I stood atop a sea of stars, looking out at infinite space while countless emotions rampaged inside me. I couldn't describe what I was feeling or seeing, despite understanding what was in front of me almost intimately; the sense of déjà vu was so strong I couldn't put it into words.
I looked down at my body and felt a sense of dissonance. The form I was currently inhabiting was perfect—too perfect. It reminded me of the "golden ratio." Such a thing shouldn't exist; every human is different, defined by countless small variations, but this body was inhuman. Looking at the reflection below, it shared every one of my physical traits, except they were dialed up to a hundred. Yet, I felt that this body fit me like a glove, tailored specifically for me.
I felt as if countless years passed, yet it also felt like mere seconds. I had long since begun wandering whatever this place was. During this time, I saw the realm change from the nothingness it used to be into a world beginning to grow. Eventually, lifeforms started to appear—beings I could only describe as races from a fantasy novel. I should have felt something when I saw them, yet I felt nothing, as if I were staring at ants. I saw them struggle and felt only a faux pity; I saw them overcome obstacles and felt only a hollow acceptance. Even when I watched a family of humans being butchered by what I assumed were goblins, I felt nothing. It completely terrified me—what sort of being was I inhabiting that lacked even the most basic empathy?
Over these long years, my emotions continued to fade. I felt myself growing weaker, as if I were denying my own existence. No, it was more like I was denying the world around me. When I looked at creation, I should have felt joy at the possibilities that existed; instead, I saw this world for what it truly represented to me: a gilded prison.
I had everything I could have ever wanted handed to me on a silver platter, and it was disgusting. I wanted to burn everything to ash—to destroy this false world.
Slowly, the sense of time this body possessed began to shift into a rhythm I was familiar with, and I felt an ever-approaching sense of liberation. The body had also begun to move on its own, drawing symbols around the top of the giant tree where I had been perched for millennia, isolated from the rest of this false world by choice.
When it finally happened, I lost full control. I watched as the original owner used his power to craft a pair of familiars and a weapon before beginning the ritual.
"ᚠᛆᛚᛍᚴᚱ ᛡᛂᛁᛉᚱ..." The being spoke, his voice rising throughout the incantation. The circle he had drawn glowed brighter by the second. The gazes of the primordial Gods turned toward him, expressing disbelief at his choice to commit something worse than suicide. Even if a god died, they would simply reform, but this man chose to completely reject his position in the universe. The world would now identify him as a tumor and eject him into the void outside existence to be consumed.
Yet, despite this, I was in shock at the joy the man showed while watching his body crumble to dust. How could he smile like that?
The former god's gaze turned toward me. Still smiling, he said something I couldn't understand. Seeing my confusion, the god shrugged his shoulders and turned his gaze toward another corner of the world. His face finally softened into something akin to melancholy and sadness, as if he had forsaken something precious alongside his continued existence.
Just as he completely crumbled to dust, I felt my eyes growing heavy and my consciousness slipping away. I looked one final time at the rest of creation and saw a tower being erected—one I felt would one day reach the heavens.
I woke up gasping for air, shaking from the dre—nightmare I just had… wait, what was I dreaming about? I couldn't remember anything; the only thing I knew was the terror it had given me.
I took a minute to calm down before noticing that I was in a hospital room and remembering that I had passed out after leaving the cave. I tried to get up but felt something tied to my wrist. Blinking in confusion, I looked at my right wrist and saw that I was cuffed to the bed, which raised a lot of questions.
"Oh my!"
I turned my head and looked at the entrance to see a young nurse looking at me with shock, before she immediately turned around and headed down the hall.
Is this what hospitals are like? Cuff a patient to the bed and immediately run away when he wakes up? "What kind of madhouse is this?" I said, annoyed. It was seriously too much trouble to at least talk to me before running away.
Lying down on the bed, I sighed and tried to make a timeline from what I remembered. "Let's see: I woke up in a cave without knowing how I got there, decided to look for a way out, and eventually found one before passing out from what I assume was exhaustion in the middle of what looked like an active crime scene… Fuck."
I realized that the police might think I'm a suspect, and the fact that the nurse ran away meant that she had either gone to get a doctor or went to inform the police I was awake.
"Mr. Grimsen, I have a few questions I need you to answer."
I looked at the door and saw a middle-aged man showing signs of exhaustion, marching into the room on a quest to get my confession, not even having the decency to properly greet a patient.
Moving to a sitting position, I said, "Hello, Mr.…" giving him an opportunity to introduce himself.
The officer—because that's what I assumed he was—walked up to the foot of the bed and glared at me. "I'm Officer Ulrich Nielsen, and like I said, I need you to answer a few questions." He phrased the "need" more like a demand than an actual request.
Honestly, while I was rather pissed at how he was treating me like a criminal, I knew that I should be the bigger person. From what I have read, the police don't really like smart talkers, so I just nodded.
"Good. Now, I need you to tell me what you were doing at the caves," he asked.
"I have no idea..." I started to explain before he interrupted me.
"What do you mean, you have no idea? Okay, let me rephrase the question: what were you doing at an active crime scene? Did you get curious? Someone dared you?" he said, getting agitated.
Really starting to hate how he wouldn't even let me properly answer his questions, I took a breath, calming myself. "Look, I had no idea that place was even a crime scene. I just woke up inside the cave with no clue how I got there." I raised my hands in exasperation. "One minute I was on a train heading towards Berlin, and the next time I opened my eyes, I was waking up in that cave."
Officer Ulrich looked at me with a face that said I don't believe you, before placing both his hands on the rail at the foot of the bed and posturing himself to look more threatening. "So, your story is that you woke up in the caves with no memory of how you got there? Tell me something: do you think I'm an idiot?" His voice rose before he suddenly yelled, "How about you stop lying and tell me where you took those kids, you sick bastard!"
What the hell was he talking about? Did some kids get kidnapped near the cave? Was he assuming I'm the kidnapper? "The hell are you talking about? I have no idea what you're saying."
Ulrich grabbed and shook the bed, seemingly wanting to jump on me and beat the shit out of me. "Don't lie, you fucker! I know it was you!"
"Ulrich!"
I heard a new voice coming from the door and saw a blonde woman standing there, looking absolutely pissed at the man. She signaled for him to follow her and kept her gaze on him until the man followed her out of the room.
I remained stunned for a moment after they left, in absolute shock over what had just happened. "Again, what kind of madhouse is this?" I looked around to see if there were any cameras; maybe this was some prank show, because what just happened definitely wasn't normal. I mean, if I were back in the States, I wouldn't be surprised by this level of policing, but this is Europe—aren't they supposed to be the more civilized folk?
"Mr. Grimsen."
I heard a voice from the side of my bed and noticed a doctor had finally arrived; beside him was the same nurse who had run away earlier. "I would like to offer an apology on behalf of the hospital for what you have just been through. Officer Nielsen was in no way authorized to question you right after you woke up," the doctor said, sounding more like a lawyer than a physician. "I would just like to ask that you don't press charges against Ulrich. Recently, he has been under stress due to the recent disappearances."
Oh, so that guy just has anger problems. That makes much more sense. I just nodded, keeping my thoughts to myself. Honestly, the quicker I left this place, the better.
"Alright then, let's begin with…"
After half an hour of back and forth, the doctor left alongside the nurse—who didn't even have the guts to look me in the eye during the entire checkup. As they left, I waited for a moment, half-expecting Officer Nielsen to walk back in and accuse me of stealing his firstborn son.
That fool had the nerve to insinuate that I would kidnap someone. Me? The man who kept the peace between a bunch of divine fools for millennia without them even knowing I existed… Wait, what?
Where the hell did that thought come from? Shaking my head, I lay back down and thought about the fact that it was currently 2019. Pursing my lips, I wondered if I was in some sort of coma and this was all a dream, because how the hell could I have traveled through time?
And if this was 2019, how was my phone still working? I picked up the device from the table next to me—I'd asked the doctor if it was possible to get it back—and quickly placed a call to an emergency line. I noticed the call went through before I quickly canceled it.
"Weird. How is my cell number, which only went into service in 2026, working seven years in the past?" I whispered.This really didn't make any sense. Besides, apparently my ID was valid; everything was correct. It was almost as if someone had plucked me from 2026 and dropped me here, modifying all the legal info to ensure there weren't any discrepancies.
Furthermore, I had never heard of a town called Winden. Even though I hadn't memorized every inch of the maps of Germany during my travels, I had memorized the symbols depicting power plants—mostly because there were so few of them. I was a hundred percent certain that this power plant, and this town, didn't exist.
"So, not only did I travel to the past, but I also seem to have traveled to an alternate reality or timeline," I whispered, rubbing my chin.
The question now was: how do I get back to my own reality and time?