Will wakes up a little disoriented. He sits up from the position of flat on his back that he woke up in.

  “This can’t be good for me. I hope I don’t get brain damage from all these times I’ve been knocked out.” Will thinks to himself for a second. “At least I think I was knocked out. I don’t think I passed out on my own.”

  Actually, Will felt pretty good right now. Oddly so. After running for hours, enduring extreme anxiety, fatigue, and being knocked out twice, he should feel like crap right now. But he actually feels pretty good.

  Will stands the rest of the way up and looks around. The cabin is gone, and so is the clearing. Will stands on the edge of a wood line to a dark forest. Odd how dark it looks despite it seeming to be the late morning.

  Opposite the forest is wide open rolling plains. Little copse of trees are dotted here and there across the landscape, but for the most part, it’s all picturesque rolling hills.

  “Where am I? I know for a fact I’m no where close to Valley Street.”

  Anxiety and fear start to creep up on Will again. At the same time, his thirst hits him like a train.

  “I don’t know what’s going on but I need to find drinkable water and fast.” Will doesn’t know much, but he knows finding water is rule number one of surviving being lost in the wilderness.

  Despite his need for water, the entire situation starts to become too much for him. The reality of it all is starting to really set in. He starts hyperventilating.

  How do I survive this?! I’m just a kid! Am I really going to die because I got lost in the woods?!

  His breathing gets more labored. His chest rises and falls more rapidly. A rasping moan starting to form in his throat.

  “Ahhem!” Someone clears their throat very loudly and clearly behind him.

  Will twists and turns behind him in a flash. Staring open mouth at the stranger that seemed to appear out of no where behind him.

  “Son, what in the blazes is wrong with you?”

  Will is caught so off guard by the question that his heavy breathing abruptly stops.

  Did he..did he just yell at me for having a panic attack??

  “What’s wrong with me?! I’m going to die mister! Die because I somehow got lost in what should have only been a square mile of woods trying to get to my house! And then BAM! Knocked out twice and now I’m sitting here in the middle of no where with NO IDEA WHAT TO DO!” His breaths started to pick back up half way through his tirade and ended up shouting at the end while hyperventilating again.

  The man walks up to Will and promptly slaps in right across the face.

  Will stands stock still. Shock written plain across his face and his breathing back under control. He looks up at the man again.

  “Do I need to do that again?”

  Will quickly scrambles backward several paces and panics slightly. “No no no! I’m good now.”

  The man smirks. “Good. Now that you’re more under control of yourself, start from the beginning and try to answer this question. How did you end up in this exact spot?”

  Will doesn’t see a reason to lie. He just needs to find a way home! True, his story does sound a little crazy, he barely believes it himself! But push come to shove, he can just say he must of hallucinated the cabin in the woods part.

  With that solution in his back pocket if he needs it, Will tells the old man his story.

  As the explanation continues the man’s expression becomes more and more stone faced. By the time he’s finished the man just stares at him for a few seconds.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  All of a sudden a feeling similar to the one he felt in front of Ezra occurred again. A feeling of being assessed, a presence laid over him and that presence seeing into him. The feeling wasn’t as strong as it was with Ezra, but it was still unsettling.

  Will shivers as the feeling passes. “I’m not sure what you’re doing but man that feels weird.”

  The man’s eyes widen slightly.

  “It’s faint, but you have Ezra’s mark on you. And I can see why if you were able to sense that.”

  Sense?

  “Sir I’m not trying to be rude but I really would like to go home. Do you know which way even the nearest town is?”

  “Son…” The man looks at Will for a few seconds. “What’s your name?”

  “Will, sir. Will Asher.”

  “Ok Will. My name is Amos Statler. Come with me.”

  He says it’s abruptly and forcefully. He doesn’t really give Will a chance to say no or ask where he wants to take him. Lost in the confusion and stress of it all, Will follows.

  They don’t go far. Maybe half an hour of easy walking into the dark woods. What’s odd is the darkness seems to permeate everything here. It’s not just an absence of light. It almost feels like the forest is producing darkness.

  After half an hour of walking they come upon a small clearing, maybe only 50 feet across, with two decently sized stumps spaced a couple feet apart from each other.

  “Take a seat.” Amos tells him while heading to the stump slightly farther away.

  They both sit down and face one another. Amos with a tense look on his face and Will with one that is becoming more and more exasperated. He just wants to go home.

  “Ok, here it is kid. The man you saw in that cabin was not a man. Not really. You’re not in the same world you were born in. You’re not even in the same universe. Where you are now is somewhere entirely different, with an entirely different set of rules. At least that’s what I would assume. I don’t pretend to know the rules of every universe. Getting back there might very well be an impossibility. I’m not really to sure. What happened to you is very much a rarity and not much is known about the process. In fact the only thing that is absolutely known is that travel between universes is supposed to be extremely difficult; next to impossible.”

  He stops there. Just stops and stares at Will. The man spoke as if he were discussing having a tough day at work. Annoying but not unmanageable. It takes Will so off guard that he can’t even form an immediate response. He just sits and stares right back at Amos.

  After a solid thirty seconds of staring back at Amos, Will finally responds. “You’re serious aren’t you?”

  “Deadly.”

  Will sits there, eyes going to the forest floor. This man is telling the truth. At least he thinks he is. The only thing Will can see as being the case is either this entire thing is actually true, or he’s been hallucinating vividly for hours and this man is some deranged and probably escaped looney bin patient.

  But wait, he was knocked out and he’s definitely not in his home town anymore. So is he still unconscious, lying on the forest floor and this is an intense dream?

  No, he’s definitely conscious. So if he’s definitely conscious, and definitely not where he started, that means he hasn’t been hallucinating right? Does that make sense?

  Ugh, this is too much. I’m not in another world! I can’t be! Will thinks to himself.

  After a few minutes of arguing, rationalizing, and debating with himself, Will looks back up at Amos.

  “Listen. I have no idea what’s going on. I know you just explained it. Kinda. But this is all too much to really believe.”

  The man sighs. “I don’t have much patience for people who don’t have the sense enough to see what’s right in front of their eyes. I’ll make a small exception for you considering the circumstances. And only out of respect for Ezra.”

  Amos raises his right hand and a three tiny metal balls, about the size of a marble and dark grey in color, come flying out of his pocket and rotate in a circle over his hand. “Proof enough for you?”

  Will stares wide eyed at the display. The ability to speak having left him once again. The man stops rotating the metal balls and they go back into his pocket.

  “The way I see it kid, you got two choices. You can come with me or you can go out and try to make it on your own. It wouldn’t be impossible, but I really wouldn’t recommend it.”

  “You would help me? Just like that?” Will says with no small amount of disbelief and skepticism. In his experience, people don’t just randomly decide to go way out of their way to help others.

  “You think you just so happened to appear in front of me right as I was walking by this area? Right on the edge of one of the most isolated places on this planet?”

  “Uhh..maybe?”

  Amos grunts and looks to be about to roll his eyes before holding himself back. “I refuse to believe you’re that much of an idiot.” He pauses as if waiting for a response. Wasn’t that supposed to be rhetorical? “Ezra knew what he was doing.”

  Will starts. “Ezra sent me to you?”

  “Of course he did! I knew he’d call in this favor eventually. Just a little odd he decided to do it now.” Amos seems to think to himself for a second before dismissing the matter for another time. “I’m willing to help you. If you come with me I’ll answer your questions and explain some things to you. I’ll even train you, if that’s what you decide you want. Be warned though. If you come with me you will not be allowed to leave until I’m sure you will be able to survive on your own in this world.

  Didn’t really sound like that bad of a deal to Will. “Deal.” He says.