The first chapter in the William Davenport saga. For the few people who are interested, I hope this adds some dimension to my world and character.
(This is my original work, i dont want to see this republished or ideas ripped off without my permision.)
“Welcome stranger,” a voice says in the darkness. You try to look around but your eyes do not function. Wait! You don’t have eyes, or a head, or a body. Yet your senses still function. You perceived a voice just now but didn’t hear it. What is this strange place?
“It’s only natural to be disoriented the first time you visit.” The voice says again. You begin to focus on the thoughts and feelings of this place and the man appears in your mind’s eye. He’s slender with short brown hair, wearing khakis, a maroon button up shirt and a grey cloak tied at his neck. It seems to you like he has a body.
“This is The Void,” the man says, seeming to motion to his surroundings, “a place of absolute nothingness. We have no physical body when we visit; we are only a consciousness floating in the dark. What you see, if you call it seeing, is simply your perception of my being. I came here to clear my head and get some time to myself.”
He seems to know what your next question is, “Who am I? I’m sorry, I should introduce myself. My name is William; I’m a wanderer, but not really by choice… How can I explain?” Will thinks for a moment, stroking his hairless chin. You see fuzzy, blurred shapes and pictures orbiting his head. “Maybe I can show you,” he says. Will seems to close his eyes and concentrates on his own thoughts.
A grey sphere forms between you and Will. As the sphere falls, it flattens and expands in all directions forming a base below you. Contours rise out of the plane to form rolling hillsides. Light suddenly shines from a sun hanging close to the horizon. Completing the vision, earthen colors fill the field while grasses, ponds and buildings grow over the land. You are suspended high in the air with Will hovering next to you. He doesn’t seem to be giving your situation a second thought.
“Down here,” he says as his thoughts pull both of you through the air to a small ranch home. You don’t see many people. The only sign of inhabitants is a toddler playing in a small sandbox in the backyard. Will’s black dress shoes touch the soft grass and he starts walking toward the child. “This is the first memory I can recall. This little boy is me.” He steps in front of his younger counterpart, kneeling down to have a good look. The child seems oblivious to William’s gaze and continues his play.
You hear a door open behind you, “It’s almost bedtime, Will.” A female voice calls to the child. You turn to look but the figure is blurry, the house too, you notice, seems to have a shadow hanging over it. “Come in and let’s get cleaned up.”
The youngster steps out of the sand and runs to the woman. “As much as I try, some things are just a shadow in my memory. Things like my parents and our old home,” Will’s voice gets meek and quiet.
As he withdraws from the memory, a cold wind blows across the lawn and sends shivers through your being. Had you been in the physical body, you would have goose bumps. As the wind gets stronger, the land around you shakes and breaks and morphs from rolling hillsides to a run down, downtown alleyway. A large concrete and brick building is tucked quietly into the end of the street. You try to read the sign above the door, but like some dreams, the sign is backwards, blurred, and impossible to read. You look at Will for some kind of comfort, but he simply glides through the front door.
He pulls you through the hallways and classrooms. The sounds are muddy and distant, and many of the people are simply blurred outlines. You can tell that this is some kind of school, though, with kids and teachers. Something’s not normal, though. Will stops you just inside a classroom door. Here, the woman in front of the class is teaching something to the students. Will explains this memory to you, “In my world, human society has embraced our sixth sense. Everyone is taught to use at least a very basic psychic ability. This school is run secretly by the Mage’s Guild. Don’t be fooled by the term ‘Mage’, though, there’s not really any magic involved. It’s all extreme training of the mind. Mental force in the physical world looks like magic to undeveloped people.”
Will nudges your attention to the teacher, who closes her eyes and focuses her mind. A ball of white energy grows to baseball size in the palm of her hand. She holds it for a minute, showing the class her feat, then tosses it into the air, where it wows the students with an explosion of small sparks.
Will pulls you back out the door and down the hallway again, “The Mages are the highest class of society. They are continually training their minds to be very powerful. Mages, though, are not usually interested in having families or children – they think sex is beneath them – so to keep the guild and caste alive they seek out, kidnap, and try to brainwash children who show early 6th sense development.” Will focuses on an 8 year old child, the only person in the school with a well defined face. “Children like me.”
William lets this memory fade away. Everything around you melts like jelly into a flat plane, then back into the grey ball that started the chain of memories. The sphere dissolves and you find yourself hanging again in nothingness.
After collecting himself, Will continues. “At first, I hated the Mages Guild! But I thank them now. I am different from all of them. It was with their training that I was able to find exactly what they didn’t want me to find. I found ‘Spirit’, ‘Divine’, ‘Astral’, ‘God’; whatever that invisible force is that affects our lives.”
A hazy window appears next to Will. It’s a moving image of his teen self being scolded by an adult in the school. “The Mages don’t like their students asking about such things. If kids started asking questions about God, then they might start asking why they don’t have parents. So the faculty denied anything and punished me. But the more I was pushed away from the questions, the more I was driven to find answers.” The next image is of Will sitting quietly on the floor of a small room. “So I started meditating and focused on getting in touch with the other side. Soon, I learned to communicate with my spiritual guardians and they led me to this gemstone.” William pulls an orange, translucent topaz from his pants pocket and looks at it in reflection.
The darkness around you changes again. This time, you see a teenage William, walking around the school’s courtyard, which is surrounded on all sides by the familiar concrete building. Will explains, “As I was attempting to meditate one day, I felt like I was being pushed from my mind back into my physical surroundings. So I finally decided to go outside to try and collect myself.” The teenager notices some stones peaking out of the ground near the ancient tree in the center of the yard. “I saw a glimmer of light from the ground and wondered what was there.” The teen stoops over and brushes away some grass and soil. He picks up the translucent rock and holds it in his hands in awe. “I felt a special connection to it immediately. I knew right away that it was this gemstone that had been pulling me away from my meditation.”
The teen walks back inside the school with his new stone. You expect to be pulled inside to follow him, but William has become fascinated by his surroundings. He hugs the old tree, “I still love the feeling of this courtyard.” You wonder what happened with the stone.
Will looks over at you, “Oh, the gem.” He lies down against the trunk of the tree, “Over the next few weeks, it taught me how to use it. Soon, my mental powers were amplified ten-fold. I could manifest my thoughts and ideas into physical being.” Will stands up and walks toward you, “For instance, if I were to think of something like an apple (red and delicious),” he holds out his hands, palms up, with the gem lying in his right hand. The topaz flashes a bright, brilliant orange and when the light fades away, you see a perfect red apple resting comfortably in his left hand. Will takes a bite, “then an apple would appear.” He leans back against the tree and nibbles on his apple. “This gem helped me in every aspect of my life. My meditations were more focused and delivered more information then ever before. One day I daydreamed of other dimensions, another Earth, but I didn’t have much desire to see them. I wanted to continue to train myself here in the privacy this school offered.”
You feel a burst of pure white light all around you; the scenery has remained the same, but it feels as though time has passed. Suddenly, the teenage Will comes running from the building, his eyes are wide and he’s breathing heavily. He runs into the tree in the center of the courtyard and you can hear people yelling behind him.
“I was being chased by the advanced Mages. They had found out about my work with the gemstone and were trying to catch and discipline me.” The scene continues to play out as Will narrates. “I had nowhere to run; I was trapped. So I made the decision to visit one of those alternate realities I had been dreaming of.” The teen holds the topaz near his chest and concentrates his thoughts. When he talks, you hear him vividly, his low booming voice, overpowering the memory, “Send me someplace where no one could find me.” As you watch, the teen’s orange gemstone glows, then suddenly a blinding flash forces you to close your perception for a moment. When you look again, he has vanished.
“First I ended up here,” the view around you fades to The Void, “After that, I visited a few dimensions but nothing too incredible happened. Lately, though, I’ve been feeling another pull. It’s some kind of magnetism trying to pull me across the dimensional boundaries. I think I am being drawn to a person.” Will’s face changes for a moment, losing his mature nature of before and gaining a childish smile, “A girl, I hope; someone who will travel with me. I’ve led a very lonely life and I want someone to share in my future adventures.”
Will looks straight at you, “Thank you, friend,” his gaze becomes serious and mature. “I needed someone to help me collect my thoughts before I find this person. I’m sorry to admit, though, like the apple before, I conjured you up out of nothing to listen to me.” Will looks down, ashamed of his thoughts. “When I was done with you, I was planning to simply undo my work and erase you from, but now that I’ve shared my story with you, I don’t feel right about snapping you back to nothingness. So, I leave the choice to you. You may either follow me, as I travel onward in my life’s adventure, or you may close this book and return to that whence you came…”