Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Aaramina ❯ Chapter Three ( Chapter 3 )

CHAPTER THREE

 

Narxon couldn't figure out what had happened before or what he was doing now, but one thing was for sure, it was taking him a hell of a long time to wake up from his dream.

 

Or was he dreaming? Narxon couldn't figure it out. Even in this day's world, this place was something you could only see in a dream or a M.C. Escher painting. It was as if the universal laws didn't apply here. The walls and the ground felt like stone, but it didn't look like stone. It looked like a luminous green liquid. The gravity was messed up. One could walk on walls and ceilings without any problem. And it didn't seem to lead to anywhere. In fact, the place seemed to go on in infinitely many directions.

 

Narxon didn't try to pick a way to go and take it. He just sat and waited in the place he apparently “woke up” in, hoping that everything that was going on was just a fucked up dream and that he would wake up in his shabby little apartment soon.

 

He had waited there for hours and hours.

 

Funnily enough, he didn't feel a need to eat or drink.

 

“What the hell is this place anyways?”

 

“It's the Labyrinth,” a strange voice replied.

 

Narxon jumped. He turned around to see... a shadow. A living shadow. At least he thought it was a shadow, it sure did look like one. About ten feet tall, it towered over Narxon. It hovered a few inches off the ground. On its “head” was a pair of glowing green eyes and a similarly colored mouth, which was in a constant grin.

 

For some reason, it wore a grey fedora.

 

“Good day to you,” said the shadow, tipping its hat. “Or night. It's kinda hard to tell what the time is in this place. It's as if it doesn't move at all.”

 

“Um, hey,” said Narxon uncertainly. “Excuse me, but, what are you?”

 

“My name is Mr. Poajn,” the shadow replied. “A.K.A.: The Shadow Dude from Beyond the Universe. And your name is Narxon, of course.”

 

“You know my name?”

 

“Of course,” replied Mr. Poajn. “I know the names of every single human on Earth.”

 

“Huh,” Narxon scratched his chin. “Well this is officially the weirdest dream I've ever had.”

 

“Oh, but you're not dreaming,” said Mr. Poajn, his grin widening. “You're dead. D-E-A-D. Deceased.”

 

“I'm finding that hard to believe,” said Narxon, snorting.

 

“Well, believe what you want,” said Mr. Poajn. “But know this: Mr. Poajn never lies.”

“I see,” said Narxon. He checked his surroundings again. “So this place is called the Labyrinth, huh? Simple name. You'd expect it to be called something more original.”

 

“I've been thinking of an alternate name for it, a current candidate is 'Pretty Pretty Labyrinth'.”

 

Narxon just stared at Mr. Poajn.

 

“I'm still working on it. After all, naming things has never been my forte,” Mr. Poajn chuckled.

 

“Yeah, whatever,” said Narxon. “So what does this place hide, anyways? If it's a labyrinth, it's probably going to hide something, right?

 

“It hides a certain place,” said Mr. Poajn. “But finding it is next to impossible. Even if a person could search this place for eons and eons on end, they would never find it. Or they could find it, they'd just have to have luck beyond measure. This Labyrinth... it is trillions upon trillions of light years in size. And the place in question changes position every millisecond.”

 

“That's impossible,” said Narxon. “This place, trillions of light years in size? That makes-”

 

“-the Milky Way galaxy seem like just an atom in comparison,” finished Mr. Poajn.

 

“Oh, now I get it,” said Narxon. “I must be dead. And I've gone to Hell, and I am forced to look for this certain place which teleports in a millisecond in this trillions of light-years far labyrinth. How fitting.”

 

Mr. Poajn laughed. “A rather funny conclusion you've jumped to. But no. This is not Hell, nor Heaven. But I am unable to tell you where exactly we are now. That will come at another time. Now, we must make haste. I will take you to the place this Labyrinth hides.”

 

“You can find it?”

 

“Of course I can. After all, I control this realm.”

 

There was a sudden pop, and the surroundings changed. They were in a large, ornate building that reminded Narxon of the interior of a castle.

 

“Oh, so you're hiding yourself.”

“Eh, somewhat. But it's very handy for keeping solicitors away.”

 

“You have solicitors out here?”

 

“You have no idea.”

 

Narxon decided not to press that matter anymore. Instead, he asked a more pressing question: “If I'm dead, then why am I here?”

 

“So, we cut to the chase now,” said Mr. Poajn. “You see, I've been watching you, Narxon. You've been selected, out of the billions of people on Earth for a certain experiment of mine. Congratulations.”

 

“And that means...?”

 

“And that means if you had died as just another normal schmoe, you wouldn't be in this place right now.”

 

“I've concluded so myself, what a coincidence,” said Narxon.

 

Mr. Poajn chuckled. “But the exact details of the experiment itself I cannot reveal as of yet. Instead, let us go underway with the procedure.”

 

“Okay... Wait a minute... what?”

 

Mr. Poajn raised one of his shadowy hands, where a crystal had appeared. Narxon could tell that this crystal was different from your ordinary crystal. It seemed to give off a glow. The crystal hovered a few inches off Mr. Poajn's hand, then suddenly, shot towards Narxon's head. He didn't even have time to react, instead he just close his eyes, waiting for inpact, but there was none. Instead, he felt a strange sensation in his forehead. He was absorbing the crystal.

 

“There. Now, the procedure is over.”

 

“What was that all about?” asked Narxon.

 

“The effects of the crystal absorption will probably take a long time to appear... Or possibly it won't even show up at all. It has to be the right person. Either way, if or if not the effects appear, the crystal should be completely harmless to you.”

 

Suddenly, Narxon felt strange; and before he knew it, he was floating up in the air.

 

“Hey, what the hell?”

 

“Ah, good timing, it seems you're being called back to Earth. Give Aaramina my regards!”

 

“Wait, what? You know about-”

 

But he was gone before he could finish. Mr. Poajn stared at the place Narxon had vanished. “And so it begins,” he said to himself.

 

 

Narxon yawned loudly as he awoke from his deep slumber.

 

“Ah... it was all a dream...”

 

He opened up his eyes and suddenly, a familiar face filled his vision.

 

“MORNIN', RIP VAN WINKLE!”

 

This morning greeting resulted in thus:

 

Narxon was startled so much that he inexplicably fired energy beams from his eyes, which, in turn, blasted Aaramina's head off and carved a hole into the ceiling.

 

“Wait, what the hell? What's going on? How did I do that? I didn't mean to...” Narxon suddenly panicked. “Where is this? What is this place? Why...”

 

“AAAAAAAAAAAAARAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!”