When Seth opened his eyes, Central Park had morphed into a hallway made entirely of light. At least that was the only way that he thought to describe it as. This was because the first thing that he saw was a single road that was a blinding white-blue light. The color seemed to him to be the same color you see when you try to look directly at the sun before it blinds you, but with a bluish tinge. It suited it because he remembered from chemistry that blue fire was the purest form of fire and this light, seemed to him, to be more like fire than light. This could also be why he was reminded of the myth of Apollo's son who got too close to the sun and burned up into ashes, but he wasn't in some Greek myth and he wasn't burning, but standing on that light, fire, or whatever.
On the side, there were what appeared to be doorways. All the doors were the same blinding blue-white, but the doorknobs appeared to be in the shape of dragon heads. He looked at one of them and could have sworn that it winked at him, but that should have been impossible. Then again, doorknobs made of light should have also existed far beyond the realm of possibility. At that moment, Seth decided that if magic was real or not, he was definitely insane because magic was one thing and seeing a place made entirely of light was a completely different phenomena that bordered on the schizophrenic side.
He then turned to Josephine, who looked completely calm and unperturbed to be standing here, and when he did, he had the feeling that all of this was happening to the person right next to him. It was as if he could see, feel, and hear everything, but the phenomena could not quite reach his brain. He could witness everything, but it didn't feel entirely real to him. He tried to figure out what this feeling was and thought that it must have been some type of defense mechanism or culture shock. This feeling even made it so that when he spoke, his voice sounded like someoneelse's voice to him when he said, "Where the hell are we," with a trace of fear. When he noted the fear, he knew that was what he felt and it wasn't the type of childish fear that he felt whenever he thought he got a bad grade on an assignment or test. Nor was it the desperate fear of knowing he would have his life cut short before it had even began. This was the fear of knowing he would live on and on, but in a place where no one could reach him. It was of reaching a place where although he would live, he would not experience the things that a real life would grant him nor would he see the people he had cared about ever again.
Josephine must have noticed the fear in his voice, how his face paled, and the widening of his eyes because she said, "Relax Einstein. I may be a lot of things, but I'm no sadist. We're only here to give you your proof and then we'll be gone. So now, pick a door." Seth blanked and stuttered,"Wh-What?" She said,"Any door will do, just pick one... Look, the sooner you do, the sooner we're out of here. Now hurry up. Time moves differently here so I don't want to sit here waiting for you to pick one and find out that by the time we're done here, both of us have been missing for a week." "A week," questioned Seth. "Yeah, and that only happened to me once, but I don't want a repeat because the last time I was gone for that long, my dad grounded me for a month so hurry up," complained Josephine.
Seth was angry at his parents, but he had no intention of pulling a disappearing act for that long so he randomly chose a door that was four places up on the right side from where he was standing. When he made a grab for the handle, Josephine cried, "Wait, don't-" "Ow, something burned me," said Seth. He looked at his hand and a tiny burn mark was there, but he soon watched as that burn mark healed itself up in the span of twenty seconds. Seth thought that although the healing thing was useful, it was going to take some getting used to.
She sighed and muttered, "This is why mom and dad always complain about getting involved with dragons." He said, "Did you just call me a dragon, as in the big fire-breathing monsters like in the story of St. Gregory who slain the dragon?" She gave him a look that said, "Really, you're asking me this now," before sighing and with a voice dripping with sarcasm, she said, "No, that's only why the only pathway to get into your memories is the same color as the fire that you used to nearly incarcerate that Kane dude and each entrance to said memory is guarded by some god-forsaken dragon. Now move before you screw this up."
She pushed him aside and said, "Wow, you must have been one of those returnees that mom talks about. This is a really strong mind-block and the funny part is, it was set up by yourself, instead of some other supernatural being. No worries, though because yours truly happens to be a bone-fide returnee so even though I don't remember that lifetime, I still got the powers accumulated from it." She then got close to the door and on one knee, whispered something to it for a good minute that Seth couldn't quite catch. After, she turned the knob and said, "Now let's see what we have here." When the door opened, the only thing there was a swirling vortex of the same blue-white light.
Seth was still thinking about all the things she had said to him when she had finished muttering. Things like the fact that he had nearly burned a man alive, he might share something in common with Josephine by being a "returnee," whatever the hell that was, and that this was supposedly some weird passageway that lead to his memories. These facts caused Seth to not notice the open doorway of light until Josephine said, "Hey, you just going to stand there or are you coming?" When he looked up. The myth he had remembered came back to haunt him. He was going to back away slowly and try to escape, but Josephine grabbed his arm while saying, "No way in hell are you chickening out on me now after you made me ride your deathtrap twice," and they were both soon falling in that swirling vortex of light.
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