Chapter 3

They say hills are God's hurdles. Well, someone says that I guess. Maybe, maybe I say that and only me. Well, whatever. This hill is large, scary, and apparently the home of the resident electrical engineering fanatic, Ophelia.

“So, why did you move back to Switzerland?” Ophelia asked.

“Well, family matters I guess. Personal business.” I replied to her.

“I see I see, well I won’t ask too much into it. Hope you’re doing okay though.” Ophelia said.

“Yeah, no major problems here. Haven’t seen my main man Pete in a while so it is nice to be here and see him in all his aged glory.” I said back.

“I actually kinda get that, haha. Pete’s a great man, that’s what the townsfolk say. Really a man of the people and he always goes above and beyond to help those in need out.” Ophelia said, in a charmed sort of state.

“He’s always been like that. A real helper and do-gooder. I really aspire to be like him someday where I can put up with commonplace things to help others.” I replied.

Ophelia turned to me with a soft smile. “Sure, sure. I suppose I hope for that as well.” She said, “Well, we should take this route.” Ophelia pointed towards a muddy path that appeared to be carved out of the verdant hill. “Brought your hiking boots?” She said cooly.

“Course I did, we ARE going hiking, aren’t we?” I said back.

“Sure are, well let’s get to it!” Ophelia said.

The hike was no mere task, though Ophelia must have done it a thousand and one times, because she had it down to a T. She moved with both grace and poised skill, with total focus. It was kind of interesting to see her both so accurate and skillful at the same time, despite literally climbing a hill being the skill she was so talented at. Eh, probably something with Swiss girls I assume. After about a 1 and a half mile walk we arrived at a couple of large, daunting doors. Looked like something out of a castle in a movie.

“Those are large doors by any regard.” I said openly, out of breath from the hike considering New York had nothing of this rigor.

“We Swiss love our doors...I guess. Just a big house with some big doors, not much else to say.” Ophelia replied.

“Seems like you’ve got a nice chunk of money, is that so?” I asked Ophelia.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

“I guess you could say that. More importantly, now do you see why I had to get into the electrical side of things? Gotta protect this big lightning rod.” Ophelia said with sparks in her eyes.

“Yeah, this place is huge and daunting...perfect target practice for a nice lightning bolt.” I said jokingly.

“Yeah, well we should hope that doesn’t happen.” Ophelia said with an odd look of strangeness.

Opening the huge doors, I was instantly greeted with a tall and tight looking man. Seemed like he ate nothing but plant fibers and did nothing but work out. He was extremely toned but not like a bodybuilder. He looked like if you slapped him, he wouldn’t move a millimeter. Regardless, he seemed friendly enough.

“Welcome to our humble abode.” The man said, his words cold as ice.

“Haha, thanks, but I wouldn’t necessarily call this place ‘humble’ if I were you.” I said nervously.

“Yes, well it is larger than most, but more of a curse than a blessing what with all this lightning. This… ‘thing’ could be gone in the blink of an eye.” The man said chillingly.

“I’ve heard. So, what do you do about the lightning anyway?” I asked, feeling the cold weight of his words.

“Well, Ophelia takes care of that, why don’t we go see?” The man said.

“Sure, oh and by the way, what’s your name? Mine is Daniel.” I said back.

“I’m aware of your name, Ophelia mentioned you. No matter, my name is Zem.

“Zem. Hm, quite a unique one.” I said back.

“I guess so, unique name for a unique person?” Zem said back.

“Well, up these stairs here, they will take you to where we handle the lightning.” Ophelia said.

Ophelia took Zem and I to a flight of enormous, ornate black granite stairs. They were beautiful, they looked like an infinite cosmos.

“Wow, even the stairs are the center of attention” I said.

“Well, they lead to the center of attention I guess.” Zem replied with the same cool look.

Climbing the stairs, I felt just a bit wary. New York was full of people but nobody interacted on this level. I could attribute most of it to cultural differences, but there was still something telling me that something was wrong.

“Here we are, the lightning room.” Ophelia gestured to the gigantic dome.

“Fitting name, looks like this place could store a sky.” I said back.

“We shall get straight to it I guess, when lightning storms brew, you come near this circular plate in the middle,” Ophelia gestured to a white marble plate in the center of the dome, “You then press this button to activate the lightning rods, which essentially capture the lightning and ground it, then transform it into reusable energy.” Ophelia said, gesturing up at an open hole in the ceiling with some metal rods that looked like they were set up and waiting.

“I’m sure it is more complicated than that, but that’s for you to know I guess.” I said back.

“No need to flatter me, haha, anyway, do you want to go stand on the plate?” Ophelia asked.

“What good would that do?” I wondered curiously.

“It is pretty cool to look up at the sky from that spot, not something you would want to miss.” Ophelia said, the same sparks in her eyes from earlier.

“Hmm, no harm no foul I guess. But what if I get struck?” I asked.

“Struck? Struck by what? You climbed the same hill as I did, not a cloud in sight today.” Ophelia said.

“True, the weatherman said it was all clear today.” Zem said.

“I do recall him saying that, well if you say so I guess I will.” I said to the pair.

I walked over to the marble plate and placed my feet together on it, and stared up into the bright blue sunny sky. It was pretty incredible, probably something with the way the hole was set up. Staring up, I started to notice a small gray wispy formation in the center of the ceiling hole, up in the blue sky.

“Hey, what is tha-.” Pointing into the sky, suddenly a massive gray cloud formed right above the house.

“What in-” I heard Zem start to say.

Alas, it was too late, for a large purple lightning bolt had already arced into my body.

End of Chapter 3