Chapter 2: And then the sky split open
Less than an hour after eating my Apple I was already snacking on a small bag of chips. I was about to pick up where I left off on a Stephen King novel I picked up used for a steal before I noticed the empty bag simply bounced off the pile of trash finally reaching the overflowing stage of my trash can. " eeeeehhhhh fine.." I said to myself forcing myself off of the floor over to the trash can to try and condense it to pull the bag out. My body hurt and felt sore carrying it to and out my front door to the dumpster behind the building.
For probably the 100th time I told myself I wouldn't feel like this if I just tried to be more like myself in high school and lost the weight.
Usually I would make a habit of going on long walks at the very least on my days off but I always gave up. There was always some excuse. Coming around the corner I saw Mr Johnson still sitting outside the sound of him just finishing another beer as it clinked into the trash can. I was about to say something and greet him before both of our heads shot to the direction that sounded like a car crash. " Ah shit... that sounded close. You think maybe I should go an-" I started to say out loud to Mr Johnson before noticing what caused the crash and it didn't take him long to move from his chair looking up at the sky to notice the same thing.
Beautiful and unnerving swirls of purple blue and black. As if somebody ripped open a hole in the sky and showed what was on the other side. " just what the hell is that?!" I said out loud taking a couple steps back. " I don't know kid I've never seen anything like that...." it was clear that he was just as unnerved by the seeing this as I was as if we were seeing something we weren't supposed to something Beyond us. I then found out that was only the beginning of the unnerving events for that night. " dear higher beings of this reality. Sometime ago your gateways and gifts to travel the infinite realities was stolen and your reality pillaged. We cannot give you back the pearls. However we can bestow the gift of travel to no less than five on each world that exist within your reality. " that was the message that appeared in front of me. However I got an extra message that very few others got. "You." The message said in front of me. " stasis field enacted time dilation commencing. Hello I have decided to choose you. Everyone receiving this gift will also receive more than just the gift of travel. To accommodate the level of development and comprehensioned I will put it in list form. You may choose from a handful of these gifts any more than that and your body will not be able to handle it. Please speak to me if you have anything specific from the thousands of gifts you could receive." My mind was spinning heart pounding trying to Center myself and take in what was happening. I'll admit there was a part of me that believed I simply passed out on the floor from heat exhaustion I didn't realize I had. Maybe this is that DMT shit they talked about on YouTube that you get a dose of before dying and I'm actually having a stroke. Well..... if this is a hallucination before death I might as well enjoy it.
" i....im... overweight and my body hurts all the time. Are there any gifts that can fix that?"
The list started swirling until one popped up. " body reform, reworking the body to a healthy state. Removes excess and negatives only." Well that seemed pretty cut and dry and noticed a spot to my left that was titled selection so intuitively I simply placed my hand on the gift and dragged it over. No it made sense it was imitating a touch screen or something like that. " all right.... traveling around you always hear about people getting sick. I'd like to avoid that." Again it's swirled this time with three listed. Negative effect notification, negative effect Resistance 3, negative effect resistance 2, negative effect resistance one. " why the other options?" I asked in a note immediately appeared just above. " picking the Lesser versions will allow your body to choose more gifts." Made sense at least I was telling myself it did. I didn't know how much time I had so I quickly went with negative effect resistance 2 and drag it over. I quickly tried to Rack my brain to figure out what else I could pick or do. " you know I've always had bad ankles and stuff. Crappy joints in general at least they were getting bad already." Almost as soon as I finish speaking another list appeared similar to the first this time labeled shock absorption. I did much the same and went with shock absorption 2.
" what's this time dilation thing?" An explanation was not what I got exactly instead just another list this one much longer.
The one that caught my eye was the one titled personal acceleration. I didn't quite understand it till I tapped on it and it appeared to from my perspective slow down time from anywhere from 5 Seconds to 5 minutes. However anything past 2 minutes was blocked out in red. I guess that means I can't pick that high. Thinking on it really you could do a lot in 30 seconds. Making my selection it appears I wasn't done yet at least I wasn't being told I was done. I did a couple of swipes to bring back up the other list and just by chance I noticed something called Sound Reduction. From the way it read it looked like any intense noise wouldn't damage my ears. Didn't seem like much but couldn't help but think it might be useful since I did have a habit of forgetting to put on ear protection when I went shooting as a kid. I felt like I wasn't going to get to pick very much more but I wasn't being stopped just yet. " eh..... super strength is always a classic..... right?" Once again another list appeared. Average strength of Your World 2× all the way up to 30× however the max I could do was 7×. Lucky 7 huh. I had a feeling this was going to be my last choice. Touching it I slowly dragged it over and the list I had made shifted to right in front of my face. " gifts have been selected. In order to travel Begin by picturing the kind of place you would like to go. Vague thoughts are enough. I recommend this gesture. The rest you will learn as you go. Take a few deep breaths and try and bear with it. " I was confused and felt a chill run up my spine. A quick moving diagram appeared in front of me showing a figure using their fingers to slice diagonally before the words condensed into a single ball of light and then in a Flash struck me in the chest. Seconds later I couldn't breathe as if some kind of gas was pouring from my lungs. My body became drenched and wet as I Collapse to the ground sweat pouring from every single poor instantly into a puddle around me. I thought I was going to pass out I had no idea how much time had passed before I heard Mr Johnson's voice.
" Jacob! Jesus kid are you okay! God what happened to you?!" Said the old man as he reached down to grab me by the arm. " damn it boy you're burning up! Come on let's get you inside!" He said as I struggled to get up it was difficult but I did manage to get on my own feet not wanting Mr Johnson to hurt his back Lifting me up. Once I was on my feet I was taking deep breaths trying to get oxygen back to my brain or something. " what the hell is that sound?" It was coming in and out before it dawned on me what it was. " I think a lot more people crashed after that message popped up. God it's going to be chaos out there we need to get inside." Mr Johnson said as I started to get my bearings a little more walking upright all the sudden realizing how much lighter I felt and having to hold up my pants. " all right I can walk I can walk." I said as we were just a few steps away from his front door and I followed him inside.
Putting a hand on my shoulder he's still led me over to his couch to sit down. " kid what the hell just happened out there?" Mr Johnson asked getting straight to the point after looking out the window. " that's going to be a little difficult to explain.... hell I don't even know if you'll believe me or if I understand it." I said as I Lean Forward placing my face in my Palms. " why don't you try...." he said in the stern voice before I slowly looked up and saw the expression of both fear and concern on his face. " all right Mr Johnson all right....."
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