The Traveller

Chapter 1: The Mansion

 

 

              “Did you forget to pack anything?” A young blonde-haired girl asked to her friend.

              “No, I think I’ve got everything I need. Thanks, Samantha.” The black-haired girl replied, while closing her large brown suitcase. Samantha’s eyes started to water, she was in a mixture of happiness and sadness. She hugged her black-haired friend, whose eyes had started to water as well.

              “I’m so happy for you, Lillian!” Samantha cried into the shoulder of her friend’s black puritan dress. “I’m so happy!” She did not sound happy, her words partially obstructed by her sobbing.

              “I’ll miss you too, Samantha…” Lillian, the black-haired one replied, rubbing her friend, Samantha’s back. Samantha let go, and recomposed herself, she put her hands into her friend’s.

              “I’m so happy you got adopted, Lillian. Never forget us, okay?” Samantha said, smiling.

              She nodded. “No way would I forget you, Samantha.” Lillian replied, smiling. They hugged one last time when Lillian heard a yell from downstairs.

              “Lillian, dear! Are you ready! The car is here!”

              “Coming!” Lillian replied, she said her last goodbyes to her dear friends and ran down the stairs, to the main door. She was greeted by the nun there. The nun wore a kind smile on her face, made even sweeter by the signs of her age.

              “Ooooh… Lillian, we’re going to miss you so much.” She said to the black-haired girl, she tightened the little red bow in her hair and gave her a big hug.

              “I’ll miss everybody here, Sister Marian.” Lillian replied, hugging back. It seemed Sister Marian was fighting back her own tears at the sight of the young girl. With her shoulder-length black hair, her pale skin, and her violet eyes.

              “You’ve grown up to be so beautiful, Lillian.” The nun continued. “I still remember when you appeared on our doorstep as a little baby, I can’t believe it’s been 15 whole years… it still feel like yesterday!” She exclaimed.

              “Thank you very much, Sister Marian. I hope my new parents think the same.” Lillian replied.

              “Oh, what are you on about girl? Of course they will! Mr. and Mrs. Barrows will be so happy and amazed that they could have an amazing daughter like you! They’ll think you’re an angel!” Sister Marian exclaimed, her eyes almost bulging out of their sockets.

              “Thank you again, Sister Mari-“She was cut off by the honk of the horn. The long shiny black car right outside the orphanage seemed to be getting impatient.

              “I’ve got to go now!” Lillian said as she picked up her suitcase and ran to the long car. She got inside and sat onto the velvet seats. The car started moving, she poked her head out the window to see behind her. She saw Sister Marian waving. With Samantha beside her, also waving. Lillian’s eyes started to water again as she waved back, finally until they were out of side.

              She got back into the car’s soft velvet seats and sighed deeply. This was so invigorating! Almost her entire life she dreamed of finally having a family, and now that the day had finally come, it felt so surreal. As if it was a dream, but she had already pinched herself several times, so she knew that it wasn’t. Getting adopted… the word itself seemed to be an illusion to her, until now. As if it was made up, not actually a real thing, until now. Just… a dream, a though, with no chance of actually coming true, until now.

              AHHH!!! IT WAS SO AMAZING! She wiggled her feet inside the car like a little child, still enveloped in glee. Not only was she being adopted, she was being adopted by the Barrows! An incredibly wealthy family in her part of town. Apparently the Barrows were looking for a child to pass on their family name, and it was Mr. Barrows’ final decision to adopt Lillian. She mentally noted to thank her new father most of all.

              She stared out the window, familiar building and houses seemed to just fly past her. Soon, the city of densely packed building gave way to the country side. She saw large farmhouses dotting the hills, surrounded by lined farmland, and the occasional forest here or there. She looked for the sun, but was unable to find it through the window. This drive seemed to be taking her forever… and the rocking of the car made her ever so sleepy. She lied down on the seat and closed her eyes, quickly drifting off to Slumber-Land.

 

 

              Lillian was encased in darkness, just floating… surrounded by nothingness and infinite.  She looked around, nothing. She called out, but there was no sound. She tried to swim through this darkness, but to no avail. She waved her arms around frantically, trying harder and harder. But she soon tired out, unable to move anymore. She gave up and just stood there, still as a board. Until she felt something touch her feet. She looked down, and saw her standing on a road of some sort.

But then she realized, this road was enormous! The stones alone were at least 10 times the plain black flats that she was using to stand on them.

              “What on earth!?” She tried to say, but again, no sound was able to come out of her mouth.

Then, she heard a rumbling. She looked behind her, she saw nothing… at first: The rumbling sound got louder and louder, until, almost out of nowhere. A gargantuan orb of stone rolled into sight towards her. It was absolutely gigantic, spanning the width of the entire road. Lillian ran, ran as fast as he legs could carry her.

However, she felt as if she wasn’t moving at all. She looked down at her feet, they were moving, but her body wasn’t! It was as if the road she was standing on wasn’t even there! The boulder grew closer, she tried running faster. Her legs felt as if they were on fire, but she still wasn’t moving. The boulder got even closer, threatening to roll over Lillian and smash her like a bug.

Now her legs started working, she began a mad dash away from the boulder. But the boulder seemed to have picked up the pace too, it grew ever closer, the road seemed to start inclining, the boulder got faster and faster until it became only inches away from her body. When almost all hope seemed to be lost, Lillian spotted a metal door right in front of her. It was tall and wide, made out of what looked like to be shined steel, the door flew open to a shining white light.

Without thinking she ran towards the light and jumped into the door, mere second before the massive boulder had reached where she would’ve been. All Lillian could see was white, but then, she heard a muffled voice.

“Get up!”

 

 

“Oi! Girl, get up! We’re ‘ere!” Lillian heard from beside her.

“W-What?” She replied, getting up off the velvet seat she was laying on.

“We’re ‘ere, the Barrows Estate. Y’know, yer new ‘ome!?” She looked out the window, the sun had just started to set, and she saw a winding road leading up a hill. Whatever was on top of the hill was shrouded from side by a huge coniferous forest.

“This is as far as I can go, you’ll ‘ave to walk the rest up.” The driver said.

Lillian simply nodded and got out of the car, she picked up her suitcase and started walking across the trail. She heard a yell from behind her and she looked back.

“Ay girl!” The driver yelled, waving. “Good luck with your new family!” He shouted.

Lillian waved back smiling. “Thank you!” She said, and she turned around and began running up along the winding road and up the hill.

 

 

She reached the top of the hill in exhaustion, it was much longer than she anticipated. But, her panting was immediately silenced by the shock she soon felt once she lay her eyes upon what she assumed was the Barrows Estate.

“W-Wow…” Was all she could put out. This house, more like a mansion… no, more like a castle! It was absolutely enormous! Three stories high, with green-slated roofs, and a downright gargantuan courtyard. She looked upon the large metal gates that stood in front of her, iron vines ‘grew’ all around the bars. In the center was an artsy looking ‘B’. “Obviously for Barrows.” Lillian said to herself.

She pushed open the gates and walked through the long courtyard, her path lined with grand marble statues of lions, and tigers, and other dignified beasts. The hedges in the courtyard also in the shape of various animals, though some of which she was unable to recognize. She walked up to the large porte cochere.

The door was engraved with pictures of vines as well, in the same nature and fashion as the metal gate, with the same ‘B’ in the center as well. Lillian looked around the door’s frame for a bell, but couldn’t find one. She knocked on the door only to find the door slide open. “Perhaps they had forgotten to lock it…” She thought to herself. “Or maybe they left it unlocked just for me!” She smiled at the thought, and was more than excited to meet her new parents. She walked through the door into the vestibule, which then led to the central staircase.

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Thank you so much for reading the first chapter of my story! I actually tried writing this several times, but was unhappy with the result. But, I think this one’ll be really good! I’m sure that a few later twists will surprise you! Now, humble and unquestionable amazing reader. I would be absolutely overjoyed if you could write a review. Give no mercy! Nitpick as hard as you possible can! How else would I be able to improve, then? Thank you, I love you, and cheers.

 

 

2: Chapter Two - The Boy

The Traveller

Chapter 2: The Boy

 

              “Hello?” Lillian called out, she got no reply, however. She stepped into the main entrance, in front of her was the central staircase. She looked at the shining marble floors, it looked like it was cleaned only recently, so why wasn’t anybody here? She looked around the room, maybe to find something that could clue her in on the whereabouts of the staff, and most importantly, her new parents.

              This vestibule was very large, probably a few meters across, it was dome shaped, and the apex in the roof was beautifully painted with the portrait of a sun. Directly in front of her, as stated before, was the central staircase. It had two stairways leading up to the next floor. Just above those staircases was the breathtaking stained glass mural of some sort of angel.

              Lillian couldn’t at first believe what she saw, she found it even harder to believe that she didn’t notice it at first. Slowly, she walked up the large stairway, leaving her suitcase at the door. Now that she was up close, she really understood the sheer size of it: The angel herself looked to be at least 3 times as tall as Lillian was, and it was so detailed! You would be able to see the nails of her feet, each and every wrinkle on the long flowing robe this angel adorned with unmistakable beauty. Her face was soft and serene, with light brown eyes and braided red hair. At first Lillian thought it odd, an angel having red hair, but she soon decided to forget it.

              “Hello! Mr. and Mrs. Barrows!” Lillian yelled once more, remembering the predicament she was currently in. “It’s me! Lillian! Your new daughter!” She again got no reply, only her voice and their echoes pierced the deafening silence of the house. “If this is a game it’s not funny anymore!” Lillian yelled again, she was stretching for ideas; what was going on?

              Lillian started to get frustrated. “IS this how you treat your just-adopted daughter!?” Still no reply, but then…

              *thunk*

              Without saying anything Lillian ran up the rest of the stairs to the second floor, where the sound seemed to be coming from. She opened the door only to be meted by a long, wide, and tall hallway. Again, there was nobody to be seen! The place didn’t look abandoned, or old… just, devoid of people.

              A long red carpet travelled from one end of the hallway to the other, each wall dotted with several doors. Though, one door seemed to catch Lillian’s attention more than the other. At the end of the hall, was a large wooden door; it looked very similar to the main entrance door she had used earlier to enter this mansion/castle. Just a bit smaller. She walked across the carpet towards the door, the sound of her shoes scuffing the carpet were now the only things breaking the silence that had returned after that ‘thunk’ sound.

              But, just as she was halfway towards the door, it flew open. Lillian’s eyes widened at what she saw, and her heart seemed to have skipped a beat. In the door, was a monster; some kind of horrific beast. It resembled a wolf, but Lillian’s heard of no wolf that was taller than she was! Replacing this ‘wolf’s’ fur was instead sleek black skin, showing off its constantly pulsing muscles. Coming off of the monster’s neck, were 5 long green tentacles that seemed to move independently from each other, almost alive-like. In the monster’s gaping maw, beneath its heartless yellow glowing eyes; were at least 3 sets of razor sharp-looking teeth. Each tooth looked at large as her toe. The monster roared, its echo instantly filling the entire hallway. Lillian ran.

              She turned around and ran as fast as she ever thought was possible for her. The area around her growing blurry from her mad sprint, she looked back only once to see the monster running towards her. Its mouth wide open, it was much faster than Lillian was. Much, faster. Just as the monster was only a foot away from her she passed one of the doors, the door flew open and something launched out. Striking the beats square in the face and propelling it into the wall. Lillian looked back to see a boy standing at the now-opened door.

              “Get inside, quick!” The boy yelled. Lillian didn’t need to be asked twice.

              She ran into the room where the boy was, only seeing the monster slowly start to rise again before the boy shut the door and barred it with a large wooden crate. The two heard the beast clawing at the door, it stopped, roared once more, and then- nothing.

              “I-Is it gone?” Lillian trembled, not wanting to be threatened by that beast again.

              “At least for now it is,” The boy turned around to face Lillian. “You alright?” He asked.

              Lillian was able to see the boy clearly now. A bit taller than she was, but looked about the same age. He had brown skin and short black hair. On his dark-brown-almost-black eyes were a pair of black rectangular glasses. But is clothing, Lillian had seen nothing like it before.

              “Hey, are you alright?” The boy asked once more.

              “Y-Yeah… I’m fine… what was that?” Lillian asked. “Was that some sort of demon?”

              “No… but it might as well be. That was a Timbus, only a small one though.”

              “A small one!?” Lillian exclaimed, confused. “That thing was bigger than I am!”

              “If you think that was big, you should see the queen.”

              “The queen!? You mean they’re like bees!?” Lillian felt that her questions were just making her more confused.

              “Yeah, but they haven’t been here long, right now there’s only one, but soon there’ll be a lot more.” Lillian didn’t really know how to react; more? More!? What the hell was a Timbus!? Why was it in her new house!? Where were her parents!? And who was this boy!?

              Lillian collapsed, tears starting to stream out of her eyes. She had just wanted to get adopted, all she wanted was a family. What did she get? And empty house, and a monster that had almost eaten her.

              “I want to go back to the orphanage! I don’t want a family anymore!” She curled up into a ball, sobbing on the floor, her tears staining the hardwood she lay upon. “If this is what a family is like, I don’t want it!”

              She felt the boy put his hand onto her shoulder. “Hey, don’t cry. Plea-“

              Before the boy even finished his sentence sprung up, pointing a finger to the boy’s chest, and angered expression on her face. “You!” She said, expectedly angrily. “What have you done to my parents!? Where are they!?” She demanded to know answers, and this boy seemed to be the only person who had them.

              “Whoa! Calm down!” The boy back up a bit, his arms raised in surrender. “I have no idea what happened to yours parents! If anything, my guess is that they’re where the queen is… probably in the cellar!” The boy said.

              That seemed believable, at least as believable as it could be. “Why would they be with the queen?” Lillian asked, calming down a bit.

              “The queen needs to eat, I’m pretty sure your parents would be a fair meal for her.” The boy answered.

              Lillian gulped, was that really what was going to happen to her new parents? Or was this boy lying? “How do I know if you’re telling the truth?” She asked him.

              “Why would I feel the need to lie here? You just saw that Timbus, it almost ate you!”

              “What the hell is a Timbus!?” Lillian demanded again, annoyed.

              “An alien, from Planet H-54, several light-years away.” He answered, this only confused Lillian more.

              “Light-years?”

              “Yeah, the amount of distance light travels in a year.” This surprised her, she knew that light was VERY fast. The distance light travelled in a year? That must be really far, then… if this boy was being honest.

              “What’s Planet H-54?” She asked.

              “2nd planet from the sun Usman Majors, about 3 quarters the size of Earth. Takes 26 hours to complete a rotation, 304 days to complete an orbit. Now lifeless.”

              “How do you know all this?”

              “I’m just answering your questions, lady. What more do you want?”

              Lillian thought for a few moments. “Who are you, and what are you doing in my new home?”

              “Um… I’m The Traveller, I’m here to help. That’s what I do?” The boy replied.

              “The Traveller? What kind of name is The Traveller?” Lillian started to questions this boy’s sanity a bit more than his honesty now. “And, how could you help?”

              “The Timbus are an exiled species, they’re incredibly violent, and I had believed they were eradicated. Turns out, they’re not. I’m here to put a stop to them, eradicate them.” The ‘Traveller’ replied.

              “Stop them? How could you stop them?” Lillian questioned.

              “Just eliminate the queen, the drones are connected to the queen mentally. So, if a drone were to die, or was outnumbered, the queen could simply send more to help them. If the queen is killed, however; the links are severed, and all of them die.”

              That seemed to make a bit of sense, Lillian believed that she understood, though she had no way of being sure. “One last thing…” Lillian said. “What are you wearing?”

              The boy looked down at his clothing. “White hoodie, beige cargo pants, navy sneakers.”

              “What?” Lillian said.

              “You’re… 15, right?”

              “Um… yes, why?” She asked, confused.

              “Wait about 70 years, and you’ll know what I’m talking about.”

              “70 years!? What are you- from the future?”

              All she got was a mumbled “More or less…” She figured that these were all the answers she would be able to get out of him for now.

              “Come on, we’ve got a queen to kill… what’s your name?” The Traveller asked her.

              “Lillian, Lillian… Barrows.” She remembered.

              “Well, Lillian- Let’s go; we’ve got a queen to kill.” And with that, our two heroes opened back up the door and walked back into the hallway.

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Like I said, pound this thing into the ground. Every single plot hole or uncertainty you find, take it and shoot me with it. I’ll have no idea if people want me to stop or not if nobody tells me! Thanks, I love you, and cheers.

3: Chapter Three - The Queen

The Traveller

Chapter Three: The Queen

Lillian and The Traveller walked out of the room, after pushing away the crate. The both looked at the large gate at the end of the hall, where the Timbus drone had first come from.

       “Do you think it went back?” Lillian asked, scared.

       “Don’t count on it, now that the queen is aware that you’re inside the house. I bet she’s got that drone patrollin.” The Traveller replied.

       Lillian gulped, she REALLY didn’t want to meet up with that thing again.

       “How did it find me, though?”

       “You were yelling ‘Mr. and Mrs. Barrows’ every 5 minutes. How do you think?” The Traveller replied. “Come on,” He motioned for her to follow him down the hallway. The two reached the door leading to the central staircase. The Traveller put his hand upon the wood.

       “It’s inside there, probably around the exit doors.” He said.

       “Wait, how can you tell?” Lillian questioned.

       “Look for yourself,” The Traveller slowly opened the door, making sure that no sound was emitted. Lillian was quite happy that those hinges were well taken care of, else she’d rather not think what would happen. She peeked out the crack of the door and saw the Timbus patrolling the bottom floor, walking around the large door in the vestibule. The one she had used to first enter the mansion.

       “What we’re looking for is an alternate way to the cellar… do you know any of the rooms here, Lillian?” The Traveller asked.

       “How am I supposed to know; I just got here!”

       “Good point,” The Traveller closed the door and headed towards the door at the end of the other hall. Opposite to the Timbus door, of course. Lillian followed.

       They opened the door to be greeted by a large storeroom. “This is a bit of an odd placement for a storeroom.” The Traveller commented.

              Lillian nodded. “I doubt they were able to populate every single room, this is probably just a spare one.”

              “Yeah, probably. Maybe there’s something useful here.” And The Traveller walked inside.

              The room itself was filled with wooden boxes of various sizes, with two small windows of the left side of the wall. “Do you think they’ve just moved in?” Lillian asked. With all the crates and boxes everywhere, it sounded like a fair idea.

              “Maybe, I doubt these Barrows paid for it all by themselves, I bet they inherited it.” That seemed to make sense. Lillian pulled off the tops of one of the crates, it was filled with old portraits and photos. All with ornate frames.

              “Traveller, come look at these.” Lillian said, The Traveller looked inside and picked one of the smaller frames up. It looked to be a family photo, with three figures; a man, a woman, and a small child. There were trees and clouds in the background.

              The man had light-grey hair, though its actual colour was hard to tell, due to the fact that it was in black and white. The woman next to him had dark-grey hair, almost black. The small child in the woman’s arms looked to be a little baby, a few months old, at the max. They all seemed to have quite content faces on them.

              “Look, The Traveller pointed to the spaces between the man and woman. There’s the mansion in the background.” Lillian looked closer and saw that it was, with its 3 floors and large metal gates.

              “I guess they did inherit it, after all.” Lillian said, but then she noticed something. “Look at the top window.” She pointed to one, the window was white. But, all the other viewable windows were grey, since there weren’t any lights inside the house.

              “Wait… what?” The Traveller looked closer, then his eyes widened. “Come on, we have to get there, now.” He ran to the next door, quickly, he opened it. The door lead to a staircase, leading to the 3rd floor. He ran up it without hesitation.

              “Wha- Why!?” Lillian yelled as she sprinted up the stairs, trying to keep up with him. She saw that this Traveller boy was incredibly fast, The Traveller reached the top of the stairs minutes before Lillian did. And even when Lillian did she was gasping for breath.

              “You seriously need to exercise more.” The Traveller commented while peeking through the next door.

              “You need to slow down!” Lillian said.

              “If I always slowed down, I would get caught.”

              “Then what about me!?”

              “Well, if you’re going to be my partner, then you’re going to have to exercise more!” Without letting Lillian reply The Traveller dashed through the door into the 3rd floor hallway. The first thing Lillian noticed was that it was significantly smaller than the 2nd floor hallway. Only hosting about 3 doors on its sides, and one regular sized door at the end of the hall. The Traveller counted the doors and then pointed at the third door to the left. “There,” He said.

              Lillian and The Traveller walked up to the door, she tried the handle but it was locked. She shook it in frustration but it would not open. “Here,” The Traveller said, Lillian stepped inside. The Traveller pointed his index and middle finger at the door’s lock. He simply rotated his wrist and a click came from the door. Lillian tried the handle again, it opened without problem.

              “H-How’d you do that?” Lillian said, amazed. “Are you some kind of magician?”

              “Love, spend more time with me and unlocking an object won’t be the only thing you’ll be surprised about.” The Traveller replied as they both walked inside.

              Lillian was dumbfounded by the room’s contents. The second she stepped inside she heard a clink sound at her feet. She looked down and saw that the wooden floor was covered with metal tiles, they were of shining white steel. She looked to the walls and ceiling, they were covered in the exact same material. In the center of the room was something she couldn’t even recognize. There was a thick but short pillar. It also looked to be made out of metal, but had strange blinking lights on it, of various colours. Connected to the base of the pillar were thick wires, leading from the base and coiling around the room. Until ending at a desk, also made out of metal. In the center of this ‘desk’ was a… screen, of some sort. It was blue and glowed an entrancing light. Surrounding this screen were at least a dozen levers and buttons, all various colours. She walked up to the screen, on it were pictures, and they were moving!

              Lillian was entranced by what she saw on the screen, shapes and boxes, moving independently all around this screen. She didn’t know what language it was in, just looked to be squiggles and twists to her, but that didn’t change how absolutely amazing it was.

              “W-What wizardry is this?” She stuttered, as if star struck by the screen.

              “A control panel…” The Traveller walked up the desk as well, he pointed to the pillar in the center of the room. “Right there is a portal,” The Traveller said.

              “B-But… just look at this! How are those pictures moving like that?” She tried to look inside the machine, wanting to see how something like that was possible. It had to magic, or something!

              “There’s more where that came from, look at this.” The Traveller stepped in front of the ‘control panel’ and pulled on the levers. A loud whirring noise started emanating from the pillar. The Traveller continued to press more buttons and flick more levers, in some order Lillian couldn’t recognize. Each press or pull made the whirring noise louder. Until it was almost unbearable, Lillian had covered her ears and averted her gaze to the center of the pillar. She noticed something, there was a small orb on the center of the pillar. She leaned in, it looked kind of like a… marble. Made of glass, the area around it looked distorted, she peered through it, but all she saw was grayish purple. She extended her finger to poke it.

              “No! Don’t touch it!” The Traveller yelled as he grabbed Lillian from the waist and pulled her back. Just as he did a blinding light erupted out of the marble. It took several second to dissipate, it wasn’t long for both of our heroes to wish it hadn’t: The marble had grown huge, and it wasn’t a marble anymore. It was tall and wide, like an ovular window. Through the window, she saw Timbus, and not just one: there were tons. She looked at the nightmare inducing picture, as far as the eye could see were countless monstrous Timbus. They all looked at the ovular window, as if staring straight at Lillian herself. She was frozen in terror, this was not what she was expecting, not at all. Each and every Timbus stared at her, with hatred filled glowing yellow eyes.

 

              Then, they jumped… at her. Lillian screamed, just as they were going to burst through the window The Traveller smashed to pillar apart with his foot. The portal closed just as the first Timbus was about to make it through. Its paw was sliced off from the window rapidly closing. The clawed aw fell to the ground, still twitching, spurting yellow chunky blood all over the tiles. Lillian couldn’t stop screaming, this was probably the most horrific thing that had ever happened in her entire life.

              Then, there was a loud knock on the door, it instantly crashed down and the original Timbus was inside the room. Quickly, The Traveller picked up a large chunk of what was left of that pillar and threw it at the Timbus. It landed square into its face, knocking it unconscious once more. It fell limply onto the floor.

              “Run!” The Traveller yelled as he grabbed Lillian’s hand. She had no objections, the two dashed down the hallway towards the staircase that had led them there. Just as they entered the door Lillian saw the Timbus run out of the metal room and chase after them. The Traveller shut the door to the stair case and began to race down it. Lillian followed.

              “Ugh, this isn’t quick enou-“Without finishing his sentence The Traveller grabbed Lillian by the waist and picked her up, then, he leaped off the banisters towards the ground. With Lillian screaming in his arms. The landed soundly. Quickly, the both ran to the storage room and barricaded the door with the several boxes laying around inside.

              “How did you do that!?” Lillian yelled as she helped push a large crate.

              “Now’s not the time, Lillian!” The Traveller yelled back as he put the last box in front of the door. The box burst from the surprising amount of force that The Traveller used to shove it. Out fell several hunting rifles, and a handful of shots. The beast was still scratching and roaring at the now blocked door.

              “Lucky us,” The Traveller smiled as he picked one up, he picked up some of the shot too and began loading it. It finished with a click. “Now we’ve got what we need to finish off the queen,” He said, Lillian just nodded, not paying a lot of attention from what had just happened. “To the cellar!” Traveller shouted.

              The two started running out of the storage room, they saw the large door at the end of the hall. Without waiting a minute the sprinted for the door, that barricade would only hold that Timbus for so long. They both reach it and Lillian grabbed the handle again. It was locked. Traveller tried to do the finger trick he did with the last door, but it wouldn’t do anything. “Crap; it’s Absolute-Locked.” The Traveller said.

              “What do we do!?” Lillian yelled, without saying anything The Traveller kicked the door, it instantly flew off its hinges and rocketed down the stairs to the cellar. So did The Traveller, leaving Lillian along in the hallway. She looked into the pitch blackness of the cellar, hesitant to go inside. Then, she heard a roar behind her. Turning around she saw the Timbus at the end of the hall. Staring right at her, it ran.

              Again, she was paralyzed in fear, unable to run away. The Timbus neared, closer and closer. It was only a few yards away when a gunshot echoed out from the cellar, almost instantly all the colour disappeared from the Timbus’ tentacles and it fell to the floor. Dead.

              Lillian’s paralysis had gone now as she ran down the stairs into the cellar. She reached the bottom of the stairwell and saw that it was lit by lights dotted around the ceiling. In one corner she saw The Traveller, breathing heavily, holding the rifle. In the other she saw a tall red-haired man and a short-haired woman. They were also breathing heavily, the man tried to support the woman, making it somewhat clear that they were both married.

              Lillian walked forward and saw a massive heap of greyish matter, slowly disintegrating into smoke. “I-Is it over?” Lillian asked The Traveller. He looked to her and shook his head.

              “You saw in that wormhole, there are a lot more where she came from.” Lillian gulped again and looked to the couple in the other corner of the room. They must’ve been the Barrows. The Traveller dashed to the foot of the stairs again and motioned for Lillian to follow him. “Come on! We’ve got to get rid of them!”

              Lillian looked to the Barrows, now her new parents. As much as that meant in the current situation. The red-haired man, presumably Mr. Barrows looked into Lillian’s eyes and simply nodded. “Go.” Was all he said, without a second look Lillian dashed up the stairs, following The Traveller. She was caught up in the moment, invigorated, she had grown a very strong hate for these Timbus in an amazingly short time. A feeling in her gut told her to stop, but nearly every other part of her body told her ‘yes’.

              Lillian followed The Traveller up the stairs, through several more room, and into the backyard of the mansion. The Traveller ran to a large head and began to pull something out. Out of the hedge came a massive metal door. Made out of more shining metal it had bright yellow and black slanted striped on its bottom. On the top it said in big black letters, “CAUTION,” and under those words was a yellow triangle with an exclamation mark inside it. It looked exactly like the door she had in her dream. She gasped.

              “Come on!” The Traveller said. “Get inside!”

 

 

 

4: Chapter Four - The Door Pt. I

The Traveller

Chapter 4: The Door

 

              “Come on!” The Traveller yelled as he pulled the large metal door out of the hedge. Lillian stopped in her tracks, as if what had just happened wasn’t enough, it seemed that her dreams were starting to come true as well!

              The Traveller opened the door and to her surprise, there was something inside! Not, like, an object, but a room. Lillian stepped closer, only to be urged by The Traveller hurry up. Only when she stepped into the room itself did Lillian realize. The room was very large, the walls, floor, and the roof was pure white. It looked blank, as if nothing was there at all! The Traveller quickly ran in behind her and shut the door, encasing the both of them in its blank infinity.

              But, Traveller whisked his finger across the wall near the door, and out came a set of multi-coloured buttons. He pressed the dark grey one and instantly, the room began to shift. The walls became plates of steel, from the center of a room came a massive metal pillar, surrounding it were more buttons and levers, along with a large amount of other things she couldn’t recognize. She guessed that it was another one of those ‘control panels’ that they had found inside the mansion.

              Still in a hurry, Traveller dashed to the control panel and began pressing buttons, each made either a click or a beep. He pulled levers, flicked switches, and just about everything else you’d expect a madman to do with a set of controls. Traveller pulled one last lever before sparks flew out from the pillar and clouds of smoke escaped through the buttons and switches. The pillar receded down into the floor as a massive screen emerged from the wall. The screen flicked on and walls of text filled its window, they all flew past the view but Traveller seemed to be reading every last word. Finally, the words stopped and the screen began to display a large green circle. The Traveller sighed in relief, all the while Lillian stood a corner of the room, absolutely speechless.

              “W-Wha… Ho-…” She stuttered, trying to figure out all that had happened seemed to only confuse her more.

              “Lillian,” The Traveller began. “This is Doorway.”

              “D-Doorway!?” Lillian replied, still having trouble in the act of grasping reality. “How!? What!? Just a minute ago it was a door! Now… I-it’s a giant room! What are you!?”

              “The Traveller,” He smirked, Lillian knew that he had a proper answer, but just wasn’t telling her. “This is how I got here, Lillian.” He began. “You know about ships that travel the seas?”

              “Of course.” She replied.

              “Have you ever heard of a ship that can travel through the very fabric of reality?” He said, excited.

              “No.” She said.

              “Well, that’s precisely what this is. Doorway, a spaceship, time machine, and your most amazing dreams rolled into one!” He yelled with excitement.

              “A-A time machine? You mean, this thing can travel through time?” Lillian questions, she started walking around Doorway, the metal plates of the ground clinked at her feet.

              “Doorway can go anywhere.”

              “Anywhere?”

              “Yup, right now…” He looked back to the large screen, as if on cue the massive walls of text returned, and Traveller read it once again. “We’ll arrive in about two hours.”

              “But, where are we going!?”

              “Maybe you should change, you’re not going to be able to run very well in that dress.” The Traveller said.

              “Can you stop ignoring my questions!?” Lillian said, starting to get a bit frustrated.

              “I brought your suitcase in with you, if you have anything run-worthy, put it on… if not, Doorway will make you something.” That more or less answered her question, Lillian looked to her right and saw her suitcase! It was sitting right next to where the door was. She walked up to it and picked it up.

              “Do you expect me to change here?”

              Traveller simply pointed to a wall, Lillian watched as it caved in to reveal a plain white hallway. “Pick a room that suits you.” He said. Lillian tried to question Traveller more but he was busy pressing buttons and flicking levers on another ‘control panel’ that had come out underneath the humongous screen.

              She walked through the hallway and was amazed to how it literally formed right in front of her. Just as she walked past part of the wall, it morphed into a door. She looked through it to find what looked to be a small room. She stepped inside, it was of a very cozy size. She looked from the ceiling to the floor, it was perfect. She took one more step to only find that the floor morphed underneath her feet, it transformed into wooden boards, the walls turned a dark green and the ceiling matched. All at once around her, out of one corner came a large bed, with silk blankets and fluffed up pillows. Beside the bed came a mahogany nightstand, complete with a small lamp. From one wall came a large mahogany desk, pens and papers came out from the wood, along with another lamp. Besides the entrance grew a huge wardrobe. She opened it to find it filled with her clothes! She looked inside her suitcase and saw that it was empty!

              “No way…” She said, failing to not smile from the sheer surrealism of it all. She turned around from the wardrobe and saw a window, light shone in giving the room a fantastic homely feel. She ran up to the window and was greeted by the expansive sight of a beach, the sound of crashing waves was able to reach far enough to touch her ears. Just out of curiosity she opened the window and stretched her arm out, she felt a cool breeze touch her hand and slide through her fingers.

A single tear, escaped her eyes. She had always dreamed of having a house by the sea, and here it was. She wondered if ‘Doorway’ was doing all of this. Could it read her mind? Was it alive? At the moment, it didn’t matter. She felt like she had entered heaven and she felt like enjoying it. She jumped onto the bed to feel like she was being smothered by a cloud. She started laughing out of pure joy and wonder. Feelings she hadn’t had in a long time. She lay on her back and just stared at the roof, only to find it raise and change into a glass ceiling, bright blue skies and clouds floated across its view. “Thank you,” She whispered, not knowing if Doorway was able to hear or not.

 

 

5: Chapter Five - The Door Pt. II

The Traveller

Chapter Five: The Door Pt. II

 

              Lillian slowly opened her to the light blue walls and moonlight coming in through the nearby window. She was lying on something soft and warm, a blanket of equal softness and warmness cloaked her body. Wait… she didn’t remember putting on a blanket? Lillian quickly got out of bed and looked around, out the window was the same beach-view from only a few hours ago. It was night, though; the paleness of the moon reflecting off of the ocean in little ripples and the overall ‘light-blue darkness’ outside and inside the room gave the entire area a sense of ‘silent majesty’.

She looked down and saw that she was wearing her nightgown! Quickly, she got up and looked into her wardrobe, she saw all her clothing there, along with the dress she had been wearing before she went to sleep. Her cheeks immediately flushed red when she started to wonder how she had changed. “No, there’s no way he’d do that.” Lillian reasoned to herself, that Traveller boy was undeniably crazy, but he didn’t look to be a pervert.

Then, she thought a little bit harder. “Doorway?” She whispered, not knowing if she would get a reply or not.

“Yes?” Lillian jumped at the sudden sound that reverberated around the room, she realized that the voice perfectly mimicked her own. “No need to be alarmed.” ‘Doorway’ said, trying to calm down Lillian.

“H-How are you doing that?” Lillian said to seemingly nothing. “And where are you?”

Again, the reply was in her own voice. “I am simply replying, dear. I project these words into your mind, they are of your voice because that is of whose voice you feel most comfortable towards. As it is with many others.” The explanation made a little bit of sense to Lillian, though the reason why talking to a room would seem awkward has no need to be explained.

“I must be going crazy…” Lillian whispered to herself.

“I can assure you such is not the case.” Doorway said. “I do expect that your room is to your liking, it should be.”

“Y-Yes, it’s lovely.” Lillian looked around her room again, the blue walls, the mahogany desk, the large bed. “Did you… read my mind?” Lillian asked.

“Yes,” Doorway simply replied.

“Am I actually talking to a room?”

“Not exactly, I am in fact The Doorway, as Traveller puts it. But I am not just some object, you should find that my existence is so enormously complex that I am sentient.”

“You’re also a-“ 

“Spaceship, time machine, and all your deepest most amazing dreams rolled into one?”

“Y-Yes…” Lillian paused, thinking of something else to say. “It’s very strange, listening to my own voice.”

“Traveller’s first reaction was much more amusing, you would find.” Doorway added.

Lillian didn’t exactly know what to make of that comment. “Were you built, are you a machine?”

              “Technically, yes. Literally, no. My kind are known as Dimensionally Overlapping Objects Reverberating with Absolute Energy. DOORWAE, for short. Commonly known as Doorway.”

              “What does that even mean?”

              Doorway first responded with what could be recognized as a giggle. But it was, in a very complicated way, wasn’t. “A large amount of extremely complicated science, dear.”

              “Wait,” Lillian said. “Your kind? There’s more than one of you?” Her eyes widened at the thought.

              “Yes,” Doorway began. “There are more like Traveller as well.” Lillian couldn’t even imagine, more than one Traveller. “But, we are far and few between. Positioned for Multiversal Balance.”

              “Multiversal Balance?” Lillian was starting to get more confused.

              “I’m not surprised Traveller hadn’t told you. The Traveller isn’t his real name, his real name is known as Balancer 7.”

              “What’s a Balancer 7?”

              “He’s the seventh Balancer, of course.” The doorway paused, then continued. “The multiverse and its near infinite dimensions are always teetering on a fine point of balance. But, the slightest shift and the entire universe, and everything in it, are destroyed. We were created during The Beginning. We were sent to different worlds, galaxies, different universes and dimensions. To simply keep balance.”

              “What was The Beginning?”

              “The beginning of time.” Doorway said, bluntly.

              “TIME!?” Lillian blurted out, shocked.

              “And time, and space, and just about everything else there possibly could and is.”

              Lillian’s could hardly believe it. “T-Then, how old are you and The Traveller?” Lillian asked, not knowing what to expect of the answer.

              “Balancer 7 and I are both so old that your numbers are unable to reach that far.” Lillian gulped. “But, The Traveller, however… he is only about 15.”

              “What? How is The Traveller only 15 but ‘Balancer 7’ is super old?”

              “The Traveller could also be known as Balancer 7: Form 16,323,132,064,120.” The staggering number only left Lillian more confused. But Doorway continued ‘her’ explanation. “The single form of a Balancer has the life span of a human. If a form were to die, they would simply be recreated here, they could choose a new name, even a new appearance.” This was quite a lot to take in. Lillian wasn’t 100% sure if she wanted to know the rest of the details.

              “T-Thank you, Doorway.” Lillian said, simply ending the conversation felt like the best course of action at the time. “Where is Traveller now?”

              “Across the hall, in his room.”

              Lillian opened the door of her room and saw that just across the small hall was a door. She wasn’t very sure how she hadn’t noticed it before, but she guessed that it must’ve formed after she fell asleep. Slowly and quietly, she reached for the door’s handle and opened it.

              As she stepped inside she was instantly amazed by the view. The walls and ceiling of Traveller’s room were made of clear glass, the view being of clouds just floating past. The sky was a dark blue, nighttime, just like her room. She tiptoed across the also-hardwood floor and saw that in the center of the room was a bed.

              The bed was amazingly simply and basic, it was a bit large, and made of a dark wood. The sheets looked to also be silk but they were coloured a plain green. Virtually the opposite of the red and pink floral patterns on her bed, which she had forgotten to describe beforehand. It was just in the middle of the room, other than that bed, the room was empty. With just the clouds going by. She saw, tucked into the bed, and curled up into a ball was The Traveller. His eyes closed with an unmistakable look of peace.

              She walked up to The Traveller, in his bed. Without thinking she softly kissed his forehead and whispered. “Thank you,” Before walking out. Only after she exited the room did she realize what she had just done. Her entire face turned tomato red. “What just happened?” She whispered to herself. She felt incredibly awkward as she walked back to her room. She had never even attempted a kiss with a boy before, she couldn’t even remember liking a boy before. Saying she was in a state of confusion would be beyond an understatement.

              As she slowly crawled back into her bed, her mind was swarming with ideas, thoughts, and theories as to what had just happened.

 

              Well, the last two chapters weren’t as action-y or awesome as the last two were. But I can assure you the next few will have a great adventure, and we’ll all have a grand ol’ time. Please PM me if you’ve got ideas, and don’t forget to review. Thank you, I love you, and cheers!