More of that Guide and Alec story!
Okay, this is when they meet Memory.
Once again, without any perception of movement, Alec blinked and opened his eyes. The white was gone, to be replaced by a flush of black. But this time, there was color to the endlessness - roads and what looked like door-frames stretched in every direction. Alec looked down. He and his Guide were standing on a green road that forked off to different-colored frames.
There were people in this world, too. None of the strayed off the roads, and when they walked through a frame, they disappeared. Alec wondered where they were going to, and if they were dead. But it seemed that none of these people had a Guide. He was the only kind-of-dead person here.
“Who are they?” he asked the Guide, pointing to a group of seven men. They were hurrying down a blue-colored road.
“Those are Time,” said the Guide. “How odd - they are rarely together.”
“Isn’t Time one thing, though?”
“You could say that, but you see, Time goes forwards, backwards, and sideways,” she answered, patting his shoulder once she saw the bewildered expression on his face. “There are six of them so that one of them can be there for big events and the other for smaller ones. Two brothers for forwards, backwards, and sideways. The seventh Time brother stays here, in this world, to regulate events.”
The Guide looked to her left, upwards. “Ah, I see Chaos is in a hurry,” she said, nodding hello to a short figure that had just appeared in a frame. “There is Science and History, over there, walking with Discovery. They’re really good friends and are rarely separated. On the red road, there’s Imagination. She looks happy today. And I think,” she said, squinting ahead, “I see Danger coming with Disaster. I wonder what they’re doing so far away from Chaos.”
“They must be extremely busy,” commented Alec. “There are so many troubling things in the world. I mean, my world, the place I come from.”
“Yes,” said the Guide. “But we manage. There’s a system to all of this. Logic and History help with the organization. Seventh Time helps quite a bit as well.”
Alec nodded. He still could not believe what was happening. Logic and History were people, and Time was split seven ways. Did he fall asleep, and was this really a bizarre dream? Or maybe the Guide was right, this was a near-death-experience. If it was, then this was definitely not Heaven.
“There’s who we’re looking for, right below us,” said the Guide happily. “Memory. She doesn’t seem too busy right now, but that’s understandable.”
Alec squinted downwards. “She’s the one that we need, right?”
“Yes,” said the Guide, and to Alec’s shock, he realized that the road he was standing on was sinking downwards. “Oh, don’t worry,” said the Guide, holding his arm. “We’re just getting to Memory - the road’s not breaking.”
Upon hearing ‘Memory’, a black-haired girl turned around. Her eyes brightened when she saw the descending road, and she waved to the Guide. “Hello to both of you!” she said. “And are you the one called Alec?”
“Yeah,” said Alec, stepping onto the orange-colored road. He wondered if Memory collected all the memories in the world, or just controlled them. Maybe both, he thought with a shiver.
“What do you need?” asked Memory, to the Guide.
“The first lesson,” said the Guide. “We need to go to your world.”
“Her world?” said Alec, his confusion going up a few notches.
The Guide nodded. “All of the people you see here have their own world that they operate. It is like their own Infinity. That Infinity will change into anything that they need, as long as they believe hard enough that it will happen. Thoughts control the Infinities. You have your own Infinity, too. That first place where we just came from was yours, but since you have not truly died, I controlled it.”
“I see,” lied Alec. He turned to Memory, who had been waiting patiently during the Guide’s explanation. “But can’t you just teach me the first lesson here?”
Memory shook her head. “It is not like school, where lessons are taught by books and pictures. The first lesson must be seen and felt. And it must be done in my world, for the power of thoughts does not reside here.” She took Alec’s hand, and then the Guide’s.
“Let’s go.”
whee.
review, it's good for your health (as in you wont be victimized).