LUCID

CHAPTER 3

We chatted like old buddies. Instant rapport. Finally, I thought, someone who wants to talk about the things I want to talk about. Someone who gets it – gets me.

I learned about the Feline race: how they'd been in existence for billions of years, and in that time had evolved, on their own planet, from their physical state into ever more ethereal states, which raised them up through the various astral dimensions to their present position on the seventh dimension, where they have no physical bodies anymore, only astral bodies, which allows them to travel freely among the astral realms without first having to sleep in order to separate astral body from physical body – which we Humans and other third-dimensional entities are still required to do.

And now they spend most of their time traversing the dimensions serving as guides for travellers such as myself.

When it was my turn to talk I told him about my own, comparatively limited, experiences in the Astral, and about the particular situation I now found myself in. He didn't discard my theory that I could have been responsible for my own coma – but if that was the case, he told me, then a 'higher order of consciousness' had presented me with a specific quest.

What that quest might be would remain unknown, and only in searching would the answer reveal itself. He suggested I keep an open mind and let myself be guided by circumstance – to go where my impulse leads me and to trust in the journey. I asked if he'd be my guide and he accepted, saying it's likely that was the reason he was sent here.

Then he asked a lot of questions regarding life on Earth in general and seemed specifically interested in how humans cope with all the misery and sadness and struggles and wars he'd heard so much about. I sketched him a balanced picture – told him it wasn't all bad, and could anyway only give him a personal perspective on such a massive topic. He'd have to experience it for himself – and it could take a whole lifetime, and maybe more, to understand it. He was curiously quiet as I spoke as if lost in his own thoughts.

He was genuinely impressed though with how I was dealing with my unusual circumstances and told me so. I told him I was grateful I had something I could impress a seventh-dimensional entity with.

I fetched another couple of beers from the cooler, our fourth at this point but who's counting – it's only astral beer.

"So you said you were waiting for me," I started up again. "How could you know I was coming here? I didn't know I was coming here."

"I was waiting for someone, I didn't know it was you until you arrived. The Astral works for me the same way it works for you and everyone else. I got a sign, in my case a feeling, that I was needed somewhere by someone, and I let myself be transported here by the forces that be. Then I just sat here and waited to see who would turn up."

"But why specifically here?"

"Because here is where you would end up after following your own signs. You chose this place, not me."

"How could I choose here? I've never been here before... and you were here first."

"Time is fluid here, you know that, and anyway I came directly, without a motorcycle. As for choosing, most likely is that you created this place yourself from some deep subconscious wish to just get away somewhere and then projected it way out into the middle of nowhere so you could get a nice long bike ride out of it."

"Okay, I'll accept that for now. It makes sense I guess. I don't know why I would have filled it with all those cats though."

"Oh, you didn't, the cats are my doing. In a way. They followed me here."

"From where?"

"Who knows? They have a similar astral frequency as we Felines and just seem to manifest wherever we are. Cats astral travel too when they're dreaming, always unconsciously of course. It can be a hindrance sometimes, even embarrassing, depending on where you are. Luckily it's not all the time... Why are you smiling like that?"

"Similar astral frequency... so you are a cat."

"And you, my friend are an ape. Cheers!" He laughed and we clinked cans.

Then he suddenly stopped laughing. The suddenness unnerved me.

"Something wrong?" I asked.

"The cats have gone."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"Maybe... one moment."

He turned away and strode quickly out through the door. Then he turned towards the direction I'd arrived from and froze there for a few moments, watching.

"You should see this," he called out.

I rushed outside.

I felt the chill immediately and it wasn't a chill like the beers in the cooler. Extending out from the horizon up to about a mile from where we stood, a dark, creeping stain, like spilled ink, consumed the sky and ground, stretching out straggly, probing shadow-fingers as it crept and grew. It seemed to seep into the very fabric of the landscape. And it was clearly creeping our way.

"What the fuck is that?" I said.

"That is the DURGE my friend and it's more a they than a that. Shadow creatures that dwell in the void between dimensions."

"And what are they doing here?"

"Looking for you no doubt. Come back inside, we don't have much time left."

He spoke with urgency: "Look, they can sense you, and they can sense that you are trapped here, in the Astral. I can tell you more another time but you have to leave now."

"How? Where?" He was scaring me – and I don't scare easily. Not in the Astral. Or so I thought.

"Don't panic. I can help you evade them for now. You need to imagine a space for yourself where you can be alone. A place where you can relax and feel safe. You need to take some time to clear your mind, order your thoughts, and decide how you want to continue on this journey – this quest. What are your priorities? What is your highest desire? Listen to your inner impulse. As your guide, this is my first advice to you. When you feel ready to move on, call for me and come back here. I'll be waiting."

He sensed my anxiety and the questions I still had. "Don't worry, the Durge won't be able to follow you, and they won't be here when you return. They'll be gone from here once you have left. Do you have a place in mind where you would like to be?"

"Oh yes," I said.

He put a hand to my forehead. "Picture that place."

"Wait – your name again – Catzuuu?"

"Just Cat will do fine."

"Is that with a C or a K?"

"Go!" he ordered.

And I felt myself being whisked upwards and outwards at great speed as the room, the garage, the desert all folded in on itself towards a single point of...nothingness.

Author Note

From this point on, I'll be posting two chapters a day. I want to get it published as completed by the last entry date of the Watty Awards contest - September 30th - so I can submit this story. So... happy reading.

Levi.