Chapter 5: The Open Door

Desmond stood, dumbfounded by the sudden question. “Yes?”

Once the door had opened a little wider, he was left with a young man in front of him. Desmond thought he might be somewhere in his late twenties and felt skeptical that he could be the person everyone had talked about. How could anyone so close to his age have all the answers? The young man looked nice enough, with his head of golden curls, bright green eyes and friendly smile. But there was nothing that really stood out about him that had Desmond thinking he might be able to tell him exactly what was going on.

Desmond leaned to the side just enough to peer over the golden boy’s shoulder and found Lydia there. She was smiling at him from where she stood in the entryway of what appeared to be a small, cluttered apartment. He could only raise his brows in a display of how skeptical he felt. The eagerness he had felt just moments before the door had opened had started to fade. Disappointment was what was left behind in its wake, instead. It didn’t look like there would ever be any explanation to where he was, why he was there or how he could get home.

“The name is Atlas, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” the curly-haired man said.

“I don’t mean to sound rude, but I have a lot of questions. Are you really the guy that can answer them?” Desmond asked.

Atlas' smile didn’t waver, “I can do my best. Won’t you come in?”

Atlas stepped aside without waiting for his response. It left Desmond still feeling skeptical about the man he had come such a long way to meet. He didn’t really have anywhere else to go and with the danger lurking out in the streets, this could be his only option. With a sigh, he moved past Atlas and into the small, crowded apartment.

Atlas’ apartment opened from the entrance into a small living room, which was crowded with stacks of books. The place was decorated with crystals and symbols he had never seen before, let alone understood. The place smelled strongly of incense and the low, dim light gave a soft warm glow. It probably would have felt cozy in some strange way, if he wasn’t in the situation that he was currently in. Even with the welcoming feel of the place, Desmond still felt distraught and skeptical that he would ever find his way home or any real answers to what had happened to him.

“I’d invite you to sit down, but I’m afraid you probably wouldn’t be able to do that just yet,” Atlas spoke up and moved past him into the living room.

“Lydia said that too. Something about not being connected. What is that supposed to mean?” Desmond questioned impatiently.

“It means you haven’t connected your spirit between The Echo and The World of the Light,” Atlas said simply.

Desmond frowned at him. The answer he had gotten was lackluster. He still had no idea what it meant. It must have shown in his expression as well because just moments after Atlas gave his answer, he breathed out a short laugh and then gestured over to Lydia. Lydia, who was still standing quietly in the living room with her arms crossed over her chest. Desmond watched as she nodded to Atlas in some unspoken agreement. She stepped forward and reached for one of the crystals on the table in front of Desmond.

“To be connected means you’re able to interact with the World of the Light, even when you are in The Echo. Most intelligent spirits or ghosts as we know them, are able to do this. Through physical touch or energy manipulation,” Atlas explained. He gestured again to Lydia.

Once again, Desmond’s attention was brought to Lydia. He watched her try to move the crystal from where it sat on the table. From his point of view, it looked as though the object was glued to where it rested. Her entire body started to blink out. For just a few seconds Lydia would be standing there, clear as day and then in a flash she would have disappeared. This lasted about thirty seconds before the crystal she had been trying to pick up moved off the table and clattered to the living room floor.

After seeing the interaction, Desmond was beginning to understand at least what The Echo was. Between meeting Lydia, who had explained she was a wandering soul, to watching her try and lift something off a table and hearing the explanation, it was all beginning to click in his mind. The Echo had to be some kind-of purgatory. It was a world between his own and something else. Something dark, which is where he guessed those creatures he saw came from.

“Don’t worry, you’re not a spirit or anything like that. You’re still alive,” Atlas pressed on. “It means though that, when you establish the connection, you’ll be able to interact normally. It’s just that not everyone will be able to see or hear you while you’re in The Echo.”

“Okay, why am I here then? If I’m not dead or something?” Desmond asked.

Atlas sighed to his question and exchanged a look with Lydia. It looked to Desmond like the pair were trying to decide how to answer that question. It made him feel uncomfortable to wait in their silence. He wasn’t sure what was the cause of their hesitation, but he didn’t feel like he would like the answer. The longer he waited for Atlas to continue with his explanation, the more impatient and anxious he was starting to feel.

“Well?” Desmond pressed, unable to keep the impatience from his tone.

Atlas let out a sigh. “I have heard it told in a story from some of the souls that pass through The Echo. Years ago, something incredibly dark tried to make a pass into The World of the Light by devouring any soul it could find. One brave soul stood against it and managed to drive it back, but it left behind a curse. That curse transferred from one soul to the next over the years. It would mark a soul that mirrored the first soul to stand against the darkness.”

“Anyone marked is said to be brought to The Echo as a living soul before being bound to this world and having to protect it from anything dark,” Lydia added.

“Okay…” Desmond spoke slowly, “so I’m supposed to protect The Echo from those things that form out of the black mist? Then who’s the white-haired man?”

Once again, Atlas and Lydia exchanged looks before Lydia spoke up again. “That man is named Mykel. He is our current protector. We call them Keepers, as they make us think of gatekeepers.”

This really was a lot of information for Desmond to process. All this stuff about purgatory and being chosen by some curse. Then there was the fact that he was supposed to protect souls like Lydia from those creatures. Desmond didn’t feel he was cut out for any of that. He had seen Mykel use some sort of power to get rid of the creature that tried to get him, but as far as he knew, that wasn’t something that he was able to do.

Desmond wondered, what kind of traits made up a soul like that? He wasn’t sure he wanted any part of it. Especially not after Mykel had gone to the liberty to remind him that if he stuck around he was going to kill him. As interesting as it all sounded, the only thing that Desmond felt he wanted right then was to get back home. He just wanted to wake up in his bed again and forget that any of this ever happened.

“That all sounds really cool and all, but can you just tell me how to get back to… the World of the Light, I guess? I just want to go home,” Desmond stated.

“It would be easier if you were already connected, but since you’re not… try to focus on your home. Something distinct in your mind that might grab your attention, use that as your tether to create your connection and you should be able to return,” Atlas replied.

“Okay, thanks. I don’t know how you know all of this… or if you can just talk to ghosts or something, but I appreciate it, anyway,” he said.

Desmond took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He tried to do just as Atlas had instructed without letting his mind wander off. Honestly, he was curious about Atlas and how he knew what he did, but his desire to get home was stronger than his curiosity. If this worked, then it was his hope he wouldn’t have to worry about it again. After everything he had seen, Desmond couldn’t imagine a reason why he would want to come back to The Echo. Not if it meant risk of a death threat, especially.

It took him several moments to be able to tune everything out of his mind, but soon enough he was certain he could pick up the faint sound of his phone alarm going off. An alarm that he probably had set for work and forgot to turn off before he took some time off to celebrate his birthday. Once the ringing became clear in his mind, he did his best to focus on it until it slowly got louder and louder. By now, the noise was so loud he thought he might just be able to reach out for the device to turn it off.

Desmond opened his eyes, expecting to find Atlas and Lydia watching him and waiting to find out if it had worked. But when he shot his eyes open, he found that he was just staring straight up at the ceiling fan on his bedroom ceiling. The sight of it confused him at first. He didn’t feel like he had been asleep and as far as he knew, everything he had experienced hadn’t been a dream. Slowly, Desmond sat up in his own bed and turned bewildered to look around the room that he had been occupying for the last year. He really was back home.

The device that had been the thing to send him home sat on the bed next to him. It rang and buzzed, letting him know it was time to wake up. He fumbled to scoop it up into his hand. A look at the screen confirmed that only a single night had passed and his birthday party had just been the night before. Again, it left a strange feeling in him. Almost as though he was missing something. Desmond was just having a hard time believing that it could have all been just some wild nightmare or even a fever dream.

“There’s no way…” He spoke to himself after he set his phone aside. “Was all of that really just a dream?”