Chapter 2: Garion, The Gatekeeper
Nirem shot up out of his seat as he jolted awake, his vision blurred from the sudden consciousness that occurred in his brain. It was much to Nirem’s distress, though, that he was chained to whatever holding place he was in.
Looking around the room, Nirem noticed he was surrounded by what appeared to be actual aliens with thick strands of orange and green strings hanging all over them. He was strapped into a machine with his head under a steel metal cap. Nirem was terrified. He pinched himself, wondering if—hoping—that it was all a dream.
“This is not a dream, Garion,” a voice whispered.
“Who’s Garion?” Nirem asked, in complete shock and confusion.
“It is you,” the voice replied. The voice called to another one of the aliens. “Push the button,” it instructed.
Nirem heard a click and then at first started to feel a tingly feeling. Next thing he knew his whole body started to slowly be enveloped in something that felt like an old, wrinkly coat. Then Nirem looked down at his skin in shock. The same tentacles on all of these aliens were growing around Nirem’s skin, eating away his old body in the place of a new one. The tentacles grew on like a plant, leeching onto Nirem’s skin as it became him, turning his whole body into an extraterrestrial being.
“What are you doing to me?!” Nirem demanded.
But the man just stood there and watched.
Nirem felt strands of orange and green strings swarming all over him and actually growing out of his skin. He screamed but no one was there to help him. The strings then slowly started to envelop his face. Afterwards, everything suddenly started to go black....
Eventually he came to. Dazed, he immediately recognized he was still in the nightmare. He couldn't move.
“What did you do to me?!” Nirem demanded.
The alien spoke again in a deep and what appeared to be male voice, “We have just revealed who you are. Now let me explain to you what is going on.”
Nirem wasn't so sure he wanted to know. He just wanted to go home. The alien then stepped out from his dark corner of the room, revealing his true identity.
He too, was covered in this sort of colored string, from head to toe. Though his basic human features were still visible, making him different from Nirem and, Nirem thought, everyone else on this planet.
“I guess that’s how these...things are told apart,” Nirem thought, “but the real question is: What are these things?”
“I’m just going to cut to the chase here, because we don’t have much time,” it sighed. “There is life on every planet. Humans just haven’t figured it out yet. We are some of the creatures from that other life form. Draktos, the person chasing you, was from the Dark Dimension that is filled with villains from around the galaxy.”
“What did he mean when he said that I am The Gatekeeper?” asked Nirem, noting the fast pace the alien was moving at and mostly scared for his life.
He just wanted some information, so he did whatever it took to keep up with this strange creature to grasp hold of the fact on what was going on.
“You are the Gatekeeper,” the alien stated. “It says so in the Prophecy.”
“What Prophecy?” Nirem asked, confused.
The alien continued, “In the Prophecy given to us by our all powerful God, Shabithi. Well, he didn’t exactly explain it in black and white, though.”
“What do you mean?”
“Shabithi sent us a coded message long ago, back when Mars was first being formed and its civilization being brought up together. For millennia we have tried to decode it, but have only understood a few words that were already put in our language for us....”
“Does your language happen to be English?”
“No, Bujan. Now, as I was saying, the only words that were in Bujan were: To end the reign of the shadows, to restore peace to the once peaceful, you must find the truth behind the message enclosed. You must unlock its secrets, its treasures, its belongings. You must find The Gatekeeper. You must find Garion.
“So how did you assume I was Garion?”
“A DNA sample was attached. And what also gave it away was Draktos chasing after you on Earth, since Draktos hasn’t visited Earth in over 1,000 years. Since we have obtained the DNA sample, we have scoured the universe and back, trying to find you. We knew we had to destroy Draktos and his shadows.”
Nirem gasped at this newfound information. All of those facts just presented, they undoubtedly lead to the conclusion that Nirem was in fact this all powerful chosen one! This had to definitively prove it! He couldn’t deal with this realization though, not just yet. The thought of being an all-powerful savior of the universe hit him too hard, so he tried to make up excuses for himself.
“That couldn’t be,” Nirem tried to comprehend inside his mind, “I’m just a normal kid. I didn’t do anything that could have landed me this fate. Why me?!”
Struggling to get back into focus, Garion asked, “The shadows?”
“Draktos’ minions. They are forced, for their sins, to eternally serve Draktos in the afterlife. He controls them in every sense of the word, using their lives as a day planner. If any shadow tries to escape, they are dead within the instant.”
“Wait, so why didn’t this ‘Shabithi’ just tell you where to find me, if I’m even the right person?” Garion asked with a hint of hope.
“We’re not exactly sure. We think it’s because, not only were you not alive yet, but he wanted to, in a way, have you find us. Obviously, Shabithi somehow knew that we would inform you of your fate, but I guess Shabithi wanted you to find out your own Prophecy. He wanted you to do the hunting for your true purpose, not for the fun to be spoiled. I guess that’s also why the Gatekeeper is human. After all, humans are the most clueless race.”
“Well, that doesn’t seem like the best reason....”
The ground started to rumble. Everyone there started to shake. The whole place seemed as though it was going to collapse on them any second. Nirem, having enough stress for one day, attempted to break free of his seat in his new body, squirming around.
“Earthquake!” he shouted.
“There’s hasn’t been an earthquake on Mars since the planet has been formed!” the alien shouted back.
“MARS?!”
“Never-mind that, for now, run!”
The alien unlatched Garion from the chair, and he stood up and practically fell down. Looking at himself, he couldn’t believe what he had become.
“What...is this?”
“Come on!” the alien shouted at him.
He ran to the door, but then he noticed that Garion was not behind him. He turned around to see him on the floor, gasping for breath, continuing to stare at his now unique skin.
“Garion, get your....”
It was too late.
The ceiling collapsed onto Garion, and as he tried to run away, he collapsed again, barely missing a falling stone. He then looked up, and nearly fainted again.
Above him was nothing. Nothing but what appeared to be a mere shadow of the spaceship that had picked up Nirem. The shadow looked like a simple shadow back on Earth that was just a reflection of you from the sun, and nothing more. This shadow seemed all too real though, seeming to reciprocate the tractor-type beam that captured Garion earlier that day.
“Garion!” the alien shouted.
What he saw next would open his eyes to what he could possibly achieve in his new alien body. The alien took his hands and seemed to get into some sort of phase of concentration. Suddenly, his hands, or tentacles, started to stretch out and grow longer. Each tentacle, slimy with who knows what type of goo, seemed to be heading straight toward Garion. Garion didn
’t know what was going on but, based on the circumstances, he considered the alien with his peculiar hands to be the one to trust.
“Whatever your doing, you better do it fast!” Garion screamed.
Right as the alien stretched out his tentacles to the tractor beam, he was pushed back by some electric force, sending him to the ground in defeat as he looked back at Garion.
“NO!” the alien shouted.
But Garion was sucked into the ship’s hull, and as it closed, he could have sworn that he saw Harold’s body, just sitting still on the floor.