All of his senses were rendered useless, all he knew was ladder, then his hand clasped something. It felt warm to the touch unlike the cold steel he had become accustomed too. As his hand struck this surface a tsunami of thoughts flooded into his head. A brilliant light illuminated the whole area. David just wanted to turn his head and charge straight back down the ladder he had fought so hard to conquer, but he couldn’t. A voice in the back of his head was screaming to turn back, he wouldn’t. The rumbling started again, the room appeared to be shaking or at least David was. This deafening noise was coming from somewhere, but where, his vision was still a total blur from the sudden flash of light. The rumbling seemed to be getting even louder and David suddenly noticed his legs were moving, he willed them to stop but they wouldn’t. He was in a trance.
His vision returned just in time to see an old book. It was brown and in tatters, with lumps of solid gold on the corners. There was something written on it. Gold lettering but it was all peeling off. Only a couple of letters remained ‘L…D…S’. David was staring at them trying to work out what they said, when the letters seemed to transform in front of his own eyes. David knew that his mind must be playing tricks on him but it all seemed so realistic that it must be true. David was still trying to make sense of this whole ‘experience’ when the book opened all by itself. David did not notice the old brown pages or the ancient writing, which seemed to be some form of hieroglyphics. David was so confused at this point that it probably wouldn’t matter even if he had seen it because in the end the result still would have been the same.
A huge spiral of different colours spun out from the seam of the book, capturing David within its green and blue spirals. This must of awoken David from his trance. As he was revolving through this tornado, of colour, David started to scream but of course, this was useless. Who was going to hear him when he’s in the attic and even if anyone could hear him who would take any notice of a 15 year old boy screaming about a man eating book, whilst playing hide and seek.
*
There was an almighty ‘thud’; a young boy hit the ground after falling from the sky. He fell upon fields of vast, green countryside. It was a beautiful sight, picturesque even, all around were fields of lush green grass with steep hills, deep valleys and evergreen trees. In front of him there was a lake with beautiful sparkling blue water, with beavers going about their daily business, fishes swimming and birds singing. However, as he glanced across to the other side of the lake the boy laid eyes upon an almighty cave. The water on this side of the lake was brown with dead fish floating on the surface. The banks surrounding this part of the lake were simply bare rocks threatening to crush anything with the misfortune of touching them. There were no birds singing or beavers playing. Not a single living thing dwelled on those premises and it was obvious why. Who in there right minds would rather live there than on the stunning view that was just meters from the grim scene? The boy drew his gaze away from the lake and noticed many little buildings with thatched roofs and only one floor. In front of these unusual and certainly old-fashioned buildings stood small families of people all dressed in pretty much the same way. The women wore long brown and white frilly dresses. They all looked like servants. The men also wore brown and white but these were brown tattered trousers and a white V-necked shirt.
At a glance down at his attire, the boy noticed he was wearing exactly the same as the other boys that he had seen.
He was tired and decided that he should get some rest; a fall from the sky into unfamiliar territory can really take it out of you. The young boy slowly advanced towards the nearest house. He was walking straight towards the 3 people stood in front of it, but the didn’t even seem to have noticed him. The boy was only 20 metres from them now but their gaze was still fixed to where he had first landed. He was now only 10 metres from them and could clearly see every single crevice on their skin. That was then he noticed the boy in front was not only dressed identically to him he was also exactly the same height and build with the same blonde hair blue eyes. He even had exactly the same horseshoe shaped birthmark on his neck.
The young boy looked extremely confused and turned to the women in a desperate search for an explanation. To his horror, the woman was looking straight through him. This feeling of horror rapidly swapped itself with a feeling of utter disbelief, he recognised this women but where from. He opened is mouth to ask if she too recognised him. However, as soon as the first letter rolled of his tongue and dissipated into the air the almighty rumbling started again. This was much worse then the soft rumbling he had become accustomed to during his dreams. This was a full-blown earthquake style rumbling. The whole ground was shaking. The voices started again. He could finally make sense of the voices “Help David, the cave, help” it started of with just the women but very quickly the rest of the people joined in. He finally realised where he recognised that woman from. It was his mum, but it wasn’t. It couldn’t be it had to be a bad dream. The voices were unbelievably loud now. He could not take much more of this. David dropped to his knees willing himself to wake up. He didn’t. Of course, he didn’t: He couldn’t. There was only one thing he could do. The young boy sprinted to the cave, as soon as his size 7 shoes made contact with the cold grey stone the voices stopped, and the rumbling subsided.
The inside of the cave was massive. David was standing in what seemed to be an ally. It had a grey floor and red-stone wall. In this alley of a cave ran a small, dirty brown stream. David decided to follow the stream. The silence was deafening. He was right in the centre of his worst nightmares yet the scene he was now living resembled his dreams in no way what so ever. He was expecting an increasingly loud rumble as he became ever closer to the source of all his sleepless nights. However, it was in no way at all like this. All David could hear was the ‘splat’ as his feet slapped against the wet floor. All he could do was walk straight into the caves belly, he could not go back outside, he couldn’t face the screaming. He had to sort this, now, once and for all.
The relatively small walk was taking forever, a whole hour seemed to have passed as David walked through the cave however in reality it was closer to a minute.
At last, the young boy had reached his destination. It certainly was not what he had expected. He was standing on a floor of grey stone. In front of him was a ring of water. Inside this ring was a small island containing one thing and one thing only; a white, round crystal. A rickety rope bridge hung loosely over the deep murky water. This was the end; he had reached the end of the cave, the end of the nightmares. It had to be something to do with that crystal, but what?
David had obviously made his mind up as he cautiously walked to the bridge. He checked the ropes, it seemed secure enough but there was only one way to find out. He raised his foot and slowly but surely placed his foot on to the bridge. As soon as his foot connected with the nearly rotten wood an almightily high-pitched scream pierced through the silence, the rumbling once again shook David’s brain, and a short stab of bright light temporarily illuminated the area before subsiding into a low shimmer. The rumbling didn’t stop, it got considerably worse. The bridge was shaking; water was spraying from the stream in huge waves. He had to keep going, this torture had to end. David lunged and grabbed the crystal. A searing pain swarmed through David’s entire body. A brilliant light blinded him. Everything went white. David could no longer hear the high-pitched screams; he did not feel the ice-cold water flooding over the top of him.
The rumbling stopped, so did the screaming and the crystal returned to the dull colourless state in which it started. David was nowhere to be seen.
*
All this happened 14 years ago. I have been all alone here ever since, still experiencing the same horrific dreams. Although now it’s all changed. You are here. The man thrust his hands forwards, palms out. There was writing burnt into the skin.
Help David Our Saviour.
