Across The Universe
Chapter One
A Man Transformed
The moon cast long, spindly shadows on the cold winter’s ground, the barren branches seemingly reaching for something that only they could see. Occasionally, a rabbit or other small creature would pass through the scene, briefly disturbing the stillness with a quick dart across the snow-covered grass and a soft thump-thump against the white fluff. The stars twinkled, bright against the inky sky, and the wind blew slowly through the trees, turning the ever-reaching branches into a hundred demonic, trembling hands.
I gazed out into the forest, looking but not really seeing, lost in thought from the safety of my bed. I would often sit like this late into the night, thinking. It brought me a measure of peace in my life, to share my thoughts with the starlit blackness, which never judged or turned away. It was just there, never giving any indication that it heard me, an ever-present sentinel guarding the Earth in its hours pointed away from the sun. I always did appreciate it for that.
I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is Matthew, and I’m seventeen years old. I’m a smart, introverted boy with a few close friends that I care for, generally tolerating a few hours in a social setting with others before I tend to get uncomfortable and wish to leave. It wasn’t that I hadn’t tried to make more friends, but society’s expectations of every male to be a testosterone-infused walking tank combined with social anxiety around women meant I had never had a girlfriend, and most of his friends were the more intellectual type. Still, I suppose I didn’t have a terribly bad life; I really had a better time of it than most. My family wasn’t poor and I was on his way to a good future. I should be happy, I told myself.
It wasn’t that I didn’t appreciate it; it’s just that I wasn’t as happy as I felt he deserved. I had never done anything really bad, so why must I have to shoulder this burden of thought? What did I do wrong? I felt terrible in my moments of quiet contemplation, as all those smarts had come with a cynical side. I felt the world was a place of evil, where man would do terrible things for their own selfish greed, and I wondered how far off in that opinion I was. Probably not much, if experience was anything to go by. I knew the word for my condition, and though it had never been diagnosed by a doctor, I called it by name when I was alone. There was no harm in acknowledging it, and I saw no argument to the contrary.
Depression.
Not that it ever would be diagnosed by anyone other than myself, as I did my best not to show it in the company of others. To my parents, I was a fine boy; well-rounded in all his activities and a friend to many. But, knowing myself a lot better than they did, I knew the truth. I had speculated on it long and hard for many weeks, often thinking far past midnight, and had come to the conclusion that it was because I did not know his purpose. I often felt as if my life could be something more, something meaningful, but I could never figure out what it was. It was a maddening feeling, and I knew it was slowly driving me insane. I was literally thinking myself to insanity, and it was not altogether unpleasant. I had learned much about my inner self in those nights of quiet thought.
Sometimes I would imagine myself in a heroic pose, saving a princess in a far off land of magic and intrigue. Other times, a phoenix of mythology: proud and regal, with feathers as red as blood, accented by the orange of a crackling flame. I liked the ones about love most. I had always been a hopeless romantic.
But tonight was not a night my less-happy side would be in control of. I supposed it was late enough for both of his parents to be asleep, and pulled myself out of his bed, maneuvering myself through the darkness to my desk. There, I slid my laptop open and logged on, the screen momentarily blinding me. Closing my eyes, I blindly dragged my fingers over the plastic keys, pressing buttons until I came to the brightness adjust. I hit the volume adjust rapid-fire until it hit its lowest setting. Daring to open my eyes, I found the screen now quite tolerable. Opening two tabs, I opened up the MLP subreddit and iTunes.
“It’s the first day of winter break, I should enjoy myself,” I whispered. “Better stop getting myself down in the dumps.”
I was a brony: a male fan of the My Little Pony show. I had originally heard of it from my best friend and fellow brony named Mike, and it had quickly become one of my favorite ways to pass the time. I loved everything about the community; the understanding, the friendship, and the creativity. At least one MLP-related site was up at all times on my laptop. I had a secret love of anything I deemed cute, and My Little Pony was off the charts in that respect. It was the one thing that could provide respite from my melancholy, and two hours and hundreds of DeviantART pictures later, I was just about falling asleep on my chair. It was a familiar feeling: I should really get to sleep, but against my better judgment (For the third time that night), I didn’t want to. I would rather be a tired and cranky man tomorrow than a saddened man tonight.
Suddenly, I noticed a fiery red light in the corner of my eye, slowly gaining brightness as it traveled across the sky. I had never seen one before, but I realized it must be a meteor or “shooting star” as it were. This one happened to be fairly small, with the trail taking up a bit of my window. I knew the odds of a meteor this size getting through the earth’s atmosphere was incredibly, astronomically minute, and yet here it was, as real as the maple-wood desk I sat at. It was beautiful, and I stared, awestruck, for most of a minute before I realized and closed my open mouth. The meteor was continuing its journey across my field of vision, and its glow seemed to be turning white the farther it got. It was now a rosy pink hue, the color of Fluttershy’s mane and tail. I thought it strange I had made that connection, but that’s exactly what it was.
The meteor now seemed to be angling downwards, and it occurred to me that it was heading straight for the forest beyond my bedroom window. I waited a couple minutes longer to make sure, rubbing my eyes occasionally as if I could not believe what I was seeing. In reality, I was just extremely tired, and rubbing my eyes kept me from closing them and entering the world of my dreams. I was sure the meteor was descending now, and I realized that whatever happened, I doubted I was going to fall asleep. I had a plan in my mind, and my cranky morning self was probably going to regret it.
The meteor was descending even faster now, and it was definitely going to hit the Earth behind my house. I was out of my chair by this point, and slammed my hand on the closet light switch. I dressed myself in my favorite jeans and a hoodie; I seemed to have a natural resistance to cold temperatures, and I doubted the snowy world outside would bother me; it was one of the many interesting quirks I seemed to have. But my plan was this: I would find wherever that meteor landed, as it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I was determined not to miss it. I’d figure out what to do about the space-rock when I actually found it. Looking outside, the meteor disappeared over the treetops, before lighting up the sky as bright as day. I was almost knocked over on my back, and I felt the vibration of the impact all the way inside my house. It shook the foundations like so many matchsticks, and several of my books fell off the shelves. Whatever my expedition would bring, I now believed I would remember it.
Slowly opening the front door, paying extra mind to the small amount of noise I was making on the hardwood floors, I slunk out of the house and gently shut the door behind me. “Now why hasn’t anybody else noticed that meteor?” I remarked to myself. “It was certainly loud enough…” Shaking off my suspicions, I jumped the front steps and into the cool night air.
I started off at a quick jog to the entrance of the park; even though I was more the intellectual type, that didn’t mean I was out of shape (I tried not to conform to all the stereotypes). Slowing down when I came to the path, I turned right and headed into the forest proper. All sounds of the outside world ceased to exist in the forest, as if it were a soundproof room, and I suddenly felt quite a few degrees colder. Nondescript shapes seemed to watch me from the brush, waiting in the shadows for a chance to pounce. I knew these were just figments of my imagination, but I shivered anyways. Filled with a newfound apprehension, I continued my walk to where I thought the meteor had impacted the Earth.
Several minutes later, I was still walking. I was beginning to think about turning back, wondering if I was in the right place. After all, it was a big forest, and it would not be hard to miss something, even when it was a meteor. As those fears were taking hold of me, I suddenly saw scorch marks through the trees. The air now had a slightly acrid smell, like something was burning. Quickening my pace, I left the path, hopping tree roots and narrowly missing several rocks with my feet. What I saw next made me stop in my tracks.
A few meters from my feet, the ground simply disappeared over the rim of a large, smoking crater. Exposed rock poked up in craggy spires, and a haze of dirt spread over the scene. Black ash was everywhere, piling into mounds and tainting the pure whiteness of the snow. Several trees on the edge of the blast were burning, their fire spreading to other trees as the wind picked up. At the center of the crater, there was a light: softly glowing, it radiated a cool glow of blue; a stark contrast against the brown earth and hazy fires. I felt my eyes drawn to it like a moth to a flame- even if I wanted to, I could not look away.
Slowly, I felt my feet move, controlled by someone – or something - else. I was powerless to stop it. Moving of their own volition, they were slowly guiding me towards the light in the middle of the crater. Drawing closer, I could see into the light, and I gasped as I realized that there appeared to be a portal inside. Yes, a swirling mix of several colors, mostly variations on purples and pinks. I saw that it stretched on for what seemed like miles, and I started quaking in my shoes.
I tried to backtrack, to change course, anything, but to no avail. I was not in control of my own body, and it made me completely and utterly horrified. I never had a very strong faith in any gods, but at this moment, I was praying like a saint. In my head, I knew it would probably not do me any good, and I was too close to the portal now for anything to save me. Next to the portal, it was now incredibly hot, as it was radiating seemingly pure energy. I wondered why I had not burned up in the intense heat, and briefly entertained the thought that it was magic. A second later, I dismissed the idea, as the logical side of me knew it was impossible. Magic didn’t exist, did it?
Steeling my nerves, I resigned myself to whatever was on the other side. I was now mere inches from the portal, and I said my silent, final goodbyes to everyone I cared for. My best friends, my parents (although they had always wanted a child more… “normal” than me) and whoever else I felt like including.
As my foot reached the portal, a great blast of light shot up from the center of the crater and rapidly ascended into the sky. Turning red, sparks crackled along its length. It gave off light so bright I had to turn my head for fear of being permanently blinded. Looking down, I saw my foot vaporizing in front of me. The particles looped and twirled around my body, tickling me on the nose, before continuing their journey into the portal. Within seconds, most of my body had passed through, and I turned my head (the last part of my body still there) and caught a last glimpse of home- charred ground, dirty snow, and dark forest.
Then my head disappeared through the portal. Sensing I had passed, the portal started to flicker, more sparks flying out, then shuddering violently and collapsing in on itself in a light red haze. Next, the beam of light emanating from the crater started to shrink, disappearing from the sky as quickly as it had appeared in the first place. With a final, muted flash of light, the smoking crater was shrouded in darkness, the portal nowhere to be found.
Meanwhile, I was careening through space, a look of shock plastered upon my features. Inside the portal, I was floating through a shapeless void, where time seemed to stand still. It was rather like I was under the influence of hallucinogens. Random shapes seemed to float past my vision, and I could not remember how much time I had spent within. I continued like this for a while, confused over how I was still alive. I had thought that I would be killed, or at the very least transported somewhere else, immediately after entering this between-world. It had not occurred to me that I would be floating here for any amount of time.
However, I now realized that I had been steadily speeding up for a time - I could not tell exactly how long, since time was distorted in this place. I seemed to be drawn towards something once again, but I did not know what or where. Whatever it turned out to be, it seemed my troubles for the night would not be ending yet. I didn’t seem to be able to do anything about it, as any movement I made with my limbs served no purpose but to twist me around in the air. With a very audible “huff”, I oriented myself in a semblance of normalcy and crossed my arms. If I was going to float through a void, unable to do anything about it, that didn’t mean I had to like it.
All my time spent trying to get myself out of my predicament had left me unaware of the approaching end to the portal. I turned around and gasped as the other side of the void approached. Much like the beginning of this tunnel, the end appeared to me as a shining light; it seemed I would reach it quite soon. Facing the portal, I swallowed and forced myself to keep my composure. This time around, there was no fancy display of light when I approached. It merely sat there, waiting for me, and with a small, muted flash of white light, I was gone.
I didn’t even get a chance to see where I was going this time. That wasn’t particularly fair, now was it?
