Sebastian who was still down after feeling like a failure due to not being able to even go into a liminality, was alone in his room, cuddling up on his bed trying to come up with ways to fix the situation. As things currently stand the chances of him being left behind by his sister were quite high, and well, his father would not stand for failure, it didn’t matter if the person who failed was his son. He had grown up being subject to the expectations of the family, and now, he was falling, miserably, according to the history of the family, this was the first time that someone had failed to be tested by a conduit on their 8th birthday, meaning not only Sebastian had failed, but was the first one to failed in such a way in the long history of the Alaric Family.

Sebastian was trying to find a way to fix everything when something weird happened. He heard a knock on his door. But he knew that nobody would be knocking on his door at that time, his grandfather would probably be busy trying to figure out what had happened, his older brother had already spoken with him and had decided to give him space, and the last person who would ever knock on his door, his sister, would not be able to do so since their father would be watching over her and wouldn’t let her get close to him at the moment.

Sebastian started to walk to the door, and with each step, he felt stranger, so to speak. Like with each step his ability to decide whether to continue or not was fading, when he was close enough to the door he saw a strange glow coming from below it. It looked to be some type of green light. Even if it felt weird for Sebastian to see such a light, he didn’t have a reason not to open the door, this was the Alaric mansion, there was no one crazy enough to try and barge in this place, with his grandfather and his grandmother in the same place, Sebastian was sure there were easier and faster ways to die.

As he opened the door, a green-black mist started to creep into his room. It almost looked like the mist was pushing the door to open faster, Sebastian could even swear that the mist started to shape into fingers with long nails that gripped the door with such strength that Sebastian's little body couldn’t really do much, the door was forced completely open.

What Sebastian saw in front of him was a strange entity completely made of some green-black mist, it didn’t really have any features that a person could recognize, it wasn’t standing there, it was more like it was “being” there. The figure itself resembled the upper half of the body of a person. Its arms were long and reached to the ground.

The being raised its hand, but with every movement, Sebastian couldn’t help but notice that as soon as the thing's hand was high enough, what looked like ribs manifested on what Sebastian would have believed was the torso.

“Come,” It spoke.

Sebastian, even if he didn’t want to, started to walk behind that thing, as he did, he noticed several different beings made from that same mist. Most of them were not corporeal enough for Sebastian to distinguish anything, but, the closer he got to the entrance to the garden, the beings made from the mist seemed to become more… Tangible, that would be the best way to describe it. But the issue was that Sebastian couldn’t quite find a way to describe them, some of them looked fairly normal, and some others appeared to be the amalgamation of different forms that didn’t quite fit together. But the thing continued leading him towards the garden the mist beings started to become more and more strange.

That’s the least of the problems here.

Sebastian noticed that he no longer was in reality, but, appeared to be in a liminality, was this the liminality that had been summoned for him by his grandfather? That was probably not the case. According to what he knew, even if it was possible to find strange beings in Liminalities, there was no record of them being able to communicate with humans, or at least none had ever tried to do so. But, Sebastian was sure that he was no longer in reality, where was he? That was a great question.

“Mmm, excuse me?” Sebastian spoke. “Can you tell me where are you taking me?”

The mist being didn’t answer but continued guiding him through the garden, or what usually could be called the garden, now it was something else entirely. The garden once a greenery lush had changed a lot. The air was heavier, it carried a scent of earth, or, better explained a scent of ancient earth and decayed. Where once there were bright petals, now, there muted and looked devoid of all color but a blackish green. Everything seemed to be creeping along the floor, twisting, trying to grab Sebastian, who was walking along the path. Leaves were falling to the ground, they were being carried by the wind. The fauna seemed to be closing in, being too close actually, giving a suffocating feeling while you walk. With each step, Sebastian could feel the roots of the different plants moving underground, for moments they gave the feeling like they were trying to break the ground and grab whoever was walking on top of them. Strange voices could be heard speaking, ancient voices, unnerving voices, those voices, they reminded Sebastian of his grandfather's voice, the issue was, these were much older, much more ancient, and carried a weight that was almost impossible to describe.

The guttural sounds that were coming from beyond that strange mist that was currently covering the whole garden were still unnerving for Sebastian. While he had been absorbed in looking at how the garden had changed, he had failed to see the changes on his guide, now it had gained more of a defined form, where before there was only a mist, now, a man was walking in front of Sebastian. The man in question had a pair of white trousers tight around his legs, strangely enough, he was barefoot while walking. And, it had a strange jacket that had his arms tied behind his back. While the man in question continued walking, at some point the fauna started to give way, for them to pass through. The man continued guiding Sebastian until they saw a large building, it was pristine white, and it looked like they had just come out of the garden of the building. The man continued walking towards the building until they entered that place, and as soon as they did, the man disappeared.

Sebastian found himself looking at an immaculate white room, some chairs seemed to have been accommodated in a way so that those who came could wait for their turn. At the end of the room, Sebastian saw the reception, it was a large built-in desk shelf, and the contrast it made with the rest of the room caught his attention, the desk was black, with the person behind the desk eerily still. Sebastian walked over to the desk, unsure of how to proceed, his young mind figured that it was a safe bet to act like he would in the normal reality.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Welcome” The person behind the desk, if it could even me call a person said.

As Sebastian got closer, he noticed that the person didn’t have a face, but had a huge smile, going from ear to ear, it showed all of its teeth, and each one looked like it had been broken, they looked insanely white, Sebastian was sure that if he pointed a light to them, it would reflect.

“Please go to your room, the doctor is already waiting for you,” The person said.

Sebastian tried but was unable to distinguish any other feature, it was almost as if besides the smile, it lacked any other feature.

“Excuse me,” Sebastian said. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

“Please go to your room, the doctor is already waiting for you,” The person just repeated.

“But…” Sebastian tried to respond.

“Please go to your room,” The person interrupted Sebastian. “The doctor is already waiting for you”.

The person then lifted their hand and pointed to a hallway. Sebastian turned to look at the hallway and noticed two other persons that looked similar to the one behind the desk. These seem to be bigger, than the one behind the desk, they seem bulkier, and strangely, Sebastian believed that they could do bad things to him.

“Please avoid looking into other cells, speak with other patients, or open any other room besides your own” The person behind the desk added.

Sebastian didn’t know what to do, he turned to look at the person behind the desk, and he saw the person behind the desk turn their head to look straight at Sebastian, tilted their head, and somehow their smile seemed to widen…

Sebastian was startled at the sight, and, started to walk Toward that hallway, the two other beings started to walk, guiding Sebastian.

“Please inform us when you have found your room” One of the beings spoke, in a low monotone tone.

“But I don’t have a room” Sebastian answered.

“Please inform us when you have found your room, the doctor doesn’t like to wait for a long time” the being spoke.

The beings continued walking, and after a while, the lights that kept the hallway in an immaculate white color, went out, where once everything seemed bright now, seeing something at all would be quite the miracle. After the light went out, suddenly all sounds were muffled. First Sebastian stopped listening to the steps of the beings that were leading him, then he noticed that only one of his steps could be heard, then the other one stopped making a sound. After a while without hearing Sebastian noticed a strange sound that started to reverberate on Sebastian's ears. It sounded like a river. Like a big river flowing, but no matter how much Sebastian tried to locate where the sound was coming from, he just couldn’t do it.

Is it a river?

Sebastian thought.

Can there be another source of water that sounds like this?

Well, there isn’t anything around that could cause this sound….

Then, Sebastian looked at his hands, one of the few things he could still see.

What’s that?

He asked himself while looking at his wrist, under his skin he could see some kind of movement, he touched there, he felt that movement… Did he know of anything like that. he had been taught the basics of the human body.

Mmmm… My veins?

Sebastian wonders.

Right, blood flows through my veins and arteries. I guess if you can hear that, it would sound like the flow of a river.

Am I hearing my blood?

Sebastian's realization made him feel awkward, ironically, the amount of silence needed to make one listen to their blood flow was, astonishing. But the worst part about that realization was not the blood flow, but, that for things to be that silent he needed to be almost completely removed from anything, Sebastian could already be lost and would never find out, as he walked he started to wonder.

Am I trapped in here?

Will I ever be able to go back?

Have I lost myself in a liminality?

Truth was, there was no way to know, he would have to continue walking a waiting to see.

Time seems to pass, only the gods knew exactly how much time had passed.

But eventually. He felt something, it wasn’t something different from darkness and nothingness, he had a gut feeling that started to call him to his right, almost as if someone was caressing his face and gently pulling him slowly to look.

But at the same time, something else was telling him that no matter what, he couldn’t look.

The pull kept getting stronger, it was taking a lot more strength of will not to look.

Then, he heard a drip.

A single drop of sweat had fallen to the ground, his sweat… The other drop… And another one.

Then the cramps started, sudden jolts of pain that seemed to be trying to pull him to the right.

Then they heard it. A sound that seemed to come from the depths of the air itself, low and resonating. It was not a sound so much as a presence. Everything trembled in what long ago had been a hallway. When the sound was heard, everything else was consumed. The air thickened. It was almost as if the sound had texture to it, rough, like stone, it was suffocating. It was not an order, yet it seemed to be an unshakable force that compelled you to look for it. It made Sebastian feel like his existence was being laid bare naked in front of that being.