《call of the void》
journey
I don¡¯t know where to start because it is a long and winding story . this tale is the mark I leave on the world this is the proof of my existence this is the proof that I @$#!$#!$&_+# Lived , if i am correct you would not be able to read my name.
Every one in my family disappeared slowly first it was my grandparents then my father then my mother one day they were gone there was no explanation of what happened to them they where just not there one day no one had seen them leave they just vanished,
police reports were made but no one could do anything it was just more paper to be shredded.
after losing everyone my state was not good I was depressed I could just barely manage to hold down a job i was miserable but the final crushing blow came from the disappearance of my uncle . Repeatedly loosing family members was not a good thing for the mental health of a person after the death of my uncle i started hallucinating strange shapes shapes they would create unending strings of patterns one shape morphing into next I would stare into space for hours trying to make sense of what I was seeing . It was my friends who concerned by my increasingly strange behavior suggested that I take a break to recover mentally .
that was the decision that led me to my home town Ravivadha .
Before this point I had never visited my hometown even though my uncle and grandparents lived their .
so i had no happy memories of the place no nostalgia related to playing in the forest or swimming in the lake . the only thing i had was a key to the house and a bag containing my cloths and daily necessities .
The easiest to reach ravivadha was to take a flight then a bus or a taxi to travel six hour by road . getting a flight was the easy part but getting any way to travel from the airport to the town was really difficult , as their were no buses and trains available so taxi was the only option and it was an expensive option so i called every taxi agency and different travel agencies and most places gave me the same answer that they couldn¡¯t go to that town . it was after spending almost a full day i got in contact of someone who after some haggling about the price agreed to take me to my destination .Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!
I had not expected what greeted me outside the airport to be an auto it didn¡¯t even have the safety bar that is present on the right side it was open from every side .
the first thing i did was try to call the guy i booked the taxi from but he didn¡¯t pick up the phone so i told the auto driver to go as i would not spend six hours in a badly built coffin
after another hour of calling I found someone who after begging and bribing told me he could get me there .
as I got a taxi to the place the man told me to meet him ,when i reached there there was a large truck filled with cardboard boxes that was going to ravivadha .
at that point I was expecting to sit in the back of the truck but luckily the man told me to sit up front .
the driver was a cheerful old man who could didn¡¯t stop talking until we reached my destination . he dropped me off outside the market place where he was delivering the goods to .
with my acing body and a killer migraine I stood outside the marketplace there was a very strong cool wind blowing the weather was very good it felt like it had just rained but but their was no signs that it had rained there was not a lot of traffic only the occasional car or a scooter mostly the roads were empty .I wanted get to the house I was staying at ,so pulled out my phone and looked at the address and entered it in google maps it indicated the direction i was meant to go , but after walking for some time the map told me I had reached my destination but in fact I had not reached my destination .
the map had led me to some other place entirely different there was a stall at the end of the street so I went to ask the shopkeeper he looked at the address for a while and finally pointed me in a direction after asking a few more people I was at the place I would call home for the next few months . it was a large 3 bedroom house two of its bedrooms were on the ground floor and one of the bedroom was on the second floor .as soon as I entered first thing i saw was dust everything was covered in dust there was the smell of a place that had been closed for a long time . as i wandered inside looking for the place to rest i entered into one of the bedrooms it had a double bed and a table it had closet built into the wall which had wooden doors there was painting of a large tree and a lot of other smaller paintings and poems and quotes were written on the wooden door of the closet .
some of the paintings were a little crude as if drawn by a child it was probably my uncle who drew those .I put my bag in one of the corners and laid down on the bed i stared up at the ceiling as I drifted into sleep .
sunken city-1
I was standing in a strange place there were strange objects floating all around me they were constantly shifting between different shapes there was a strange quality to the objects it was as if their was a part of the objects that I could not see a part .it was as if the existed in 4 dimensions instead of the normal 3 .
I was not exactly standing more like I was paused in the middle of free falling , it was a strange feeling suspended in the air as I tried to move but I failed not being able to do any thing and getting bored staring at the strange objects my mind began to wander then I remembered a physics class there was a question similar to my situation where a person was suspended in space and surrounded by different objects and we had to find time taken for all to collide it had been years since that class it was a strange and nostalgic memory of a better time , the teacher who taught the class was huge I remember on his first class he had come running in our classroom and then he stood at the podium for almost 10 minutes trying to catch his breath . my friend Aditya who was sitting behind me tapped me on the shoulder and asked me if I knew CPR because it looked like our teacher would need it .
After some time had passed I noticed that one of the shapes had gotten close enough for me to touch ,as soon as my finger tip touched the object my suspension was broken as I started to free fall I woke up lying in a dusty bed. as i felt around for my mobile as my eyes adjusted to the light I looked at the time it was almost 10:30 pm .
feeling painfully hungry i rolled out of the bed and stood up ,then I realized I had nothing to eat so I got my wallet out and exited the house I looked around I didn¡¯t know where to go as I picked a random street and started walking after walking for 5 minutes I reached a intersection not knowing where to go I just chose to go right randomly as wandered I reached the main road near the market where the truck driver had left me .This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
as I went inside the market the rows of shop were completely shut not a single shop was open even though it was only 10:30 as I wandered around the market looking for a place to eat ,not finding any shop open I exited and started walking on the main road ,it was completely empty there was not a single person or even stray dogs .
after walking some more I spotted a shop still open there where a bunch of people where standing around .
there where a bunch of pallets of eggs stacked on top of each other . I looked at the shop keeper who was making a omelet i got close to the counter and said 2 egg omelet please and no tomato as he looked at me and nodded as he folded the omelet he was making and he lifted it up using a metal spatula and put it on a metal plate and gave it to the man standing next to me ,
he then started making my omelet after a while the man put my omelet on the counter I collected it and started eating it was the best omelet I had ever eaten .
there was something strange about the people standing their chatting had died down,
I Put the metal plate on the counter and asked the shopkeeper how much was the omelet he pulled out a circular piece of wire and asked me ¡°what ic this ma booy¡±in a strange accent .i was puzzled and said sorry what? he looked annoyed and he pointed at the wire and he said more aggressively ¡°what ic this¡± he started getting more and more aggressive he was almost screaming as he shoved the circular wire in my face he asked again what ic this ma booy as i took a step back I looked at the people standing around me the were standing there completely unmoving just staring at me then I realized that I was getting the same feeling from these people as i had gotten form the strange objects in my dream .
one of the men realizing their cover was blown lunged at me .
sunken city -2
the man lunged at me at the same time the shopkeeper grabbed me by the collar and pulled me behind the counter . the shopkeeper said ¡°yoou arr not ready don¡¯t try to understand " .
as he dragged me I got a good look at the counter where he was making eggs there was nothing the huge pan he was making the eggs on had vanished ,as he dragged me inside he said again don¡¯t try to understand you are not ready as he threw me out the door with frightening strength .
I was probably in the air for a few seconds at least then I slammed into the hard stony ground my surroundings had completely changed instead of an empty road or concrete house I was surrounded by buildings made of cobblestone. the buildings were arranged in a grid like pattern they were single story tall perfectly cuboid without any windows
the entire place was illuminated by strange blue light It felt like the entire city was underwater . I got up and looked around fear still fresh in my heart , it was either fear or my heart was pumping its last few pumps .
it was still dark nothing made sense, why had the men attacked me or what the shopkeeper meant ? still strange of all I was standing at a place that was clearly not the place was in a few moments ago the . but still it felt so surreal that meant the implications of what just happened had not clicked .
I approached a single story building trying to find the entrance to it I started walking around the happened trying to find a door or a window so I could go inside as I didn¡¯t want to spend the night outside , I completed a round around the building and couldn¡¯t find any entrance as I walked to the next building to do the same but couldn¡¯t find an entrance .
why wouldn¡¯t the people building this create an entrance , what purpose could the buildings serve as I finished that thought the answer came to me what if the things that built this were not human the image of strange men flashed in my mind
what if there where more of those things inside ? I need to get out of here I turned around and started running I needed to get out of this place I ran until I couldn¡¯t breathStolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
I stood with my hands on my knees to catch my breath, slowly my breathing rate returned to normal as I to took a last deep breath I heart it footsteps.
someone else was here ! as I started walking towards the footsteps a realization hit me
humans don¡¯t make such loud footsteps the sound of the steps was getting closer
I slowly walked towards the sound and hid behind a cobblestone building and slowly peaked my head out the side .
the thing that was making the footsteps was five or six houses away it was slowly getting closer
THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP the thing slowly got close enough for me to get a good look at it, the strange creature was almost as big as the strange cuboidal buildings it was horrifying it was an amalgamation of hundreds of humanoid monsters fused together in shape of a worm but its lower half was not present and instead of legs it had two thin arm like appendages that it used to walk with .
the weird creature was slowly dragging its body towards me .
No way this is real this still must be a dream nothing like this could exist in the real world
my mind was buzzing with different thoughts and questions but then the large creature looked at me it had no eyes or any head but I knew that it looked at me
all the rational thoughts left my body the only thing I felt was fear I just turned and started running as fast as I could in the opposite direction I didn¡¯t stop to consider where I was going .
I ran as fast as I my already tired body allowed ,there was a dead end so I turned right there was another building . in front of me I tried to stop but because of momentum i slammed full force into the building then the part of the wall I slammed into gave away and I fell inside the building I crawled inside the building and sat besides the hole I made
the steps were getting close I made tucked in my legs to make my body as small as possible and sat in silence hoping that the creature didn¡¯t find me .
The only thing I could hear was THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP
THUMP it was searching for me after some time the footsteps slowly started to move away then i finally relaxed the last bit of Adrenalin in my body had been used up
I felt the exhaustion and the terror return . my legs felt stiff as cardboard and I had slammed into the wall full force so my chest felt like someone had tried to hammer hundreds of blunt needle into my rib cage.
Morgan
I woke up I was lying on a bed I opened my eyes it was completely dark sitting up I starting feeling around the bed searching for a light switch or to get a general sens of the room I felt the walls, cobblestones did the hole I had created closed up? was I trapped inside ? I felt a burst of panic rising I stopped and took a deep breath . Think ,think of an explanation of what was happening . the bed !! there was no bed inside the structure I was in .
I started to move around the room with one hand on the wall using it as a guide I slowly waked around the room , then I tripped on something and fell on the thing
there was a loud bang as whatever I had tripped on fell with me. I tried to get up but
I slammed my head int something hard a sharp pain tore through my head as I immediately sat back down and started massaging the spot where I had hit my head
then there was a sudden bang and a beam of light that cut through the dark
I instinctively looked at the light but shielded my eyes from it I saw a shadow of a man standing where the beam of light had come from .
he looked at me and shouted oi Morgan he is awake ! he shouted again Morgan ! Morgan he is awake ! he continued shouting until a voice responded I got it the first time SHUT UP, a second man came into the view he had a thick beard and wore a woolen cap .
The other man walked away . The man in the woolen hat presumably named Morgan looked at me and said ¡°get up ya must have questions we walk while I talk to ya ¡°.
My mind was frozen their where so many questions in my mind that I couldn¡¯t choose which one I wanted to ask so I asked him the most simple one I could think of
where am I ?
Morgan looked at me and a faint smile appeared on his face as he gestured for me to follow him come I will tell ya everything I can .
I got up off the ground and followed him he led me to a set of stairs that
cut off running into the ceiling of the room , Morgan walked unfettered and as he reached the end he just phased though the ceiling . he stuck his head inside and said come it is just a illusion you can walk through it . I got to the top of the stairs and stretched out my hand to feel the ceiling but my hand phased through the I walked through It their was no special feeling or some odd breeze I was standing outside appearing from solid ground .This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
The place I was standing had a orange ribbon surrounding the hole to indicate the illusion .
I was standing in an open field with multiple buildings some distance away on my right they were like any other building you would find in a town on my left there were multiple huts and a building that looked like a slab of concrete there were multiple people walking around talking and doing things most wore normal cloths.
I looked at Morgan he was looking at me the amused smile he had was gone he
had a serious expression like he was about to deliver some bad news he sighed and started talking , ¡°forget every thing ya know about the world here things happen without logic and apparent reason whatever questions you might have please save them for the end after you know a bit more " .
my mind was already feeling sluggish so I kept my mouth shut I followed behind him
he pointed to a building that looked like a school and said we don¡¯t know who built them they were here before and we have records dating back almost 100 years it just exists their is no apparent explanation to why or who built it , this place is a strange if you believe something hard enough it will turn real the line between what we observe and what is reality is almost non existent, so if you believe hard enough that a dog is chasing you a dog might appear and start chasing you .
The more he talked the more dream like the place felt there was no way this place was real maybe these people were joking this must be a dream that was the only explanation ,
Morgan had stopped and was silently staring at me watching me spiral into more and more panicked thoughts he had a look of sympathy on his face he said its okay you will get used to this it will start feeling normal just give it time .
Morgan pointed at the end of the field past the wooden huts and said come there is one last thing I want to show you we walked past the huts he brought me to a wall it was half my height and was made of concrete material some parts of it were made of wood some of metal sheets and concrete their were strange symbols carved into it .
On the other side of the wall was a strange view one side was a dense forest and then it suddenly stopped as if someone drew a line from their the strange cobblestone buildings started .
Both of us walked along the wall until we came to a break in it their was a lady standing outside with a bored expression ,she had one of her eyes covered by a bandage ignoring her .
Morgan pointed at the ground and said as long as you are inside that line you are safe most anomalies can¡¯t cross that line , I focused on where he was pointing their was a line drawn with a bright red powdery substance ,all the things Morgan had said up to now had not answered any questions but added more .It looked like Morgan was done explaining everything ,he gestured to the bandage lady to come and said to her ¡°He is new can ya answer rest of his questions ,I have some other thing to do ¡±with that said he turned back and walked off .
The lady had a look of annoyance as she looked at me , she was not too pleased to to handle the newcomer . she sighed and said lets go inside its better to sit and discuss all the questions you might have .
Normal
After telling me to wait she had started walking along the wall then she stopped and jumped across the wall on a specially tall patch of grass and as she landed , a man shot up from the place she was standing on .
after a heated argument she turned back and walked up to me and pointed at the wooden hut and said¡± lets go¡± .
I asked her " is he okay ?¡± she looked at me as if contemplating an answer then nodded ¡°more or less he should not be sleeping on guard duty , you cant really leave the gate unattended unless you want anomaly¡± ,
what is a anomaly ?
she looked concerned and said " ah you don¡¯t know ,what did Morgan exactly tell you¡±?
¡°he told me to forget everything and told me that dogs will chase me¡±.
she sighed and said ¡°so he didn¡¯t tell you anything important , here things work a bit differently it is not a problem inside the line but outside if we leave someone or some thing unobserved they might undergo an strange transformation¡± .
I couldn¡¯t understand what she said ,the more I tried to understand less sense it made
she looked at my confused expression and said ¡°most people don¡¯t understand everything, hell even I don¡¯t understand everything its better to give it time you will slowly gain a better understanding by experiencing it yourself ¡±
I walked in silence the rest of the way trying to make sense of things told to me, none of my questions were answered but I was determined to at least get one clear answer .
The hut was not very large but it was enough for a person to comfortably live in
inside the hut their was a table and a counter made of stone and their was a pot hanging by a complex contraption made by wires on a fire .on the counter their were several wooden bowls stacked on top of each other .
I looked at her and she told me to sit at the table so I silently obeyed and took a seat.
she slowly picked up a ladle kept on the stone counter and took a step towards the pot and slowly poked at the pot as if to check its structural integrity then she picked a bowl and cautiously put some stew in the bowl and put it on the table , then she sat down across from me ,finding all her actions funny and strange I asked her ¡°was that an anomaly ?¡±
she laughed and responded ¡°nah its Matt¡¯s handy work so that is not very stable ¡±she said pointing at the strange contraption of wire .
The stew was made of strange white beans and left a strange aftertaste , after eating a bit of stew I asked her what it was made of she shrugged and said ¡°I don¡¯t know we grow it here most of us call them white beans¡± .
After eating the entire bowl I felt good , I had not eaten any thing after the airport , after seeing me finish the bowl she asked me do you want more ? but I declined .
after eating my mind started to work again slowly ,so I asked Her " what did Morgan mean by I should not say my name out loud¡± she thought for a second trying to find the easiest way she could explain things then said ¡°if you say your real name out loud bad thing happen most people say that you get cursed ,whatever happens the outcome is not good most people go mad or turn into strange monsters so don¡¯t say your name out loud¡±.
I stared at her trying to make sense of what she said The more information I gained
the less real this place seemed more like a strange dream my body was feeling real but my mind refused to acknowledge it .The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
then I asked her I didn¡¯t ask your name what is it ? she was clearly not expecting the question then said ¡°you can call me Tina¡± .
I sat there processing the strangeness of the place I felt a creeping sense of fear as I asked Tina ¡°is their a way to go back¡± ?
Tina looked as if she knew That this question was coming and she didn¡¯t want to answer it she answered in a low voice ¡°I don¡¯t Know¡± she immediately followed it up by
¡°It might be possible we don¡¯t know about it yet¡± . Her admission of her not knowing was same as her telling me that their was no way back .The realization hit me like a bullet that their was no way home I was stuck here my eyes started to tear up my I started sobbing .
I sat there crying for I don¡¯t know how long , Tina was sitting opposite to me with a awkward expression
I said ¡°I am sorry for spontaneously crying¡± Tina replied with obvious pity in her voice
¡°Its okay first few days are hardest¡± , I tried to smile but it turned into a strange expression .
I sat their trying to get my emotions in my control then suddenly a man burst in he was the same whom Tina had jumped on he said to Tina in a panicked and stressed tone ¡°Tina !! Morgan called for you its urgent come to THE building¡± ,Tina nodded and said ¡°I am coming " ,she turned to me and said " I have to go you can have a look around and when the night falls go to the large building with the glass front and tell Jeffry you are new he will sort everything out¡± , she quickly got up and followed the man outside
as they were leaving I heard snippets of conversations the man who Tina refereed to as Dave was telling her about some one had returned and that David was in bad shape
I sat inside the hut wondering what to do so I decided I would walk around.
I wandered around aimlessly a few people came up to me and asked if I was okay and told me first day was the hardest , after a while I wandered around a the farm their were multiple crops planted their were a few people taking care of the fields then I stumbled across the animals they looked like as if someone had mixed multiple animals together the cows had stripes like zebra but had the head of a dear every animal was like amalgamation of different animals blended together at random .
after a while of staring at the animals I struck up a conversation with a middle aged man named Tom he told me how all the animals natively found here look like mixtures of multiple animals and that sometimes they found normal animals too who found their was here .
I asked Tom how does every one get here ? he just shrugged his shoulders and said ¡°I just walked through a doorway and ended up here¡±, the answer barely functioned as an answer it just felt like a empty statement but it was better than nothing so I thanked him and started walking in a random direction .
after some more time of aimless wandering the sun was hanging low on the horizon so I started walking towards the large building with a glass front.
I reached the building and went inside it was cooler that outside their were multiple people sitting or chatting joking around laughing and eating it felt strange that I was in a pit of despair and these people were laughing their ass off even though both of us were in the same situation .
I walked up to a woman and asked her where to find Jeffry she pointed me to a old man he had a slight hunch and was walking around with a writing pad I walked up to him and asked him Are you Jeffry ?
He looked at me and said with a big smile ¡°yes boy I am you must be the new one Morgan picked up come with me I will get you settled¡± he enthusiastically led me to a reception counter and went behind it and started searching for something in the drawers after searching through a few drawers he pulled out a key and said ¡°come¡± he took me to the second floor and to a room, he inserted the key and twisted it and the door opened he handed me the key and said to me with a wide smile " I got you the good room this one locks don¡¯t want people to walk In on you doing something and don¡¯t loose the key I already lost all the extras and one more thing dinners in 10 minutes and wake up is at 8 am ,electricity cuts off after midnight their are candles in the bedside drawers.
if you want to use the washroom the one attached to your room works but I advise against drinking tap water fill a water bottle from the kitchen drink it¡± , Jeffry continuously kept rambling on instructions and advises stopping in between to see if I was following then he said goodbye and walked off.
Inside their was a bed and a normal bed I half expected their to be some strange contraption that I had to sleep on or their to be some rule that no sleep was allowed
with the absurdness of this place anything seemed possible on the wall opposite of the bed their was a window I walked up to it and looked out the sun was sitting low on the horizon looking like a large angry ball ,below their were still people wandering about some walking hand in hand .
if one were to only look below the place looked astonishingly mundane devoid of any absurdity I had seen and experienced today ,it looked normal