Chapter 1:

Cleaning.

“I’m hurt!”

“I’m cleaning! I dear say we’re even!”

(Excerpt from chapter one)

My story started a long time ago. I don’t suggest asking how long, though; I wouldn’t be able to answer you. I can’t even tell you how long it’s taken me to start writing this...Time just doesn’t seem that important anymore, even now that I have so little of it left.

I can tell you how it started, though, if you’re interested. It’s not hard to remember how it was, back on that sunny day in my family’s basement, even if it is hard to imagine that it could have been real….Do you notice how no one ever seems to believe that bad things can happen to on sunny days? It’s always a dark and stormy night when things go wrong, it seems, as if we’re safe if only the weather will hold. It isn’t true what people think, as much we sometimes wish it is…But that’s enough of the background stuff. It’s time that someone told the universe what really happened, even if no one will ever read the revelation. Someone has to say it, one way or another, and there’s no one left but me and Erica to tell it. I can’t trust her with the tail-not yet anyway-so that leaves it up to me.

As I already told you, it started on a sunny day-a Monday I think-in my family’s basement. I was there, with Erica, trying to clean up all the junk. It was a hopeless task, really, but that hadn’t stopped my father from sending me down anyway.

“Honestly,” muttered Erica, “I do not know how you managed to talk me into this.”

“Through your unbearable love of all things me?”

“One, don’t be gross.”

“Hey!”

“Two, no. I don’t care if you’re the love of my life, or the worst scum on the face of the earth-”

“You seem to be implying that the two are mutually exclusive.”

“-if you ask me to clean up this place I’m bloody well gonna say no!”

“And yet, here you are.”

“As stated, how the hell did you talk me into this?”

“What can I say! I’ve got mad people skills!”

“Mad?”

“It’s a word!”

“Charlie? Do me a favor? Don’t say mad. Ever. It’s just wrong. So, so wrong.

“I’ll give up any word you want, if it’ll get this place cleaned up faster!”

“There’s no way I could possibly have agreed to help clean this place.”

“So now I’m lying? Whatever happened to simply questioning your inanity like all my other friends do?”

“What other friends?”

“Good point. Doesn’t change the fact that you agreed.”

“The most obvious solution….Need I finish the sentence, or I have I drilled it through your lying, thick head yet?”

“Would I lie to you?”

“Yes.”

“I’m hurt!”

“I’m cleaning! I dear say we’re even!”

I stabbed through another piece of garbage with a stick I had picked up, coincidentially, from another mountain of garbage. Other than the slight risk of getting my face blasted off from said stick, it was actually pretty useful. (Don’t laugh; I’m serious.)

You have to understand, when I call it a basement, I’m being nice. Really nice. The thing is a giant tower of doom, extending half a mile above the surface. It just LOOKS like a basement from the outside-alternate dimensional bubbles and all that.

It’s been in the family for a few centuries, according to my father. I wouldn’t really know, though-or care. All that really mattered to me was our little family tradition: Every twenty years or so, the youngest member of the family has to go and clean up the place up a bit, so that everyone can ignore it for another couple of decades before sending the next poor sap down here. I didn’t exactly appreciate the honor, as you might have figured out.

That’s what happens when people start inventing stuff like dimensional bubbles, I guess. Us kids get left holding the bag, and a stick to pick it up with in the first place.

And girls keeping on grumbling about it.

“Honestly, someone needs to explain the concept of a garage sale to your ancestors!”

“What do you expect? It’s a trans-dimensional basement?”

“Just because it can never be filled doesn’t mean you have to try and prove the inventors wrong! I mean, for goodness sakes! This should count as community service or something!”

“Explain the community part?”

“Trust me, if the community knew what lived down here, I’m fairly certain they’d agree that we’re doing them a service.”

“Maybe we could even get a S.W.A.T.T team.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“What? I think a S.W.A.T.T team would be rather nice. Admittedly, we’d first have to create a S..T team for this dimension, but still…It can’t be much harder then cleaning this dump.”

“Not that, I mean that!”

I looked at where she was pointing. Right though yet another door, to yet another mountain of boxes, bags, and probably a few hundred rats. Did we mention the rats? Erica did. Repeatedly.

“I am so going to kill you when this is over, Charlie.”

“Assuming I don’t throw you to the rats first.”

“Please…you can barely throw a soft ball.”

“You weigh less.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment to my girlish figure. Now lay off the jokes before I knock you into next Tuesday. We’ve got work to do.”

“Since when did you get so serious?”

“Since I found out I was going to have to clean a mess Genghis Kahn would be proud of…or maybe it was the fact that you made me watch enough alternate dimensional movies that I’m able to say that at all, that finally turned me in!”

“Oh, come on! It’s not so-”

“If the next word that comes out of your mouth is bad, I will take every bit of trash I have gathered and stuff it down your throat. And then I will take a six inch rod, and shove it into places that you do not even want to think about. And no, Charlie, I will not be using a Tran dimensional bubble.

“It’s not so clean that it can’t be considered an outright dump, and it will most likely take millennia to clean?”

“Nice save.” She kicked me in the leg. “That’s for the implication..”

“You know, you have a serious attitude problem.”

“That’s what they tell me. Of course, it could simply be the whole thing about me being dragged through tunnel doors, and into rat packs in a hopeless attempt to clean this place, only to find this giant mess waiting for me!”

“Oh, come on! I have to do it too!’

“Yeah, but you get to keep this stuff afterwards. You find something nice, it’s yours. Pure and simple. I find something nice, I get to put in a crate and hope I never have to see it again!”

“You think I enjoy cleaning this stuff? I never want to see this room as long as I live!”

“Oh come on! I saw how you looked at those Zachoori cards! And that computer from Zalchoset Seven? You know you love this place.”

“Do not!”

“You so do.”

With a grumble (and a hidden grin), I picked up a piece of paper that laid by my feet. My life changed at that moment, and not for the better. I know, that probably sounds melodramatic, and everything, but trust me-that one single piece of paper, read by a dim bulb, really did change everything.

It was a prophecy. A real, paper and ink, mystical prophecy of the future. Is there any other kind, by the way? I’m just a bit confused….of course, that’s natural for me now. I’m always confused. But back to the past, and away from the future. As far away as you can get while reading a prophecy, anyway.

“Hey, Erica, what’s this?”

“Why are you asking me? It’s your family’s basement!”

“You think I go through this place cataloging it on a daily basis?”

“And I do? Come on, Charlie, I don’t even have keys to the place.”

“Do you know what it is or not?”

“Read it, and I’ll tell you.”

“The evil comes,

As time does run,

Soon shall come the last rise of sun,

The time of coming shall soon pass,

The one of evil is coming fast,

The evil one shall come at last,

And shatter worlds as if they were glass.

The time has come for evil’s demise,

And for a hero to be given rise,

The good can win, the bad be routed,

Another victory for evil need not be flouted,

We can win, the good shall rise!

If we catch evil at the right time,

Arise to the mountain on the day of 10,

And stop evil’s rise,

Do not let it take its prize,

Defeat evil now and all shall be well,

Let evil live and only time shall tell,

The evils to fall upon your world,

I am here to tell you of this now,

Do not ask me why or how,

I bring you this message through space and time,.

I bring it to thee within a rhyme,

I ask of you now to stop it now!

Stop this evil, forever from now!

Don’t let it destroy the past and the future,

Take down this evil and let it die now.

But don’t let if fool you,

Dear friend of mine,

Don’t let the times whip you and leave you down,

Don’t let the words warp your mind,

Do not listen and you shall find,

Your life is a good place, a place to be found,

So listen to my words, and hear me now:

Listen not to evil’s tongue,

Ignore the words of evil’s brand,

For it shall fool you and twist you along,

The mountain awaits for you to climb!

If you can only find the time!

The day of tens does fast approach!

So climb the mountain, the time does encroach!

I bid thee farewell now, and hope for the best,

If not I fear your world will be just like the rest.”

“Wow…” muttered Erica. “That was…A really bad prophecy.”

“What do we do about it?”

“What do you mean ‘what do we do’?” It’s a stupid prophecy! A poem! A fake!”

“How do you know that?”

“Because real prophecies don’t end up in junky old basements, never to be seen again!”

“How do you know one of my relatives didn’t take it down here?”

“Charlie, get over it! No one in their right mine hides a prophecy warning about the end of the Earth in a basement!”

“How would you know? How do we know that there isn’t really something evil coming, on the day of tens?”

“Now you sound like the prophecy,” muttered Erica. “Just don’t start confusing your thee’s and your yous. What was with that, anyway? I thought the writers of these things were masters of the language. It sounded like a child with a half formed knowledge of English wrote the thing!”

“Doesn’t mean it isn’t real, Erica.”

“Yeah, it kinda does!” Erica looked at me strangely, before bursting out, “I can’t believe this! You’re really getting into that stupid thing, aren’t you?”

“Ya think? Look, we came into this place expecting nothing but a pile of a garbage, and now we’re just about ready to walk out with a real adventure-a real adventure, like nothing that’s been seen for a hundred years-and all you want to do is argue that the things probably a fake!? We have a chance to do what no teen has done for…for… I don’t know how long! We have a chance to save the universe, and all you want to do ignore it.”

“And all you want to do is stick your head into danger, like some idiot boy,” muttered Erica.

“So maybe I do! I am male, like it or not Erica, even if you won’t admit it!”

“Charlie-”

“Erica,” I said, interrupting her before she could get any further, “you know I want adventure. I need adventure. I want to be out there, in the real world, with the wind in my hair, and a chill in my bones, as I scale up mountains. I want to go to new dimensions, fight against lions, chart uncharted space-”

“Sit in a dusty basement and read a prophecy telling you to go to some ancient mountain, and freeze to death waiting for an evil that will most likely never come?”

“If it takes that to get out of this dump, then yes. Now, are you coming or not?”

“You’re insane.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re going to die!”

“Probably.

“We’ll be the laughing stock of the whole town!”

“Oh…hadn’t thought of that.”

“Seriously?” She demanded. “I come out at you with death, insanity, and overall incredulity at the whole situation, and you’re going to be stopped by peer pressure?”

“Interesting point. Okay, you’ve convinced me: off we go!”

“You know full well that’s not what I meant!”

“Sure sounded that way to me.”

Erica stood there sputtering for a time, and then chased after me. “What do we tell your parents about the basement?”

“Tell them I’m off saving the world! They’ve always wanted me to take charge.”

“Me!? I’m going with you! You can’t be trusted alone in a mountain for two minutes by yourself without bringing the entire thing down around your ears! Besides, I would never be able to explain to your parents why you went off to get yourself killed.”

“Then hurry up, slow poke, or I’ll be halfway up the mountain by the time you get out!”

“You realize you don’t even have an idea as to when we have to be there, don’t you?” asked Erica, three hours later as we continued to search for an exit from the maze that my family called a mountain. “Actually, I’ve been thinking of that, and it seems to me that the only thing it could mean would have to be in about two weeks.”

“Two weeks? How do you get that?”

“Day of tens. It’s the tenth day of the tenth month, of the tenth year of the century, which is a multiple of ten. And it’s the day where ten bands are scheduled to be marching through ten circuses that are surrounding the area, and a tenth city is to be built within a ten mile radius of this place, not counting the distance created by the ten dimensional bubbles between us and each of those cities from the spot we found this prophecy”

“Where the heck are you getting all of this?”

“Back of the prophecy.”

“You’re finding out how to interpret the cryptic messages given to you via prophecy through something written on the back of said prophecy?’

“Yep. Cool, huh?”

“Doesn’t that strike you as just a little bit suspicious? I mean, the idea that someone would write the time to come for anyone to see after going to so much trouble to make it into a cryptic prophecy in the first place, doesn’t seem at all odd? I mean, come on!”

“It’s a prophecy, Erica! It doesn’t have to make sense! It just has to work out all right in the end.”

“This is the most nonsensical thing that I have ever-”

“And that’s exactly what makes it fit so well with a prophecy. Not that you don’t have a point and all, but come on…you’re out of your league here.”

“Since when did I develop a league?”

“Look, Erica, you’re fine with the sciences of magic. You can detail it out, and draw a diagram of a dimensional bubble’s inner workings. You can figure out the exact amount of heat to put into a fire ball spell in order to create maximum potency for a given situation, based on time place, humidity, and the amount of things you want to burn. But when it comes to adventure, prophecy, the things there just isn’t a science for…you’re doomed.”

“Who says there isn’t a science behind prophecies and adventure?

“Come, on, Erica! Prophecies are meant to be lived! Not analyzed!”

“And when you fall of the mountain you’re trying to scale, because no one’s there to tell you that your next handhold’s unstable? If you get eaten alive, because I’m not here to tell you when the stratora plant is in the vicinity? Where’s your lack of science in adventure then?”

“Oh, don’t take it so personally!”

“I’m sorry, if I take it personally when someone thinks I’m useless, and a horrid person to have around in an adventure!

“I didn’t say that!”

“You didn’t need too!”

“Look, you’re plenty useful in an adventure! It’s just that you tend to-”

“What? Logic things out? Try and find the reasoning behind something? Try and discover how things work, where as you prefer to just blunder through everything?”

“I’m… sorry?”

Erica fell to the ground laughing. “You should have seen your face,” she gasped. “‘Oh no, my best friends actually acting like a girl!’” She made no sound for a while, simply gasping for air after her laughing fit, while I glared at her.

“Should have known you would never do such a thing.”

“I can act like a girl!”

“Wouldn’t know it.”

“I am a girl, therefore everything I do is acting like a girl! Not that you would notice such a thing, being such a stupid guy!”

“Ah, so now the tables have turned!”

“Why you little-”

“What? Can’t take your own medicine? Or did you think I would let myself forget such a comment on my maleness as you made earlier?”

“We’re lost for who knows how long, and he makes jokes! How the heck did I get such a friend?”

“You were too weird for anyone else to come near without risking spontaneous combustion?”

“Hardy har, har.”

“Come on, I think I feel some air.”

“I still want to know what we’re going to do when we get out of this place!”

“Go up the mountain?”

“Without supplies? And then wait two weeks? No way, we’re getting some help before we go within a mile of that place!”

“Well, we’re not going to get it out here!”

“Sure we can! You have no trust in the people of this nation. I’m sure once they hear the horrid trouble that confronts their lives, they’ll-Ok, so they won’t. But they’re bound to do something.”

“They’ll laugh or run. Besides, where’s the adventure in going up with an army?”

“Where’s the adventure in getting killed by the ultimate evil before we take three steps?”

“I thought you didn’t believe in the guy?”

“One, who says it’s a guy? Don’t be sexist. It’s unbecoming. Two, just because I don’t believe in it, doesn’t mean I’m going to go calmly march up to my possible death. I for one have no intention of walking up a mountain just so that I can be buried in an unmarked grave! I’m taking protection!”

“I thought you and your science were the protection. Wasn’t that your little argument before?”

“Uh-uh. Doesn’t work. We’re going to get supplies, and we are going to get people.”

“It’s a mistake.”

“So you’ve stated.”

“We’re going to be laughed at!”

“Probably. But hey, you’re Mr. ‘the prophecy is so great.’”

“Doesn’t mean everyone else will agree!”

“Look, we’re going to be getting other people and that’s all there is too it!”

“Come on,” I cried, changing the subject. “I think I see a light!”