Charismata - Chapter 2

 Chapter 2

Shadows of The Past

I was in an underground chamber. I knew it somehow. It just appeared in my mind like a fact. Some people claim it happens like that in dreams. I couldn't remember if I had had dreams before. I couldn't remember anything.

I sat up and observed my surroundings. I had been lying on a stone slab. I could hear the sea waves crashing against the rocks and could taste the salt on my tongue. I didn't know how I knew these things as I couldn't remember anything. How could I even tell what salt tasted like if I didn't know? I filed this question into the back of my mind for later pondering.

I realized that my muscles were underdeveloped. Don't ask me how I knew, I just knew. Maybe it was because I was comparing my current body to the one in this dream. Although I sort of felt that it wasn't actually a dream, but something else. A vision from God, perhaps?

I gingerly put my feet on the ground and nearly stumbled. Two hands gripped me firmly but carefully and softly. I turned around, nearly slipping again and I saw a man. He looked different from, well, whatever I thought people looked like. I didn't even know what I looked like.

He was a petite old man about sixty or seventy years old. He wore a beaked mask that had been pulled back on the top of his head, wore a white tunic over what looked like a chain-mail and had a knife belt that was full hanging on his belt. He and I were the only ones in the room.

He looked my in the eye and smiled, wrinkles forming around his ancient eyes. He spoke with a speed that would amaze any orator. It seemed like words followed one another like a wagon going down a steep hill. And he had no punctuation whatsoever.

“Welcome-to-earth-twenty-three-my-son.”

Earth twenty-three? Are there twenty-two other earths? I wondered.

Then I woke up.