Not Real. Not Imaginary.

PART FOUR: GREER. [The Witness]

I know ‘The Witness’ is a dumb name…but it is a fearsome…’place’. Actually, it isn’t really a place…it’s more like an experience: you basically are sent to be the spectator of someone’s lives (yes, I meant lives and not life; lives as in, past lives…you know…reincarnation and all of that), or just sent to witness the history of the life in a certain dimension, reality or time.

As I recall, whenever a new ‘guardian’ appears, and before they decide to sent them to guard anyone…they have to spend some time at the witness…. It is like going to school and taking history lessons. That how we are taught that humans are this or that…that how we are taught how they act, and what to expect.

If you had already ‘graduated’, and depending on your abilities, they could send you there in sorts of…missions…they were basically more lessons, for you to learn something specific, or for you to bring a certain information of interest to the Highers.

It sounds a little appealing, I know…but trust me…it is not. It was tedious, you basically where stuck in years, or decades, and you couldn’t come back to the place you came from until your mission…or in this case…punishment…was complete.

“That makes no sense…why would that be the consequence of…whatever I did ‘wrong’ according to you?” I asked confused, as it really didn’t seem to be the right punishment. I was almost certain they would terminate me…or at least try it.

“We’re just giving you a chance to rethink things, and to make the right choices. You’ll understand a lot of things, like, for example: why things are the way they are now.” The older one replied in a calm tone as he saw the confusion on my face.

“So, I have to go back to school…that’s what you’re saying, right?... it still makes no sense…aren’t the rules I supposedly broke…more important than...that?” I answered with an irritated tone in my voice.

It’s not like I wanted to be punished severely…I was just trying to wrap my head around it. It just didn’t make sense to me, no matter how I looked at it. They were pretty well aware of all the rules I had broken…and, if I had been any other guardian…they would’ve given me a much more severe punishment. I had heard some stories, and I had known some…beings…that, after doing something similar to what I had done so far…well…no one saw them again.

“You can think of it as you want, but that’s what is going to happen, and that’s where you’re going. You’ll understand why after you’re there. Stop wasting time, we’ve made a decision and it’s final.” The cranky young one blurted out, visibly annoyed by my ‘stalling’.

To my right, a soft sound…almost like a whisper was heard, and an arch shaped portal appeared. Inside it a multicolored light shone, dancing and waving around, as if it was confined by the arch, but wanted to escape.

I knew then that I couldn’t scape it. I would have to do it…I don’t know how long I’d be away from Nina, but I knew I had to do it. And I was hopeful that whenever this dumb punishment was over…I would go back to Nina.

The Highers were looking at me impatiently...at least the blonde female and the cranky younger one. The other too just observed with a somewhat neutral expression…and after glaring in their direction, I started to walk towards that…portal….

As I walked closer, the whispering got louder and louder, but far from being able to make out what they were saying…all I could pick up was a sort of…white noise. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to hear that…it was very disconcerting. I looked back at the Highers, and I could swear the blonde female had a devilishly amused glint in her eye.

I gulped as discreetly as possible and then took another step closer to the portal…and another…and then, a final one. Now I was right in front of it. It was much larger from up close; there were some sort of engravings on it that I couldn’t comprehend. The whispering-white noise…oddly enough…was much less audible from this close, and the lights danced around as I gazed inside the portal…as if they were anxious for me to step in...as if they were trying to lure me in….

After taking a deep breath, I lifted my foot…then I stopped and looked back at the Highers.

“How long am I supposed to stay in there?” I asked as I remembered they had not been clear with a lot of things of this…’deal’.

“We will see once you’re in there. We need to see how things start to unfold and judge whether you are ready or not, to come back to this time line.” The older one answered as he leant back in his seat.

“How do I know you won’t just leave me in there forever?” I questioned furrowing my brows.

“You won’t, and maybe that is the real punishment.” The younger one answered, and then giggled.

I just dedicated a furious glance while the older one spoke again:

“We won’t leave you there forever…however, it is up to you how long you are in there, so, observe, and learn.”

That was the last thing I heard, before the portal literally moved and engulfed me. It was like falling into a never ending ‘hole’…or…being pulled into a tunnel.

Everything around me were lights of multiple colors, merging together and separating in a sort of hypnotizing dance…. I felt like Alice when she falls down the rabbit hole, but this was much more…psychedelic. I almost felt like I could touch each individual color of light and it would have a different texture…a different essence. It was as if the light was alive, like it was a being, rather than a thing.

I was feeling kind of dizzy from all the movement of the lights, so it took me a while to realize that I wasn’t really moving…I was suspended in midair. I didn’t know if I had been like that all the time, or just a while…all I know is that I could feel something tugging on me.

The light started to lose its brightness little by little and the colors moved slower…I could almost say I was in some kind of ship, traveling between timelines to wherever The Highers wanted me to go.

Just then…the words the older one of The Highers had said, played in my head: ‘it’s up to you…observe and learn’. I had no idea what they meant…I just knew they were really important…no…it was more…something I felt, rather than something I knew. I didn’t know anything for sure…not anymore.

Everything went dark for a moment and it was a welcoming change for my eyes…the place where The Highers were, was too white…too bright. I had gotten used to be in the material plane, with Nina, where everything seemed a little…or a lot darker…so being back in the ‘higher’ realm, was a real pain for my eyes, that were already used to the material one.

It suddenly got very quiet…unsettlingly quiet. It was like being in Nina’s Prism…except that I knew this wasn’t it…and there was nothing of hers in here this time. Even her memories about Terry, that caused me such discomfort, would’ve been comforting right now.

Anxiety was creeping on me…slowly…not knowing what was happening or what was going to happen…it felt really…strange. Suddenly…my eyes started to feel heavy, as did my hole body…I could barely stand in my feet right then….my eyes closed even after I kept trying to fight the urge to do so. They were closed just for a second…or so I felt.

I don’t really know what I was expecting to find…I wasn’t even sure anymore if any of it was real, or if I had been sleeping back at home the whole time and now it was time to wake up… All I know is that, when my eyes opened, in front of me, there was…nothing.