The Warrior's Path: Part 1

I burst through the soot-covered front door. Ashes fly as I break down the door. Lumber beams and thick gray smokes prevent me from progressing through the household. As well as the smell of the smoke which irritates my respiratory system. I muster all the strength I possibly can to work my way through the rubble and debris. The house wasn’t very big. Just a single floor. Luckily, my slender stature was enough for me to weasel my way through the chaos. I found what I had been searching for….my parents. Crushed, and then burned alive, by the debris from the mangled house. The only emotions that I feel are absolute panic and devastation. I remove the debris from my parents, and I hold them close to me dearly. Multiple tears stream down my face. Then in my periphery, there was a small flash of black light. It immediately draws my attention. It was a fairly large black crystal, and, for some odd reason, I felt that the crystal had something to do with the death of my parents. So I put the crystal in my left pocket, and I carried my deceased parents out of, what used to be, our home.

It is 4 A. M., and I have awoken from my slumber. I’ve been having the same dream for month without end. The night my parents died. I lie in my bedcovers motionless. I turned my head to the left, and, on my nightstand, is the dark crystals that I found a couple months ago. I keep it on my person at all times. I finally summon the strength to arise from my covers, put some clothes on, put the crystal in my left pocket, and lazily work my way to the bathroom. Once I enter the bathroom, I take a good, long look at myself in the mirror above the sink. I stare deep into my dark, blue eyes. Then I scan the rest of my person. I run my finger through my medium-length brunette hair, trying to get some stands back into place. I stare harder into my eyes as I turn on the sink and splash some cold water upon my face. I pat my face down with a towel, leave the bathroom, and work my way to the kitchen downstairs. I walk towards a cupboard, grab a glass, and I fill it with some orange juice from the fridge. I take a seat at the table in the middle of the kitchen. I take miniscule sips from my orange juice at a time. I hear someone coming down the flight of stairs, and it immediately snags my attention. It was Joyce Nightshade, a very close friend of both my parents. When she heard about the travesty that was bestowed upon me, she didn’t hesitate to take action. She offered me to stay with her as long as I needed. She was neatly dressed when she came down the stairs. Her long, flowing, black hair was neatly groomed, her mascara was put on with extreme precision, and she wore a suit and tie. She didn’t like all that frilly crap. She gets up every morning at the ass crack of dawn to go to work at Davenport Industries. It was a typical big-wig company, but it was good money for her to make. She takes notice of me sitting at the table with my melancholy and my glass of orange juice.

“What is ever wrong, Axel?”

“It happened again. The dreams.”

“Oh dear. How many have you had?”

“I have ‘em all the time. Every night since a few days after the incident. They never seem to stop or fade.”

Joyce sighs.

“I wish that there was a way that I could help.”

“There is a way. How ‘bout you bring my parents back, Joyce. Can ya do that?! Or how ‘bout this?  How about you prevent the tragedy that was placed upon a sixteen-year-old boy?!?! Unless you can do any of those things listed, you’re no help to me!!!”

A tear slowly trickles down Joyce’s face, and her cheeks flush red.

“I…..I’m terribly sorry, Joyce. I didn’t mean to snap. I… I just…..I need some air.”

I head for the front door, but before I leave, I give Joyce a backwards glace.

“I’m sorry,” I say as a small tear forces itself out of my eye.

“I’ll be back whenever.”

I leave the house, and walk along the dampened sidewalk.

I slowly walk down the empty sidewalk. Kicking little insignificant stones further down the sidewalk with my hands deep in my pockets. A slight breeze brushes across my face. It’s a nice breeze. Just like the ones in early September. I kept walking, still kicking the same little pebble. Then the stone was stopped by a dark boot slithering out of a sketchy ally way. Then the boot moved slowly forward with the shady figure wearing it. The person steps out of the shadows and faced me. I expected this character to be creepy looking, but that’s what happens when you assume. He was actually well groomed and dressed to my surprise. He looked somewhat like me but older and more chiseled than myself.

“Come with me,” he said.

I gave him a “what the fuck” look.

“Hold on a damn minute! Who are you?! What do you want from me?!”

“No time for questions, Axel. You just have to trust me.”

My eyes grew large when he spoke my name. He grabbed ahold of my wrist and “escorted” me into the dark ally. At the end of the ally, there was a small flight of stairs, about five to seven steps, which lead into a broken down apartment building. But you cannot judge a book by its cover. Inside the building were the most high tech gadgets and machinery that I have ever seen in my lifetime. Objects that should be in a Sci-fi movie, or way ahead of our time. The stranger turns his attention to me.

“You’ve gotten quite famous, Mr. Stevenson,” he says as he rummages through some files. He continues speaking.

“The tragedy place upon you had made national news.”

“So?”

“So, houses don’t just burst into flames, Stevenson.”

I squint at the stranger.

“What are you getting at?”

“I believe that you are somehow connected to the death of your parents.”

“You think that I killed my own parents?! What kind of sick fuck even has thoughts about such things, huh?!”

“If you didn’t do it, then who did?”

I look at the floor, trying to think of a decent answer to give my new “friend” here.

“I…I don’t know. Wait. Why should I tell you anything?! I don’t even know who the hell you are!”

“Oh, excuse me. Where ARE my manners? My name is Dr. Phil Collins…”

“Doctor? What do YOU specialize in?!”

“I was getting to that, if you’d let me? I specialize in teleportation.”

“Wha…you can’t be serious? You’re fucking with me right?!”

Collins shakes his head no.

I laugh at him…hysterically. Almost to the point of crying. I keep laughing at Collins until he gives me a look of scorn and disgust. I stop laughing with a sigh which decreased in pitch. I look at Collins with one eyebrow raised and a large smirk.

“If you are who you claim to be, then how ‘bout a demonstration?”

“As you wish.”

Collins pulled a pen from his pocket, and he put the pen in, what looks like, a super advanced refrigerator. He closed the door, locked it tight, and pressed some to the right of the machine. Then he pulled the lever on the right side of the “machine,” and then a blue aura of light emerged from the device. In about six seconds time, and machine had stopped. Collins unlatched the door and opened it. A huge puff of smoke, or steam, left the confined space. I walked towards the machine, and I look inside.

“That’s…impossible,” I say, not believing what I’m seeing.

The pen was gone. Not even a trace of its existence remained. I stare at the empty chamber blankly.

“Impressed?” Collins remarks smugly. “It had taken me multiple years to perfect this beautiful work of science.”

“But…uh…where did the pen go?”

“The pen? Check your pockets.”

“Phht. Yeah right. Like it could be…”

In my left pocket, next to the crystal, was the pen that had vanished into the machine. I pulled it out and held it my palm. I stare at the pen. Then at Collins.

“So let us return to the matter at hand, shall we? How did your parents pass away?”

“I told you that I don’t know, but,” I reached in to my left pocket. “I did somehow manage to find this.”

I pulled out the dark crystal from my pocket. It still pulses with some dark energy. Collins gave me a wide-eyed stare.

“Where on God’s green earth did you get that?!”

“I found it next to my parents near the exploded furnace. Why? What’s wrong with it?”

“I’ve seen these types of crystals before. They are filled with an extremely powerful and dangerous energy, and if it were to penetrate your flesh, the results could be catastrophic.”

“Well, I’ve had it ever since the incident. I’ve kept it with me at all times. As a reminder.”

“I’m surprised the fact that it hasn’t corrupted you yet.”

“Corrupted? What could you possibly mean by that?”

“This kind of energy, it’s been infamous for changing people. Changing their personalities and their physical appearances.”

“So it turns people….evil?”

“It appears to be so, but it takes time for the crystal to take full effect.”

That’s why I was such an asshole to Joyce this morning. It wasn’t me, it was the crystal.

“Is there anything about the crystal that I should be aware of?”

“I’m not sure. My research on the crystal isn’t that in depth, but I can help you find they source of where they originally came from.”

Collins gestures at the his large machine.

“You mean the teleporter?”

“Precisely. If you would, please put the crystal inside, and we’ll get started.”

I did as I was told and put the crystal into the chamber. Collins latches the door shut and pulls the lever.

“Hopefully, sending it back to its place of origin will shed some light on this dilemma,” exclaimed Collins.

The emitted its blue aura of light brightly. Then the light dimmed down which meant the machine had done its work.

“Now let us see here.”

Collins looks at a small screen on the teleporter.

“Hmm. That’s curious.”

“What is it,” I say nervously.

“The crystal seems to have been teleported into another dimension. Equestria, I believe it’s called.”

A plan begins to swell within my head. If I were to go to this other dimension, I could probably find more of these crystals. So I put my plan into action.

“Collins,” I sigh heavily. “I need to go to Equestria.”

“Axel, you can’t be serious?!”

I disgustingly squint my eyes at Collins.

“Does this look like the face of uncertainty to you, Collins?”

Collins sighs.

“But I’ve never used the teleporter on a live subject. We’ll have no idea what the outcome will be!”

“Well, we’re gonna find out, huh?”

I utter this next sentence sternly and full of ambition.

“Collins…you’re…taking me…to Equestria…and that’s final. If these crystals are connected to the death of my parents, I’ll find out where they’re coming from.”

Collins sighs heavier this time. Not wanting to do what I asked of him.

“As you wish. You’re a crazy son-of-a-bitch, Stevenson. Ya know that?”

I give Collins a little smirk, and he gives me one right back. I take a large breath and walk into the teleporter. Collins closes the door and latches it shut behind me. I could hear the beeping of the buttons which meant that Collins was locking in the coordinates to where I needed to go. I patiently stood inside the tiny, claustrophobic, chamber; hoping that I would live through this. Then I heard a loud click, and, before I could blink, the same blue aura of light blinded me and enveloped my person instantaneously. But the blue light eventually escalated into white, and that was all I could see. Nothing but white.