Chapter One

It’s another average day for me as I bike to work. My clothes, the baggy blue tracksuit and t-shirt, and my mood are identical to what they have been for the past month. I chuckle a little bit as the thought of what people would think of me if they saw me crosses my mind. As I glanced up at the rolling white clouds blocking out the sun, leaving the neighbours doused in dull light and flicker shadows. Like usual the dream of sun soaked days and enjoyable bike rides, floated in front of me like a mirage before fading away into the darkness.

A few minutes later, I arrived at work, gently slowing down to a stop. A bump on the road  sent me spiralling to the floor. Getting up quickly, I hoped that no one saw a thing. I finished the end of my journey by walking to the back. Fumbling around with the bike lock, before attaching it to the shipping containers where it would stay for the day. I wiped the mud off my fingers, before walking into the building with a loud bang!

"Dammit! I slammed it again. Boss is gonna kill me."

Freezing for a minute, waiting for an angry yell, which never came. I crept upstairs to the changing room.

After getting changed into the blue overalls, which make me look a bit like a smurf, I walk over to one of my only friends at work. Glancing around for my boss as I do, hoping he isn’t in yet so that he did not not hear the door slam.

I muttered to him,“Is the boss still not here yet, Alex?”

He looked down at me to reply. Then suddenly there was a massive flash of white, blinding light. Not being able to see, I fell backwards to the floor with a light thud. 

A few seconds later, I still could not see a thing except for pure white. It was extremely disorientating, I could feel that I was looking around, but nothing in my vision changed at all. It was as if I was in a kind of white space.

“Are you still there Aidan!?” Alex yelled out. 

“Will you please not shout?” I moan, as my left ears begin to ring from his loud voice which also broke the illusion of what I felt. It took a few more seconds for my ears to stop ringing and the white in my vision to disappear. Looking around rapidly to find any changes. Everything appeared to be the same except for the floating rocks, with there being one rock per person.

‘Wait…..floating rocks!’ I began to scream in my head in shock as well as in fear, but I found that after seeing them I had the desire to reach out and grab one.

Each rock however looked exactly the same. A solid smooth grey colour without a single blemish on the surface. Looking around, each one was also floating the same height above the ground. It was like they were the exact same rock, I couldn’t find a single difference in any of them.

“Last I checked, rocks couldn’t float, right?” I said this to no one in particular, but my words prompted the deafly silence to go away. 

Everyone began to start talking, some more worried than others, but not a single person went near the rocks at all. Alex had walked off to go and see if the same thing was happening in the other room, leaving me more or less alone. Well, there were others but I never really had interacted with them before in the past in any way.

I started to move closer to the rock that was seemingly mine. Well, I am assuming it is mine, due to how it was closest to me compared to the others. The others saw me though and before I knew what was happening Alex had come back, and was dragging me away from it.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Jason touched one, he then just disappeared…” He was whispering this next to my ear, I guess it was so that no one could hear so that they wouldn’t be scared, but I couldn't be sure about this.

I looked back at the rock in surprise, wondering what it actually was. 

“Alex, by the way did the rock disappear with him too?” I said this rather loudly though, I guess it was to my shock that I didn’t think about how I should have been quieter.

Before he could reply, someone screamed out. “Who is gone!?” 

The others all quickly mentioned the same thing as they then rushed through to the other room, to find out for themselves. Alex looked at me quickly before rushing off after them, to make sure nothing crazy happened through there. 

It didn’t take long before I could hear someone wailing. I assumed it was one of the girls who worked here. Rumour had it that most had a crush on him. Guess it is more than rumour now.

I looked back at the rock, nearest to me again. The feeling. No, the attraction to hold it was getting stronger. 

‘A little touch shouldn’t do anything, right?’

My mind went into overdrive at all the outcomes as I slowly inched my way over to it again. When I was directly in front of it, I brought out my hand and reached out to touch it. As my fingertips brushed against the smooth surface, the white light flashed again. Though this time, I was not affected nearly as much except for the white light, but the disorenating effect didn’t come again, allowing me not to fall over like before. In fact I felt like I could still walk. I slowly took a few steps forward and could even hear my footsteps echoing around me.

Wait, my footsteps don’t echo here. Looking around myself at the white light, a horrifying thought came to my mind. 

What if this isn’t just a white light?