperse the graphic scene taking place in his mind and trying to find a better reason for the blood. 'Maybe it's this man's blood.' he thought, franticly grasping at straws he knew did not exist. 'Yes...Daniel...Daniel fought him off and wounded him with...with the knife...then...then he simply ran off to get help. Yes! That must be it.' Alex thought, trying to keep himself from losing it all together. However, he knew that he needed conformation on his theory and he shakily began to inspect the man's body for any cuts that could have caused the blood.
He decided to first check the torso. Lifting the man's shirt, he could see a large bruise beginning to form under the man's ribs. Obviously, someone had either punched or kicked the man's stomach in not too long ago, and Alex felt sure that it was his son's doing. He began to feel slightly more confident that maybe his far-fetched theory wasn't so unlikely after all and began to inspect the man with a little more vigor in his actions, determined to find the wound.
He then carefully inspected the man's arms, neck, back and even legs, finding only a few small cuts and bruises, but definitely not enough to cause the massive blood spill that lay before him. Alex was now emitting frantic mutterings as he was struggling to keep up his self-perpetuated denial.
"It's got to be here somewhere..." he would mutter every so often. "It just has to." "Where is it?" "I can't find it anywhere!"
Finally, Alex finished inspecting the man's throat, trying to determine if he hadn't simply coughed up the blood. Alex couldn't find a trace. He quietly slumped to the ground. Hands shaking uncontrollably as the painful truth swept over him like a dark cloud.
'It's Daniel's....blood....'
He slowly looked back at the man lying before him, anger surging through his veins.
'He did this. All of it...it's all HIS FAULT!' He thought. Hate not even close to describing the maliciousness and contempt he had for the man. He wanted nothing more than to strike him, maim him in retribution for what he did. Yet, he knew that if he wanted his son back, he would have to get this man talking, and removing the man's internal organs probably won't get him anywhere. Suddenly, the full realization of what was happening finally hit him, hard. His breathing picked up, heart beating franticly as he struggled to find the air that had suddenly escaped him.
'What if Daniel is...'
He couldn't comprehend it. It was simply too much. To think that his only son might be gone from him forever seemed completely surreal to him. Seeing his wife slump to the ground, feinting from her own understanding of the situation, he realized that he was the only one left and he had to do something...fast. He reached into his pocket, whipping out his cell phone and calling the police.
Time passed by unnaturally slow as Alex waited for the rings to pick up.
"Sheriff's Department, what's your emergen..." began the calm sheriff until being interrupted.
"Johnson! This is Alex; I need you down at the mall, now! It's...it's my son..." Alex began shakily as he recounted the terrible nightmare, holding his wife's head on his lap, trying to comfort her in her sleep.
'Daniel, where can you be?' he began to wonder as his wife's breathing began to ease, falling into a deep sleep.
Daniel was feeling weaker by the second. He felt like he had been wandering in the forest for days, even though he could tell by his watch that it had only been a half hour. 'Maybe this wasn't such a great idea after all.' He thought, cursing himself lightly. He had greatly misjudged the distance to the hospital and now he was paying the price for his mistake. The orange glow around him seemed to mock him, as he knew that night would soon descend upon the forest.
He wished that he had the time to sit and think on a better course of action, but also knew that time was precious. Every second he spent wondering on what to do was another second wasted, bringing him another inch closer to his demise. No, he would just have to keep walking and hope that he could make it to the other side.
He didn't realize how disorienting a forest could be. Its tall trees loomed overhead, blocking out most rays of the sun, and casting most of the forest in shadows, limiting his ability to tell time effectively. In fact, if it wasn't for his watch, which thankfully wasn't fooled by the forest's tricks, he might have become too disheartened to continue as he would believe that he had wasted too much time to be saved.
Also, there were not many landmarks in the forest to gauge how far he had gotten. More than once, he believed to be walking in circles, as he would continue to walk past what seemed to be the same tree or rock repeatedly. He constantly had to remind himself that this was impossible, as he had been walking in a straight line the whole time.
Still, the repeating scenery would constantly present itself, infuriating him to no end. He finally decided to put his mind at ease. Seizing one of the lower branches on a tree, he swiftly broke it off, stuffing it firmly in the ground. The branch stood straight up now, almost to a height of three feet.
'There...now that I've created a landmark, I won't be fooled by this stupid forest.' He thought, rather proud of his ingenuity. Continuing his journey to the hospital, he was relieved to find that the stick he had planted didn't reappear, finally putting his mind to rest.
For the moment at least.
It wasn't more than three minutes later of silent walking that he stumbled onto what appeared to be a very large rock wall to his right. At first he was extremely pissed that his man-made landmark was now completely useless. ('It's as if this goddamn forest is laughing at me!') However, his curiosity about the sudden appearance of the wall finally prevailed over his anger and he eventually began to approach it cautiously. The wall was about twenty feet high; around two hundred feet long and seemed to have at least a depth of fifty feet.
It looked a little strange to be frank. It just seemed to be a protrusion of rock coming right out of the ground from where he was standing, yet he could see from the side that it actually smoothed all the way down to the ground along the other sides. The wall also appeared to contain many cracks and stress fractures that stood out like black scars against the gray rock. It looked almost like a small, grey mountain cut in half.
Daniel placed a hand on the cold, rough surface of the rock; feeling the fine, grainy texture beneath his fingers. He began to walk its length, his hand still feeling the rock slide beneath his fingers as he thought about how it got there. He figured it must have had something to do with the tectonic pressure on the plates in this area, causing the half-mountain appearance, and must have taken millions of years for the pressure to build to a point for it to surface like this. Suddenly, he felt another spasm of pain cripple his side, causing him to fall on his hands and knees moaning, the sensation of having his sides split open revisiting him.
'What the fuck am I doing?' he thought angrily. 'I have a gaping hole in my stomach and instead of getting help, I'm playing fucking geologist!'
Daniel regained his footing slowly, still silently berating himself, as he gripped an odd rock protruding from the wall for support. Without warning the rock seemed to swing down like a lever, causing him to lose his balance and sending him falling full force into a section of the wall. Yet, instead of rebounding off the rock, he seemed to rather pass through it, as it gave way with the slightest of ease, literally moving aside for him as he landed painfully on cold hard ground.
Daniel roared in pain as his wound began throbbing painfully, spurting fresh blood through his shirt. For a moment he was completely swept up in the pain, trying vainly to regain his composure. Eventually he was able to subdue the pain long enough to take notice of his surroundings.
He seemed to have fallen into some sort of stone corridor, light streaming in from some source behind him. He turned his head and saw the opening he had fallen through. The section of rock that he had fallen through had been slid into some groove to the side, like those Japanese paper-sliding doors. He realized that the rock he pulled on, must have acted as a switch to open this secret passage.
'A secret passage?' he suddenly thought puzzled. 'Why would one be here?' 'Where does this corridor lead?' he continued to think; now slowly pulling himself up off of the floor. As he did so, he noticed that the floor had many intricate grooves imbedded into it.
Curious, he looked a little closer and found that they appeared to have some form of meaning. They were not all intertwined as he had thought but rather small and segmented, as if they were symbols of some kind. He began to notice that some of these symbols began reappearing as he looked around the floor.
'These aren't just some random grooves...it's like another language entirely! Like some form of ancient text!' He realized suddenly. His mouth was open in awe as he took a fresh look at the runes.
He could see that instead of the western tradition of 'left to right' the runes seemed to be written in shapes, creating rows of columns, spheres, and even triangles. He looked around and noticed that the walls and even ceiling were covered almost entirely in the strange script. Looking down the corridor, he wondered what all the markings meant.
He could see that the corridor seemed to curve downward with the mountain and he was certain that his questions would be answered if he followed it. He was about to walk down the passage, when he suddenly stopped, gripping his sides tightly in pain.
Again, his injuries were making themselves known and he was trying his best to stay conscious as another wave of pain rippled through him. 'Damn!' he thought angrily cursing himself for his lack of attentiveness. 'If I keep this up, I'm never going to make it.' He took a last look around the passage. 'I'll come back later. Right now I think I have something that needs a little more attention.' He thought as he turned to walk out into the light.
However, after taking his first step, he felt his right foot sink a couple inches into the rock as a round section of the floor sunk deeper into the ground. Suddenly, the rock wall slid back into the place without warning, trapping him inside.
"NO!" he yelped as he stumbled to the wall/door, clawing at it fiercely trying to open it again. It wouldn't budge. No matter how hard he tried, the door remained as stationary as the rock around him.
'Shit! I can't get out!' he thought, panicking under the new stressful position he was in. 'It must have been another switch!' he rationalized as he began to retrace his steps, trying to find the floor switch.
However, everything was completely dark now and it was hard keeping his balance in the sloping corridor. He constantly kept on slipping slightly on the floor as he tried stomping the ground every now and again, trying vainly to re-enact his mistake. After around ten minutes of stomping the ground, he grew too exhausted to continue, slumping to the floor defeated.
He didn't know what to do. It was one of those rare moments where he was completely unable to do anything. He had always been able to get out of a situation, no matter how big. One time, when he was little, he and his friend from school had even managed to sneak a wild rabbit into his house.
They had found him near the forest and decided to keep him as a pet. He was surprisingly trusting of them and seemed quite willing to go with them to Daniel's house. However, once they had snuck him past his parents, they realized that rabbits were quite a handful, as it was chewing on everything in Daniel's room; from his boxers to his bed sheets, the little critter continued to eat his weight in junk.
Things were getting out of control, so wrestling the little bunny from his pillow, which it was trying to devour in its small jaws, they managed to carry it back to the forest and release it. Unfortunately, when they got back, his parents were found waiting at the front door, wanting an explanation for all of the bite marks in his room. Thinking quickly, he managed to appear shocked and managed to convince his parents that some animal must have snuck in through his window. This was perfectly honest in some sense.
His parents went to go confirm this, forcing him to follow. Meanwhile, he had told his friend to go and open his window as his parents began getting closer. When they looked into Daniel's room, they indeed saw that the window was open and began apologizing to Daniel for their suspicions. Daniel told them that it was alright and as he left the house with his friend, they smiled slyly, high-fiving as they went.
Daniel let out a broad grin as he remembered those times. That had been one of the many close calls he had as a kid, yet none of them could compare to the situation he was in now. This sobered him up pretty quickly as depression began to envelop him, filling his head with negative thoughts and images.
Sitting on the ground, he might not have moved for some time, lost in his thoughts, had it not been for one thing. As he sat there, he began absent-mindedly feeling the floor once again, retracing the grooves with his fingers. Immediately, he was reminded of the place he was imprisoned, curiosity eventually overtaking his depression.
'Well, as long as I'm stuck here...' he thought, thinking that if he couldn't get out, that he could at least quench his curiosity. 'And who knows? I might just find a way out after all.'
With this new hope to spark his enthusiasm, he began to gather himself up for the walk. Then picking himself up off of the ground, he began carefully navigating the pathway down, gripping the walls for support as pain constantly began to shoot up his sides. It was even becoming hard to breathe, his breath rasping as it struggled to fill his exhausted lungs. The pathway was narrow enough for him to easily press his hands against both walls, guiding him smoothly along it. However, the corridor began to open up, now forcing him to lean on only one of the walls.
After around five minutes of walking, the corridor ended and Daniel found himself in a very large chamber. He could tell it was a chamber, due to the small streams of light poking through cracks in the ceiling, allowing himself to see in the dim light.
The overall area of the chamber was as big as a church worship center, even being almost rectangular in shape. The ceiling was at least thirty feet high, yet he figured that some of it was underground, seeing as outside it only appeared twenty. Many stone columns lined the walls as he looked on, all similar except for the very last two near the back. These last two appeared to be more like two giant, curved fangs rather than columns with their points angled toward each other menacingly. Looking in between the columns, Daniel could only just make out some sort of rectangular object resting on the ground. Moving closer, Daniel realized that it resembled some sort of altar. Unfortunately, he didn't see a way out of here either.
'Now this is getting weird.' Daniel began to ponder. 'What's an altar doing here or rather...WHY is it here?'
More confused than ever, Daniel approached the stone platform, eventually resting his hands on it. The thing was only raised about three feet off the ground so he decided to take a rest and sit down, still enabling him to examine the piece without further exerting himself. Just as he sat, an enormous twinge of pain raced up his backside, causing him to groan and roll over. It seemed to be coming from the seat of his pants!
Lifting himself up a little, he dug his hand into his back pocket, fishing out the painful object. It was his DS. Daniel looked at the small device as if he had never seen it before. It seemed so foreign to him, out of place in the depressing environment. He was very surprised that his DS was still with him after all this time and wondered how it got into his pocket.
'Now, I remember!' he suddenly realized, smacking his forehead in revelation. It was just before that asshole attacked him when he put it in his pocket. However, a reminder of his dire situation was not something he was extremely happy about and it actually ticked him off quite a bit.
Deeply annoyed by the bit of plastic, he tossed it into the air behind him. He heard it 'clunk' as it hit some rock. Slightly more satisfied, he turned around to give the room a little more attention. He noticed that the runes had also been engraved in here as well; some traveling intricately in spirals as they raced up the columns. He followed their trails observantly, noticing that they seemed to be leading to where he was sitting.
'Now, that can't be right.' He thought, now frowning a little. 'Why would they be coming to me?'
Then it hit him, they weren't leading to him, they were leading to the altar! Twisting himself around, he saw that the runes did indeed cascade up the altar's sides. The runes seemed to cover it almost entirely. However, they seemed to mingle together at the very center of the top side, creating a circle of runes. Inside this circle, although he couldn't see, was his DS. It seemed that when he tossed it over his shoulder, it amazingly landed right in the middle, now surrounded by the runes.
This however, didn't really answer his curiosities of what the altar did, so he continued to scan the room. He took notice now of the two giant, fang pillars. One of them on his left, while the other on his right. The first thing he realized was that they both were also covered in runes, except instead of leading to the altar, like the others, they seemed to rather spiral up to their own pointed ends, growing more concentrated as they approached the tip.
Daniel didn't know what to make of it, so he ignored the columns and began to focus a little more on himself.
He was tired and lightheaded from the amount of blood he had lost. He couldn't even think straight anymore. He tried one last time to focus his thoughts in an attempt to plan an escape from his rock prison, yet all he could achieve was a massive headache from the strain. Cradling his head in his arms, he lied down, his back resting on the altar.
His side was still throbbing painfully and he took this moment to examine his injuries once again. It didn't look too good. He could tell that the wound was very deep, the bleeding still hadn't stopped and he wondered how he could even have forgotten about such a terrible wound. His make-shift shirt bandage wasn't holding up well either, it was now completely soaked in his blood, now making it quite ineffective. He could feel himself growing colder, his hands shaking slightly as he tried to grip himself for warmth. He quickly redid the knot around his shirt, making it a bandage once again. Although it was ineffective in containing the blood, it still could keep him alive a little longer with the pressure it exerted.
'There...that should buy me a little more time.' Daniel thought to himself. He sadly smiled for a brief moment before it disappeared from his face, leaving only a silent frown as he continued to ponder his fate.
He knew he was done for. It would be obvious to anyone at this point. His skin was pale from the lack of blood; he was now visibly shaking, his breath coming out in sharp wheezes. All he could do now was rest against this stone altar, since the power to move had long abandoned him. His vision was becoming unfocused and he could barely see the room in front of him.
'I'm so...tired.' Daniel thought as his eyelids descended a fraction. He felt like his eyelids were twenty pounds each and he fought to try and keep them open for as long as possible. He began to wonder what would happen to him. 'Will they ever find me?' 'Am I just going to remain here forever?' It all felt hopeless to him and he allowed a few silent tears to fall from his tired eyes.
'Mom...Dad...'
He wondered what they were doing now. He guessed that they were looking frantically for him and he wished that he was there with them. Able to see them just one more time. More tears fell as he realized that he would never see his loved ones again. His family, his friends, his life...all of it was gone from him in just the blink of an eye. Sadness overwhelmed him as he let himself cry fully now. Yet, he was incapable of uttering a sound as that power had been drained from him as well. Unable to hold back the pain in his heart, he continued to silently cry, unable to voice his sorrow.
Quietly, his eyes began to close. As darkness descended upon him, Daniel's mind became blank, his back slumping forward, causing his body to slide sideways and fall to the ground, his wound now bleeding directly onto the runes. Daniel's blood dripped onto the floor, drop by drop, until it began forming a pool over the runes. Eventually the blood spread until it covered at least a dozen of the odd symbols.
Everything was silent.
Suddenly a mysterious blue light began to fill the cave. The light was not coming from the cracks in the ceiling, for night time had finally come, but rather from the cave itself, or to be more precise, from the runes themselves.
*A long time ago*
Centuries ago, a rather radical demon worshiping cult had traveled for many months in the wilderness to escape persecution for their beliefs. Eventually they settled down somewhere in the mountains, free to practice their religion in peace. Most of the worship, usually involved reading a strange book with 'demonic' runes inscribed upon it. I say 'demonic' since that is what the locals described it as at the time. In fact, it was actually a rather powerful book of spells, written by one of the native Indian tribes that greeted the Roanoke colony. Unfortunately, that tribe had disappeared along with the colony and no man could read the book, nor understand it afterwards.
For a while, the new village, that the cult formed, seemed to run peacefully. Enabling them to practice their little religion in peace, they constantly performed odd ceremonies and rituals that they believed were from the book; the one they couldn't read nor understand. (Stupid villagers.)
When settlers began to encroach upon the cult's village, the citizens had to find a way to continue their practices undiscovered. Using new drilling equipment available at the time, the cult began to tunnel into the largest rock face they could find. After ten years of hard digging, they finally managed to create a suitable space for their practices. The cave was already partially hollowed out thankfully, and that was able to help them dig it out so quickly.
For the next several years the cult continued their practices in peace until one young acolyte decided to recreate one of the drawings he had seen in the pages onto the cave. So, with the help of the cult, they were able to carve the many intricate numerals and shapes, finally finishing their work several years later. An altar was needed in the center, yet because the book was unreadable to the cult, they had only to guess that it required a sacrifice. Providing a freshly slaughtered sheep, the entire cult gathered around as they laid it upon the stone.
Soon the sheep's blood had collected enough to be absorbed by the runes for energy and a soft blue glow began to envelop the room. The acolytes had thought that the inscriptions would be able to summon their demon-king and bring a new world order, as their religion desired; however, what they had created was a little different.
The spell that the acolyte had picked from the book was actually a spell for traversing the boundaries of space, or teleportation. Yet, this spell could also traverse the boundaries of dimensions, as the cult would soon learn.
Usually the spell would create a ball of energy to contain the traveler, breaking him down into the tiniest molecular particles and changing them into light energy, which would then travel to the designated beacon and reassemble. Normally, the 'beacon' would be placed upon the altar, giving the spell its signal for where to go and when to stop and reassemble the molecules.
The beacon could be anything; a place, a person, a group of things, or even one certain thing. It just needed to be physical and could be easily referenced by the magic to pinpoint a location. It should also be noted that it would be unwise for more than one person to take the 'journey' as molecules are not super computers and might mix themselves accidentally with the wrong thing.
In this case, a dead sheep is the beacon and an unsuspecting crowd of thirty plus will be taking the journey.
Not good.
The crowd watched in awe as energy began to gather in the runes. Suddenly, the runes on the fang pillars began to light up. The light slowly crept its way up the pillars, until it reached the pointed ends, making them glow bright with power. All at once, twin lightning bolts began to shoot from the two fanged pillars, colliding in mid-air and forming what appeared to be a sphere of liquid light. The altar that the sheep was laying on was also glowing brightly and the sheep began to vibrate and crackle with energy.
The sphere of light began to grow. Larger and larger it grew, until it had gone from the size of a baseball to that of a giant beach ball in just a few minutes.
As the sphere grew large enough to engulf the crowd, the acolyte was happy, believing that he would finally be rewarded for his determination and results.
Now, since the beacon was a dead sheep, the spell automatically sought out the location for all dead sheep. The sheep afterlife. (You prove there isn't one.)
As the sheep were busy enjoying another perfect day in their 'after-world' something strange happened. There seemed to be a rather large blob-like creature roaming the hills near the cliffs. It had close to three dozen eyes and seemed to be made up of a rather disgusting amount of appendages, its form nothing more than a pile of skin and organs. Amazingly however, it seemed to still be alive, yet in definite pain as it would constantly scream out unspeakably horrible sounds. Now the sheep couldn't have something like that in their paradise, so they simply ended up kicking it over the cliffs, sending it hurtling to the ground below. Not a very pleasant end for anyone to say the least.
Back at the altar, the acolyte and the followers had vanished, leaving only the remains of the sheep, which had exploded from the amount of energy that had been pressured inside it until the very last moment.
Eventually the sheep's carcass deteriorated into dust and the cave was quiet for centuries. No one ever did question where the village people had gone to. They were a rather peculiar village anyway.
*Present Day*
Twin lightning bolts were streaming out of the twin fanged pillars above Daniel, colliding in mid-air above him. The lightning appeared to be gathering at the intersection, creating a small ball of pure energy. It looked almost like liquid light. The altar to the right of Daniel was vibrating furiously, the DS radiating with light and energy, dancing under the vibrations of the altar.
Daniel didn't know if he was dead or not. He could see a bright light pouring through his eyelids, yet he could still feel the pain from his wound. He wasn't sure if he should open them, the light almost seemed to be growing brighter with each passing second. He didn't know that dying would be this bright...or this loud.
'What the hell is making that racket?!?' he thought as he tried to turn his head. It sounded as if someone was constantly grinding two large stones next to his head and he wished that he could cover his ears, his arms too weak for such an action.
The ball of light was growing now as streams of lightning continued to supply it with power, almost touching Daniel with its essence. It was barely three inches from his body. The DS and altar were now shining and vibrating more than ever as the energy being contained inside was reaching the breaking point.
Eventually, Daniel couldn't take it anymore and he wrenched his eyes open to see all the commotion. All he could see was white. Shimmering, moving, shining white. It was actually quite breathtaking as Daniel marveled on how splendid the sight was.
He thought that it was heaven...until he turned his head and saw the stone runes were still on the floor.
'Wait a minute, I'm still in the cave?' he wondered. Suddenly he realized something. 'If this light isn't heaven, what is it?!?'
He then felt as if his body was being lifted up off of the floor, drawing closer to the sphere of light. He tried to cry out, but he was too tired and he allowed himself to become enveloped in its cocoon. Once he entered the light, he could still see the cave clearly, yet it was like looking at it through some kind of shimmering bubble. He felt odd. It was as if his body was crumbling into sand, as if he was slowly being digested by the large sphere of light. It felt almost soothing as he lost feeling in his legs.
The loss of feeling seemed to move upward on his body; first his legs went, then his lower torso, then his hands, arms, and finally his chest. Just before he lost consciousness, he saw one final image. It was his DS, exploding into a million pieces. The shrapnel however, seemed to just bounce off of the light and Daniel remained unharmed.
Daniel might have laughed if he could of, an exploding DS looked quite funny from his perspective, yet he could no longer speak...or hear...or see. Everything was white.
He felt as if he were moving, or that at least something was moving around him. He tried to open his eyes, yet he couldn't. He realized he didn't have eyes. If he could describe how he felt at that moment, he would have said he felt like a speeding train in a subway tunnel. Except that instead of black there was white surrounding him. He felt cramped, yet although he couldn't move any part of himself, he could still feel his body.
It just seemed separate from him however. It seemed that all he was at that moment was just some sort of consciousness. He found that if he branched his mind out wide enough, he could almost see his body floating around him. It wasn't like it was whole, rather in little pieces, like he was. Little bits of arm over there, a shard of pancreas over here...It was almost like a game.
'Find all the pieces and you win a prize!' he thought hilariously. For some reason, he seemed completely at peace within this space. It was as if all his troubles had been left behind, along with his body.
Suddenly, he discovered something odd. While branching out, he detected something he could only describe as 'blue fire'. It was not like the other items in the space; they all felt like little blocks or pieces of a puzzle. I say 'felt' because he couldn't really see either. (No eyes). This new substance however, appeared to have no shape or form. Rather it seemed like, well, 'blue fire', unpredictable and untamed raw power.
Daniel had no idea what the substance was, but he was curious...he reached out for it. As soon as the 'fire' felt his presence, a small portion separated itself from it and began to flow into his mind. Daniel felt incredible! It felt as if it was warming him up on the inside and he felt more exhilarated and energized then before. It didn't feel as if it was draining away however, rather it felt as if it was simply collecting in the back of his mind.
He began to wonder what would happen if he were to take all of it. Something in the back of his mind seemed to be pushing for him to accept the flame, to take it all in. Yet, another part of him was saying something different. 'You're not ready to handle that much power. Wait.'
His mind seemed to be arguing with him now. He was beginning to become confused, a first in this new world.
'Take the flame!' an aggressive voice shouted.
'Wait, it is too powerful for you right now!' a more calm, yet equally commanding, voice spoke.
'It will make you stronger!'
'You will not be able to control it!'
'Take the FLAME!'
'You won't lose this power if you don't take it right now!'
'You need this power, it can help you! TAKE IT NOW!!!'
Daniel tried to listen to the voices for a while, not comprehending what they were truly saying. He could only feel as if one part of his mind wanted him to take the flame, and the other wanted for him to leave it be...for now. At first it didn't seem to matter to him if he just took it all. Now however, it seemed as if taking all of it now would be a bad idea. He was very confused and didn't know what to do. He tried to listen to the voices again, but they had apparently stopped. As if they were watching him, waiting for him to make his choice. Hoping he wouldn't regret his decision later, he made up his mind.
Daniel receded himself from the flame, choosing to wait for a more opportune time and listening to the more passive voice in his head.
Suddenly, as if waiting for him to make his decision, he could feel himself slowing down. He felt as if his 'train' was becoming smaller, squeezing him together with the rest of his body. It was getting so tight. The pressure was extremely uncomfortable as it felt like his body was just being smashed together. He was starting to regain feeling in his arms, then his legs...hands...feet. It wasn't really painful, but certainly more uncomfortable than the reverse.
Everything was growing brighter around him; he closed his eyes ('I have eyes now!'), the light becoming painful now. Suddenly the light stopped shining.
Before he could open his eyes however, he suddenly felt himself falling, unable to find anything to support himself as gravity took over, causing him to crash to the ground. Daniel began drifting into unconsciousness again as his head hit something very hard.
The last thing Daniel saw, or thought he saw, was the sign he hit his head on. He could only just make out the biggest of the words.
'Welcome to Sandgem Town'
Then everything went dark as Daniel passed out by the side of a large dirt road.
It would be several more hours before Daniel would be discovered by an officer, whom was making his morning rounds. At first he had no idea what he was seeing. He thought it looked like some sort of injured Pokémon, so he pulled his motor cycle to the side of the road. Getting closer, he could only barely tell that it was actually a boy in the soft glow of morning light. Seeing the blood completely soaking his shirt, he immediately rushed the boy to the nearest hospital. With Sandgem town only being a couple miles down the road, he was able to bring the poor boy to the hospital after only a couple minutes of driving. However, when the doctors examined the boy, they could find no trace of a wound on him.
Not even a single scratch could be found. It was as if all of his injuries, if there were any, had been simply wiped away with a cloth. Yet, due to the boy's condition, they decided to keep him until he woke up. Afterwards, they believed that they would be able to ask him about what had happened.
Three days later, Daniel's eyes slowly opened...
To be continued...