Chapter 1
Max awoke to the sound of scratching, it was everywhere in the walls the floor. It was probably in his head. The odd thing was though it sounded like Morse code, which drove him nuts. The scratching sounds had been going on for nearly a week now every day the same time like a clock.
Max lived in an apartment in New York. He had moved after the courts had allowed him to leave his parents and live on his own. It also helped that he had inherited half a million from some grandparent he didn't even know existed. The apartment was not very big but it was his, and messy; several piles of cloths covered the floor. He went to work picking up the laundry hoping that the elevator wouldn't be out going for the door as he finished up. His hand was on the handle when he heard a noise.
"Grace," a man said "he's fine."
"You don't know that," the woman, grace screamed "he is lost, Lizzie is lost, and Boots is trapped. Don't you dare tell me their fine and I swear after this we are moving."
Max opened the door to see the parents of three children who had disappeared several weeks ago; the police had asked the entire apartment if they knew anything including him and like everyone else he did not have a clue. Max grabbed a large military knife that had been a gift from his uncle and headed out the door. Both Grace and her husband saw him, and then she saw his cloths basket and began to cry.
"We knew better then to let him go there," She sobbed. "That's the entrance and they always find a way to drag him down.
Max walked on wondering what his cloths basket had to do with anything. Max went down the stairs thinking about the three missing children. Boots was a baby, so not much to think there. Lizzie was smart no doubt, she had even schooled him. Then there was Gregor, odd kid really, who could not hide the fact that he had clearly gone into a blender. Gregor after a week had stopped a bully nearly twice his size from picking on a little kid; Max had seen the whole ordeal.
When max got to the laundry room he noticed that the dryer had been moved across the room and a large grate was open for him to see, a thin mist came out of it.
"In a time and place a place known as the twilight zone," Max mimicked. "Seriously, what the hell?" Max put his hand through his auburn hair going over to the vent which was opening and closing loudly and put his head through the hole. The next thing he knew he was falling.
Max twisted in the Darkness his mind racing, this was not supposed to happen, people didn't fall through hair ducts and if they did it shouldn't be this slowly. Max grabbed a small flashlight attached to his key chain turning it on, but the small light did nothing to cut the darkness; his cell phone was little help also. A strange breeze went against his skin and he could not help but think about those places that allowed you to fly by using a large amount of air.
The fall lasted several minutes when the breeze keeping up stopped.
Max plummeted to the ground and knew nothing