Swimming through the stars... They traversed through the gateway, covering their eyes as they walked; protecting their visages from the powerful light. Vertiginous but adamant... There was something at the end of the gate for them, and they felt a euphoria that lay before them, a utopia that would satiate their every desire, a feeling that got stronger as they lost their touch on the ground, and started to hover...
Aiden was the first to open his eyes, he stood on shiny black marble tiles, he looked up, seeing cyan neon lights line the perimeter of the area, it looked like a subway, with metro tracks that laid behind tinted glass, the grey brick walls were also lined with posters, all astronomy-like and celestial. One in particular piqued his interest, it was a poster of a man in what seemed to be a futuristic motorcycle helmet and in an all-black and grey suit, he looked smart and professional in the photo, what fascinated him the most about the poster was that the man wore the same pin that Lucia wore, the same sun-eye symbol, that rested on his breast pocket. He found a bench and collapsed onto it, rubbing his eyes; blinking heavily. A lot had just happened in the past hour, to think that just yesterday, he was sleeping in some cosy cottage in London, and now? He was laying down in some stellar planetary subway, with bizarre posters and from the looks of it... Unorthodox architecture. The worst part about it for him was that he still had no idea what even happened, he seemed to be following everyone’s lead, and one thing supposedly lead to another. He fixed his gaze to the neon sign that flickered on one of the pillars, surveying the message.
“WELCOME TO THE DREAMSPACE, NEXT STOP QAIETIOX VI”
“Interesting,” He muttered. Lucia and the rest followed, each making their way to the centre of the subway, Aiden went over to greet them. “I’ll be completely honest, this place... Is kinda cool!” Magnus laughed, sitting down on the bench and wrapping his arms around Aiden, “If this is all just a dream, I don’t quite mind it at all!”
“You seen the posters that are around here?” Aiden asked, ignoring Magnus’ sudden serenity.
“You mean the Motorcycle-head? Yeah, I’ve seen him, quite an odd outfit to have on,” Lucia mentioned, they all burst into laughter, “A guy wearing a motorcycle helmet, in a suit?” Jake added, wiping a tear from his eyes, the dopiness of the outfit was really getting to them, so much so that they were straying away from where they were.
“Thats very funny and all, but I'm still trying to figure out... Where are we? And what’s a ‘Dreamspace’, or a ‘Qaietiox VI’...” Madeleine asked, scrutinising the sign, they all shrugged, except for Cynthia who took out the railway blueprints that had been in her bag, and unfurled it. “Aha!” She exclaimed, as she read the blueprint, “This subway station is called the Dreamspace, and by the looks of it... Qaietiox VI is the capital city-”
“Capital city of what though?” Jake intruded, “I find it funny, we find Kieran’s house, Lucia’s funny brooch starts to act up, putting us in this so called ‘Lucid dream’ where there are sectors that align with blueprints we got OUTSIDE of the ‘Lucid dream’” he ranted, “You know? Color me crazy, but I'm starting to think that this isn’t a dream,”
Magnus grabbed Jake by the collar and smacked him in the face, like he did to him, “Pull yourself together man! You had a go at me for whining before, right?”
“Okay! Okay!” Jake exclaimed, rubbing his cheek in pain, Lucia felt for the brooch, it was still there, but it was no longer acting up; she’d assumed that it was a key to whatever this place was, and it had fulfilled its purpose, hopefully she’d be able to use it to get back somehow.
“There are tons of other popular cities here: Azuron, Galvitos, Xenia, Aqvens II... Dozens of ‘em”
“Really popular, but I haven’t heard of them in my life,” Jake scoffed, “Come into this with an open mind, we’re here for a reason, I don’t know what that IS exactly, but I'm sure we’ll find out down the road,” Aiden assured, Jake shook his head.
“Sooo... We’re just winging it till then?” A collective nod was the subsequent reply. Jake rolled his eyes, “So this is the sorta nonsense you get up to while I’m not around,” he smirked.
“This is a one-off thing,” Magnus insisted, “This has nothing to do with us as people,”
Jake sneered, “Well, you better find a way to get us out of here then,”
“In due time dear brother, patience is a virtue...” Aiden added, with a smug smile, it’s rare seeing Jake getting agitated, he wanted to make the most of that experience.
Cynthia extended the blueprint once more, “I think the best course of action for us right now is to go to Qaietiox VI, I reckon that there may be some civilians who can help us out here, besides, what's a city without civilians?” She suggested.
“Ugh, ghost towns... Hate ‘em, so creepy and strange...” Magnus shivered, scaring himself with his own thoughts. As they talked, they could hear the sound of a metro moving into the station, drifting across the tracks with impressive speed, coming to a complete stop, at the station, it was jet black with neon crimson lights that striped the surface. The windows were tinted, and the interior was practically invisible. To one side of the metro was the title. "The Cascade || EXCURSION,” marked bold in red and silver. They approached the metro, watching the door open slowly at the stop, nobody left, but why would they? The stop looked like it had no visible exits. They made their way into the metro, stunned at its phenomenal aesthetic. It was sleeker on the inside than on the outside, with charcoal walls that were straited with scarlet glowing lights. Still, the metro was barren, and they couldn’t find anybody who was sitting down, standing up or doing anything of the sort; the only thing that dwelled in the metro was a dim mist, which cleared up as the metro doors opened.
“This thing is very, retro, I like it,” Lucia commented, giving an approving nod, Madeleine took one of the seats, observing the subway through the tinted windows, “I really wonder about this place,” she said, leaning her head over the window, “It’s eerie...”
“We’ll find out some more about this whole business when we get to Qaietiox VI, we’ll ask around, maybe we’ll get somewhere with it,” Cynthia reassured. The doors to the metro slowly slid shut and the Cascade departed from the subway.
(...)
Lucia couldn’t help but notice the speed in which the Cascade was going, all landscape that could be seen from it was reduced to blurry strokes that zoomed past them as the metro advanced. The music being played from within was soothing and alleviated them from their nerves. They couldn’t help but notice the clear absence of passengers up until this point though, it was a thing that left doubt lingering in their minds, though remaining hopeful that there may still be people in the cities. The speed of the Cascade had Lucia convinced that the Dreamspace was miles away from them, despite only travelling for a couple of minutes. She was taken aback by the neoteric nature of the place, the technology she’d seen here was nothing like anything else she’d seen back at home, it was fascinating to say the least.
“This is nice, it’s REALLY odd, but nice,” Cynthia muttered, still pinching herself as she checked if she was still dreaming. “I do think our parents may be worried about us though, we still don’t even know the time,” Magnus asked, resetting concern in the group once again. “How would you even go about explaining this to them?” Jake added, raising a brow, “I wish I knew, but...” Cynthia started, “But seeing as we’re here, do you think that this is where Kieran may be also? It was his office that we got trapped afterall, it’d explain his disappearance, no?”
“It might! It just might!” Madeleine chimed, “This place, as bizarre as it is... it would explain his evanescence too,”
Lucia shrugged, she wasn’t quite sure of anything right now, and she certainly didn’t want any more thoughts in her mind, even if it was about her brother. Aiden and Cynthia got their headphones out, sitting on the far corner of the metro cabin.
“I’m going to go check out the other cabins, perhaps there are other people there,” Madeleine mentioned, retreating from the group and walking towards the other room, “I'll come with you, I wanna see more of this thing!” Magnus exclaimed, following her through to the other cabin.
“Well, what's the plan now, Lucia?” Jake asked, she rolled her eyes, not in the mood to talk to Jake, not that she ever was. “I dunno, we wait I guess...” She muttered, “We’ve been doing a lot of waiting now, you know, and I’ll admit, it really hasn’t gotten us very far,”
“I’d beg to differ, this is a whole new playing field for us to explore, and all that it required was for us to stay in one room, waiting,”
“Meh, that’s fair, I still think it’s not a good idea.”
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“What’s not a good idea?”
“I don’t know, the fact that we’re talking together in a really long dream, and that we’re travelling to a city that we don’t even know about, yet alone the language or the population,”
Lucia looked out the window, looking at the cities in the distance, with lights glossy and dazzling, she sighed as she scanned them, it was beautiful, but it just didn’t feel real to her, perhaps that was the reason she was so calm and collected. She was hoping that they’d all wake up in the office once again, all blaming the brooch for messing with their minds, and playing tricks on them. Or perhaps they would wake up in the A.U voyager, everything up until that point being a visage, a mirage of the sort. Or by some strange chance, still in the US dozing in a strange... Long dream.
“Not to say I have much of an issue here, don’t get me wrong, this place is impressive... but it would strike a big problem if there were two instances of people going missing, in the same region,”
“Good, perhaps they’ll finally narrow it down to Colton being behind it.”
Lucia had a huge issue with the mysterious shopkeeper ever since their encounter, his demeanour and crooked visage made her feel an underlying feeling of pure unfiltered hatred. The idea that he’d be getting his just deserts from this was enough to make her forget about everything completely.
“Who knows, maybe they’ll lock him up, like they should have done years ago,” she grumbled, “That IS, if they notice that we’re missing, if they don’t acknowledge that, then he’d be off scot-free," Jake reminded.
“I’m hoping that the man at the plaza had caught wind of the entire situation and gives Colton what he deserves,” Lucia insisted, Jake tried changing the subject.
“I guess... Lucia you’re the one with the all-seeing eye pin thing, can it tell you how much time it’ll take to get to Qae- Qiat-…"
“Qaietiox VI?”
“Yeah, that place... can the brooch determine the time?”
“No, I don’t think it can,” Lucia said, probing her eyepatch, “I think your GPS tracker, or Cynthia’s blueprints might be more effective for a job like that,”
“You know, now that I think about it, did you notice that everything we got in that second batch of gifts are becoming quite helpful now, perhaps Colton wants to help us?”
“It really doesn’t explain my gifts and whatever Madeleine’s... thing is, but I suppose you may be onto something there,”
“I always am!” Jake jeered, “I’m sure that notebook will come into play further down the line, I don’t know what to say about the ripped book pages though, those are strange,”
Lucia laughed, she agreed, it was a very odd gift indeed, but she didn’t know what it did just yet, so how could she throw it away? She couldn’t, not now.
(...)
The metro was spacious to say the least, Madeleine counted ten cabins as they walked through, she wouldn’t have had any issue comparing its capacity to the A.U Voyager, though that was a hard pill to swallow, and a huge hit to her pride. She couldn’t help but notice the uniformity of it all, not a chair out of place, or any rubbish on the floor from what she could see, despite actively looking for some at one point. Magnus didn’t care as much; he just appreciated the innovation. In his neighbourhood, he had buses, not metros. In fact, it was his first-time riding in a metro, a very new and unique experience for him.
“Have you ever been inside of a metro before?” He asked, Madeleine looked up from under the chair she was checking, “Oh? No, not really,” she replied. Magnus raised a brow,
“What do you mean, ‘not really’?” Madeleine laughed, “I mean, I’ve been inside of a train, but that’s not really the same thing, is it?”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right, they’re pretty similar actually,”
“We’ve been on both, too as well,”
“Oh? Have we?” She asked, Magnus nodded his head, “Yeah, remember when we went from the docks in dover to London?”
“Oh right! Yeah, I remember that”
“I would hope so, it was only a couple of days ago afterall,” he chuckled, Madeleine laughed also, continuing her search, “What are you looking for?”
“Rubbish, I’ve never seen a piece of public transport that doesn’t have atleast a BIT of rubbish,” Magnus found himself laughing even more, Madeleine was a funny character, even though she probably doesn’t even try to be sometimes.
“You know, Maddie, I never really asked, you wanted to come along so you’d be able to meet Kieran, I know you said it was for closure, but closure of what exactly?”
“I just wanted to know some things about, I don’t know... Life? You know, the two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why,” she started, “But do you ever wonder what happens when you can’t find that? I wanted someone to steer me in the right direction,”
Magnus nodded, understanding what she was saying, and sympathizing with her. “What if we don’t find him? Or maybe he himself hasn’t got an answer to that, or maybe you won’t understand the answer, because it’s too like... Avanced?” Magnus started to ramble, Madeleine lifted up a silencing hand, “It’s worth a try at the end of the day, you won't always get what you want in life,” she said, “Also, did you also give yourself a reason to be here? I remember talking on the cruise about it,”
“Not yet, right now I’m comfortable following everyone else’s lead,” Madeleine shrugged, she couldn’t complain about his reasons, despite fer face telling him otherwise, “Is there anything you really want to get out of this?” She asked finally, “No, not really, I’m just here for the ride,” Madeleine considered his words, as they travelled through to the 11th cabin, she contemplated Magnus, with her deep brown eyes, trying to read him as she did with everybody, but it appeared to her that he didn't lie. He didn’t really have a significant reason for being there. She frowned at this.
“What’s wrong?” He asked, “Nothing, c’est bon,” she said, continuing her search for rubbish and litter. Magnus noticed something strange about the world that they were in, whether it was real or fake. It was always night, and he could always see the stars twinkling above his head, even inside the metro, within the tinted windows he could feel the darkness from outside lingering around the cabin. There was a lot of strange things about this world, now that he thought about it, time felt funny for starters and his sense of direction was really messed up. It was a truly off-putting feeling for him.
Before he could put any more thought into it, he heard an announcement from the metro speakers, “CASCADE TO QAIETIOX VI ARRIVING SHORTLY”
“Oh, that’s probably our cue to leave, lets meet up with Lucia and the rest,” Madeleine said, already making their way back through the cabins, Magnus right behind her.
The metro arrived at the terminal swiftly, the sliding doors opening. It was the moment of truth, if there were no civilians here, then they’d be doubtful if there was anyone at all in this strange place. To their surprise and relief, the terminal was filled with people, all in different outfits and suits, each going about their own business, some entering different metros going to different cities completely. The terminal was like the Dreamspace, with the same black marble tiles, grey walls, neon lights and posters. A massive sign in the middle of the terminal read the name of the city, “QAIETIOX VI”.
They all let out a sigh of relief as they went ahead through the terminal. A tall woman approached them, she was dressed smartly in business attire, with her hair up in a neat bun.
“Hello newcomers! I see you came from the Cascade, don’t mind me asking, but is it fair to say that you’re new here?” She asked, they nodded silently, still reassured that the city was populated, “Don’t stress! As your tour guide, I’ll show you the ropes,” she continued with a placating smile, “You have a lot of questions on your mind, I’m sure, but it’s my job to answer them,”
The woman beckoned them forward, towards a tunnel to the corner of the terminal, “This leads to the city centre, I hope you’re not tired because it’s quite the walk from here,” she added. Lucia shrugged; she’d be willing to walk for as long as needed as long as she got the answers she needed. “The name is Alora, if you’re wondering,” she added, the tunnel was spacious, and consisted of different people, some going in different directions, some to the city and some to the station. They noticed that the tunnel was a sleek black and covered in planetary imagery and stars, Alora noticed their scrutiny, “The Engineer was very fond of all things astronomical, he based this city of space, he put blood, sweat and tears into this place you know,” Lucia raised a brow, “Who’s the Engineer?” She asked, “Ah, where do I begin, you know the posters of the man in the armour? Wearing the helmet and the suit?” They nodded, “Yes, well he is The Engineer, he’s an innovator, brought these lands to life when we had nothing, he built a utopian society from his own powerful cognition alone,” she smiled, “Heaven knows how a being with that level of comprehension and proficiency exists, but I thank God he does, you’ll see him around, he’s very friendly,”
“You reckon a man with that level of knowledge would know a way out of here?” Madeleine asked, suddenly intrigued by this person, “I doubt he would, if he did, this place wouldn’t be what it is... If you could just leave,” Alora frowned, “Besides, why would you want to leave? It’s great here! Unless you think otherwise,”
“No! Of course not!” Magnus said, shaking his head, “We just feel a little homesick is all,”
“Haha, that’s fair. Here I'll tell ya what, I’ll organise an appointment with you after our tour is finished,” Alora smiled, nodding at the ongoing people who were walking down the tunnel.
“So, Alora, how’d you get here?” Lucia started,
“Well, same way as you I’d assume, picked up a strange pin from an even stranger man, and after a while... The details are fuzzy, but I appeared here,” she said, scratching her head, she had the same brooch as Lucia, but she had used it as a hairpin, Cynthia had noticed this smiling at her innovation, “But you can end up here for practically any reason, for example say you’re in a comatose state after an incident, or whatnot.” she rambled. “After a while, the population of the cities in the Otherworld became self-sustainable and grew without the need for anyone falling into the dream, in fact, you’re the first that we’ve had in a while”
“I see,” Lucia regarded her words deeply, “I have one last question though,”
“Fire away!” Alora exclaimed, with a friendly smile, “Do you know of a man named Kieran... Kieran Filmore?”
If Alora had known the man, she certainly wasn’t giving any visual indications, looking at Lucia blankly, “I do recall that name, though I can't remember where exactly, sorry,”
“It's okay, I was just wondering is all,” Lucia replied, slightly disheartened.
“Well, if that’s all the questions you have for now, I suppose that we can start the tour!” Alora said, enthusiastically.
The 7 of them noticed a dazzling light towards the end of the tunnel, coming from the lights within the city, an even larger amount of people could be seen from now, all tending to their business, city business. Exiting the tunnel, Lucia got a good look at the city properly for the first time. Awestruck, she took the moments to scan at the megalopolis that stood mightily before her.
“It’s... Amazing,” she said, with a gaping mouth,
“Welcome to Qaietox VI!” Alora winked, “We hope you enjoy your stay!”