It’s another day where father hit mother and this time, he told me to watch like I was next like he was telling me my death wish. I thought this month was like any other month, but it was never like this before. It was time for the daily beating where he hit me for the 100th time and some-how I’m immune to it, his slaps against my rough skin but it’s constantly is being painted purple like blueberries and my fingernails are chipped with me trying to protect myself from the monster in my house. He sits on his high horse with flames through his eyes. It’s the devil incarnation who drugs me to fall asleep and wishes me sweet nightmares at night as he grants them with a sticky kiss on my forehead. I woke up with a numb feeling in my feet; it was mother cuddle up in a ball at the edge of my bed with a black eye and this time the colour is too rich to hide with makeup.

Their argument started with background noise but then the screams tagged along shortly after. 7 days later father came in spent. He smelt like beer from the moment our front door swung open; me and mother looked at each other knowing our father was drunk again trying to prepare ourselves for the might ahead. We tried to hide but mother was too big to fit in the small corners and cupboards, so she hid me first, she hid me where she thought I wouldn’t be found. She stuffed me in the corner of my closet as fast as she could then she grabbed her favourite blanket to cover me. Father called out to me, screaming my name, saying to come downstairs to talk but we heard father grab his baseball bat like it was his crown and drag it against the stairs to make us aware he was coming up, so mother moved faster gathering everything she could to cover me. She got up and ran as fast as she could and stuffed her sweet body underneath my bed but my bed was too small for her to hide. Through the gap between the blanket and all the clothes, I saw his feet gather at the end of my bed where mother’s head was, his feet shuffled a little closer allowing the tips of his shoes to touch her hair. Ever so slowly he bent down to take a peek. Boo, he yelled, clasping her neck to drag her out while she screamed. my soul jumped to the sound of a loud thud against the other side of my closet wall and I so badly wanted to go out and run, to see if mother was okay this time, to see if she saved us but by the scream, before the thud, I knew father was the winner because mother screams didn’t echo through our house anymore. He controlled where she went and listened to the smack of her body against the stairs accompanied by the final thud. Everything remained silent with not a sound or a scream to follow.

Staggering up the stairs and I heard him smell the air like a dog looking for its next meal. He stomped his feet towards my room and opened the door so slowly it creaked. He turned my room upside down looking for me but mother hid me well, so it took him some time to realise that there was only one spot in my room left, the closet. He stared at it with a toxic grin then I saw his silhouette come closer and closer and he decided to stand there for a minute until he reached for the handle, he slowly opened it which led me to shake, he then saw the blanket sway and automatically persuaded himself that it was me under the blanket, so he lifted it to reveal me huddled up in the corner. He grabbed me and dragged my body down the stairs like he had done this all before. Oh wait, he did with my mother and his mother too. He threw me into the corner and cuffed my tiny wrist to the heater where mother was out cold hanging from the ceiling like the new centrepiece; with a baseball bat, with C. A engraved on the handle, beside me in which he beat her. her head with her blood splattered across our off-white walls and her blood; dying the carpet like the day when father smashed her wine glass on our white carpet.

He told me not to scream because our neighbours would hear it but I was determined to make sure mother was still awake. I bellowed at the top of my lungs “mother wake up, don’t be dead, I need you, I need you,” but I did not obey his orders so he slapped my cheek so hard my whole body turned towards him. I was punished with hot oil from the stove where my mum was cooking before my father came home, he picked up the hot pan with his bare hands like some-how he could not feel the burning sensation; he walked towards me and grabbed my left arm and little by little he started to pour, with achievement in his eyes. I screamed in agony and this was torture but he grabbed my chin so roughly and spun my face to looked at him, he smiled and wiped the tears off my face then said, “Stop screaming, doesn’t it feel so pleasurable your skin melting away? Don’t be such a kid” He chuckled “grow up”. He made it seem normal, like it was funny; like these thoughts were engraved into his head waiting for the moment where he could just snap. I couldn’t run and my skin was bubbling and throbbing but he was so pleased with himself and decided to stand up and look at me with a smile knowing the fear has grown within me, that the fear was in control of my unprotected body; he was so happy, he could see the fear in my coal-like eyes while they sparkled in the reflection on the swinging lightbulb; that he kept on hitting since the lightbulb was able to swing so far to keep hitting my mother’s dead face, again and again, and again. He wanted me to watch him do those disgusting things to my mother.

My pulsating chest with my heart beating so fast you could hear it, made his power thrive. Something possessed him that night, I don’t know what happened before he came home, all I know is that mother was dead and I feared for my life; what if I was next.

Chapter 1 – feel again

Her cold lifeless feet dragged across the rock-strewn pavements, she passed out again but this time she awoke in a small room, no light lit up this room, her fingers began to gain life again; confused she cried for help while trying to remember what happened. She remembered. She remembered the last hour of work; pouring hot coffee for her bosses. She remembered buckling while trying to hand the cup to her boss. He shamed her, “you selfish, you selfish…get out my office, now” he stutters in pain, the heat soaks deeper into the fabric of his trousers as his face turn red. She tried to skip a little, through her memories while she so desperately tried to forget that incident and move to the part to how she got here.

She put in the keys to lock up her office after hours, as the inner workings of the door turned slowly, she checked if maybe she wasn’t alone. Her hairs stood on end whilst fear consumed her body, but she brushed it off because she knew she was alone. She finished turning her key and began to walk down the seemingly endless hallway. She heard a creak from behind and tried to pick up the pace, stumbled and hit her head. As the migraine crept in, she was blinded with flashing colourful spots. The pain throbbed and danced around her skull; squeezing it so tightly her eyes rolled back but she tried to crawl away, she tried but every time her palm met the floor and her knees shuffled, the groaning sound from behind her echoed in a maddening crescendo. She remembered turning around and seeing a black figure drift towards her; she screamed, blacked out. Time went passed she opened her eyes and looked down while her cold lifeless feet dragged across the rock-strewn pavements, she passed out again and woke up in this small room.

The migraine didn’t leave her head alone. It caused a deafening pinging sound that caused her hands to grab her head. She thought maybe that would help, but it didn’t, so she removed her hands from her face and rolled in pain. The door cracked open, the littlest stream of light was let in. It was the dark figure, she was able to look around, the wall in which she leaned upon was dripping in blood, her hands in which she held her head with was covered in her scarlet blood. Her heart pounded so rapidly, it ached. The door opened a little bit more, more light lit up the room, so much her eyes burned since she was in the dark for so long. The pinging sound in her ear was replaced with a ticking sound just like a clock. She cried for help while the black figure just watched like a movie.

3…2…1

She blacked out again but when she woke it wasn’t she wasn’t her normal self. She was in a body that felt like an empty shell, waiting for her soul to fill. The place where the blood was gushing out of was nowhere to be found. The new her mumbled, “why does this body hurt so much?” The door was closed again. The room was pitch black again. She stood up and tried desperately not to fall; her legs were so weak they trembled with every single step. Her blueberry tipped fingers felt around the room like crawling spiders, bingo she found the doorknob, slowly turned it while it creaked. It opened, she was surprised yet confused, she was somewhat relieved the door was able to open but even in her befuddled state she was able to think that the person who snatched her past self, wouldn’t leave the door open for her to walk free. She walked out of the room carefully. Checked both directions, she didn’t know which way to go, so she decided to go left. The light flickered. She managed to find a door marked exit and opened it. Looking down, she realised she wasn’t on the ground floor; she was so high up that if she jumped she would die.

“Where you going” yelled the dark figure.

“Leaving so soon,” he said with a grin on his face.

He began to run towards her, nowhere to go, she jumped. The sound of her desperate screams consumed the air. She screeched with regret as she fell to her death. The humming roar of aeroplanes overhead and the whirring sound of cars driving by joined in with her cries. Her blood-curdling shriek followed by one last screech was interrupted by a smacking thud. Her dislocated jaw hung from her face with just skin; her leg bent the other way while her eye was filled with so much blood it was about to pop. The city stood still. Mothers stood in shock, fathers got out the car and stared at her body not knowing the reason why she jumped. Many thought it must be suicide. She gasped for air, wiggled her toes and the blood from her eye disappeared, her jaw somehow slowly popped back into place and she turned her leg clockwise just like when she turned her key in her office door. She sat up while the crowd surrounded her. People ushered their children to look away, confusion leapt from person to person; ‘normal’ people don’t see this every day. She stood up and walked away as nothing had happened. She realised she was wanderer 101 when she looked at her wrist and realised her name was Aya when she looked at her name tag on her work shirt dripping in blood. The blood slowly disappeared like washable markers. She was confused as much as the crowd but she didn’t show it.

The crowd’s eyes followed her when she walked away. No one said a word because no one could find the words to even mumble. She realised what the crowd must have seen so she ran as fast as she could to hide.

You see a wanderer is from the future, they replace a body that has died in the past. They come from a time when something important has happened. Like on September 11 when the 911 happened, wanders from that time travelled to the past, consumed another body and save a lot of lives or even when the great fire of London occurred, the wanderers made sure it was erased from history.

Chapter 1 – Before they came

At first sight, everything in the universe seems to follow a certain rule. Realms circle the stars and its source of light circles the realms; the physical realm has the moon. The sun is a perfectly ordinary star. Just like all big stars, it enables life. The sun warms the seas, stirs the atmosphere and gives realms plants. The sun, mother of skies, once again took her rightful place in the horizon. But this time, faces seemed glum; thick air that laid low constantly blew in their faces. The clouds swarmed in a circle like a pattern sucking air in. A sphere-like object was slowly pulled towards the human’s realm. The air gushed dragging the unknown closer. Warm, glowing yellow dust fell from the sky like rain and its celestial body grew closer and closer.

First, the weather changed drastically. The king knew what was dawned upon them but he still doomed his kingdom with lies and reassurance that everything was okay. War was coming and he knew it. So the men of science tried to repel the object like magnets to reverse the damage made to their world already but it was too late since both world’s cores bonded; trying to get the cores to separate and complete obliterate all life that walks these lands. Now the war was upon them. All their species crashed. It ejected creatures that fell into the physical realm, humans were confused as to why this was happening. It burnt apart of the sky and fires lit the atmosphere. Eventually, these two realms were fully connected.

This new corrupted land was separated into two sides; two spheres. One side seemed full-filled with life; so magical and so peaceful, granted with everlasting life. This side was normal, how it has always been, how the humans lived before “the fall”. Trees stood so high from a human’s point of view it touched the sky but the other side the sky poured out darkness; misery. It seemed lonely, clouds wept. The other side was taken over by the weirdest creatures from the mystic realm: things like goblins who possessed fairy-like powers, similar to those of a witch or even a warlock and the ones humans can’t mess with are the ones with demonic type abilities. Those who will kill a human with just one blink. Fairies constantly mess with the fates of humans and have a penchant for trickery; taking human form to wander to human’s side, the side of life. Now if you thought the dark side consists of dragons and unicorns, you’re completely wrong because they don’t exist; that’s absurd.

The king and these creatures agreed that those born in the light stayed on the side of life, in which they called earth and the creatures were exiled to the darkness, with the only source of light called the moonstone. This stone was their source of power; protected dearly. Every realm has a source, the human realm, known as the physical realm has a tree; the tallest tree that protects the emerald gem within called the gem of life, that grants the peace and life to all humans. The moonstone is their only source of power, the only thing that lights up their dark. If humans take that away the creatures of the dark would slowly die, be tortured in a sense. These creatures would slowly disappear from existence and that is what the king wanted since their realm crashed into his. The humans never knew why the mystic realm crashed into theirs. Only those born in the mystic realm knew the reason and sworn secrecy to keep this reason away from the humans. Rumours spread that someone tried to take to moonstone but the dark side was quick to turn this rumour down. But the king was determined to take their source of power but little did he know to take that away, everything; including the human’s side; will be swallowed by the dark. Since two separate lands now become one. The sources of power are what keeps the realms at peace. Disrupt one source of power and both realms turn dark, all realms will slowly collide together. One by one they will all cease to exist.

These sources of power create a field that stops the realms from colliding into one another. Take the source of power away and you take the fields away and creates a gravitational pull. Our star, the sun grew larger than you could imagine. So large that it’ll envelop the inner planets, realms. There are eight known realms: The world of six heavens, the physical universe where humans live, the past and future life realm, the animal kingdom, land of timelessness, the mystic realm, the world of the ghosts and of course hell. Although these realms are separated, except the physical and mystic realm, they are all connected by these sources of power.