Daniel woke with a gasp. His hand shaking, he wiped the sweat from his brow.
The nightmares, again.
He took a deep breath, and reached over to the bedside table to check the time on his phone.
1:11am. Why was it always 1:11am?!
Daniel knew that there was no point trying to go back to sleep, so he slid out from beneath his duvet, his bare feet landing hard on the cold laminate flooring of his apartment. A shiver ran through him as the stark air-conditioned atmosphere infiltrated his skin. He quickly grasped the dressing gown hung next to his bed, wrapping himself tightly within the towelling fabric to stop the shivers.
As was often the case, Daniel found himself drawn to the bedroom window. The ambient city lights outside his apartment illuminated the room through the purple opaque blind. He pulled up the blind and looked out at the vast cityscape of tower blocks, skyscrapers, and cranes that spanned the horizon from his lofty apartment.
The innumerable multi-coloured lights of the city lit the entire view like it was Christmas. Daniel remembered when he had considered this view beautiful, even enchanting. As a young man moving from the country, the visage of the city had been one of excitement, hope, and ambition for the future.
Now, however, the view simply left Daniel feeling dead inside. The never-ending lights and activity reminded him of his insomnia, and the cold hard facades of the monolithic buildings were all too representative of the cold heart of humankind.
Daniel missed the stars the most. From the country, the dark skies offered an unfiltered view of the whole deep cosmos. From the city, the artificial lights were so numerous that the only thing filling the sky at night was a smothering and suffocating orange haze.
Daniel decided that a late night snack might help. So, after placing his phone in his dressing gown pocket, he pulled down the blind, and tiptoed down the short corridor towards the kitchen and living room space.
He purposely stopped half way, peering quietly through the open spare bedroom door, where he was relieved to see his ten-year-old daughter Jess still sleeping soundly. At least one of them would get a full night’s sleep, he thought. He knew that he would never hear the last of it from her mother if he interrupted her slumber.
Ten minutes later, the ambient hum of kitchen appliances filled the otherwise silent air of Daniel’s kitchen area as he sat at the counter and slowly devoured a scotch egg. He stared at the blank white wall in front of him, and felt...empty. It was as if he were an alien, living in a cold dark world that was not his own.
‘I just want to go home,’ he found himself saying to the vacant hum.
Suddenly, Daniel’s phone started to ring. He looked at the display. It was his Mum. This wasn’t going to be good.
‘Hello,’ said Daniel, lifting the phone to his ear.
‘Daniel...’ came the voice of his mother. She sounded tearful. ‘I’m...I’m sorry to wake you...’
‘It’s OK Mum,’ said Daniel calmly. ‘I was already awake.’
‘Oh...it’s just...the hospital just called...’
‘Dad,’ said Daniel.
‘Yes,’ said his Mum. ‘He’s gone...I’m sorry. The nurse said he died quietly in his sleep, it was about 1:11.’
‘Of course,’ replied Daniel quietly. ‘I mean, I’m sorry Mum. I thought we had more time, I could have been there.’
‘No, no, we all thought there was more time,’ said Daniel’s Mum. ‘But, I thought I should tell you straight away, anyway. Will...you tell Jess?’
‘I’ll tell her in the morning,’ said Daniel. ‘She’s sleeping so soundly right now, I wouldn’t want to wake her. I’ll phone her mother too.’
‘Yes...well...’ said Daniel’s Mum. ‘You will come down won’t you?’
‘Yes, of course,’ said Daniel. ‘We’ll come tomorrow. I’ll phone again in the morning, and we’ll work it all out.’
‘Thank you,’ sniffed Daniel’s Mum. ‘I’ll speak to you then.’
‘I love you,’ stated Daniel, but then realised that his Mum had already hung up.
Daniel sat quietly for a minute, and then began to sob uncontrollably. A torrent of tears dripped down from his face, and fell onto his plate, drenching the unfinished remains of his scotch egg.
The funeral was a predictably somber affair. A crowd of recognisable faces from Daniel’s home village huddled together in the small church, some of whom he hadn’t seen in decades. However, as he ascended the lectern to give his eulogy, they suddenly blended into a faceless mass, collectively dressed in a dark shade of depression.
Time lost meaning as Daniel stood and spoke fondly about his father for what seemed like an eternity. Then, as he finally wrapped-up his speech, and the next hymn started to play, one face from the back of the crowd suddenly came into focus.
The distinctive gentleman had wild grey hair, an old haggard face, but sharp devilish eyes. His cold staring expression struck terror into Daniel’s heart like a shard of ice. Daniel didn’t know the man, and yet somehow, he did. It was a face that had haunted his nightmares for years.
‘Elias,’ he whispered to himself, not even knowing where that name had come from.
The funeral reception took place in the nearby village pub shortly after. Daniel left Jess with his mother as he began to do the rounds and thank the attendees for coming. The whole time he did this, Daniel could feel the strange man’s cold penetrating stare, silently permeating his skull like daggers from the far corner of the pub.
Eventually, Daniel had no choice but to address the interloper directly. As he approached, he saw that the fellow struck a tall and imposing figure. The gentleman stood stiffly, and silently, in the far corner, close to some odd green buffet offerings that none of the guests dared touch.
The man was of course wearing black – black trousers, black tie, and a long black trench coat. However, Daniel got the distinct impression that this was a man whose figure would cut a silhouette on any occasion, not just at funerals.
As Daniel drifted ever closer to the man, his heart skipped a beat as somehow he recognised that face again. The gentleman’s weathered features were more pronounced than Daniel remembered, but those penetrating green eyes were eternally young, and brimming with mischief. Daniel knew those eyes so well. Where had he seen them before?
‘Um...Elias...is it?’ stuttered Daniel in his final approach towards the man.
‘Ah, young Daniel,’ replied the man with a quiet but sinister tone. ‘So, you remember me, do you?’
‘Ha!’ Daniel laughed awkwardly. ‘How could I forget you?’
‘Still the little clown, eh?’ asked Elias, coldly. ‘Oh, so then I’m sure you remember all of the many hours we spent together, after your experience?’
‘Um...my experience?’ squeaked Daniel. The man made him feel as if he were ten years old.
‘Why, yes of course,’ said Elias with an unsettling calm. ‘Your experience in the woods. You must remember?...The craft?...The being?...The gift?’
Suddenly, a deep fear awoke in Daniel, and he found himself shaking uncontrollably.
‘I...I’m sorry...I don’t remember!’ he shivered, as sweat started to pour down his forehead. ‘I...I have to go now, thank you for coming!’
Without another word, Daniel ran straight out through the crowd of mourners, out into the pub garden, and threw up into the duck pond.
A few seconds later, a shadow approached, and loomed over the grassy spot where Daniel had fallen to his knees.
‘Typical,’ muttered the owner of the shadow.
Daniel recognised the voice immediately. He looked up and was unsurprised to see the monolithic visage of his ex-wife glaring down at him with a pint in one hand, and a cigarette in the other.
‘Hi Shirley,’ said Daniel.
It was several hours later when Daniel finally returned to his Dad’s old cottage, after helping the pub staff clear-up. His mother, Shirley, and Jess had already arrived at the cottage well before him. As he stepped out of his car, he stopped for a moment, closed his eyes, and took in a deep breath of the dusky evening air.
As Daniel sighed out, he opened his eyes again. He felt so glad to look upon the heartwarming scene of the antiquated, but pretty cottage, nestled in the twilight. A single cosy light from the living room was already on, and the first twinkle of stars were beginning to manifest in the darkening sky above. Daniel looked up at the stars and allowed himself to absorb their welcoming sparkle. It felt like an eternity since he had seen such a familiar sight.
‘Home,’ he whispered.
The inviting light from the cottage drew Daniel inside, but he quickly started to wish he had remained out in the quiet country air.
‘Oh here he is, at last,’ moaned Shirley, with a glass of wine in hand. ‘Your daughter has been missing you.’
‘It’s alright Dad,’ said Jess quietly, as she sat cross-legged on a cushion in the corner, next to a worm-ridden old bookcase. ‘I’m sorry you’ve been so sad. I’ve just been reading Grandad’s old books.’
Daniel was about to respond, but was prevented from doing so by his Mum, who also had a glass of wine in hand.
‘I’ve just been telling Shirley how you’re going to have to help me with selling this crumbling old place,’ she interjected. ‘Your Dad had so much junk we need to get rid of, and I can’t possibly do it all by myself. I won’t really be able to do much at all to be honest, what with my arthritis and everything.’
She took a large gulp of wine from the glass.
Daniel silently glared at the two of them.
‘I’m glad to see you’re both getting along, for a change,’ he eventually found himself saying. ‘Excuse me, I just need to go upstairs for a bit.’
And without another word, he walked out of the living room, and rapidly escaped up the squeaky old stairs.
‘Don’t worry,’ his Mum’s voice echoed up from the living room. ‘He’s just a bit upset. He really loved his Dad, you see.’
‘He always was emotional,’ responded Shirley.
‘Like his father,’ echoed Daniel’s Mum.
Daniel somberly stepped his way towards his old childhood bedroom, now dark, and filled with boxes and junk. The accumulated clutter barely permitted space for him to move his feet across the creaky old floorboards, but with some persistence, he navigated his way to the bedroom window, and drew the threadbare curtains apart.
That view; the field, the woods, the stars; still just as breathtaking as they had ever been. Daniel stared into the deep darkness of the woodland, as if he hoped to find some lost memory there amongst the thick branches, but all he could recall were Great Aunt Bessie’s fairy stories.
‘The Enchanted Wood,’ he chuckled to himself with a tone of cynicism. Although, deep down, he knew that he was only trying to convince himself that there was nothing to the old tales.
Daniel shook his head, and turned away from the window. He began to slide his feet back through the jungle of junk, but a second later, tripped on some obstinate object, and fell clumsily onto his side. He took a moment, and sighed before pulling himself up into a cross legged position amongst the towering boxes, now silhouetted like black monoliths in the last embers of twilight.
Daniel was sure that the object hadn’t been there on his journey to the window. He reached his arm into the shadows and lifted the mystery item out of the darkness, and brought it closer to his face so that he could see it more clearly. At first, Daniel couldn’t identify the object, but then, some deep lost sense of recognition began to rise in him.
It was a strange cube; seamless, smooth, and pure black. The cube was about seven inches on each side, but felt almost weightless in Daniel’s hands. Yet, it had somehow been solid enough to trip him over. He ran his fingers over the impossibly frictionless surface of the object. It wasn’t metal, it wasn’t rubber or plastic, it wasn’t wood, it wasn’t ceramic, it was...something else.
As Daniel felt himself becoming oddly transfixed by the cube, he began to continuously turn it in his hands, running his fingers over the hard edges. As he did so, a strange purple light started to emanate, and pulse down the edges, following the path of his fingers. Soon, the light grew, and began to pulse all over the object, illuminating Daniel and the haphazard room around him with a deep purple aura.
He should have been scared, terrified even, but instead Daniel continued to slowly turn the cube in his hands, staring deeply into the purple light, and allowing it to enter through his eyes and permeate his brain. As the luminosity enveloped his mind, a mental doorway opened. Daniel let out a great sigh. At last, his memories were free.
A few minutes later, the wine-enhanced conversation between Shirley and Daniel’s Mum suddenly came to an abrupt halt when Daniel silently stepped back into the downstairs living room. He held the cube in his hand, and stared down at the two ladies with wide eyes, which were now sparkling with an otherworldly quality.
‘I understand it all now,’ he said with a soft tone.
‘Have you been experimenting with drugs again?’ asked Daniel’s Mum tersely.
Young Jess suddenly jumped up from her cushion in the corner, and moved towards her father with a sense of intrigue.
‘What’s that in your hand Dad?’ she asked him.
‘This, Jess,’ said Daniel, holding the cube out to his daughter, ‘this is an engine.’
Shirley huffed. ‘Just another bit of your Grandad’s junk more like,’ she said, rolling her eyes.
Jess reached out and touched the cube. ‘Wow!’ she said. ‘It feels...weird! What kind of engine is it?’
‘A reality engine,’ stated Daniel simply. ‘It was a gift, given to me by a being in the woods, when I was a child. It has the power to move a craft between any kind of reality; realities of space, dimensions, even realities of thought and imagination.’
Daniel’s Mum groaned. ‘Oh, not all this again,’ she said. ‘Don’t listen to him Jess. We went through all of this made-up nonsense when he was a boy. He couldn’t cope with his father and I divorcing, so he retreated into his imagination. His Dad’s funeral must have triggered it all again.’
‘You don’t understand, Mum,’ said Daniel with a tone of sadness. ‘I went into the woods to find Father Christmas, because he was the only person I could think of who had the power to get you and Dad back together.’
Shirley rolled her eyes again. ‘Well, that makes it much less insane then,’ she lamented, taking another gulp of wine.
‘But instead,’ continued Daniel, ‘I found the entity, who gave me this. The being was injured, and its craft was wrecked. The military came and took them both away, but I secretly kept the engine here. It hid itself, and has been recharging using the natural cosmic energy from the woods for the last thirty years. Now, finally, it is ready to travel again.’
Daniel’s Mum was starting to look concerned. ‘Perhaps we should get you back in touch with that nice psychiatrist who helped you when you were a boy. Didn’t I see him at the funeral today? What was his name? Elias...someone.’
Daniel suddenly became serious. ‘Elias and his people must never be allowed to have the engine,’ he stated. ‘I made a promise to the being, I have to take the engine home.’
‘What?’ asked Daniel’s Mum. ‘Back to that god-awful city you live in?’
Daniel shook his head, and was silent for a moment. ‘The engine has helped me to remember,’ he said finally. ‘It helped me to remember where I really come from. This reality is not my home, it never was. The being, the engine, and I, we all come from the same place. Now, it is time to go back...I just want to go home, Mum.’
With that, Daniel silently and solemnly stepped into the kitchen, and walked out through the back door into the moonlit garden beyond.
‘Dad, wait!’ called Jess, running after him.
Shirley reached for the wine bottle. ‘Yes, go after him dear!’ she called as she poured herself another glass. ‘Some more?’ she offered to Daniel’s Mum.
Daniel’s Mum, shook her head, and silently stared into space.
‘I never told him that he was adopted,’ she said quietly.
The old garage strip light flickered on by itself as Daniel stepped into his Dad’s old ‘Den’ as he had called it. Boxes, junk, and tools were piled up to the rafters all around, but in the middle, a large object covered by bedsheets took centre stage. The reality engine glowed purple again in Daniel’s hand, and the sheets obediently pulled themselves aside and fell to the floor.
Revealed now in its full glistening glory, the old pale blue convertible Triumph Spitfire sat ready and waiting to receive its new engine. Daniel could feel the cube in his hand vibrating and pulling him closer to the vehicle like a magnet attracted to a piece of steel. His Dad had been working on the classic car for years, it had been his pride and joy. Now, it was about to take its first trip across realities.
The driver’s door opened itself in readiness, and Daniel moved forward and sat behind the wheel. He carefully placed the engine on the centre of the dashboard, which immediately started to pulse rapidly with bursts of purple light.
Dark thick tendrils, like the roots of a tree, spontaneously sprouted from the cube. The tendrils quickly grew, entangling and meshing themselves with the very fabric of the car. More pulses of purple light travelled down and around the fibres, as the engine and the car merged and became as one.
Jess suddenly ran into the garage, but stopped in her tracks when she saw the unearthly sight before her.
‘Dad! What’s happening?’ she asked in shock.
‘The engine can use any metallic shell as a craft,’ explained Daniel. ‘It has chosen this one, but Jess, you must go now. It is time for me to leave this reality.’
‘No!’ shouted Jess. ‘You can’t go, I want to come with you!’
The young girl ran forward, but a strange force pushed back against her, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t reach the car.
She held out her hand towards her father. ‘Please, don’t go Dad,’ she said.
Daniel turned and looked his daughter in the eye. ‘I’m sorry Jess,’ he said softly. ‘This is not my reality, but it is yours. You need to stay here, and try and make it a good one.’
He reached out his hand, but as hard as he tried, the strong field between them prevented their fingers from touching.
‘Goodbye Jess,’ said Daniel with a tear in his eye. ‘I love you.’
Jess’ solemn face was the last thing Daniel saw of the reality he had lived in for the last four decades. After that, the engine activated. The structured geometry of time and space, as Daniel had known them, suddenly lost all meaning as the singularity of his self shifted into the very fabric of the Omniverse.
Daniel was everywhere and everything; he was all times, and all places; he was the entirety of all realities, physical and of thought; he was all of life; he was all of consciousness; he was nothingness.
A further shift occurred, and a beautiful new reality came into focus. A cosmic canvas of light and colour formed a different kind of geometry. An infinity of old familiar minds connected, and welcomed the new arrival. Pure love and joy enveloped everything.
Daniel, had at last returned home.
Back to Articles >