On a different side of the city, a man named Vivien rolls around restlessly and listlessly in his bed.

Vivien couldn’t sleep, and it was no wonder. He just got out of the hospital, on perhaps the most emotional day of his life, and to add he couldn’t stop thinking about someone, some girl, that he had reconnected with recently.

So he grabbed his phone, not able to leave it alone, and texted said girl named ‘Peaches’ in his phonebook, actually named Rowan. I need to change that name soon… He thought to himself.

Wanna drink some beers with me at my place? He looked it over, deleted it, retyped it, and finally tapped the send button feeling only frustrated with himself.

He knew he’d regret it later.

He knew it wasn’t a good idea.

When his phone buzzed in his hands, he read a text message from Rowan that said, Yeah, I’m on my way over!

Astonished, he looked at the time. It was eleven o’clock. His brain did some mental gymnastics, leaping from conclusion to conclusion about what this could possibly mean…

“Does she still like me? Like I like her?” He said aloud to himself. He shook his head, no. That couldn’t be true… Not after what we’ve been through.

He got out of bed and put some clothes on, a pair of brown joggers and blue button up shirt. He sprayed some of his good cologne on and brushed his teeth.

Looking in the mirror, Vivien put on a white surgical eyepatch. He didn’t remember the car crash that took his eye from just a few days ago, as hard as he tried to recall it. He shook his head, brushed his messy brown hair, put on a baseball cap and called it good.

He grabbed two beers from the fridge and went out front, knowing she lived maybe ten minutes away and knowing the way she drives, she’d be here any minute.

Vivien barely got to crack open his beer before he heard her down the street, her loud exhaust pipe and earth shattering sound system the sure signs that Rowan was nearby. Vivien watched her pull in, his heart fluttering, he took a chug of his beer and got up to greet her.

Rowan hopped out of the car with a huge smile and hugged him, saying, “It’s good to see you again.” The hug lasted longer than he knew what to do with.

“Uh, thanks for coming over. Here’s your beer.”

She cracked it open and took a long drink. “Cheers,” she said, raising her can.

“Cheers,” he said, tapping the cans together. “I was thinking we’d just sit out front since it’s so nice tonight.”

“Sounds good. I see your house is exactly the same, has much changed at all in two years?”

“For you more than me, by the looks of you,” he looked her up and down. To say she had a change in style would be an understatement, she was a whole new person with a dozen piercings and tattoos all over her, looking punk-rock as all hell.

“The last time I saw you, your hair was still naturally blonde! You weren’t wearing skate shoes, you were playing tennis and trying on dresses.”

Now she was wearing a leather jacket, her hair is platinum, still so stylish yet in such a different way… It feels great to connect with her again.

She giggled, “After we broke up… I did a little finding myself. What do you think? Like my new style?”

“It just proves you can do good in anything, any style. I love your hair, and I thought I was impartial to unnatural hair colors! Color me surprised.”

“Hahaha! Vivie, I missed you a lot, you know that? Sometimes I’ll think about how you’re doing, but be too much a chicken to just text you.”

They sat down on the porch, in some old rocking chairs he had out there.

“So, did you ever find yourself out in this wild world?”

“Oh, come on! I see you're still as cheesy as ever. But no, nobody ever truly finds themselves—you think you do and you’re bound to wake up the next day certain that you don’t.”

“Sounds tragic.”

She stifled a laugh, saying, “It is! I learned a lot about my limits this past year, though. I think that’s worth something.”

“I always thought you were limitless, though.”

To that, Rowan chugged the rest of her beer and crushed the can in her hand. “Get me another one, please?”

“Who’s driving you home?”

She leaned in close and said just above a whisper, “I thought I might stay the night… Yeah?”

In response, Vivien chugged his beer and stood up, gesturing for her to come in.

“I like it out here for now,” she said, handing him the crushed can.

Rowan propped her head up on her hand and looked up at the sky… she thought she saw an outline. She rubbed her eyes, but no. She saw it right.

There’s… a city in the sky. What the fuck. “Vivie, come quick!” The screen door swung open and closed, and she pointed to the sky.

“I didn’t think I smoked that much weed…”

“Hey… let’s check it out. I think I see a stairway up, see that?”

“...Yeah, I see it. Okay, let’s do it. It’s not often that I hallucinate so vividly.” Vivien handed her another beer and they went on a walk, continually looking up to this silvery blue staircase up in the sky.

“How far up do you think that… city is?” Rowan asked.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“Probably… half a mile, if I had to guess. I can only imagine this was what Led Zeppelin was talking about in Stairway to Heaven… Look, it’s only getting clearer now.”

The staircase was like a translucent blue but now it was getting a silver outline, and far less opaque. The two were making their way down the sidewalk uphill, to where it leads to a cliff.

They found themselves next to some outdoor tennis courts, and at the end of the asphalt was the staircase.

“I used to bring boys here to makeout with them,” Rowan giggled.

“Who didn’t—?”

He stopped and listened… listening to the sound of a pair of boots from behind him. He looked around, but couldn’t find the source.

“Rowan…”

She grabbed his arm and pointed. Under a street light to their left, a man in leather armor, a black cloak, and a battleaxe on his back. He was a large man, and walked at a steady pace, neither slow nor fast. He glanced over once at the two of them, and in the light you could see his eyes were crying tears of crimson red.

The two stood there, staring at him, as he approached the staircase at the same pace and started climbing up it. Rowan, without a word, started to follow the leather clad man with Vivien close behind her. She was hesitant as she put her first step on the silver staircase, carefully trying to find footing as she saw a sheer drop below.

“It’s actually solid…” she said to herself as she put weight on her foot, and took the first step up. She looked up the stairway, the warrior had stopped and looked back to her. She froze up in his sights, a tear of blood dripping down his face, but just as soon started his climb again. She started her climb up with Vivien in tow.

“What do you think we’ll find up there?” Vivien asked.

“Destiny, Vivie. Destiny awaits those who can climb the heavens. Something big is gonna happen.”

“It kinda sounds like you’ve been here before…”

“That’s because I have, when I was a girl. I’m most surprised that you can climb this as well…”

“You’ve been here…?”

“Yeah, my parents took me to a similar place once. My parents are… I guess you’d call them Druids. They sought a cure for their sick child, me, and brought me to a silver city in the sky, a lot like this one.”

“Sounds like a fairytale… but I believe you, somehow.”

“You’re face to face with the unbelievable right now, and it’s only going to get weirder from here. Stick close to me.”

“So you’re a… Druid? Rowan?”

“Something like that, yeah. It’d be somewhat more accurate to say I’m the child of two Druids. I just never formally took it up.”

Vivien didn’t know what to say or ask, so he kept quiet from there on, on their long walk upwards.

- - - -

Up at the top.

The warrior was waiting for them, just twenty feet ahead of the two, his battleaxe drawn and resting on his shoulder.

They looked around. Scattered around the silver-blue streets of cobble roads and stone houses, there were stationary balls of floating bright blue light, like they were hot flames. He noticed his feet made no sound here.

“You, young man,” the axe-wielder spoke in a booming voice. “I see your cursed already. This place is your fate, I can tell. Why don’t you join me, I could even make you a disciple.”

Vivien watched as tears of blood streamed down his face. He looked to Rowan, who nodded and whispered into his ear, “Do what you feel is right.”

“Who are you? What’s your name, your goal here?”

“I’m the first immortal, one of three, and part of many. I forgot my name long ago, call me what you wish, but my goal here is to learn the prophecy. You only stand to benefit from my support! Join me!”

“I’ll join you for now, temporarily.”

“Then come with your waif, hurry.” With a flick of his clock, he turned and started walking further into the city. Vivien grabbed hold of Rowan’s hand and rushed to catch up, while still keeping a distance.

“Did he just call me a waif…?”

Vivien ignored her, asking the man, “What did you mean when you said I was cursed already?”

“Charmed or cursed. It’s certain someone has tampered with you recently.”

“How do you know?”

The man looked back at him and said, “Because I know everything. It’s part of the many curses on myself.” The man looked up at the sky, and started running. “Hurry!” he yelled behind him.

They weren’t in a position to ask questions, so they followed him as fast as their feet could carry them. The man was surprisingly fast for his stature, and easily out ran them. They ran for minutes, passing by the sights and blue floating flames.

The man wasn’t out of breath, but they were by the end of it. They looked back from where they came. There was nothing there anymore, not even the faintest of outlines remained.

“Clouds that cover the moon are dangerous,” the man said to them before starting to walk again.

It occurred to Vivien that his walk was not without meaning. He knew where to go, where he was going. Looking up at the sky, he saw clouds covering half the moon and more clouds in the far distance.

He shivered. This was extremely dangerous, he realized all at once.

They walked for a time before coming to a fountain spraying water from it’s top with marble statues around it. Only these things were completely solid, not transparent at all.

“This is the middle,” the man said. “Touch yours.”

He took a look at the three statues, all of them naked representations. From the left, there was a girl with short hair and her arms akimbo, holding a dagger. The second was too degraded to tell. The third was a man with scars all across his body and long hair, standing ready for battle… Vivien thought something about it looked familiar.

Rowan gasped. “Is that… you?” Vivien titled his head…

“It is…” He looked at the man, who nodded his head. Vivien gently reached his hand out and touched it.

The statue started to move its arms and hands, Vivien took a step back and the man leaped forward, bringing down his axe on it’s arms.

The huge axe bounced off the statue with a crashing noise, completely deflected. Vivien leapt away backwards, and the man brought his axe around sideways, directly at the neck. It bounced off again.

The statue reached out and grabbed the man’s arm, and the man’s arm came out to stiff arm him back, pushing the statue backwards and making it fall onto the edge of the fountain. His foot came down with enough force on the statue's left leg that it snapped off but didn’t make a sound.

Rowan, by some instinct, looked off to the left. Three men in identical suits were approaching with swords drawn and crossbows hanging off their waist. They were making a charge at their location.

“Vivie, some people are coming… and I don’t think they’re friendly.”

Vivien was too busy watching the statue waver away from existence, leaving only the snapped off leg; he heard a clinking sound like that of glass touching and saw an eyeball rolling away. He jumped for it.

“Rowan,” he said, handing her the strange, glossy eye. “Put this in my eye,” he removed his eyepatch.

In a hurry, she aligned the correct side and pushed it into the socket, squirming the whole while. He blinked, once, twice, as he adjusted to the world around him swimming in his vision.

Rowan jumped back, scared by the glowing eye she just put in, away from the rapidly approaching men.

“We found you, Geirold!” One of the men screamed, making a jumping attack that was deflected with the end of the axe. The man, known to the FBI agents as Geirold, brought down his axe, shaking the moonlight landscape they were standing on.

Two more people were approaching silently at full speed, a young woman with short black hair and a blonde man. Erin and Avery.

Avery tackled one of the men to the ground, and Erin materialized her dagger, holding it to another’s throat from behind.

“Let’s talk this out,” Erin said to the FBI leader, practically giving him a shave.

“You again?! You shouldn’t be here!”

“We must leave,” Geirold said, looking up at the moon. He took a card out from his front pocket and began to waver away, but not before he grabbed the nearest person to him… the remaining armed FBI agent. Geirold disappeared into nothingness.

“These backpacks are parachutes! Let us go and we’ll save your ass!” So said the FBI leader. “When the moon is covered, this’ll all disappear!”

Looking up at the moon, Erin and Avery let go of them.

The two FBI agents, seemingly at random, grabbed a hold of Rowan and Avery, just in time to pull the cord as the moonlit ground disappeared from all around them.

Avery pulled out the card in his back pocket and flicked it to Erin, who caught it before going into a free fall with Vivien.

So this is how I die… he thought.

Erin reached out and grabbed him in the air, the ground rapidly approaching. She looked at the card and focused.