The 8th Gate

Chapter 2 - Primicerius

 Lima opened her eyes to a white ceiling, with gold decal creating an elegant design through the middle. She followed the gold down the wall until her eyes fell unto the back of a bald, stout man hunched over a white table.

She looked down at her white hospital gown with its elegant gold trimmings. "I've never seen a hospital decorated like this," she thought to herself. When she looked up again, the man was gone.

"Hello there!" He exclaimed from beside her.

She screamed as the man smiled wide at her, nearly falling out of the bed where she lay.

"Frightens easily," he said to himself, writing on a plain, brown clipboard. His long nose was nearly touching the paper, as his face was so close to the page. His pale skin was nearly translucent, seeming as if he hasn't been outside in years. His lack of hair, from his head to his knuckles, made him look like a naked mole rat. His thick, black-rimmed glasses did not help much in that department. Though, his face had a soft kindness to it, which made Lima feel foolish for ever being frightened by such a benevolent man.

He looked up and smiled brightly at Lima.

Lima straightened her back. "Who are you?"

The man looked down at his chest and smacked his head with his palm. "Oh dear, oh my! I forgot my name tag again." He ran to the table and put a solid gold nametag on his right lapel.

"My name is Doctor Jitter," he pointed to his nametag with a prideful air around him. "I'm the Chief Doctor at the Mainland Mansion situated on the island of... well... Mainland."

"Mainland Mansion?" Lima tried to think about all the different mansions she learned about in school, but she couldn't figure out where Mainland is located. She looked out the window to see daylight has returned. In the distance, she should see tiny islands dotting the ocean like a Congo line leading to the end of the world.

"Where am I?" she asked, lifting her hand to her nose. The pain seemed to disappear like a long lost memory and blood no longer trickled from her face. "My nose... how did you... where am I?"

The door burst open and Theo's huge smile entered the room. In casual jeans and a black t-shirt, he looked like he was rebelling against the white, pristine hospital room.

"Enoch, she's up!" he exclaimed. His brother walked in behind him looking much different than before. He was wearing all white and his dark, long hair pulled into a bun. Never one to be attracted to man buns, Lima wondered why it looked so good on him.

"Sons, you can't just burst into a hospital room as you see fit. You nearly gave me a heart attack," Doctor Jitter pulled a stool up to Lima's bedside. She sat up and looked around at the three men, seeing no resemblance between them.

"Oh dear, they're not my actual sons. God forbid I create offspring," Doctor Jitter said with a soft chuckle. The boys took a seat on the couch under the window, looking like night and day next to each other.

"Now to answer you're previous questions, you are in the Mainland Mansion, which is located in the dimension of Primicerius."

"Prim-a-what? Dimensions?"

Dr. Jitter sighed. "Primicerius, dear. Have you never heard of Primicerius?"

Lima racked her brain trying to remember if she read something about this land, but nothing was ringing any bells for her.

"Primicerius is a dimension that coincides with your own. I can't say they run perpendicular to each other... it's more like Primicerius is up here," he raised his right hand over his head. "And Ether, what your dimension is called runs here." His left hand was about a ruler length under the right one.