Drip, drip. He could hear the sink again playing out its tiny overture. It was almost hypnotic. There was a presence again that had awakened him. As if someone was right beside him. Reaching out for a ghost after the most vivid dream he could ever remember. He could have sworn there was an imprint in the bed. Except he wasn’t in his bedroom anymore. What is this place? The bed was now sitting in the middle of a dry creek bed. Fog hung in the air. There were ravens echoing around him. Bakaw Bakaw. The stones were cool and wet beneath his bare feet. It seemed so familiar like he’d been here before. Vertigo spun him round and round for a moment before everything snapped back into view. “Hello, come come, right this way,” there was a voice in his head coming from somewhere and a dull ache in his forehead. It almost sounded like elves.
As he turned toward the direction of the voice he could almost hear what sounded like a faint music playing off in the distance. A melody weaving it’s way through the trees on the wind. Each note almost a picture. There was a faint electrical charge rippling through the souls in his feet. An ecstatic experience occurring in what must be a fever dream. A flash bulb of energy turned on inside him. In 1234 hold 1234 out 1234. He had to remember to breathe whenever the energy started pouring into him. It was so powerful now. “We’ve been waiting for you, come come,” the voice said aloud in his head. It didn’t take much walking to reach a large stone with a glyph carved in it’s surface. The top of the rock suddenly flipped back and there was a small man in a pointed hat and wooly beard staring back at him. “The keeper is here, ready the knick-knacks,” the small man shouted down what must have been a ladder hole. “We’ve been expecting you,” the small man said, “Come into the library we have much to talk about.” And just like that he disappeared down the hole. Leaning over the edge of the rock he could see the man floating to the floor below. There was no ladder or platform. What is this place? The curious man waved his arm at him beckoning him to come below.
As he swung his legs out of the hole he could sense a change in gravity. His legs felt like they were floating. Again he wondered why this all felt like it had happened before. Slowly floating down now like a leaf in the wind. Bookshelves stretched as far as the eye could see. He’d never seen so many books before. It was astonishing to see. Every book ever made must be in here. Could this be the Akashic Records? He wondered what must be hiding in all of them. “You’ve already read them all, you may not remember yet, it will come in time, welcome Keeper,” came the words into his mind, the peculiar man was talking to him but his mouth never moved.
“Why do you keep calling me that? The Keeper?” he asked aloud, “And what is your name?’
“Always so many questions with you, you’ve never been good at patience. I am Pixnalox and you are the Keeper.”
“The keeper of what?” there was a charge of energy running through him now, it was like someone else was watching him, it was the most uncanny feeling. Like someone was listening to his thoughts.
“All of this and all of that! You must not remember yet! Timelines can be funny like that! Everything happens all at once for us and I forget your perspective is different. I see you’ve brought your passenger, good good,” exclaimed Pixnalox who was tilting his head back and forth eagerly.
“Wait, what?”
“Socklthorp summon the goggles, we need a jump start this one!” proclaimed Pixnalox.
A familiar pair of golden futuristic-looking goggles floated down from the ceiling and came to rest gently on top of his head. Didn’t this already happen? Or hasn’t happened yet…until now. There was an immediate pressure that started forming in his head. Images started strobing through his mind as a high-pitched frequency began to build in his head almost like a tidal wave pulling back from the shore before it came crashing in upon him smearing his consciousness all over the beach of divine awareness. There were voices now like whispers in the back of his mind, haunting, ghostlike, cascading like pulsing rhythms pounded out flat by a thousand cosmic beat masters. The throbbing in his forehead intensified as he heard Pixnalox shout, “Give it to him, we are going to blast this one awake!” followed by a loud crack of what sounded like electric arc lightning and a whooshing sound.
The universe was streaming by now at incredible speed. Nebulas raced past as planets spun as impossible starscapes exploded like ticker tape confetti on any parade-filled afternoon. It was as if God had been turned inside out inside a fireworks factory by powers beyond comprehension. There was a planet racing towards him at incredible speeds that he recognized. A large river seemed to encircle its equator. There was now a whaling in his ears that sounded like banshees and a feeling of liquid warmth under his left nostril. There was a loud pop and just like that he was standing barefoot in a forest in front of a quaint-looking log cabin surrounded by flowers. The air was cool and pure and the birds sang a strange tune he’d never heard before on Earth.
“We’ve been waiting for you,” said a musical female voice right next to him. A familiar and rather delightful elderly woman with a piercing gaze and flowers in her hair handed him a handkerchief. “It’s for you nosebleed, it looks like you’ve had a rough trip. Sorry about that, we know you’ve been through a lot already.”
“Is this the planet I read about? The place where the dead go?” he responded while wiping the blood off his face. There was an intense undulating throbbing in his forehead as he struggled to keep his balance. “Am I dead?”
“You’re not dead honey…well maybe a little bit. It’s more of a case that you are both alive and dead at the same time. Well, we all are really. But you’re a bit different. It’s okay, don’t be alarmed. Once you get your bearings I’ll get you a nice cup of hot chocolate and you can warm yourself by the fire. Those dimensional transits can be rough and we’ll get you fixed up as good as new.”
How could he be both alive and dead at the same time? His mind was racing now and she turned and started walking towards the cabin. He followed her. Hot chocolate sure would be nice right now.