Into the Other - Chapter 00 - The First Aggression

People have thought many things of dreams. They have thought them prophecies, messages from the gods, or boringly thought dreams were their unconscious mind working things out. These are all right, but only in part. Dreams are so much more than that.

People have thought many things of death. They have thought it an end, a beginning, one step in a continuing journey. These are all right, but only in part. Death is so much more than that.

What people don’t understand is that dreaming and dying are the same thing; the only difference is that you come back from dreaming. When you die, when you dream, you enter the Other. The Other is a place where anything is possible, yet few things happen there of true importance. This is a story of when the course of history flowed through the Other. We begin with the first known act of aggression among those of the Other.

The being known as Proll was floating in his domain of endless prairies stretching out as far as he could imagine. The rainbow colored grass waved in the light breeze which always blew through his domain. The grass was every color of the rainbow, all of it waving back and forth, constantly creating a cascade of new and beautiful montages. The large red sun of his domain was just on the horizon, creating a spectacular scene. The sky was filled with whiffs red and orange clouds drifting lazily through. It was neither a sunset nor a sunrise; the sun had been sitting in that position since Proll had created it. Proll was a black sphere which reflected the scene around it upon its glossy surface. At that particular time, Proll was alone in his domain. That was just the way he liked it. He spent a lot of time just soaking up the beautiful scene around him. Sometimes he decided for a change in scenery so he recreated his domain into another beautiful vista. He hadn’t conversed with anyone in a very long time. He hadn’t seen anyone in even longer. He hadn’t left his domain for even longer. So he was very surprised to see a human man running towards him through the rainbow grass. He was even more surprised when he saw red blood smeared across the man’s face.

“Help!” the man screamed, “Who’s domain is this!” 

The man was running like a devil chased him. He kept glancing over his shoulder. Fear and desperation covered his face. 

“Mine,” Proll’s voice rang out from nowhere in particular.

“Seal it!” the man asked, almost ordered, but then added, “Please.”

Proll sealed his domain, no longer allowing anyone to come or go from it. It was a simple task. He simply decided no one could come or go anymore.

“It is sealed,” Proll said, from directly in front of the man. 

The man stopped and didn’t even seem surprised that a floating black ball was talking to him. Which was odd; those beings who appear as humans in the Other usually are oblivious to the fact that they are in the Other. The man was dressed in a pair of blue jeans, tennis shoes, and a T-shirt. Blood was slowly oozing from two long scratches across his right cheek. 

“Who are you and who are you running from?” Proll asked the strange man. He wasn’t strange in the normal sense, he was strange because he was normal.

The man stood panting, trying to catch his breath for a moment before he answered while still breathing heavily, “My name is Luke. I was being chased by a being who calls himself the Bringer of the Dark.”

“I’m afraid I do not know either of those names,” Proll said, “Why was he chasing you?”

“He was trying to kill me,” Luke replied.

Proll just laughed at that. To his knowledge, no one had ever died in the Other. It wasn’t even possible. The Other was the afterlife. Some debated whither the beings in the Other were even alive to begin with. They surely couldn’t be killed.

“You don’t understand,” Luke said, “I’m not dead. I’m dreaming.”

“And you think this Bringer of the Black character can kill your living body?” Proll said, his voice coming from somewhere behind Luke this time.

Luke just nodded, still panting heavily, but corrected Proll, "Dark, Bringer of the Dark."

“How can he possibly do that?” Proll asked, still thinking this guy was crazy.

“He takes over domains,” Luke said, “He turns them into nothing but an endless void of black nothingness. He got into mine and I couldn’t stop him. I don’t know how he does it, but he somehow gains control of other people’s domains. I can’t wake up until I get back into my domain, but I can’t as long as he’s in charge of it.”

“Hm,” Proll grunted, still not really believing what Luke was saying, “How did you come to understand the Other?”

“That’s a long story,” Luke said.

“There is no rush.”

“Can I just show you?” Luke asked, “It’d be easier.”

Proll thought about it for a long moment and then said, “Of course.” He then released control of his domain to Luke. Or rather the being who said he was Luke. In fact, he was the Bringer of the Dark. The instant he gained control of Proll’s domain, he’s face began to change. His eyes began to slant and narrow. His ears grew pointy. His teeth turned to rows of needle sharp knives. Claws extended from his fingertips. His hair fell off, leaving a sickly molten skin behind. The skin sagged and dripped. Beneath the molting flesh could be seen a glittering blackness. He became the very essence of a nightmare.

“Fool,” was all he said before the entire domain fell into complete and utter darkness.

Chapter 01 - Jumping 101