This Can Only End Well
-Prologue-
Well then.
It really didn’t go as expected.
But I suppose when you go through an inter-dimensional portal that says ‘Screw you’ to all the laws of the universe, you’re not really allowed to expect anything.
Let me start from the beginning
Saturday mornings can be fun, especially if you're up at 3 a.m playing games. I had just gotten up to make my 5th cup of tea that day/morning (god, your sense of time can really get skewed if you repeatedly stay up late), and while waiting for the kettle to boil, I decided to go for a walk around the garden. Putting on my coat, I quietly slipped out the back door and oh-so-tentatively closed it. I was always paranoid about my parents being woken up by the slightest noise, something of a logical fallacy when you think about the fact that I usually play games with the volume quite high.
My house is quite big, and much bigger than our old one. Seriously, you could fit four of them into our current house and one in the garage (I still can't get over the fact that it's a two-story garage. I mean, WHY?) And yet the garden is a whole lot bigger, probably the biggest in the estate. Why? Because all the other houses in the estate are stupidly bigger than ours. God, I never really thought about how well off we are.
Okay, that was a bit of a tangent. Let's get back on track, shall we?
I was walking through the garden, and I honestly thought I saw a heatwave. "Nah" I said to myself, " Sure, the weather during the day has been pretty good for the past fortnight, but it's still freezing at night. Aw, I'll probably need to get a new glasses prescription soon." Yeah, i'm shortsighted, but I honestly love wearing glasses. I don't really know why.
Damn, I just LOVE going off on tangents. I do that a lot around my friends.
Bluh, back to the story.
So, after hoping that what I saw was just a trick of the mind, I went back inside and poured my tea. Heading back to the games room, I looked outside the window and saw that very same heatwave. Now I was really curious. There was no way in hell that was just in my head, so I headed outside again, still wearing my coat (god I love that coat it looks so badass) I walked towards the heatwave. "Yup, actually there" I said to myself. I reached out into the wave and was only slightly surprised to find that it was warm. Then I thought about all the ways doing this could go horribly wrong and quickly jerked my hand out again. Thankfully, nothing bad had happened in the brief time my hand was in the wave.
Then the whining started.
It was high pitched, and I was really surprised that none of the dogs in the area had started barking. It was the kind of grating high pitched noise that you would hear in one of those 'only people under a certain age can hear this' tests. I backed away from the wave, holding a hand to my forehead to try and soothe the headache that was starting to form.
Then the whining stopped.
Relieved, I turned and started heading back to the house, wondering what in the hell was going on. Then I felt a force at my back, and I was knocked flat onto my stomach. I scrambled round to look at the wave, only it wasn't there any more.
In front of me stood a shimmering silver vortex, seemingly distorting the very fabric of reality just by existing.
At this moment in time my head was full of so many fucks.
I could only stare at the thing, completely dumbfounded, as my brain tried to rid itself of all logic just so I could try to comprehend what was in front of me. I knew there was no way in hell it should exist, and yet there it was.
I could imagine that if it had a face, it would be a troll, saying 'u mad?' to the universe in general.
While trying not to burst out laughing at the image I had put into my own head, I shakily stood up, steadying myself.
And then I heard the 'WEEEEEEEEEeeeeee!' and was promptly knocked flat on my ass as something solid and very, very fast collided with me. Thank god the grass was soft.
After the stars had finally cleared from my vision, I looked around to see what had hit me.
There, floating at eye level and looking down at me, was a sphere about fifteen centimeters across and high, a polished silver colour with a blue circle, which I could only assume was an 'eye' of some sort pointed directly at me.
Remember all those fucks my brain was full of? What I was going through now was like trying to understand FLCL while on acid.
Then it spoke.
"Hi! Whats your name?" it chirruped, in a light, trilling tone.
I spoke the only thing that would come to anybodies mind in this situtation.
"What."
So a few... interesting things had happened to me in the past couple of minutes that my mind had to put together.
I thought I hallucinated a heatwave. At 3 a.m.
The heatwave was real.
And was also apparently actually a vortex.
That knocked me onto my face with a shockwave when it formed.
And then out flew a silver ball that was asking me my name. After, of course, knocking me onto my ass.
"What's your name?" Eeyup, the ball was speaking to me.
"Um" I tried to form my words, " M-My name is-" Then my brain remembered what was happening, and wanted to know what was going on. "Wait, why?! You just knocked me on my ass and now you're demanding to know who I am!?" I barked, a bit louder than I usually spoke.
It actually seemed to flinch, and lost some of it's shine with its blue 'eye' shrinking and looking slightly downward. I had actually managed to upset it. Probably the first contact with an alien species in the history of humanity, and I, a sixteen year-old boy, had just upset it?
I actually felt bad for the thing, since I don't like upsetting others. That's not to say it was a regular occurance, as I usually only fully expressed myself around my friends, but whenever I make someone feel bad, I feel bad.
I sighed. "Sorry for snapping at you. I've just had a confusing past couple of minutes, and I kind of want to know what's going on. For the record, my names Zidane."
That seemed to cheer it up, if just a bit, and it regained some of its shine. It was quite endearing, actually.
"Hi Zidane! That's a cool name!"
I stared at it for about a minute, confused. No-one had ever said my name was fun before. No-one had ever said my name was anything before. If anything, I was glad that it wasn't incredibly generic( No offence to anybody with a common name).
Then I realized. "Wait a minute. You haven't told me your name yet, and I don't like the idea of calling you 'ball' or 'sphere' all the time."
Then it lost some shine again. Aw damn, I don't want that to happen anymore. For an otherwise featureless silver ball, it has real skill at tugging at your heartstrings. Or maybe I'm just overly sensitive.
"I, um, I d-don't really h-have a name..." it whispered, barely audible.
Okay, that was just heartbreaking. I knew I had to do something about it.
"Right. Come closer then, let me get a good look at you." By this point I had stood up once again, and the ball was on eye level. It hesitantly floated a bit closer to me and I cupped my hands. It settled comfortably in the small groove and kept its bright blue eye on me, probably still wary of me. I would be too.
It was actually quite warm to the touch, despite its metallic look. Being closer to it, I could see strange carvings on its 'skin', lightly etched in. They glowed with a subtle white light, which would explain why I couldn't see them before. They blended in almost perfectly.
"Hmm.." I mused, "I think I'll call you... Glyph! How about that?"
I could swear its eye sparkled with joy, and it jumped out of my hands and rubbed against my cheek. I had been so caught up in all this excitement that I hadn't realized how cold I was, even with my coat. The sudden change in temperature swiftly reminded me.
"Glyph! Glyph! I love it!" he trilled, and started doing a routine in the air, his eye curved into a smile of some sort.
Damn, it being so happy brought a massive smile to my face. There need to be more things like this, I thought.
Then I remembered what brought me out here. The Vortex.
"Uh, hey, Glyph. Sorry to interrupt but, uh, do you know anything about this?" I pointed towards the Vortex.
"Oh! That! Yeah, that led me here. I was just floating along, and suddenly BAM, this thing appeared in front of me. I was so curious, I had to go through"
"So you just found it?"
"Yup!" Glyph chirped happily.
"Well, where do you come from?" I queried.
He looked crestfallen again. "I... I don't know."
"Do you think it could lead back to your home?"
"It might!"
"'Might'?"
"Weeellll, with all the variables of the dimension fracturing power an entity such as this contains, there is always the chance it could lead to some horrible cross-dimensional void where we are stuck for all eternity in a never-ending unlife, only being able to wish for a slow death that would never come."
I stared at him, a look of complete surprise on my face. With the way he had been acting before, like a cheerful child, it was rather unnerving to hear him speak like that. And all in the same, happy tone.
"Um. Okay then. Well. If we wanna get you back home, that's a risk we're gonna have to take. isn't it?"
"Yup!" Damn, that happiness and carefree attitude was contagious
"Okay. Wait here for a minute Glyph, I have to go collect some things."
I rushed back into the house and quickly grabbed my phone and a couple of other essentials, before running even quicker back out.
"All right then Glyph, let's do this"
Glyph's only response was a high pitched squeal.
And so we stepped/floated, a boy and his hovering metallic childlike ball, into the unknown.
A/N: Well, this was a redo of the prologue and GOD did I change so many things. I firmly believe this came out a damn sight better than the original, and hopefully I've left you wanting more. I even got rid of the ominous voice, but it might make a return, who knows. Don't you worry, things will be explained, I can promise you that.
And yeah, the 'Zidane' and 'Glyph' are shout outs. Try to guess what from!