Luke looked at his mom with confusion, “What do you mean leave this world, what are you even saying?” She took another steady breath and he knew that his need for answers was going to make this a heavy conversation but what she had said didn't even properly register.
“Luke, let me explain this by asking you a couple of questions. In the past few months have you had any weird dreams, maybe experienced some feat of strength or endurance that seemed unnatural? Or have you developed some kind of mark on your body that you can't fully explain?” Luke looked at his mother as if she read his mind suddenly aware that he knew to some extent of what he had been through this week
“Today during my match I hurt someone, I didn’t mean to do it, and to make it worse I did it with such ease. I beat the state champion today throwing him around as if he weighed nothing more than a paperweight. Monday started everything, I woke up from some dream which gave me this strange mark on my chest. What followed next was weird periods of feeling energized and passing out after horrific migraines. Do you know what's going on with me?” He looked at his mom with hopeful eyes.
Rebecca finished her tea in front of her motioning Luke to have a seat opposite her and with a steady voice she said, “Luke you're not from this world. Neither am I. The world we currently live in is what we call a pocket world that we have had the opportunity to live in, protected so that it can’t be disturbed by those that might wish to cause us harm or more importantly take you away.” Before Luke could say anything she continued.
“I know this is all going to be hard to believe but I need you to do your best to let me talk without interrupting me. We don't have unlimited time, and I need you to know what I can share. I promise I'll try to do my best, but Neverworld is the world that you and I and even your Father originally come from. We are but outworlders within this pocket world. A world called Earth that has no Essence found within.”
“Essence, in the most basic way is magic, but is also so much more. Essence makes up the Neverworld and most worlds from what I have come to understand which allows those living in it to develop what you could call power and grow in strength. The best way of putting it would be that we come from a world in which power rules all. Those with power are the apex beings and those that fail to progress are used as fodder during war. War in this world is currency. There is no money, no goods for exchange. Only on the field of battle can you carve out even a sliver of a life.”
This was so much to take in that Luke stumbled over his words to try and ask any questions. “So what are we aliens? How does this have anything to do with Dad? What do you mean by a world at war? So many other questions were running through his mind, but Luke was only able to get those out before his mom put up her finger to tell him to stop. “Luke I will answer what I can but soon you will have to leave”...before she could finish Luke slammed his fists on the table clear frustration written on his face, “What do you mean Leave? At Least answer me that, why now of all times.”
Rebecca knew this was hard, Luke didn't grow up in a world where those who were born in there were put through trials even at a young age hoping to gain even the smallest advantage before they were taken in by the Academies. Not having to live in a world that only cared about strength over all else. She looked at her son and knew this would not be easy answering his questions. They had little time, knowing Sean was finishing up the ritual to pull Luke through.
“Listen, son, this is hard for me, and I know you will never be satisfied by the answers I give you and hope Sean will be able to fill in some of the blanks I will inevitably won't be able to tell you.”
Luke was about to interrupt her but she slowly let her aura fill the small kitchen seeing Luke flinch not forcing too much power over his already overstimulated mind. She needed to give him the basics so that he did not fully resent her after he was pulled through to the other world. She retracted her aura seeing he was calm or atleast quiet enough to continue, “Listen, what I just did was use the essence of what remains I have left to suppress you, allow me to finish before you interrupt again. I can feel the connection between worlds opening and soon you will be pulled through by me and your father's best friend Sean.”
Luke sat there, his hands gripping the edge of the table as he tried to absorb the weight of his mother's words. His mind was a whirlwind of disbelief, anger, and confusion. None of this made sense. He wasn’t supposed to be from another world—he was just a regular teenager, living a normal life, playing school sports, worrying about grades, and getting into college. This wasn’t his reality. But the mark on his skin, the dream, and the strange sensation he’d felt in the match, it was all too much of a coincidence.
His mother sighed, the lines of stress deepening around her eyes as she reached for her teacup again,though she knew it was empty just to give her trembling hands something to do. "I know it's hard to accept, Luke. Believe me, I wish things could be different." She paused, slightly taking a deep breath, "But the Neverworld... It's not like Earth. It’s a place of constant struggle. The very fabric of that world is built around power and survival. The strong dominate and the weak are either crushed underfoot or used as tools in the endless wars between factions. We were given this chance, this world, as a refuge. A way for you to grow up outside of that brutality, to be normal for a time."
Luke’s thoughts raced, but he couldn’t find the words to respond. His mother’s eyes, filled with sorrow, locked onto him. She could see the storm brewing in his chest, and she knew how much more difficult this would all be for him to understand once the veil was pulled back. "You don’t know what it’s like," she said softly, "to live in a world where survival depends on strength alone. To know that every moment could be your last. It’s not something I wanted for you. I thought... We thought if we could just keep you here, keep you safe, we could protect you from all of that."
Luke felt a sharp pang of guilt at the hurt in her voice. Protect me? It didn’t feel like protection. It felt like a lie. Like the world he thought he knew was an illusion, and the truth was something far darker. “But if this Neverworld is so bad, why did we have to talk about it now, why am I being pulled to that world as you say? Why not just leave it behind?” He spat the question out before he could stop himself, frustration flooding his voice.
Rebecca closed her eyes for a moment, her expression turning even more weary. “Because it seems you can never truly leave that world as we once thought. Maybe if your Father had been a bit stronger, fully developing his authority, he might have been able to bend the fabric of the world to suit his needs, protecting you further. This world was meant to be a sanctuary, Luke, but it's not permanent. And it can’t hold you forever. You’re different—You have been chosen by the Academy of Knox to train. When the connection between worlds opens fully, you’ll have no choice but to go because if Knox sends their Extractors to find you and you are not willing to subject yourself you are considered useless to the world.”
She leaned forward, her voice lowering. “The world was born from Chaos and is linked to other worlds cascading through the void. The only way to survive is by growing stronger. The academy will train you to be a part of the army and dominion of the God Korack. You were found within his domain so it's his power that binds your soul to his training Academy. You will learn to fight to bring glory and items to your God. There is no currency because this world has the ability to be an anchor to destroyed worlds for a brief time allowing all of their treasures, people, and other such things to be brought into Neverworld. Your only goal is to gather all you can for your dominion.”
Luke recoiled, his chest tightening as if the walls around him were closing in. He was supposed to be part of some war, dominion, gods, even the idea of magic was foreign to him. The more he heard the more he was confused. He wasn’t ready for any of this. He couldn’t even handle the idea of the mark on his skin. He opened his mouth, but before he could speak, Rebecca’s eyes flashed with an intensity that made him pause.
"I'm not asking you to understand all of this right now, Luke. But you need to know that your father and I did everything we could to shield you from this. To give you a chance to live a normal life, free of the wars, the factions, the endless power struggles. I was naïve though in those thoughts, and now bringing you to this world has only hindered you." She paused again as if searching for the right words. "But it’s time, Luke. The connection is opening, and soon you’ll be pulled through to Neverworld, where everything you’ve ever known will change."
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Luke's heart was racing. Everything he thought he understood was slipping away like sand through his fingers. His mother reached across the table and took his hand, her grip firm yet tender. "I don't want this for you," she whispered, her voice thick with emotion. "But it's not about what we want. It's about what the World wants, Luke. The ritual Sean is performing... it's pulling you back to where you truly belong. And there’s no escaping it. The sooner you accept that, the easier it will be when the time comes. I wanted to at least be able to tell you what I could before you left because I can not go with you. My power, what is left of it, was keeping this pocket world from falling apart from the inside.”
She gripped Lukes hands even tighter seeing that her words were doing the opposite of helping, but she needed him to understand that she and Bryan did their best to try and save him from this fate.
“Your dad burned up his power to create the protections that shield this world from the outside. He found this pocket world on one of his campaigns and managed to keep it, they are rare and this is the first of its kind not allowing essence to permeate its depth, however we couldn’t prevent your soul from being marked when you arrived on Neverworld. He was a General, far from the most powerful individual but powerful in his own right. Our friend Sean was a trusted Lieutenant in the armies of Knox but is now a Commander and he is the one you must learn from now. Those who go to the Academy have lived in this world and prepared for it since they were born. You will be at a disadvantage. You will have to work harder than everyone else since you come from this world and not one of any power.
Luke squeezed his eyes shut, trying to block out the tidal wave of emotion crashing over him. This wasn’t real. This couldn’t be real. But deep down, he knew there was no denying it. Whatever was happening, it was too big for him to run from, he understood that much. The mark on his skin, burning with an increased intensity with each passing second, seemed to mock his earlier attempts at denial. He couldn’t escape this. Not anymore.
Luke sat in stunned silence, his hands falling from his mothers, resting on the table, numb from the weight of her words. The world felt like it was crumbling around him, slipping away piece by piece. He had never been one to dwell on fantasy or things that couldn't be explained, but this was no longer some distant idea. This was now his life. His reality.
“This can’t be real”, he whispered. Gripping the edge of the table so tightly that his knuckles turned white. He had felt it before—the burning sensation in his skin, the pull at the edges of his consciousness. The mark, that had somehow called from this other world a calling to him, even if he couldn’t understand what. But now, it was becoming impossible to ignore. He felt it deep and knew something was building, he had felt it before during one of his migraine spells but over the course of the last few minutes. The more his mother spoke, the pull seemed stronger and stronger. The mark on his chest growing in temperature. His body is feeling more and more energized.
His mother’s eyes softened as she watched him struggle with the truth even the little she had been able to share. “I know it’s a lot to take in, Luke. And I can’t pretend it won’t be hard. It will be. You’ll face challenges you can’t even imagine, and there will be times when you feel like you’re losing everything.” She paused, her voice breaking slightly. “But you’ll be stronger for it. Stronger than you ever thought possible.”
Luke’s gaze flickered toward the door, half-expecting it to swing open and someone—something—to drag him away from all of this. Maybe this is just some crazy nightmare, he thought. Maybe I’ll wake up in my bed, and it’ll all be gone. But as his eyes wandered back to his mother, the reality of the situation sank deeper into his chest. “No, you won’t wake up,” she said, almost as if reading his mind. “The ritual has already begun. The connection is opening, Luke. The fabric of this world is weakening, and soon you’ll be pulled into Neverworld, whether you’re ready or not.” Luke recoiled, his thoughts spiraling into chaos. Pulled? He felt his heart race, his pulse thundering in his ears. "I don't want to go," he muttered, his voice barely audible. Luke shot to his feet, his breath coming faster. The room seemed to close in on him, suffocating him. He looked at his mom no longer with sadness but with a touch of childlike anger, "you can’t just send me into this! I don’t know anything about war. I don’t even have any power!”
Rebecca’s expression softened seeing her young man take on the traits he carried as a little boy. She loved him so much, she needed him to be hard now, to use the anger he had for her and her long gone husband. "I never wanted this for you, Luke. I wanted to keep you safe, away from the power struggles and the wars. I wanted you to have the life your father and I never had—a life where you could just... be. But now... now you have to face the inevitability. I know you can feel it now, the essence leaking through to this world. Your body is being energized."
As Luke struggled with everything she had said, She stood up hoping to comfort her child one last time but feeling something shift, and open within the fabric of the world they were in. Rebecca looked at her son with new teary eyes and knew that their time was down to a handful of minutes. Soon Luke would be sucked into Neverworld and she would never see him again. She had only been able to gloss over the very basics, and she knew he would have countless more questions. He had just found out he was from a different world in which Power and War ruled everything and he was going to go from his ordinary life into a world that he would know nothing about. She thought she had given him a better future but now in this moment she knew they had made a mistake. Bryand and Rebecca had set him up for failure. Hopefully Sean could give him an ounce of a chance at survival before it was too late.
The air in the room seemed to thicken, as if the very walls were closing in around Luke. His mother’s words echoed in his mind, each one heavier than the last, until he thought he might suffocate under the weight of it all. But the mark on his skin—burning hotter with each passing second—reminded him that there was no escape. This wasn’t some bad dream. He wasn’t going to wake up. His world was slipping away, and there was no way to stop it.
Rebecca’s voice was steady, though the tears in her eyes betrayed the depth of her emotions. “I’ve given you everything I could, Luke. But the world is much bigger than either of us. Much more dangerous. Your only chance to survive is to grow strong. I don’t want to see you go, but I can’t stop this. The connection between the worlds is opening now, and soon you’ll be pulled through. The ritual... it’s almost completed.” The words hit him like a punch to the gut. A physical force, an invisible hand reaching for him, drawing him toward something far bigger and far darker than anything he’d ever imagined.
"I don’t want any of this," Luke choked, his voice cracking. "I don’t want to fight, I don’t want to be some soldier... I don’t even know what to think!" His words came out in a rush, a desperate plea for his life to go back to normal. But as soon as they left his mouth, he knew it was pointless. He couldn’t unhear the truth. He couldn’t unlearn what he’d just discovered. His body—his very soul—was already tied to a world he didn’t understand, a world that demanded blood and strength.
Rebecca grabbed his wrist pulling him into her hugging him. Then let him pull away just slightly. Her gaze was not leaving him. “I know, Luke. I wish more than anything that you didn’t have to face this. But we are not strong enough to alter the reality of Neverworld. Luke stumbled back, his mind spiraling, his body trembling. The pull from the mark was growing stronger now, surging like a tide inside him. It was a calling he couldn’t ignore, a force dragging him toward an inevitable future he didn’t choose.
He opened his mouth to say something—anything—to keep this from happening. But before the words could form, he felt the air around him shift. The space between him and his mother seemed to warp, as if the very fabric of reality was beginning to tear. His mother’s voice, though calm, was tinged with sorrow.
“Luke,” she said, stepping forward. “This is goodbye. There’s no more time.”
The room was spinning now, the walls dissolving into mist. Luke gasped, reaching out to his mother, his hand trembling as he tried to grasp onto something—anything—familiar. But it was already too late. The connection was pulling, pulling him toward a new world, a world where everything he thought he knew would be shattered.He felt himself lift off the ground, his feet no longer touching the floor. His stomach lurched, the sensation of being sucked into a vortex overwhelming him. His mother's voice seemed to fade into the distance, as though it were coming from the other side of a thick glass. “Remember, Luke, everything you do now will shape your future. Learn, survive, and become stronger than you ever thought possible. I love you.”
Before he could even process her words, a sharp pain shot through his body, and the world around him splintered. His vision blurred, colors shifting like a kaleidoscope, and the world as he knew it shattered like glass. He opened his mouth to scream, but no sound came out.And then, just as suddenly, everything went still.
He stood in an unfamiliar place—in a grassy open field surrounded by a forest on all sides. In front of him was a pedestal that contained a small sphere that oddly looked like what some in his old world would describe as a perfect spherical representation of Earth. Old world. His breath came in shallow gasps, and he instinctively reached for the mark on his skin. Thinking further on that thought, he was no longer on the world he called Earth and was in what his mother called the Netherworld. Burning with a searing intensity now, like a live wire pulsing beneath his skin, his body felt like it was a sponge being filled with some weird energy. The pain building, Luke fell to his knees feeling the energy coming, something alive inside his body, the pain hitting a crescendo till his mind couldn’t take it anymore and he collapsed unconscious on the ground.