1 Chapter 1

Brilliant sunlight gleamed down from the sky, shining brightly through the slightly open windows in the large lecture room, letting cool air into the stifling classroom. Nearly two hundred students sat there, patiently scribbling notes in tune to a professor droning on about fiscal policy in the United States. It was a wide, slanted grey room, with drab walls and hundreds of chairs all facing downwards and towards the middle, where the professor talked. The students wore a variety of garments, most of them colored maroon or black, the official colors of the school.

Kyle Kitgar covered a yawn as he turned his head away from the window, looking down at the professor. His bright blue eyes zeroed in on the middle-aged teacher for a brief moment before glancing down at a phone in his lap. He tapped on it.

"12:50... just in time." He began collecting his notes, getting ready to leave. At the same time, the professor in the center of the room wrapped up his lecture,

"And that will conclude today's lecture, I'll see you all Monday."

As the students around him began filing out, Kyle sat still for a moment, looking back outside the window in the lecture room.

It was the middle of October, several months into the school year. He was a Junior, a student working on his 3rd year of classes as Winstorm College, majoring in both Mathematics and Economics. The previous 3 years of school life had been uneventful, filled with boredom. Almost all of what his teachers taught he had already learned through self study years ago in high school. In fact, the only reason he was attending college was to get a degree, a requirement to research or work in any of the fields he had an interest in.

"21 years old…" He muttered, shaking his head, his short brown hair swaying slightly. He eyed some of the students that were leaving.

"I feel old now." He shrugged.

"You are old, old man! Let's get moving, us youngin's don't got all day, we got plans tonight!" A loud voice interrupted Kyle's musings. To Kyle's right sat a blonde haired, smirking twenty year old, wearing a short black shirt with flames on it. A silver necklace with a ring on it ran around his neck, shining slightly.

Kyle rolled his eyes.

"Alright- wait, hold on, what Luke? We have plans? You mean you have plans." Kyle smiled as he stood up, packing everything into his backpack and turning to exit the lecture room. The chatter of students picked up in the background.

"Nope! We definitely have plans! Don't you remember the pledge you made last Friday?" Luke followed quickly behind Kyle as they began to wade through the crowd of students, seeking the stairs. Their lecture room was on the second floor, next to several other large rooms.

"Last Friday?" Kyle began, shaking his head, "Last Friday we went out fishing at the lake, I don't recall any pledge." They reached the stairs, and started descending, taking care to not slip. The drab building had just finished renovations and the floors were still a bit slick, especially the stairs. The large number of student passing made their progress rather slow.

"Err, well, you might not have been awake when you made it, but trust me, you definitely made a pledge. Look, see? This is your signature." Luke held up a piece of paper in front of Kyle's face, making him read it as they walked down the stairs. Kyle glanced it over.

"Luke this is clearly your handwriting." Kyle replied.

"Nope, you must've been impersonating me in your sleep, definitely your signature." Luke replied back.

"My name isn't even spelled correctly."

"Well, now we see why you aren't an English major."

"Luke, there are literally notes from today's lecture on this page."

"Must've been a prophetic dream."

By this time, the duo had successfully managed their way down the stairs and exited the building, walking out into the chill autumn air. Despite the sunlight overhead, the temperature was unusually cold. Kyle tugged at the black longsleeved shirt, and pulled at the long jeans he wore, making sure they weren't clipping under his brown leather boots.

"Alright, alright!" Kyle threw his hands up in the air in defeat, "You win, what are we doing tonight?"

Luke grinned at Kyle's response, his eyes twinkling. Around them, hundreds of students moved to and fro, the sounds of a college campus spreading outward. A slight breeze stirred the air, an autumn draft.

"Excellent! We, my friend, are going to the Annual October Spook Bash! The one all the frats put on tonight!" Luke slapped Kyle on the back confidently, turning around to head to the north side of campus where he parked. He waved back at Kyle,

"I'll text you about it! Gotta run now!" Luke pushed off and began jogging, ignoring any odd looks he got as he ran off. Kyle stared at him as he ran away, a helpless grin on his face.

Luke Welling was Kyle's best friend of many years. He had first met Luke before he went off to college. At the time, Kyle had been looking for work to fund a few online courses he'd decided to take in his free time, and stumbled on a job application for an adoption facility. When he had gone in to apply, he had accidentally run into Luke, a current worker and volunteer at the large adoption house. Luke had originally grown up in the house, and stayed on to help take care of it.

One thing led to another, and the pair eventually became fast friends, even ending up going to the same college.

Kyle shook his head ruefully, and began walking away, towards the lot where he'd left his car. As he walked through the bustling campus, he began to hum a silent tune. He started stepping in line with the tune, practicing his footwork.

Over the past several weeks, Kyle had let Luke loop him into learning how to dance. Luke was a huge socialite, always attending one event or another on or off campus, and had picked up on multiple styles of dance. Kyle had always been a bit more reserved, preferring to focus on reading a good book or his latest hobby, solving complex riddles and puzzles.

Lately, however, school and life had really begun to bore Kyle. Attending classes just to have them on his record, the fact that he'd finished reading through all his planned reading, even the complicated mathematical puzzles he'd been solving began feeling old. He felt like he was missing something.

Luke had decided what that was was clearly dancing. Kyle shook his head again, smiling. His best friend's ever confident attitude amazed him.

A few minutes later, after maneuvering through the crowded campus, Kyle reached the parking garage he parked at, the West Campus Garage. Just as Kyle was about to enter the parking garage and was studying the lot, trying to find his car, he blinked, startled.

For a split second, the entire world around him had seemed to shiver. It was faint, but clear, the lines of everything around him distorting for a very brief moment. The parked cars in front of him seemed to stretch out, the bumpers and wheels pulling upwards, as if a great force was trying to tug them into the sky, but gravity forced them to stay on the ground. Just as quickly as this had appeared, however, it instantly disappeared. A slight jolt of pain appeared for a split second in his head, adding to his confusion.

"What?!" He exclaimed, holding his hands out in front of him. A few students turned and looked at him askance. Kyle motioned to a pair of girls that were walking past, a duo of blondes dressed in maroon shirts and jean shorts.

"Did you not see that?" He said, adrenaline causing his heart to pound.

"See what?" The closer blonde girl said, giving him an odd look.

"The world? It just stretched and… stuff." Kyle waved his hands lamely, unable to easily describe what he saw. The pair of girls eyed him again and then backed off, not responding. Several other students walked past, moving on as if nothing had happened.

Kyle watched them leave, frowning. He stepped out of the way of a car that was exiting the garage, trying to understand what just happened.

"I guess that was a mini stroke or just something in my head?" He muttered, turning into the garage and swiftly moving to his car, scratching at his head. A spike of fear jumped in his heart at the thought of some type of mental illness or obsession.

"It just felt so real. Urrgh." He felt at the phone in his pocket for a moment, considering telling a friend or his parents about what happened, eventually deciding not to. If it really was a mental thing, he wouldn't want to worry anyone. As well, his parents were still off vacationing in France, and he wouldn't want to ruin their vacation. Instead, he tried analyzing the moment, breaking down what happened.

The world had distorted, everything stretching. Right after that, he'd felt a jolt of pain in his head. Then, everything had returned to normal. No one else around him had noticed anything strange. His frown deepened.

He quickly made his way to his car, an older model silver Camry, and left the garage and campus, his mind trying to understand what he'd felt.

---

"MMMM ahh! Fresh air!" Luke grinned to himself as he took in the north side of his college's campus, winking at a few freshmen he saw wandering by. He grinned as they scurried off, shaking his head. He would have already reached his car several minutes ago, but he kept getting distracted as he walked, his mind cluttered with thoughts.

Luke glanced down at the smartphone he held in his hand, opening up a note. He looked at one in particular labeled "Helping out Kyle."

He tapped on it, reading through it.

"Let's see. We're starting on getting him into dancing. He just broke up with what's her name a month and a half ago, maybe I should introduce him to some girls." Luke muttered to himself as he walked, looking for Lot 49, the place where he parked his car.

He stretched his arms, feeling the soreness in them. Apart from his hobby and love of dancing, Luke had also been practicing a traditional martial art for many years, one that focused on swordplay. The skills had been ingrained in him by his father, and his father's father. While it wasn't particularly fun, it helped keep him fit. When this combined with the many nights he spent out dancing, being sore was a normal conclusion.

Despite the soreness, he couldn't help but smile. Life was truly good to him.

Luke looked around at the people moving to and fro on campus, still holding his smile. It had been 3 years since he started school here with Kyle, and Luke hadn't regretted or wasted a single moment. From joining several clubs to taking up dancing to expanding his horizons by learning, Luke grasped every opportunity he could. His own motto centered around living life to the fullest, and he worked at it every day.

He frowned after a moment, however, considering his best friend Kyle. He had first met Kyle back in highschool. At the time, Luke was a worker and volunteer at the orphanage he grew up in. Kyle had been looking for a job, and applied at his orphanage, the Lots of Laughter and Love orphanage, or LoLaL as Luke affectionately called it. Despite the awkward and rather lame nickname, the orphanage was run by a set of very caring owners, with several employees helping take care of over 300 orphaned children.

After bumping into each other, the two had become good friends. Kyle's parents were distant, and often off vacationing or working, leaving him to his own ends. Luke, on the other hand, had never known his parents, and was always on his own. Due to the somewhat similar situations, Luke and Kyle had bonded a great deal. They helped each other through a lot of rough times when they were younger.

Ever since going off to college, Luke had known Kyle was struggling with a lot. His best friend jumped from hobby to hobby, subject to subject, learning at a pace that astounded Luke. If it wasn't for the fact that Kyle wanted a college degree, his best friend probably wouldn't even be here. His learning ability through self study was abnormal, to say the least. Nothing seemed to be able to sate his interest, however, not for long. Thus, Luke took every opportunity to drag his best friend out to have fun, to take his mind off other things, and to try and help him.

His phone buzzed, interrupting his thoughts. Luke glanced down at it, frowning slightly. A text message from a girl named Lauren had appeared. He scanned through it before ignoring it, shaking his head, a dismal feeling in his stomach.

He had just started dating this girl a few weeks ago, a pretty blonde who he had met at a party, and issues were already starting to crop up. She was a great girl and Luke really felt like he had made a connection with her. They danced wonderfully together, and she had a really cool personality. But, he had started to doubt their relationship recently, she just didn't seem like the right fit. He tried to push away the sick feeling, taking a deep breath.

"Come on, Luke. Confidence, remember?" He took several deep breaths, looking around at the students passing once again, regaining his smile. He was standing on a concrete sidewalk bordering one of the roads that went through the campus, just outside of one of the chemistry buildings. Each building was a tall edifice, a mixture of modern architecture and drab greys. Several dozen green trees were spread out in grassy squares next to the sidewalk, interspersed evenly, adding a bit of nature to the street.

As he took the view in, he frowned and took a step backwards, almost stumbling. The world around him seemed to quiver briefly. Luke's eyes widened in astonishment and awe as the tree he had been looking at, a mid sized oak with a dozen large, leave coated branches, distorted. The limbs on the tree seemed to stretch upward, growing larger than life for a brief moment, vibrating wildly.

A horrid, disorienting feeling crashed into Luke as he stumbled backwards, falling to the ground. His hands and back slapped down hard on the concrete, propping his head up from colliding with the floor. A sharp pain appeared in his head for a moment before vanishing, as if it had never appeared.

In an instant, however, the world returned to normal, the stretching and distorting vanishing, like the brief spark of pain that had appeared in his mind.

"Are you alright?!" Luke looked up in a dazed manner, his eyes full of shock, as a couple students passing by rushed to his aid, looking down at him with concern. His eyes focused on the pair, two guys wearing long khakis and polo shirts. One had bright blonde hair, the other brown hair, both with large black backpacks on their back. Several other students had stopped to turn and stare at Luke, alongside a few older looking workers or teachers. Most continued to walk past, ignoring him.

"What do you mean am I alright?!" He sputtered, blinking several times. "What the hell just happened?" His voice was raw from shock.

"Uhh… Dude, you took a few steps back and fell. Are you dehydrated?" The blonde haired man, the first speaker, continued to speak, bending down to try and help Luke up. Most of the onlookers had turned away by now, losing interest.

"Are you kidding me? The world just went crazy, wha- what?!" Luke stood up with the help of the blonde haired speaker, his eyes darting around as he tried to make sense of what happened.

The blonde haired man stared at him for a second before shaking his head and backing away.

"No, I didn't see anything. Are you on something right now? If not, you might want to get yourself checked out man."

Luke stared at him for a moment, and then at everyone else on the sidewalk. People passed him moving as if nothing had happened, going from one class to another. Teachers, students, a few maintenance workers here and there. In the street next to him a few cars drove past, a large bus coming to a stop nearby. The very picture of a normal day.

"Thanks, no, I'm fine." Luke brushed them off, and stumbled away, going back to walking towards the parking garage where his car was parked. His movements were methodical as his mind raced, trying to understand what just happened.

"What the hell was that?"