"Does the walker choose the path, or the path the walker?"

-Garth Nix

Five

At first, the light was faint, barely able to cut through the surrounding darkness. He didn't know how long he was shrouded in black, but when you're without senses, time has an entirely different feel to it. All he knew was that it started as a small dot, which would come to be a small circle of red, forming like phosphenes when you close your eyes.

Somewhere in his mind, he reconciled the fact that he must have been sleeping, because he was unable to move. It wasn't unpleasant though, not right away; more of a dream that had yet to take form. But the longer that Will lingered there, the closer the light came and began to take shape.

The closer it came to him, the brighter it got. It was circular and blood red, but Will could also make out a few other designs that took shape. He could see a triangle and what appeared to be a cross in the middle as the circle grew ever larger, but there was something else assaulting his senses. A high-pitched sound, almost like a whistle, grew louder the closer the circle got. All color began to fade but not into the surrounding darkness, rather blindingly white. It started to be too much for Will to take, and all he wanted was for the darkness to come back.

He suddenly jerked his head up from the desk. Will found himself looking around the room, the way that one does after they dream to make sure that they're really awake. Everything around the attic room looked normal and in its place.

Will noticed the light that was spilling through the room. Usually at night, he closed the curtain over the small window to prevent the street lamp's light from spilling in. He planned on getting his paper done, at least halfway done, but apparently slept through the night. Taking a breath, he closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose with his thumb and index fingers. Procrastination was one of his major problems, but he didn't anticipate falling asleep so early.

He hit enter on the keyboard to wake up his computer, but nothing happened. He hit enter again, but still, nothing happened.

"What?" Will muttered to himself, hitting the enter key one more time before pressing the power button. When nothing happened again, Will rose from his seat and knelt down to check the power cord underneath the desk. He pushed it down into the outlet, but it was already secure.

Getting back to his feet, he looked around his room to the small table beside his bed. The digital clock was blank, indicating a lack of power rather than an error with his computer. Will sighed, muttering to himself again. He couldn't remember how far he got on his paper or when the last time he saved his progress was, but there was a good chance that the majority of his work was lost.

Will moved over to the small table, grabbing his phone. He noticed that it didn't look like it was too long past dawn, so maybe he had some time to finish his paper before class. He could just borrow John's laptop if he had to. All these thoughts raced through his head before he noticed that his phone wasn't lighting up after pressing the center button. He pressed it again, but just like his computer, nothing happened. Will popped the card out of the back and popped it back in, thinking maybe that will make a difference. Trying to turn it on again proved just as fruitless though.

"What the hell? An EMP go off or something?"

Will asked himself, hopefully not expecting a response. He shook his phone a bit and tossed it on the bed. He then slipped his sneakers on and made his way down the attic steps. Unlocking the door, he opened it slowly, knowing how creaky it sounded and he didn't want to disturb the rest of his housemates. Sure enough, all of their doors were closed. He did his best to walk softly to the stairs, and seemed to be doing a good job of it because his steps were eerily silent. Even the stairs down to the main floor didn't bend or warp under his steps. Not only that, but the downstairs area was unusually clean.

It was around this time that Will began to think that maybe he never woke up from the dream. He and his roommates cleaned up on Sunday, but it was mostly to make sure that no food was left out and any spills were properly taken care of. There were always spills to take care of after Saturday nights. But there were no clothes or books on the floor; it was spotless.

Will looked from side to side as he walked, peering into the kitchen as he passed. There was no empty pizza box on the counter.

"Yeah. Definitely still dreaming," Will said while nodding, "but at least my roommates aren't so messy here."

A loud knocking noise turned Will's attention towards the front door. He took a step back when he heard it once more, two knocks loud enough to slightly move the door inward. He waited and kept his eyes on the door, but after about a minute, no follow up knock came. It was quiet once again.

It was then that Will decided to move towards the direction of the door. Using reliable dream-logic, that if anything bad happened he would just wake up, he resolved to figure out what had made the noise. He grasped the door knob and slowly turned it while pulling just the slightest. There was still a little hesitance despite his belief that he was still sleeping.

It was difficult to explain what happened next. He didn't pay too much attention, but Will could have sworn that the view from inside looking out was that of his block. When the door opened and the outside presented itself, he found that things were far from usual. He recognized his surroundings, but they shouldn't have been here, at least not in the vicinity of where he lived.

In the distance, he saw the wooden bridge that he'd crossed many times before, except from his house, he shouldn't have seen it. It was behind a row of houses, and a couple of other buildings on campus. What he did see, past the bridge and in the distance, was the student cafeteria, and the rest of the buildings that surrounded the bridge. Even though he knew it wasn't real, Will couldn't help the disjointed feeling he was getting from exiting his house only to find himself someplace different. It took a few moments, but he finally realized where he might be standing. He took a few steps forward and turned around, his eyes immediately being drawn to a small, dark stain on the pavement. He knew it had come from Nicole Baldwin and he knew that he was standing in front of Warren Hall.

The door was ajar, but Will had no desire to enter. He had gruesome nightmares before and didn't need to enter to know what he might find. Nicole hadn't been a friend to him, so he had no desire to potentially see her death. Instead, he turned back around and began to walk back in the direction of his home. The silence followed him closely, muffling his own footsteps on the ground. He never experienced the sensation of being devoid of sound before, and much like the isolation he was going through, it was an unsettling experience. With every third or fourth step, he found himself looking over his shoulder to make sure that nobody was creeping up from behind.

He approached the bridge, hesitating before stepping onto it and taking another look around. Still alone, he thought to himself. It felt so real to him, to actually know that he was dreaming and walking through it. Will wasn't much for his mind playing tricks on him, so he decided that getting back to his house and laying down in his bed would wake him up.

Will stepped onto the bridge and was surprised by what happened next. He heard the wood creak from under him, and almost immediately, what sounded like a siren went off in the distance. He took a step back but the sound from the siren grew and grew, until it was near deafening. Will covered his ears but it didn't seem to help; it was as if the sound was now coming from inside his head. With every passing second it grew more and more unbearable, until all he could do was drop to a knee, close his eyes and press his hands tight against his ears.

As quick as the noise came, it was gone, and silence dominated once more. Will opened his eyes and found himself in the same place, but a thick fog was now blanketing as far as he could see, which was only about ten feet ahead on all sides. He got back to his feet with the assistance of the bridge's railing, but must have accidentally slid his hand because of the immediate pain he felt. A thin splinter was sticking out of his palm, which he quickly plucked out and tossed away.

"At least I haven't lost the use of all my senses." Will remarked to himself, sticking his finger in his ear to try and get the ringing out. With how real, or surreal, this all felt, he just hoped he wouldn't wake up deaf. He checked out his hands as he walked forward a bit, the wood not creaking under his feet anymore. Strangely enough, there was no mark where he pulled it out, and the pain was gone as quickly as it came.

On the other side of the bridge, the campus began to take shape the more he walked forward. There wasn't anything out of the ordinary about the buildings themselves, other than the fact that there were no people milling around them. Sometimes he would walk through campus past midnight and he would find at least a dozen people walking to and from the buildings. Even at three or four in the morning, he imagined there was some security guard or night owl coming and going.

Just as he was thinking about being the only person in his own private world, he saw a dark shadow in the distance. Will couldn't tell what it was through the fog, whether or not it was a person or an animal, but reconciled that it might be a step out of this place.

"Hello," Will asked, then cleared his throat and cupped his hands around his mouth, "hello?! Is anyone there?! God, if this was a horror movie, I'd be dead in a few minutes."

He muttered the last line to himself while walking towards where he last saw the shadow. The path was leading him away from the cafeteria and towards the quad area. Up ahead and to his left, a large square-shaped building which was the school's library, came into view, and he could just start to make out the large fountain which sat at the center of the quad. That's where he saw the shadowy figure again.

It stood silently in front of the fountain, just out of a clear view. For every step that Will took forward, it seemed as if the shadow backed up, keeping the same distance until it was actually behind the fountain. The fountain was now completely in view, but the shadow kept moving backwards. When he was just a few feet from the circular stone structure, he felt a warm sensation on his left hand, on the same spot where he had pulled out the splinter. It started out as a small, red dot, but grew in diameter before his eyes. After just a few seconds, it encompassed his hand and overflowed to the ground, a bloody fountain emanating from where the splinter had stuck him.

A sense of panic rushed over Will. He pushed his right thumb against the hole to stop the bleeding, but it didn't make a difference. Looking past his hand, something caught Will's attention; the blood on the ground, and the pattern that it was forming. It didn't just make a circular pool like it normally would, but began to take a familiar shape. The same symbol that he saw in his mind was now beneath him, surrounding him by his blood, a sight that firmly held Will's attention until that high-pitched siren returned. Will decided that he had enough, and needed to get out of wherever he was as fast as he could. Luckily, his wish would soon be granted.

Will looked back up to see the shadowy figure standing a foot in front of him. Before he could discern what it was, it reached its left hand out.