As they got nearer to their home, Reese and his family finally arrived back home. They had just picked Reese up from his school, which had been on a school retreat in the province, when the earthquake struck.

As they pulled up to their house, it was almost 3:30 a.m., and Reese's mom let out a sigh of relief. "We're home," she said, her voice tinged with exhaustion and worry.

Reese's dad turned off the engine and turned to Reese and his younger brother, Ryan, who were sitting quietly in the backseat. "Okay, you two, let's head inside," he said gently, trying to keep his tone calm despite the chaos his son went through.

Reese nodded. His family stepped out of the car and made their way to the front door, where Reese's mom unlocked it.

Once inside, Reese's dad guided them all to the living room, where they could sit and decompress after the ordeal. "Son, why don't you go up to your room and take some time to sleep?" he suggested, giving his son's shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

Reese nodded again, grateful for the opportunity to be alone for a moment. He made his way upstairs, the weight of the day's events heavy on his shoulders. As he entered his room and closed the door behind him, he let out a shaky breath. Sitting on his bed, he finally allowed himself to process everything that had happened, thankful to be safe and sound in the comfort of his own bedroom.

As Reese settled into his bed, the events of the day replayed in his mind like a vivid movie. He couldn't shake off the memory of the mysterious, glowing marble he had found deep within the hole at Kawasan Falls and the accident he experienced.

With a heavy sigh, Reese closed his eyes, hoping that sleep would offer some respite from his troubled thoughts. However, as he drifted to sleep, a strange sensation washed over him. It started as a subtle tingling in his limbs but quickly escalated into a sharp, stabbing pain that seemed to emanate from the very core of his being.

Gasping for breath, Reese struggled to sit up in bed, his heart pounding in his chest. His vision blurred, and the room spun around him as if he were caught in the midst of a violent storm. Panic surged through him as he realized that something was terribly wrong.

Then, in a sudden, blinding flash of light, Reese felt an invisible force wrenching at his body. It was as if the very essence of his being was being torn away from him. Desperate and afraid, he reached out for anything to anchor himself to reality, but there was nothing to grasp onto except the overwhelming darkness that threatened to consume him, and then he vanished.

Disorriented, Reese found himself standing in a surreal landscape, surrounded by an otherworldly glow of pulsating purple light. At first, he could not believe his eyes, convinced that he must be dreaming. Everything around him seemed too fantastical to be real. He reached out a hand tentatively, expecting his fingers to pass through the shimmering air like mist. But to his surprise, his hand met with solid resistance. As he looked around, he could see that he was inside a dome.

'Is this a dream?' Reese thought with unease in his voice.

With growing unease, Reese pinched himself sharply on the arm, half-expecting to wake up in his own bed. Instead, he yelped in pain as the sensation of his skin being pinched registered with alarming clarity.

"This... this can't be a dream," he muttered to himself, his heart pounding in his chest.

As he took in his surroundings very closely, he still could not determine where he was.

With each passing moment, Reese felt a growing sense of fear gnawing at the edges of his consciousness. He was trapped within the confines of this strange, purple dome, with no idea how he had come to be there or how he might escape.

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As he pondered his predicament, Reese became acutely aware of a presence lurking in the shadows, watching him with an intensity that sent chills down his spine. He couldn't see it, but he could feel its gaze boring into him, probing the depths of his soul.

Fear gripped Reese's heart as he realized that he was not alone in this surreal dome. And as the darkness closed in around him, he knew that he would have to find a way to confront whatever lurked in the shadows if he ever hoped to find his way back to the world he knew.

As Reese braced himself to confront the presence lurking in the shadows, his heart hammered in his chest like a frantic drumbeat. With each step forward, the air seemed to grow thicker, laden with an oppressive weight that made his skin prickle with unease.

Summoning every ounce of courage he could muster, Reese called out into the darkness, his voice echoing through the ethereal expanse of the purple dome. "Who's there?" he demanded, trying to steady his trembling voice. For a moment, there was only silence, broken only by the faint thrum of energy pulsing through the air. Then, from the darkness, a figure began to emerge, its form obscured by shadow and uncertainty.

As Reese watched, his breath catching in his throat, the figure moved closer. A frail old man, hunched and stooped with age, appeared seemingly out of thin air. Reese's eyes widened in shock as he took in the sight, his mind struggling to comprehend what he was seeing. Without thinking, he let out a piercing scream, the sound echoing through the chamber with agonizing intensity.

The old man recoiled at the sudden outburst, his eyes widening in surprise at Reese's reaction. "Fear not, young one," he said in a voice that was as gentle as a whisper, his words carrying an air of reassurance that seemed to cut through the darkness like a beacon of light.

But Reese, consumed by terror and confusion, could only back away in fear, his heart pounding in his chest like a jackhammer. He had no way of knowing that the old man meant him no harm and that his presence here was one of malevolence or benevolence.

As the old man reached out a hand in a gesture of peace, Reese stumbled backward, his mind racing with a thousand unanswered questions. Was this stranger friend or foe? 'There's no way in hell I will trust you; I could not even understand your words. And you just appeared out of nowhere in this strange place for crying out loud,' Reese thought, steadily backing away from the old man.

Despite the old man's assurances that he meant no harm, Reese couldn't shake the feeling of unease that gnawed at the edges of his consciousness. With every fiber of his being screaming at him to flee, his eyes darted warily toward the old man. The language the old man spoke sounded alien to Reese; its very unfamiliar and strange intonations only added to his sense of disorientation.

"I don't understand," Reese muttered, his voice trembling with apprehension. "Who are you? What do you want from me?" Reese was familiar with most languages here on earth, but he just couldn't pinpoint the language the old man was speaking.

The old man regarded Reese with a look of sadness, his ancient eyes brimming with a wisdom that seemed to transcend language barriers. But no matter how hard Reese tried to decipher the meaning behind his words, they remained incomprehensible, like whispers carried on the wind.

In a last-ditch effort to bridge the gap between them, the old man reached out and placed a gentle hand on Reese's shoulder, his touch imbued with a warmth that spoke of compassion and understanding. But to Reese, it felt like nothing more than a vise grip, binding him to a fate he could neither understand nor escape.

With a surge of panic, Reese tried to free himself from the old man's grasp, but no matter how hard he tried, he just could not free himself from the old man's grasp. Before he knew it, he saw the old man's other hand moving towards his forehead.

'Fuck! I just barely survived that accident I went through, and now I'm going to die for real this time? This isn't fair. Why? Why? ,' Reese thought as he felt the finger of the old man tapping his forehead.

As the old man's fingers made contact with Reese's skin, a jolt of energy surged through him, sending sparks of light dancing behind his closed eyelids. Reese gasped in surprise as a flood of unfamiliar sensations washed over him, his mind inundated with a torrent of strange symbols.

And then, as suddenly as it had begun, the sensation subsided, leaving Reese blinking in confusion as he tried to make sense of what had just happened. To his astonishment, he found that he could understand the language of the old man, the words forming clear and coherent sentences in his mind as though they had always been there.

But that was not all. As Reese struggled to process the influx of new information, he realized that strange symbols were appearing in his mind's eye, floating like ethereal wisps of smoke against the backdrop of his thoughts. They danced and shifted, forming intricate patterns that seemed to convey a deeper meaning beyond their mere visual appearance. Before Reese could continue mesmerizing the symbols inside his head, the old man suddenly spoke.

"Can you understand me now?" The old man said while he smiled at Reese.

"Ye..yes. Ho..how's that possible? And wha..what was that inside my head?" Reese stuttered. It was unbelievable that with just a tap of the old man's finger, he could understand him so quickly.

But the old man did not answer; he just looked at Reese and smiled.