Start of Part 1__________________________________________________________________________________________

Ever since I was young I knew that I wasn’t like other people. Growing up the faceless people around me seemed comedic and stupid. Their behaviors, their actions, their tantrums, their playful moods, their stern moods and stony faces, their determined glances and their sorrowful sobs. Their Serious demeanor, their complacent countenances, their serendipitous babble and their flippant personalities. When they are happy it’s as if the sun is shining, when they are sad it is as if the clouds thicken and gather, when they are angry, thunder strikes and when they are without hope it is as if the world is swallowed up in eternal darkness. As if everything is hollow and meaningless. As if the land is barren and life cannot exist anymore. As if there is no point to anything. Ever since I was young I felt this way. This was is no small part because of my parents. My parents were really shitty people and they did a lot of shitty things to me. I lived my childhood the way a raccoon lives their life. I’d scurry about and nibble on scraps before returning to my hidey hole and waiting out the day.

Twenty years on I stared into my bathroom mirror. A long scar stretched from one corner of my mouth all the way to my ear. It was on the same side that I’d had my eye gouged out as a kid. It made me look as if I had a constant sneer and had contributed more than a little to people keeping their distance from me. It was the last wound they’d inflicted on me before the police took them away and I was carted off to the hospital and some time after to foster parents.

The Yurman's were a distant but kind old couple. They’d raised their children well and they had been the owners of a successful business before passing it onto their eldest daughter. I was the only foster child under their care and after only two weeks they’d been taken with me. They’d adopted me themselves shortly before I’d started primary school. I don’t think I’ll ever understand what compelled them to adopt someone like me. But I think in their eyes they only saw the scared little boy and none of the nasty wounds that I’d been inflicted with. Both mental and physical.

It was on one winter day during my last year of high school. When I saw the sky ignite with an sparkling emerald light. The sky itself split apart and revealed a whole other world. Then it just stayed like that. No one knew what had caused it and yet there it was. A portal to another world. People were in a panic. Local religious figures claimed that it was a sign of the beginning of the apocalypse. The religious community was sent into a frenzy to run, to pray, to beg for forgiveness, to do anything to settle their weak hearts. I however didn’t care. If the world were to end, then let it.

I had moved out of the Yurman’s house the summer before and although they made sure to check up on me from time to time. We didn’t really have much to do with one another anymore. They’d taken the first plane out of Sydney and I’d stayed. Within a week the UN’s soldiers swarming the city and forming blockades. Humanity first encounter with potentially an extra-dimensional existence was world wide news. Countless people outside the city tried to get in and countless people inside were trying to get out. The UN military was keeping everyone body out and refusing to let anyone leave. It was a full on quarantine. Supplies were aquisitioned from local stores and the owners were compensated for their service to humanity. For the next three years I sat in my crumby flat, ate the crumby supplies provided to me and played video games. With the shops abandoned you could just take whatever you wanted. The internet was provided free of charge and so was the water and power. Life in the city didn’t function. Mostly everyone critical to the cities businesses and companies had been the first to flee. Everyone else was either just the homeless bums to poor or too stupid to get out before the blockade or the white collar workers and families that had been held up for one reason or another and found themselves unable to leave.

I stayed because I found my purpose in life. That hole in the sky. That was my purpose. Every night I’d watch it. The world on the other side rotated slowly and laboriously. At times it way night there but day here. At others it was night here but day there. I’d figured out that every two weeks our night times matched up. Their cities shone with bright lines and sparkling lights. It was a world like our own. Planes flew through the sky and cars zoomed about through the city streets. As if we weren't here at all, as if we were something to ignore. They functioned as normal. Business as usual. My mind would wonder each night as I wondered how similar life might be in that other world. That world that was both so close and so far away. Someday I will go there. Even if I have to wait until I’m an old man. I’m going to that mysterious other world that made life seem so much more vibrant.

One cold night as I watched the other world slowly rotate I’d noticed a quick flash of light brighten the alleyway by my unit complex. At first I’d thought it was just one of the gangs that had been cropping up messing with fireworks. But I overheard them arguing as they drew close to the main street.

“I told you I’d not hear another word of it. We’re investigating this city in the sky and we will unlock its ancient secrets.” The energetic and punctual voice of a woman said. She had an english accent. 

“Nonsense. We’re going back immediately Malinda. It’s the middle of the night in this city and we don’t know what kinds of terrors await us in the dark.” What sounded like an older man with a scottish accent said nervously.

“Nonsense Welkin. It’s my magic that brought us here and it’s my magic that will take us back. And I’m going back until I’ve discovered something amazing.” The woman replied curtly.

They gotten really close now and I thought for a moment to scurry on back into my room and pretend I wasn’t here. However just as was about to get up the two came into view.

“Please Malinda. At least let us go back and bring a few mercenaries as bodyguards. We have no idea what the dangers are! One wrong step and we could be dead!” Exceed an absolutely huge light green skinned man with bulging muscles and short brown hair. He wore a short sleeved white shirt and black short pants that stopped slightly past the knee. His muscles were so large they would have looked ridiculous if his frame hadn’t been just as large to match them. Under each arm he had a pistol holster for a stupidly large pistol.

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“Isn’t it great!? Just like the adventurers of old. Delving into the depths of the labyrinths. Risking life and limb for untold treasures! Do you have any idea what this could mean for our people Welkin? This could be the second coming of the golden age of adventure!” Rejoiced a woman with red violet skin and bouncy curled white hair that came down past her shoulders. She wore blue jeans and a stylized leather jacket. She was much shorter than the massive green man. But even I would seem short next to him and I was 6ft 4inches tall. More than that the woman had small bat wings sticking out of her back and a long black tail of some kind that I could barely see in the moonlight.

“It’s also incredibly dangerous. The life expectancy of an adventure was thirty minutes from departure. Malinda. Please. Let's return before our window closes or whatever serves as for a local stumbles upon and and decides they’d like to see us dead. We’ll come back once we’re proper equip to defend yourself in case of an ordeal. Please just- Wha- What is it?” The Big green skinned man stammered to a stop when the woman, Malinda, suddenly crouched and raised her hand to him.

Malinda looked close at the road markings and sniffed the asphalt, “Bituminous pitch, hints of burnt rubber. There hasn’t been much activity here for a number of years. These markings seem similar to our own road markings. Very strange.”

Suddenly she seemed to notice something and snapped her head up towards my direction. I clearly saw her large yellow slit eyes go wide as she noticed me. My phone vibrated and the screen turned on to indicated I was receiving an incoming call. The screen lit me up for them to see clearly. I’d taken to the habit of watching the other world with the lights off because it interfered with my night vision. I squinted my eyes at the sudden light but other than that did nothing. The three of us stood there in shock for a time. I started at the both of them. Not quite sure whether or not to scream and run away or beg them not to kill me or otherwise. So I chose the third option. To stay silent. My scars make it very hard for other to determine my expression without me exaggerating it. So I’d found that if I just stayed silent and started at people they found it unnerving. Actually smiling unnerved people as well. Maybe I’m just scary.

The big green man, Welkin, suddenly burst into action and drew a gun from an under arm holster. He leveled the gun at me and glared. Malinda glanced back at him and reached out her hand. Indicating that he should hold his fire. She made calm shushing sounds as she slowly moved over to Welkin’s side.

“Welkin.” She said slowly.

“Yes, Malinda?” Welkin said vigilantly.

“I think it’s a human.” She said in a whisper that failed to remain private.

“Maybe. But what's wrong with it’s face? You think it could be a wraith?” Welkin replied in kind with a whisper that also failed to remain private. Honestly sound really travels far when there's no background noise around.

“No. If it was a wraith we’d be dead right now.” She whispered with some degree of ridicule in her tone.

“Should we try to communicate?” Welkin whispered back.

Malinda nodded her head very slowly. Welkin lowered his gun slightly but seemed ready to raise it and fire at any moment.

“I can hear you-” I said before they could try to speak to me.

Welkin immediately raised his gun again when I spoke and I slowly raised my hands.

“I’m unarmed and I can’t hurt you. You’d snap me like a twig.” I said in attempt to reassure them. Though I’m not sure what they’re afraid of. I’m the one who should be afraid. 

Welkin just stared at me with his black eyes, gun raised and with his finger on the trigger. Malinda waved her hand to get him to lower the gun and he begrudgingly lowered the barrel slightly. At least it wasn’t pointing straight at me for the moment.

“How did you get here human? Ah, my names Malinda by the way.” Malinda asked after slowly standing straight. Her large yellow slit eyes trained on my every movement.

“Ugh- I’m Haris. I was born here?” I said. My tone turning it into a question as my voice cracked unnaturally at the end of the sentence. I tried to ignore too cold sweat dripping down the side of my head. But it was damn hard.

Malinda seemed genuinely surprised and glanced at Welkin. Turning back to me she asked,  “What on Grenoa happened to your face?”

“My parents were monsters.” I grumbled. Suppressing the whirlpool of emotions the mere mention of my parents brought up in me.

The two glanced at each other before remembering they were being cautious of me and snapping their eyes back to me. I realized I’d need to elaborate because I was talking to monsters and they might not know I’d meant they were crazy as shit-ball, insane.

“They didn’t like how my face looked so they “fixed” it.” My voice went haggard with all the things just saying it had brought back to the surface with it.

The two grimaced.

“Fuck.” Welkin muttered with a pained look in his eyes. Sympathy from an actual goes bump in the night monster. That’s something I’d never expected to ever receive in my life.

“I’d heard of some monsters abusing their human born children before. But not to this degree. Ancient city indeed.” Malinda whispered to Welkin and again failed to keep it private. Welkin simply nodded his head.

“I can still hear you when you whisper.” I said dejectedly.

“Our apologies. So you live here? In this abandoned city?” Malinda asked me. I noticed Welkin had lowered his gun further. Though I was sure that if I made a movement he didn’t like he could still raise it and shoot me in less than a second.

“Well- yeah. But it’s not abandoned. C-come in off the street it feels weird to talk to you like this. Also we might attract the attention of one of the local gangs like this.” I slowly moved my hands to motion them towards the building. Welkin glared hard at me the entire time.

They reluctantly agreed and I came down to let them in. 

End of Part 1__________________________________________________________________________________________