Dimensia

by Steven Thornton, Jr

  *

  "What is this place?" I asked ignorantly.

  "We have been expecting you," she replied in a creepy, low, raspy, voice, wearing a grin. In clear perspective, not a single tooth in the lady's head. She, wearing an old button down, long sleeve flannel, only a few of the buttons had not been properly fastened, revealing much more of the woman than I wanted to see. She was after all, old as Velcro. I couldn't be exact, but to guestimate, I would say she was pushing a googolplex. Her hair was white, and thinning; her skin was sagging in the appropriate places, with wrinkles abundant, with an unmistakable scent of Vicks vapor rub, and teriyaki beef jerky. Beginning to size her up, where her right foot should have been was nothing more than a nub, and her other foot was filthy, covered in dirt. When a cockroach crawled from out of her pant leg and crept onto her foot. Startled, moments passed as I waited for her to notice, or to shake the cockroach from her foot, but she acted as if nothing was the matter. I did however notice something strange: a medallion. Much like the one the snake lady from the bookstore, her medallion had a striking resemblance. A little freaked out by such, I replied,

  "Who's been expecting me?" I thought the obvious 'she must be senile' but when she looked up at me, she held a cold, icy stare.

  "The Light Workers." Realizing the awkwardness of the encounter, I felt uneasy. She felt this and replied,

  "Go inside and ask for Truth," as she started to laugh hysterically, with drool beginning to ooze from her mouth. Nervous, I slowly edged past her as she stared owlishly. Entering the front door, my eyes climbed toward the rafters, as an eighty-watt light bulb hanging from an extension cord at the end of the hall came into focus. Hoping to help calm my nerves, I inhaled a deep breath, registering an odor that I can't quite describe. 'Since I have to,' I would say the smell was similar to the combination of vanilla, wet dog, cheetos, ramen noodles, sour cream, burnt corn dogs, and human feces. Malodorous might be the word? The hall was dark, and abnormally quiet. Feeling along the walls, I blindly walked towards the light at the end of the hall but stumbled across something with my foot. I stopped, hearing movement, then, muted silence. I strained to listen, turning a deep ear,

  "Is someone there?" I yelled aloud, trying to focus in the dark. Experiencing a shortness of breath, feeling as if I were in a haunted house, or at a department store; equally as scary. With snap judgment, the thought in my mind was that someone had been lying on the ground below. With my heart racing, the hairs on the back of my neck stood at end. Standing frozen in place, I could see a silhouette, or I thought I did, but couldn't be certain. As I strained to focus, whatever it was seemed to be coming from the end of the hall and heading toward me. Like a shot of whisky, fear began to anchor its tentacles; I vaguely saw a person approaching. The individual in question drawing near with every second; step, step, (I should go ahead and repeat) step, as the floor creaked and popped. Then it dawned on me: I was a sitting duck. Not knowing what to do, or what to expect, my chaotic imagination took hold. The walls began to shake, the ground rumbled, spiders emerged out of every nook, cranny, and crevice. Seconds passed, as the walls began to collapse. With little thought, I thought to run, all the while periodically looking over my shoulder. Once outside, I looked back at the abandoned house as a giant Cyclops emerged from the rubble. Glowing green, the Cyclops roared and lifted his hands into the air, which was bound by chains. Frozen with disbelief, in a sudden motion it broke free of the chains restraining his arms and stood to its feet. With a sudden roar, blasting a laser beam from his eye, disintegrating everything in contact. Witnessing transformers explode, trees became engulfed into flames, as abandoned vehicles were turned to nothing but piles of ash.

  Back to reality, as the figure approached, I could hear its breath getting more and more frequent, as if excited. I thought to myself, 'I'm about to get captured and made sacrifice for some satanic ritual, stabbed, killed, eaten, or skinned alive for the purpose of hand bags or designer shoes.' Experiencing a fight or flight fear, I felt someone or something, wet and cold against my neck, with someone's breath against my skin. In shock, I screamed at the top of my lungs, and bolted for the entrance. Not looking back, not slowing down. As I approached the front door someone grabbed my forearm. Stopping mid-stride, at the time, a sudden comfort rained over me. I should have been scared, but wasn't. I slowly turned towards the unknown person, and saw a figure of a woman. From what I could tell, she was fairly maintained and somewhat groomed. No beast or crazed lunatic from what I could tell.

  "What is this place?" I yelled adamantly.

  "I apologize for frightening you," she said in a calm, reassuring manner, hearing a relaxing tone to her voice. She then stepped past me, into the hall and began speaking in a foreign language down the hall, hearing a pure tone to her voice, much like the patter of raindrops.

  "You will have to excuse our friends," she said, as she turned towards me.

  "You see, they act out at times, I honestly don't think they know different." Finding her voice calm and soothing, accompanied with a jarring essence I would compare to a clean load of warm laundry or freshly backed chocolate chip cookies, I instantly felt relaxed.

  As my mind raced with infinite possibilities, she grabbed my hand, and together we walked towards the end of the hall. On wobbly legs, my heart pounded furiously. As we approached the end of the hall, I could start to see her more clearly in the light, and surprisingly, she was beautiful. She had sparkling forest green eyes, with long sandy-blonde, curly hair. She appeared to be in her mid-thirties and smelled amazing. Arriving at the end of the hall, we veered right and entered an empty room. As we did, I felt a cool breeze stir, as candles scattered amongst the room became lit in a domino effect, as cockroaches scattered. Strange, no one had lit them? My mind flashed; 'there must be a gas leak.' In the candlelight, I could see the woman more clearly. She was naturally beautiful, flawless, ravishing, and majestic. Wearing an angelic dress that draped seamlessly over her body, revealing her fit, and very nicely proportioned figure. The dress, white in color, made of silk or a material foreign to me. Draped from her neck, my eyes were drawn to the medallion, containing a solid ball, fastened to a gold chain. The ball resembled a marble, crystal, or gemstone of some kind. Looking to the center of the room, a sudden calming came over me when I observed the tree. Oddly, it seemed to be glowing, sprawling with life, with its leaves maintaining a brilliant florescent purple hue. It was truly magnificent. I know it sounds crazy, it was. I had never in my life seen such a spectacular visual. Mesmerized by the tree, the lady that had helped me asked,

  "Would you have a seat? My name is Order." As I introduced myself,

  "Would you like something to drink?" she asked,

  "That would be great," I replied, with a warm grin. As she walked towards the tree in the center of the room, she plucked a leaf. Baffled, I watched as she proceeded towards a sink, located across the room. Grabbing a mug from a shelf above, she placed the leaf into the mug and ran water, filling the mug to the rim. The entire time she hummed the melody to a song. A song I had never heard, but was very melodic, pretty, and calming. Shortly after she returned, absorbing the seat next to mine and extended the mug towards me. I thankfully accepted the mug, skeptical however to what I was about to drink.

  As I held it up to my nose registering its smell, I threw caution to the wind, taking a sip, swishing the drink around in my mouth, which tasted exotic. It was like nothing I had ever had. Vaguely able to describe, for lack of a comparison, I would relate to the feeling of being happy, in a drink. It tasted sweet, with strong flavor, finding such peculiar, with only a single leaf? I smiled in appreciation.

  "Does it agree with you?" she asked, as I nodded, pleasantly,

  "What is that tree?" After taking a sip of the tea, I asked.

  "It is the past, present, and future. It is the answer to every question. It is the tree of life," she said, with an en
dearing, engaging smile.

  'Cra-hay-zeee.' I thought, just like it's spelled, except in florescent orange paint, graffiti hollow, as I smiled to myself. Okay, I was trying to be open-minded, but come on. That's a long country mile, knowing that she was in this secret society, and how they think is rather different than how I think.

  "What are you here for Fisher?" she asked, staring into my eyes, seemingly convincingly concerned. When I explained that I was looking for Truth, doing this, interested in dimensions. I then explained to her how I had gotten to this point, and the questions that I wanted answered.

  "Fisher, Truth will be here soon. Just know that what you're looking for isn't going to be as glamorous as what you may think. However, you are chosen, which is why you are here and you will find that which you seek." At about that time I heard a movement, as if someone had entered the room. Turning to look I saw another woman, much different than Order. As she approached she introduced herself as Truth. She, somewhat older than Order, seemed to carry more of a serious demeanor. Of Middle-Eastern descent: caramel complexion, long hair in dreads and wearing a similar medallion to Orders, draped from her neck. Her clothing was also pretty crazy. She wore lots of layers. In each layer were many different floral designs and vibrant colors. She had long wavy fingernails that curled, with each nail painted a different color. I introduced myself as she pulled up a chair. She then began to enlighten me on their purpose in this world. She spoke of stories of how they had survived all these years despite ridicule, despite persecution, despite beliefs or disbeliefs. She informed me of what I was about to learn and experience. I was told, 'having nothing but pure intentions was the reason they had chosen me.' Apparently, Order was in fact that, order. Her duty was to harness the evil spirits, and prevent them from getting too powerful. And Truth was in-fact truth. The only way to Truth was through Order.

  Naturally, much like the state of our country, I found all of this a little hard to believe. They had a great story, but seriously, what's next, the purple Kool-Aid, a bag full of neck bones, the twelfth century mummy dust believed to hold healing power; the man on the black horse with a bargain for the soul, snake oil? What are they talking about, Truth and Order? They had chosen me and what not . . . right. I was skeptical for sure, but intrigued nonetheless. Curiously scanning the room, Truth retrieved a gold chain from her outer layer of clothing. After closely examining it, I realized that it was a normal gold chain fastened with a gold cross.

  "Are you ready to begin?" Truth asked. My first impulse was to run. I thought to myself, 'they are crazy and I am not, I should run.' However, the optimistic side of me had taken control. In fact, I was interested in what they believed to be true. Not only what they believed to be true, but also their eagerness and willingness, subsided my doubts.

  "Yes," I smiled in response. When Order stood out of her chair and kneeled down on both knees in front of me, she placed her hands on top of mine. I should have been frightened but wasn't. As Truth stood up, slowly approached and placed her left hand on my head, beginning to swing the necklace with the golden cross in front of my face with her right hand, speaking aloud in the unknown language. I tried to keep my eyes focused on the cross, swinging inches from my face. Oddly enough the speed seemed to increase as a white trail of light appeared, as if glowing from the cross. Seconds later, I became lightheaded and felt my eyes begin to weigh, then nothing . . .

  I must have blacked out, because the next thing I recall was waking up in my bed, the next day. I woke up like any other day, thinking, 'what a weird dream, but it felt so real.' Half asleep, I rolled out of bed trying to shake the feeling, and headed to the fridge to grab some orange juice, but realized something different. It wasn't anything at first, but as I focused, it was very different indeed. My perception, how I saw things, my eyes, everything had changed. Looking at the refrigerator, I hadn't opened the door, but could see the contents of it. Staggering back, stone sober, I quickly scanned my apartment. It hadn't changed, but it was different. It was like I could see everything at once, or at the same time. Much like you would imagine x-ray vision to be. Despite feeling suspended with disbelief, I could see through cabinet doors and the contents of them. Trying to snap out of my delusion, I ran to the bathroom sink and ran some cold water, dousing my face, in hopes of waking from the dream, or to realize that I wasn't going crazy. Shortly after I grabbed a towel hanging from a shower rod and started to dry my skin. As I looked into the mirror, what I saw was a normal reflection of myself, with a glow of sort around me. The glow was similar to steam coming off ones body after a hot shower, on a cold winter's day. In disbelief, I thought to myself, 'what happened last night was real.' As I dashed toward my bathroom window, I looked out and what I saw was crazy! I saw the normal view of the apartments across the way, but saw through the walls and people in their rooms. Of the people, each had different glows. Too intense, I stepped away from the window and exited the bathroom. As I did I heard a knock at the door, except, I didn't have to run to the door to check the peephole. I saw through the door, it was Comfort. Thinking of what to do, the best idea was to act cool, like nothing was the matter. Opening the door to greet her, I pretended that I had just woken up. She, out of no where, jumped, wrapping her arms around my neck, with her legs in the same fashion around my waist, resting her head against my shoulder. Not a little I missed you hug, it was a hug like I was back from the dead.

  "What's wrong," I asked as she retracted her arms and legs, dropping them toward the floor. Standing in front of me, her eyes began to swell with tears brewing.

  "You scared me half to death." I grinned as I stared into her crystal blue eyes, trying to act normal.

  *

  Voice:

  "What is normal?"