Welcome to the second collaborative fiction work on ATS.

A note to writers. Unless you are assigned an additional story to work on, keep your posts limited to this thread. Work together, but only within the confines of this thread (do not pre-determine plot through private messages), and have fun!

Your authors for this story are;

OzChris, WolfofWar, nyeff, Gryffen, and Blackwidow666




Here is the start of the story;





You know those dreams you have of falling, especially the ones where you're just sitting in a chair slipping in and out of sleep, and you wake up with a sudden flailing of your arms, looking like a fool? Well, I thought I was having one of those, except flailing my arms and legs didn't wake me up.



[Edited on 29-4-2003 by William]

I keep falling,I can't wake myself.This so weird,I can longer tell If I'am awake or dreaming.The colors I see are so vivid the greens,blues,and reds are searing my eyes.Everything is blur.I have the strange feeling that I have entered another time or dimension.
Suddenly everthing comes to a stop.Where am I?Nothing seems right,the light has a grayish cast to it.
I don't think I'am dreaming anymore.I feel awake,but what reality have I woke up too?

[Edited on 04/14/03 by nyeff]

Having a look around i pull myself off the ground and lean against the wall as i stiffle a groan at the pain in my ribs. I remember falling, the darkness is disturbed by colours that burn into my retina's, then i remember a voice. It was a womans voice, a voice of authority, a voice full of pain.
Walking around the circular room i see that the roof is a type of floor, i see feet walking on it. Suddenly a part of the wall opens, i back off against the small table in the room and grip the edge hard. A bright light hurts my eyes until i see a figure appear from the light. My eyes adjust to the harsh light. I look at the figure and scream.

The figure was like a blur, tall and slim with a long chin and bulging forehead. Fear overtook my body as I tried to look away, my muscles wouldn't budge, a great pain blasting through my ears, like a loud, piercing shriek which dropped me to my knees; beads of sweat dropping from my forehead as I looked up at the creature. There was silence for a moment, a saving moment of painless silence, before a voice echoed in my mind.
"Vect Knoric'k, Calicokino Palimok."
I couldn't understand it, my eyes widening in fear as the voice exclaimed loudly in my mind in a furious tone.
"Vect Knoric'k, Calicokino Palimok!?"
I Didn't know what to say, or do to respond to the voice before the creature turned its head to face mine, the eyelids raising slowly and a vision blasting into my mind...

It was a hellish vision.A vision of tortured lives and souls.The creature realized that the only form of communication we could have was to take control of my mind and force me to watch in my mind what it was saying.One terrible vision after another flew past my eyelids.War,death, destruction evil gods ripping souls from people,sending them to places far worse than hell could ever be.
Why had this creature choosen me?Are these visions our future?Have they happened in times past?I still do not know if I'am dreaming or awake in some hellish world.

The Vision ended and I found myself suddently somewhere else.There was a large river of Lava to the west, and to the east there was an inferno of skyscrapers, all delapitated and in flames, bodies hanging out of the windows. When I looked around where I was, I noticed there were 10 feet long poles, nude, tortured bodies laying face up on them, impaled through the chest. There were millions of people in this large field, and I was standing in the center, the ground soaked in blood. In the distance I could see a large Pyramid in the distance, a white light shining from it's peak, and within the light was an eye, an eye with a slit like a reptile, but crimsom red like blood. It looked down at me and I couldnt breathe. As I struggled, I fell to the Ground, my eyes closed my eyes, the lack of air getting to me. My eyes opened quickly, I was in my bed in my apartment, the sun shining through the open windows, I shrugged it off as a bad dream and went to the kitchen...

Still dazed and confused from last night's horrific visions, I poured myself a cup of perculated coffee to digest the feelings I had inside of me.

What the hell was that all about...I thought to myself as the bacon crackled in the pan..."I am a normal guy...the average joe doing 9 to 5" How the hell do I come up with such vivid dreams?"

I finished up breakfast and headed for a much needed shower.. My pj's were soaked through...But was it sweat...A strange yet very distinct aroma was eminating from them....I stripped off and jumped under the soothing hot water...Grabbed the soap...Wait......what the hell is that....Strange red markings on my legs...."I never had those yesterday"

I sat wondering where these strange markings could have come from.They were bright red cresent shaped markings.As I looked closer at them,they seemed almost alive.I was stunned,they were working their way up my leg.In a panic I threw my coffee and ran to my car.
I had to get to the hospital.My mind was spinning,I couldn't make sense of everything that happened last night.I kept asking myself was the dream real was the creature real?Finally I made it to the hospital.........

I ran out of my car and through the sliding glass doors in a panic, I could feel the symbols heading farther up my by, past my groin, now near the top of my thighs. I was panicking, stumbling over stretchers and wheelchairs before falling to the ground. The nurses surrounded me, aswell as a few doctors.
"There in me! My God, what the hell is it! Somebody help!" I shouted as I frantically ripped off my shirt, the symbols now at my chest, glowing bright red and pulsating, I could feel my heart slowing and my throat sweezing tight, I couldnt breathe. As the lack of air got to me, I started to black out, their voices slowly fading in the back of my mind as I drifted away from consciousness...

Falling again.......Feels like forever...or am I falling...wait no ....I think I am suspended some how... floating around in nothingness...I feel no pain now....Flash...green...Flash...red...the images...back vivid as ever...

What the hell is happening to me...I know I am dreaming..this is a dream...I try to wake myself up....

water...... wet...... soaking........ no not again......... i suddenly awake, or am i? i dont remember coming home. this is my bedroom, my bed, my home........but i dont remember how i got here. i was in the hospital when......... oh my god, i toss the covers away from my body, but theres nothing there, no marks what happened, i know they was there, i cant have dreamed everything. Standing up i strip to my pants, but nothing, no marks, no red sores, theres nothing at all wrong with me. oh thank god it was one of those dreams again, but why, why me and why now, when its getting so close to the time............ as i walk through the door to the bathroom i dont see the small red sore in the centre of my back........by then its too late............

As I walk into the bathroom,I hear a knock on the door.Startled,I go to the door.Looking out the peephole I see to my relief that it is the elderly couple that live next door.
I open the door and Mr. and Mrs. Rubinstein ask me how am I doing.That they had seen and heard a lot of things coming from my home.So I sat them down poured them some coffee an told them all that had happened last night.
When I was done, they sat there stunned for a few moments.After a while they got gave me a hug and told me it was just a terrible dream,get some rest and they will stop by later to see if I need anything.
When I walk them to the door Mrs Rubinstein turned and looked at me,her eyes ablaze and said "Vect Knoric'k, Calicokino Palimok."
My mind swam,and something on the center of my back stared to hurt,grow, it started to twist my spine.My mind reeled,blackness enveloped me........

The Darkness and silence soon cleared and I found myself in that same valley of torment as before, but this time, I was farther in. I was closer to the Pyramid, the eye not looking at me, but instead the ruins of the city that was in the distance, screams and howls of the restless souls of the impaled bodies echoed in pain. I walked closer to the Pyramid, trying to make of what was going on.
Eventually I reached the base of it, there was nothing there, but a strange force made my hand touch it. A 8 foot by 11 foot rectangular area infront of me began to glow, and that area disapeared, revealing a deep, dark passage with torches dimly lighting the way. I began to slowly walk inside, a knot twisting in my throat as I began to get nervous, was this another dream, how can I tell, I felt the answers I needed were inside here...

I peered into the darkness squinting to see what was inside....I felt a sense ...urging me to go down the tunnel..so I took my first step.

It was a slow descent at first... I hugged one wall to aid me as I stumbled throught the darkness...I took one more step...

As I took that final step I found myself displaced, tripping as my foot found no floor, but a large pit. I tripped and fell far down the pit, my body splashing in a pool of water. as I looked around I saw that the area was illuminated by strange crystals that gave a light blue glow. There in the middle of the water was a large Pillar, much like the Washington monument, glowing symbols pulsing in the beat of a heart. I began to swim closer to it, my body in pain from the fall, I could only imagine what the symbols where, and as I got up to it, I noticed something strange...

they weren't just symbols, more pictures, no thats not right, they seem to be moving.........slowly..but they are! the symbols seem to change into pictures but then go back, it doesnt make sense!

the closer i get the warmer the water gets, that cant be right can it? the lights changing now..going from light blue to a pale green..no its changing again.its as though its speeding up..........the symbols are on some sort of plaque...its shiney ........god what was that!

[Edited on 1-5-2003 by blackwidow666]

Staring down at the water coming through the opposite wall, i realised that this must be a test? I could see that the symbols where trying to tell me that the pictures are what the symbols mean?
Watching the symbols/pictures for a few more moments i finally catch a pattern in the sequence and then out of the corner of my eye i see another shiny panel. Dragging my legs through the almost 2 feet of water, i see that the same symbols/patterns are on the panel.
"Match the symbols? Okay..even i can't mess this up?"
I said as i looked back at the glowing pictures.
Memorising them i start to hit them in sequence and the water suddenly stops. Turning around i feel that same shiver through me and all of a sudden i am faced by a intense light and i fall through the floor.

Stunned and sore I raise myself up.Where am I?Looking to my left I see a bright light coming through a door.I put my hand abovr my eyes to shield my eyes from the light.I enter the room,torches line the wall light like I have never seen emenates from them.As my eyes adjust,I look around.Tailismans and artifacts lay all around the room.Some are gold and silver.Others I cannot even begin to describe.There is this one staff in the corner,glowing with its own light.I head towards it...

My mind is racing now.. I feel so accomplished having passed the test in the previous room....Just as I reached for the staff I hesitate......"Is this another test"?

"Maybe I should have another close look around the room"...The room has only the one door, from which I came through. Looking up is intense blinding light, ever so like looking at the sun...I turn away resisting the urge to look back.

Many talismans and artifacts are all around the room..What do they mean and what does the light eminating from the staff mean..To get further I must try and figure the meaning to all this.

[Edited on 1-5-2003 by OzChris]

the light above, which is very bright and similar too our own sun, seems to be fading slightly.......as though a shadow is coming over the outside of the building........or so i thought.........as it was, my eyes were adjusting to the light........... not only that i started having feelings that i had been here before.............but i dont know when or even how?

i felt at ease being here, looking around the room i was in it seemed to be moving, only very slowly, wasnt making me feeling funny or sending me spinning, nothing like that..........but it was relaxing. even carming i would say.

walking over to the staff, stepping over and around the artifacts that still lay array on the floor i notice that the staff is.............floating in the air..nothing under it and its not leaning against the wall.........as i thought it was when i first came in...........the light beaming from it has started to dull some what..........or my eyes seem to take the bright light well now.........as i stretch out my arm to touch it............