The musty smell of the dark room filled my head. The stench of death was overwhelming. The dusty tomb hadn't been seen by the eyes of men in hundreds of years.
The twelve crypts in the floor arranged neatly three-by-four were now opened. Their occupant's bones desecrated, and treasures stolen. In a corner of the room, a pile of valuables was collected: gem encrusted jewelry, ornate golden statues, even delicate porcelain vases.
The grave robbers weren't done, however.
A section of the wall hid something.
A foreboding presence filled the room.
As the hidden wall opened, a malevolent roar filled the room, chilling me to the core.
I jumped upright in my bed, the hateful scream still echoing in my head.
Just a dream. A weird, eerily vivid dream. Or maybe a nightmare. A chill still ran up my spine. I had no idea where that came from or what kind of dream I was having that lead to that.
I glanced over at the clock. I still had two hours before I had to be up. I rolled over and tried to push the dream out of my head to get back to sleep. Try as I might, the echoing scream kept nagging at me.
I got up in a daze and went ahead with my day. Slowly, the dream faded, and the chills stopped running down my spine. By the time I was walking to the bus stop, everything was just about back to normal.
The bus ride into the city was as busy as normal. I was able to find a seat before it became standing room only. Once it filled up, as I typically did, I went ahead and gave my seat to an older lady that had just boarded. We shared a pleasant smile and I took a hold of the overhead bars as the bus started up again.
Suddenly, I felt a strong wind blast by me staggering me and roaring in my ears. If I hadn't been holding on already, I felt for sure it would have knocked me over.
Wait!... Wind? On a bus?! What the hell?!
I glanced around and no one seemed to have ruffled a feather. There was even one businessman reading a newspaper seemingly oblivious to any issue.
The elderly lady was looking at me strangely, "Are you okay?"
I looked over at her, then looked around, "What was that?"
She glanced sideways, "What was what? You just seemed to have a spasm there for a moment." She looked concerned, "Are you sure you don't need the seat?"
I looked at her for a moment considering it, but I felt completely fine. I ended up just shaking my head, "No. I guess I'm okay. Not sure what that was." I was pretty certain I hadn't dreamed that too... had I?
I made my way through my day normally. Helpdesk Tech Support doesn't change much. Even for a large conglomerate. "Have you tried rebooting your PC?", "Sorry, we don't provide tech support for personal devices.", "Please try not to click on links within emails from untrusted sources!"
Exciting stuff.
It was good though. Took my mind off of things... almost. After my dream last night and the episode on the bus, I was still a little jumpy. It was probably just my imagination, but I thought for sure I heard someone right behind me a few times during the day. No one was there, but it seemed like someone was making noises right behind me. Whether it was humming, groaning, sighing or something. It was keeping me on edge all day long.
As I walked back to the bus stop, I passed the park and noticed a few of the people out on the grass relaxing, doing yoga and meditating. I'd never been one for such things, but for some reason meditating seemed to strike me as just the thing I needed to get my head straight.
I glance at the time and saw I'd be waiting at the bus stop for thirty minutes. I made my way onto the grass, settled down and mimicking the other people, crossed my legs underneath me and tried my best to relax.
And things got really weird!
I was suddenly floating in a serene white place. No shapes or points of reference. The light seemed to emanate from everywhere. I was startled, but for some reason, I wasn't concerned.
Suddenly, there was someone beside me.
He was older. Probably at least in his sixties. He wore very old-fashioned clothing. Like the kind you'd see at Medieval Fairs and such. His face was somber, even stoic and worry lines riddled his face, but his eyes were sparkling and alive.
"Well, it's about time!" he startled me with a friendly tone, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Jacob."
I stared at him confused. I closed my eyes and reopened them, but I was still in this strange place.
"Where am I? Who are you?! What's going on?" I could feel my blood pressure rising and the adrenaline kicking in.
He held out his hands in a soothing gesture, "Relax. It's okay. You're okay. No need to get upset." He glanced around, "I'm not too sure where this is supposed to be, but we're really just in your head. Probably just a temporal manifestation of what you'd think Heaven would look like." He glanced around for a bit, "Seems kinda dull. You need to more vivid imagination, son." He chuckled pleasantly.
"What?!" My pressure lowered a bit, but I still didn't understand what was happening.
He took a breath and nodded, "Okay, I'll just get down to it." He gave me a level stare, "I am Arman
Sayyad
. It turns out you are descended from a very long line of... well, men." He gave me a look, "Only child, right?"
"Uh... yeah."
"And your Dad, too, right?" He raised an eyebrow, "And his Dad?... and his Dad before that?" He paused for a moment to let me nod weakly, "What year is it now?" He shook his head, "Bah! Doesn't matter. Suffice to say that you have a fairly long line of single boys going back... well... a really long time."
If I could have dropped into a chair I would have. My legs felt decidedly weak at the moment.
"Your family was part of a society of... well, guardians. Guardians against some of the more vile deprivations of the human soul. We strived to keep a source of..." He struggled for a moment to find the right word.
"Evil?" I suggested.
"That's not quite right. Good-Evil are too binary. If I were to kill someone, that'd be an Evil act, but if that person were about to unleash a plague on the world, wouldn't that be a Good act? How can something be both Good and Evil?" He looked in askance to me. "Let's just say Nastiness or Cruelty. Neither are accurate, but your vocabulary is a little limited." He shrugged, "Anyway, your ancestors fought against this source for a long time, and they were able to lock it away."
I paled remembering the dream I'd had.
He nodded, "Yeah, it's gotten away." He looked directly at me, "And it's your duty to lock it away again, before it can corrupt too many."
"Me?! How the hell am I supposed to do that?" I was just a lowly help desk nerd. I couldn't fight some ancient evil, badness!
"Well, that's where I come in. You'll be gaining a number of different abilities and I have all the knowledge on how to use them. If you'll allow me, I can pass that knowledge onto you."
"If I allow you? What's that mean? I can choose not to?"
"Well... Yeah." The man shrugged. "I'm not going to force you into it. This thing has just been released, so starting to fight it now would be much easier, but if you choose not to, I will not force you." He looked at me unconcerned as if he'd just told me my shoes were untied.
"So, it's up to me?"
"Yes, Sir."
"But if I don't..."
"Well, let's just say the common people of the world will probably have a really bad year... Probably decade. Depending on how long it takes for me to find another Guardian."
I paused for a moment considering the enormity of this.
