1 A New Beginning

It was just for a moment. Was that really him?

I stopped to take another look.

How could I see him here? Now?

I took off running like my life depended on it.

After so long he's just 50 meters in front of me.

40

30

20

10

"BRAD!!!"

As he turned towards me the face of my little brother which I hadn't seen for ten years was looking back at me.

Finally!

I reached out to embrace him. Tears filled my eyes. The ever-present pain of longing and loss released its grip on my heart as it exploded with boundless warmth.

"Brad I can't tell you how much I've missed you."

I couldn't believe it. I searched for years. I never stopped looking. I used everything I had to find him, yet that day, with no warning, I saw him on the street. I felt so lucky.

Reveling in the immense joy of finally finding him, it took me a moment to notice a cold piercing pain growing in my chest.

As I stepped back I looked down to see a thin dark colored blade coated in bright red liquid. It slowly revealed its sharp edges as it finished withdrawing from my chest. At the end of the blade a hand was splattered with my freshly spilled blood, Brad's hand. I looked up, eyes filled with confusion.

How could this happen? How could that sweet innocent child I knew ten years ago do this? Why?

My knees became weak. A bitter coldness rapidly advanced from my extremities toward my struggling heart.

I desperately searched his face for meaning, a clue to reveal his motives, his reasons.

The only thing reflected in his eyes was pain. His features twisted as if he was the one on death's door.

Our gazes locked, all at once overwhelming sadness, regret, and grief screamed to break free from the depths of his eyes as they trembled, "Brother... I truly wish... you had stayed away."

The last bit of heat evacuated the hole in my chest. The cold took over and my body began to fall as my brother's face got further and further away.

I desperately tried to get my lips to move.

Just one word! I just need to get out one word! I just want to ask him why! I have to know!

Like an unforgiving wave the darkness silenced me.

.....

.....

.....

"Troy....Troy....TROY!!!"

"Huh."

Light flooded my vision as my eyelids flew open. Startled, I sat up.

"Where am I. Where's Brad?"

My mind was a jumbled mess. Memories flooding in before arranging themselves neatly in my mind.

"Huh? You have always been such a heavy sleeper."

I know that voice. I haven't heard it in years. Not since…..

I quickly turned my head. This can't be. It's not possible. My hands began to shake.

What is going on?

"Mike?"

"Who else would it be moron?"

How can this be real? He died right in front of me. I buried him myself. I agonized over his death for years.

Still, there was no denying it, this could only be my best friend Mike. We were friends for years, even before the migration. I had started my first job at a garden center, but I had always been a weak kid, skinny, with pale skin. I always preferred burying myself into books over getting involved in sports. I had a hard time lifting any of the heavy stuff like bags of mulch or potted plants. Mike would always help me out.

Mike was much stockier than me, a little short, but he had always been strong, even at a young age. He had a rough tan, short brown hair, and a full beard even though he was just 18.

"What?!?!..... What are you doing here Mike?"

"What do you mean what am I doing here?.....Are you still asleep?," he stared at me.

Suddenly reality struck, like a glass mirror shattered across the floor, the truth became unavoidable. The differences I couldn't notice before became glaringly obvious, demanding my attention. Mike's left eye wasn't mangled, the scar that disfigured the left side of his face, vanished. His skin and face radiated the youthful vigor of a teenager.

I looked down at my hands. I repeatedly turned them over, as if this was my first time seeing them. All the calluses and scars I had grown painfully familiar with, gone. It felt surreal, as if at any moment the calluses and scars would magically manifest.

However, after several moments they remained the hands of an average teenager. The hands of someone who had not yet witnessed the cruelty of reality. Someone who hadn't used them to fight for their survival.These were my hands. It had been so long I forgot what they looked like.

Where... No... When am I?

"Troy, what is wrong with you?.... We need to get going!"

He looked at me as he shook his head, "It's a good thing I stopped by. I just knew you would oversleep. I swear, if you weren't my best friend I might've left for Agartha without you."

A torrent of emotions suddenly paralyzed me.....

It's today.

The day that radically changed my life, my definition of normal, what it meant to be human.

Today is the day that thrust me into a powerless existence. Today is the day that sparked a life of misfortune and abuse. Today is the day that sealed my miserable fate.

No longer.

No longer will that be what today represents. I will change the meaning of today.

Today will be the day that thrust me to the apex of human existence. Today will be the day that sparked a life of strength and determination. Today will be the day that sealed the fate of my enemies.

Today is the day I left for Agartha, ten years before my death.

Agartha, another world, a world that changed the course of humanity.