Chapter 2: A new world, a new life

I woke up feeling exhausted. I didn't remember sleeping. How long have I been out? Where was I? What happened to me? The last thing I remembered was the humongous rock that was going to doom us all. And speaking of us, where were John and Camille? I hoped they were alright.

I stood up to look at my surroundings more carefully. I was in some kind of meadow. Pine trees surrounded the place and only letting enough light to filter through. The light was different. It made me think that it was…holy. The fresh green grass that covered half of the meadow smelled wonderful. The other half of the meadow was covered by colorful flowers that bloomed brightly and dozens of butterflies flew over them making it look as if the flowers were moving.

There was a stone path in the middle of the colorful area that snaked ahead leading to a waterfall. There were cool breezes coming from the tiny waterfall. I just realized the sound of water falling from it. Then I realized the chirping birds in the trees.

What a wonderful place. I walked slowly to the waterfall and touched the surface of the crystal-clear lake. It felt like touching air. Only, this was much cooler. I continued to play with the water. Jumping into the lake was so tempting. But I did not think that I should and I did not know why. I cupped the water into my hands and wash it all over my face. I was startled when a voice sounded from my right.

'How easy it is to manipulate the human mind,' He said casually. More to himself than to me. His voice was deep, cool and calm. Then continued, 'just poke around their curiosity and bing!'

'Where am I? How did I get here? What happened to me? Who are you?' I murmured all at once.

He inhaled deeply, 'Where you are I do not know. For how you got here, we needed you and we sent a teleporter. You remember? The rock. We needed you. So we sent the rock to get you and your friends. I'm Carlos. Your guide to the new world I am about to unfold.'

'What happened to my old world?'

'Do not fret. Everything is fine.'

'Where are John and Camille?'

'They are being explained to as we speak.'

'So tell me, what's going to happen?'

'You will be tested'

'For what?'

'Your ability,' he said as though this was an obvious thing.

'Or, abilities,' he continued.

Then he closed his eyes and moved his lips as though he had been counting the seconds. Then he opened them back again and told me to follow him. I remained where I was, shocked, staring at him as he walked on the lake. He turned to look at me, obviously amused.

'Focus your energy on your feet and just believe you can do it,' he said.

I nodded and tried to focus the 'energy' on my feet. Suddenly, I felt some kind of jolt in my body. Then I felt my feet going funny. That must be it. I can do this, I can do this, I thought to myself. I took a step forward. I felt the coolness against my bare feet. But I did not fall into the abyss. This felt nice. It had some kind of tingling sensation. I walked across the lake and joined him at the center.

'Is this even possible?'

He laughed, 'It does in our world'

'Now,' he continued, 'I want you to trust me in this'

I nodded.

'I want you to let go of your senses completely. This is part of the test,' He said.

'But then, I'd fall in,' I said with incredulous eyes.

'Trust me, you will be all right,' He said solemnly.

This was a crazy thing to do. But who else could I trust? He is my guide after all. Oh what the heck. I agreed hesitantly.

'Good. Just block out all senses completely. You can't chicken out. It's impossible. In this place, anything major you do is permanent. So, once you try to cut your life out, that's it. No turning back. You will be saved at the last minute, of course. You ready?'

'Hell no! But it's not like I have a choice. So bring it on,' I said, a little glumly.

'Okay. Anytime you are ready,' he said.

'This is insane,' I said, shaking my head and primed myself.

When I was ready, I counted to three. One. Two. Three! I started with my eyes, nose and ears first. I could not see. I could not hear. I could not breathe. I was suffocating. Panic towered over me. Then I fell into the water.

How long was this going to last? I might have looked peaceful sinking down in the vast abyss. Even graceful, probably. But inside, I was shouting my throat sore. It aggravated me that, if I still had my senses, I could still swim back up to the surface. I drifted down the chasm in agony. I was weak. I've never felt so powerless in my entire life. Then my whole life flashed before me. My parents, my childhood, my home, my friends.

John and Camille. Oh my. They must be enduring the same thing as me right now. Her beautiful face. I love you, Camille. Then, at that moment, her face came into my mind. I love you too, silly. Then she giggled her cute laugh. Was this real? Or was I hallucinating? But she looks so real. She smiled and shook her head. I'm so sorry. I'll explain as soon as possible. I

love you. And then she was gone. Hallucination or not, I did not want her to go.

As soon as she was gone, the pain crept back up. I was lost again. Suddenly, the pain was gone. And as suddenly as it went away, my senses abruptly came back to life. I could see, hear and breathe again. Relief washed over me. I inhaled and exhaled deeply. I looked around myself.

What was with this new world of ours and its places? I was lying down on the floor of some white room. Nothing else but white. Then I realized that Camille was there at the corner, leaning against the white wall. She noticed that I was awake and walked to me. Looking up at the ceiling and blushing all the way. What a strange thing to do. She was holding something in her hands and handed them to me. It was clothes. I looked at her with a puzzled expression. She pursed her lips. Fighting back a smile perhaps and blushing deeper. She was still looking up. Then she pointed at my body. Crap. I was naked!

'Did you peek when I was out?' I asked, squinting at her after I finished putting on the clothes.

She winked at me and my god, you would not believe how sexy that was.

'Oh man…' I groaned.

She laughed, 'Sorry, Lucas. I couldn't help it'

I could not help but laugh too. As I said before, you could not stay mad at her for long.

'Where's John?' I asked with a hint of anxiety.

'Over there,' she said as she pointed at the far end of the room.

There, I saw John. If it was not for his dark contrasted hair and his full red lips, you would probably have a hard time spotting him. His skin almost blended in with the whiteness of the room. Then I looked away quickly as I noticed that he was naked too. I caught Camille looking at him. I nudged her and she blushed again.

'Camille Anne Morganne, since when have you been this naughty?' I asked, shaking my head.

'Ever since I spent my eighteen years of living with you and John,' she said sheepishly. Then she pouted.

She looked so stunning when she pouted. Then I hugged her and held her very closely to my body. I fixed my eyes onto hers and gazed deep into the depths of the strawberry bliss that was present there. I absent-mindedly played with her hair and grabbed a handful. She then held my face ever so gently. Then we started kissing passionately. Tenderly at first then harder and harder until we stopped in ragged breaths.

'Ugh! Sick, guys!' John was awake now. Camille blushed again.

'Look who's talking!' I said, pointing at his body.

'At least Cammy seems to like it,' he grinned.

'I was not even looking!' she retorted, looking at the floor. But not sounding angry at all. More like embarrassed. I laughed. I should teach her how to lie more properly someday. I knew I was good at it. Though I rarely had to lie.

'Get him some clothes please, Luke' she said, not being able to handle anymore of John.

She held my hand and led me to the pile of clothes. She used her other hand to randomly pick out the garments and not leaving her eyes on me for even a second.

After John finished putting on the clothes, we just sat and talked about our horrible ordeal on the cozy floor. Camille told us that she went through an entirely different thing. Still 'torture' but different. She said she had to go through a maze that was as big as the Atacama Desert. Only, it had floors. Nothing hurt her physically, though. Unlike John.

He said he had to wrestle three different animals: a hog sized ferret, a hybrid between a Siberian tiger and a bull and lastly, a Dragon. He told us that the first two were fairly easy but the last was a little more annoying. He even showed us the healing scars on the right side of his body left by the overgrown reptile. There were weapons for each animal and each materializing out of thin air, he said.

They were a little wide eyed when I told my story. But Camille already knew vaguely what happened to me.

'I can't believe they put you through that, Lucas,' she said with a pinch of anger in her tone.

'Yeah, that is unforgivable,' John agreed.

'It wasn't so bad,' I lied.

Then, at that moment, a life-sized pine door appeared in the middle of the room with a loud snap. Camille was a little startled and jumped a little but John and I remained the same.

John walked slowly towards the door and touched the doorknob lightly. Nothing happened, so Camille and I walked to stand beside John. John turned it and opened it carefully. Nothing was there. On the other side of the door was the other end of this room. But I had this feeling that there was a pulling force that would suck us through to the other side of the room if we got any closer.

Camille took a step closer. I was too late to grab her. I was right. The door did have this unknown force of pull. It was like a vortex. I saw her being sucked into the other side of the door. The weird thing was that she was there on the other side of the door. John and I looked at each other with puzzled faces. Camille was still in this room. She looked at us and pointed behind us.

'When did that get there?' she asked.

'When did what get there?' John countered as he glanced behind at the white wall.

'That door, Johnny,' she said, still pointing behind us.

I went back to investigate. I laid my hand on the flat surface and began to move in circular motions. There was probably some kind of invisible door fixed onto this very wall. I gestured to Camille to come and show me. She was still looking a little startled. So I gave her a moment to relax.

After she caught back her breath, she prepared herself for the mini-vortex to suck her in. She closed her eyes tightly and stepped an inch closer to the door. But nothing happened. She moved closer to the door. Still, nothing happened. So she just moved forward towards us.

There was a loud thud when she tried to walk through. As though there was an invisible barrier between the two sides. She slammed the barrier with her palm producing another sound.

'I can't get through!' she exclaimed.

I thought for a while. A lot of strange things have been happening to us. Task after task have been given to us. But how do we solve this one? We needed help. And indeed, help came. In a good way and in a bad way.