“So the time has finally come” Said a familiar elderly voice

“Uhhh” Axel groaned. Rolling over on the ground, he rubbed his eyes and slowly got to his feet. He had returned once again to the room of white.

“Now, before you go crazy….” The old man began

“There’s no time for talking!” Axel said, scrambling. “My friend is in danger! There's no more time for lectures or old axioms!” Axel said pacing towards the pair of black doors.

“I'm going through that door and I'm not coming out until I have my powers” He said defiantly.

“Believe me, I know” The old man said, raising his palms towards Axel. He wore a different expression on his face than the usual disgruntled one. This time his look seemed reserved, or better yet concerned.

“I’ve seen what happens once you go through that door, I just want to remind you, everything you see past that door, no matter how real it seems, is not reality” He cautioned.

“Wait… Are you telling me these dreams are not real?” Axel asked

“What I’m telling you is that whether they are real or not, they are not the reality you face at the present time. To awaken your powers you can't afford to get caught up in the past” said the old man.

“I ...I understand,” Axel said, making his way towards the door. He placed his hand on the door and turned back towards the old man.

“This time I'm not turning back” He said confidently.

“Good, Then I will await you on the other side” the old man said

Without wasting another second Axel ran into the doors at the end of the white room, blasting them open and jumping into the blazing inferno.

Almost immediately, Axel found himself pinned against the wall, face to face with the same masked menace that had tormented him previously. Fire enveloped his arms and legs scorching them as the man began his wicked chant.

[https://i.imgur.com/v7q6CJL.png]

Axel screamed as the flames reached his hair and neck. His flesh began to cook and chisel as they quickly devoured him. The severe burns blistering him in pain caused him to question whether he was truly asleep. All the water from his skin had completely evaporated, leaving him a blackened charcoal.

As the Flames completely consumed him he stared defiantly into the eyes of his assailant.

“I’m... I'm not afraid anymore, I’m not afraid of pain, if that’s what it takes to awaken my powers… Then so be it!” He said defiantly.

The man in the mummy rags began to step back, seeming afflicted by Axel’s words. He began to shake and tremble slowly falling back. Now out of arm's reach he stood peering at Axel through the flames holding a stare for a few moments. Closing his eyes and dropping his head, the mummified man dissipated the flames and darted out of the room.

Axel fell to the floor for gasping for air as he frantically examined his body for collateral damage. To his relief, the black flesh that covered his body was gone. His skin was intact, save from the burn scars that he already had before entering the room.

As Axel walked to the center of the room he saw a small circle of flames still on the floor. As he stood over the, he saw they had scorched the imprint of a number into the ground/

Scorched into the ground was the number 33.

“What does this mean?” he said, examining his numbers, “And…. why do I feel so sad all of a sudden”. He said, grabbing his chest. The number had a significance that he could feel, but one he did not understand

“Wait a minute I'm here for 6! I don't have time to be fooling around” He said dusting himself off.

Clenching his fist, he shook it at the ground before regaining his composure.

As he got himself together a pair of black doors appeared at the end of his house. “One step closer, just wait for me 6 I'm coming!” He said starting to take steps toward the door.

“SIIIIIIIX!!!!!” He screamed.

As he approached the door he heard a strange sound coming from outside of his house. He couldn't be certain what the sound was, but it was a disturbing one, almost sounding like someone was choking on something.

Nodding the sound off, he walked into the doors and gave them a hard nudge.

The doors refused to budge.

“What?” Axel said confused, “Are they locked?”

Once again the sound from outside his home beckoned to him, this time much louder. There was something familiar about it, something he was sure he had heard before.

GLOW! GLOW!

A faint light began to glow below him.

Looking down at his necklace, it began to rise up from his chest and move into the air radiating towards the direction of the sound outside.

“Well that settles it, I won't wake up but I’ve got to figure out what that sound is!” he said running to the front of his porch.

Kicking open the door he saw the man in mummy rags sitting on the steps of his house, shaking, with his hands in his palms.

The man…. was crying.

“How could you do this? You're the worst, the absolute worst brother there ever was! How could you have done this to him?” The man sobbed

As the small wraps around the mummy's head began to come undone, red hair began emanating from the top of his head.

The man tore off his mummified wraps revealing a sharp leather jacket and a red bandana.

[https://i.imgur.com/HSQJmsP.jpg]

“Vincent!” Axel screamed digging his hands into his head

“There’s... No way… the whole time…. it was Vince?”

Axel stood watching his brother cry his eyes out. He had no idea how to react, he had never seen his brother like this.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

“It’s… its okay bro…” Axel said, trying to comfort him. “You were just trying to awake my powers, I’m not angry” He said tearing up

His brother never showing his powers…. his brother’s adamant attitude on keeping distance from him… It all made sense now.

“I’m so sorry big bro” Axel said reaching out to touch his shoulder.

Before he could make contact with his brother a pale white hand grabbed his wrist stopping him from touching Vincent.

“Don’t forget why you're here! I told you once, this is not reality!”

Axel wiped the tears from his eyes once again.

“I’ll be back for you bro... Once I’ve sorted things out I swear I'll make things right. You don't have to stay away from me anymore! I'm not angry… I understand you were just trying to do what's best for me! But….” Axel said sniffling “Right now I've got to do what's best for me! And I have to leave you here to go find 6!” Axel said, turning away.

“I’m going to save him! And after that I’m going to save you! I'm not running away from my problems any longer! From now on I'm running towards them!” He declared. “Thanks old -”

As Axel turned to thank the old man he found no one beside him. He turned around looking for him when he heard a sound.

“Eeerrrr” he heard come from within the house

“That’s right the door!” He said scrambling to his feet.

Axel ran right through the door to his house back to the double doors. One of them appeared to be creaked open now, leading to a path of light.

“All right I'm on my way 6” He said, drying his eyes. Taking in a deep breath he opened the door.

Once inside he found himself in another white room full of light.

This room was quite different than the other one. Surrounding him were an endless set of doors all around as far as the eye could see. The never ending expansion of doors were all open with light emanating from them, almost as if they led into some other dimension.

In the middle of the room he saw a throne, and on that throne, a boy’s body laid out sprawling over the sides. The body was frail and weak almost as if it was dying.

Circulating around the body in various directions, was a faint blue light that was barely glowing. Above the body was a large ball of white light scattering blue light in multiple directions. The body was having its blue light ripped away in what looked like a vortex that led into the white light. As the blue light was sucked out only a tiny amount was left for the body to circulate throughout its system leaving it looking weak and pale.

Making his way up to the throne, Axel walked past the hundreds of doors shining light around him. When he had finally come face-to-face with the dying body, his mouth dropped to the floor. Jumping back, he nearly fell down the stairs, shaken by the realization he had come to.

“That’s… that’s... he said.

“That’s right” said a voice from behind him

Axel turned around, it was the old man.

“That body lying there is your body.” The old man said.

“What's happening to me... what is this place?” Axel asked

“This is the center of your minds, this is where your powers truly lie.” “There were burdens of the past weighing you down, that's why you had to go through that memory before you could get here.

“Burdens.... of the past?” Axel asked

“Unresolved burdens of the past, become unspoken burdens of the future” The old man said placing his arm on Axel’s shoulder

“The result is silence… A cold distance between people.”

“I see…. so Vincent… He was holding this in all along… And as for me…” Axel began. “I see…. so inside I always knew that it was my brother... inside I always knew that in some ways I had failed him, to think he went to those extremes to save me...”

“No more!” The old man said, waving his finger. Straying thoughts are dangerous in a place such as this!” The old man warned.

“In this space thoughts become reality! Think too much about your brother and you’ll be back in that room! You must acknowledge your past and move on from it, that is unless have you forgotten what you've come here for?”

“No,” Axel said looking down at the ground “I haven't”

“Good, then I hope you are prepared for what come next!” The Old man stated sternly.

“I've been back to the past right? So where do I have to go now?” Axel asked

“Unfortunately your journey to the past is not over, there is still more inside you holding you back” The old man said. “You see, lying there on that table is your spiritual self, or the conceptualization of the ether flow in your body. “You’ve been so weak for so long because that huge ball of light is stealing all your ether! And let me say before you confronted your past the flow was even bigger than that! Your body had but a few drops in it!

“Am….. I dying?” Axel asked.

“No not physically, but if left the way you are it won't be long before you lose your powers completely.”

“So….. What do I do?”(Axel)

“You have to find that final piece that's holding you back! You must restore that either flow to your body that's going into that light. (Old man)

“That light…. what is that light?”

“That is the light of the father that lies within you”

Axel looked back at the old man not understanding.

“The source of all your dreams!” The old man said raising his hands

“You see the various streams pouring out into different rooms? Each one of those rooms is a memory or a dream, at this point it's impossible even for me to tell which one is which. As you can see, there are thousands of them. The capacity of your mind is absolutely astounding!”

“Wait so you're telling me each one of those doors is a dream.” Axel said scratching his chin

“That’s right” The old man answered

“And one of those doors is a memory that's causing my powers not to exist.”

“That’s right”

“Then I'm going to have to open every single door in order to find out what happened to me?” “That will take forever!”

“Yes you're correct but understand this, they are your gateway to the light, and they are not the light themselves.

“What do you mean? What are you talking about? None of this makes any sense!” Axel said stomping the ground

“In order to find out what's stopping you, you only need to go directly into the light! You need to go as deep into it as possible!” “And in doing so you will find the door that you need, you will find the missing link to your powers and at that moment you will know what happened! You will know what the missing piece is and you'll gain control of the light.”

“What is the light and why do I have it? What is the light of the father? This thing that people keep talking about!?” Axel said grabbing his head

“Just like it was pointless to tell you about this room before you got here, it is pointless until you have possessed it to explain what it is, right now it lies within you unused, withering away in the in the realm of dreams, it's up to you to bring it into the realm of reality.” The old man said, shaking his head.

“In that journey you'll find pain… pain you may want to look away from... The mind always wants to forget pain that the body isn’t prepared for.”

“Wait a minute, what if I wake up during the dream? What if I'm not ready to see this?” Axel said.

“Don’t worry you are way too deep now to wake up instantly” “You’re in the deepest parts of your being” In fact you will you’ll find it harder to wake up then to stay in this state” said the old man.

“Your biggest concern is not finding the source of your lights’ obstruction. Unless you do find that light you may never become awakened and you may stay here forever, forever lost in the never-ending amount of doors struggling to find your identity! Struggling to find the source of the light, and when you finally come to it might be 10 years! That's how long it would take to go through all these doors! And that's only the first time around if you go through these doors more than once it could take an untold amount of time if you get lost in your memories!”

“Then how am I supposed to know where to go, how am I supposed to know which door to go through” How am I supposed to get to the bottom of this? I don't even know what this is!” Axel said.

“Did you forget what your mother left you” The old man said pointing to his chest

Hanging from around his neck next was the gold necklace that his mother had left him.

“That will tell you which way to go, your only job is to listen to it” the old man said walking away

“Wait that's it? I'm supposed to travel through thousands of doors with nothing but this little compass?”

“No…..You're supposed to travel through thousands of doors with nothing but a little compass for your friend!” The old man said smiling.

Axel looked down admiring the necklace. He knew this was his destiny and that this was the direction that the pendant had been pointing to the entire time. He just hadn’t been capable of reading it.

“Thanks for everything old man... I've got to say having a time traveler on your side does make things a little easier.” He said chuckling

“I’m glad I could have been of help, but make no mistake Axel you've come a great way yourself. You put yourself in danger for a friend, and you've refused to go along with reality. That’s truly admirable, something even time probably can't teach you”

“Thanks old man, whelp I'll see you on the other side” Axle said

“I'll be waiting but please don't take too long, you by now time is very relative when it comes to waiting for me.” The old man jived

“I won't be long, you're not the only one waiting for me after all” Axel said looking down at his pendant

“Wait Axel one more thing.” “Some of the dreams and or memories you see may not only be yours… You have been carrying pain for others your light has touched.”

“I see… you must mean my friends… Reggie B Lily... and even Lance… I didn't know I had gotten that close to them.

“Hehe, my boy you will see in time you were connected to them long before you even knew each other.

“ ….. I don't know what else to say... I guess… I'll just have to see it for myself then.

Finding the courage within him Axel looked up at the glowing ball of light

My son… do not be afraid

Making his peace Axel clenched his pendant and jumped into the light ready to embrace whatever was on the other side.