1 A Space Between Worlds

Upon blowing the horn blue mist flew from the shell and vibrated and made Clark feel as if he himself was being vibrated out of his body. After a moment he tried to stop blowing but the horn still rang in his ears deep and resonant. The blue mist itself flowed like fire from the horn.

Clark was frightened more than he could have imagined from something so simple. Amidst his fright, the fiery mist began to engulf him. Worrying that he would be burned Clark tried to throw the horn and run but the horn seemed to float in thin air and the mist began to engulf him. To his surprise, the mist was warm like perfect hot cocoa on a rainy day. He stopped moving as much and remembered his professor's words. If he had faith it would give him a chance. As scared as he was, he knew that this must be the path he should take and he reached forward through the mist held the shell. The shell flashed blindingly white and the room was filled with blue mist.

Clark smiled to himself thinking, "I have no idea where I'm going but I'll trust the old man. He has been kind to me before and after all, I have very little to lose. With that last thought, he felt everything around him become calm and he felt himself float away.

Unbeknownst to Clark, Professor Blake was in his office watching through the one-way mirror window of his office waiting to see what the boy did. "Well my boy, this will be a difficult path for you but I do believe you will be happier. I'll take care of your replacement as well and I hope some Karma will be shown on you and another will take care of you." He said quietly as he saw the blue smoke and the boy simply disappear.

After some time Clark found himself seated in a cool room and he opened his eyes to see himself in an office. He noticed quickly that there was something strange about the room after a moment he realized it seemed to not adhere to any standard Clark had ever seen. It had chairs that were made for every size and shape of a person and the room seemed to lean a little. Approaching 11 feet tall on one side and merely 5 and a half feet tall on the far end. Not only that but the chairs on the smaller side seemed to be made for children and the ones on the tall side truly seemed to be made for Giants. Upon further inspection, he noticed some chairs seemed to be made out of leather. Whilst others were made out of some kind of high-end fabric that felt the perfect temperature when you touched them.

Clark was feeling one of these and was about to sit down when a light shown above a large door set on the tall side. It was yellow indicated something but Clark had no idea as to what. Fortunately, a clear pleasant voice came through some kind of surround sound intercom, "Next guest a representative will be available for you in less than 5 minutes. Please relax and take your time to view the information provided. To Clark's surprise, a screen appeared out of nowhere in front of him causing him to fall into the comfy super chair.

Clark fell rather awkwardly with his left hand on the chair and his left knee sliding off but as if by magic the chair spun in such a bizarre way that it caught him a then smoothly readjusted to a normal seating position.

It was so crazy Clark was half was attempted to purposely try falling in it to see if it would always catch him. However, he then saw another screen pop out of thin air asking him a question. "Massage Feature: Y/N?" With a green yes and red no buttons below the message. Clark had never had a real massage and only when he was a teenager had he once tried the massage chairs in the mall. So, very excitedly, Clark pressed the yes button. The chair seemed to warm and move like waves on his back and yet they were firm enough to push deep into his muscles. It was strange that when he first touched the chair it was like touching water and now he realized why it did.

Very quickly the chair had begun a blissful massage, it showed more options but since Clark had no idea what settings he would like he just ignored the new message and relaxed for a minute thinking, "maybe I can close my eyes for a second before I figure this out."

Nearly 5 minutes later a ding occurred and Clark woke with a start. "What?!? Am I late?" he asked to no one in particular as he almost jumped out of the chair. "The last patron is leaving now your appointment will begin momentarily." the pleasant voice once again spoke to the room which still only included Clark.

Clark had found that he had been drooling and quickly wiped his face with his sleeve just to realize he was wearing a white robe, almost like a robe one would see on TV. Clark realized that he really should have been paying more attention as there was a lot of weird stuff going on. Clark, however, couldn't find it in himself to get mad however.

"It really was a good massage even if it was only a few minutes," he thought to himself as he stood up to get out of the chair. As he did so the tall door opened up, but strangely only part of the door opened. It appeared the door was like a Russian nesting doll with door upon door inside itself. "Clark? Are you ready?" said tall lanky man in a white suit who appeared holding what appeared to be a bottle of soda.

After a moment the man found Clark and waved for him to come in. "Don't dally all day we have a lot to get to and one never knows how much time they have," he said and went back in the room leaving the door open for Clark to follow. Uncertainty Clark followed and as he was walking to the room he noticed the little Memo that had made him jump earlier. It appeared that it was following him and as he was walking it changed from a screen to a tri-fold piece of paper like a brochure. Like magic, it zoomed over to him and landed in a pocket of his robe.

Clark felt like he should be shocked but after all that he had seen in the last 10 minutes, he wasn't very surprised anymore.

As he went through the open door he saw the lanky fellow sitting in a comfy office chair with a wooden desk in front of him with a bunch of screens behind him. Each of the screens showed different places with statistics on each such as health and safety percentages.

"Please, sit down," the man gestured toward a peculiar chair that seemed to be stepped like it was meant to be changeable. Currently, it had a seat that he had to climb into. Once he did the chair shifted so that he was comfortable and at eye level with lanky fellow.

"Alright, so what questions do you have?" The man asked smiling and steepling his hands together while looking at Clark.

Clark rubbed the back of his head before sheepishly asking the man, "Uh, where am I?" After all, he was supposed to have read the pamphlet.

As he expected the man's face fell and he looked a little put off. However, the man was quick to recover with a smile and a question, "Did you read the pamphlet?"

"Sorry, I didn't have much time and… I kinda fell asleep in the massage chair…" he told the man not willing to look him in the eye.

"Haha," the man laughed shaking his seemingly understanding what happened.

"I understand completely. I actually wanted the massage feature to only turn on after people read the pamphlet. However, it was found better off for some patrons to get a nice relaxing massage since not all people come here in the best condition. For those who freak out more than you did, there is a separate room for people to get acquainted with the new situation. Most people who are called here don't have that problem usually.

"Woah, slow down a little I'm a little confused, do people, like, come here all the time?" Clark asked surprised as he felt like everyone would know this place if it was so well used.

"Well, you're here because you don't feel like quite fit in in your old life or you felt like you need to change yourself isn't that right?" The man asked before patiently waiting for Clark's response.

"Well, I guess that sounds right. But, How in the world did I get here? Last I remember, I blew into some horn and there was a white flash and I disappeared and I kind of woke up here. "

"Well, there are many ways to reach this center but that horn is actually not very common. If I remember correctly that was given to Professor Blake who gave it to you. Is that not correct? "The man asked him in return.

Clark was shocked, how could this man know Professor Blake. He was so shocked Clark was sure his eyebrows became part of his hair.

"Haha, yes that's right I know Professor Blake. Although, at the time he was probably 14 at the time. He actually came from a jungle-like environment with a heavy atmosphere and gravity. Now I know that you probably now have more questions than answers but we have a little video that should help answer your questions." the man replied and he snapped his fingers to which the screens behind him all turned black and then started to show a single image as if they were normally this way.

"I'm going to take a quick break during the video but please pay attention. After all, we never know how much time we have." he said before walking out of a little side door next to his desk which also seemed to sink lower along with his chair so that Clark could see the screens better.

As soon as he left the voice of the woman from the reception speakers came from all around him and a beautiful green planet appeared on the screen like a fade in from a movie.

" Welcome to a new chance in life. You have been placed in the "Place Between Worlds" a place where you have the opportunity to choose the world that you will go to. You have an opportunity that few ever achieve only 3 to 7% of people, per planet, will have such an opportunity to change to a new world in their lives and usually, only 1 in over 5 billion people will come to watch this video." the woman narrated as his earth showed up and showed a powerpoint showing some statistics for people and specifically his home planet earth.

"Today you have the opportunity to go to" after she said visit there was a slight pause as if she was calculating something before continuing. "One of 32 planets an outstanding opportunity. After looking through short videos or looking through statistics sheets on the current opportunities you may choose a planet and a life attached to it."

After she had said this many different planets seemed to slide past the screen with mini videos of what was going on on the planets. One he saw was lush and green like the start of a video and he saw a golden moon orbiting the planet. When it showed a close up he saw giant dinosaur-like creatures roaming the planet and people who looked like extreme bodybuilders riding incredible horses that seemed to be as tall as elephants. He saw them corralling some dinosaurs into a valley before closing a metal gate that seemed to be as tall and thick as the great wall of China!

As he saw worlds that were medieval, techy, and as was the first came almost caveman. The woman started speaking again before showing an entire solar system filled with planets many of which seemed to be orbiting at the same distance from a star. "Many of these worlds are vastly different and have different opportunities for personal growth and for people to make a difference in the lives of those who live there. Your opportunity is to choose a life and with it a planet to live on where you can make your mark for good," she said before appearing on the screen. The woman he saw was tall and blonde-haired with a nice white suit and white flats. What really shocked him though was her skin. It appeared to be tinted sky blue like the sky!

Clark missed some of what she said next but was once again surprised when on-screen a gigantic spaceship appeared, which led Clark to tune in again to what she was saying, "As you can tell this world is quite unusual compared to a world you have been living on. This is actually not the only system of planets that can be lived on but it is the one available to you today. Remember, once you choose your new home there are no exchanges. Great dinosaurs or spaceships that travel across their respective solar systems or to an extent galaxies are just some of the options available to you. So don't be swayed easily but make a careful and thoughtful decision. " as she was speaking the screen was been displaying events that occurred. Most of them were about trade, technology and even religion which Clark was surprised in the fact that many of them, in spite of being on different planets had similar religions. Apparently Buddist monks or something like that naturalists, and religions with saviors were all very popular, even on the space planet. Although, he kind of wonder if he should call that one a planet as it was really a grouping of planets.

However, now that she finished speaking on such a note darker events showed up on the screen. It started with a medieval war that progressed to massive space battles and dinosaurs eating people. It made Clark a little regretful he decided to leave earth as his life had been pretty safe so far. At the very end, it showed some brothels, bars, gambling, joints and all kinds of drug use to end with some children wearing iron collars. The video wasn't very explicit but the message was clear. No matter where you go life may not be easy…