The Chronicles of Shamballa

Purgatory

The rain pattered heavily on the car roof and Johnathan drove away in the storm. There was no clues leading to Billy in the docks and he’d rather try his luck elsewhere- the place was making him sick. He clothes were wet and he was cold. He took out his phone and called Freddie but he didn’t receive. He had to rest somewhere but there wasn’t a safe place nearby, the police were still looking for him and he couldn’t ask for help from the HQ. He thought of calling Lisa for help but he thought it best not to drag her into this even though she promised him that she would always help him as long he was doing the right thing.

“Am I doing the right thing?” he asked himself “What am I doing really? I help people and at the same time I’m wanted for theft and murder? I love a beautiful woman but I don’t know how to express myself…these journey that I’m on… it all seems so meaningless…all I do is fight and kill while the villains carry on their nasty business…Ah! God, I just want a normal and peaceful day, just once…”

He drove his car through the abandoned road and he saw the neon lights in the shops and malls, he saw the apartments and buildings with their lights out and he began to wonder what it would be like to have a normal life for once- to have a family, to have someone to care about. He wondered if ever he could have all of that but deep in his heart he knew, he had left ‘normal’ way behind in his life- the day he picked up the sword and stood up against the Eternal Darkness, that day he had given away anything that was considered normal in a person’s life. He was on a higher path, a path full of pain and sacrifices but a path of a Warrior…

He rubbed his eyes and kept looking through his car window for a motel to check in, even though it involved risks, he had to lay down for the night and have some rest. His body ached and his muscles throbbed with pain. Luckily he soon found a small motel nearby and checked in around 1.30 a.m. The owner was a sleepy old man who could barely tell a man from a woman due to his poor eyesight and he didn’t question Johnathan much. Luckily Johnathan had an expensive credit card that was given to him by Freddie for such occasions. He paid the rent, went into his room and took off his wet clothes and checked his bruises. A few seconds later, he collapsed into his bed and fell fast asleep…

Johnathan woke up next morning to the burning heat of the sun rays falling through the window in his room. He checked his watch- it was already 10 a.m. There was a message on his phone, he clicked it open- it was from Freddie-

“Run!!” it read.

“Run? What?” he muttered as he tried to understand what the message meant.

Then it hit him, there must be some serious trouble that Freddie was warning him about. He checked the timing of the message- it was sent around three in the morning. But why such a short message? Why didn’t he call? Maybe he was trying to avoid being caught, maybe the other Elders started to doubt him? What the hell was going on? He thought it best not to call him back. Instead, he wore his half wet clothes with great difficulty and opened the door of his room. As soon as he did, he was in for a great shock.

The door pf the room opened out in the middle of nowhere, there were mountains and trees for as far as the eye could see.

“What the hell?!” he remarked in shock.

He closed the door immediately and looked around in his room. There was nothing different about it. But when he opened the door, it led him out at a seemingly impossible place- how could things change overnight? How could a motel room get transported to barren mountainous region? He shook his head in disbelief. Was he dreaming? How was this even remotely possible?

He tried to recall the incidents that occurred to him the previous night. He had checked into a motel late at night after killing the Draugr and he remembered that he had paid the cashier- the old man at the reception counter and walked into his room. He remembered being tired and falling asleep. But what was this?

“What? How? No, no, no, no- this is some kind of hallucination… I need to do something… this is black magic…ugh!” he was running out of ideas- how could he explain this?

He calmed himself down and carefully observed everything around him. Inside the room, all his belongings stayed the same, his watch and phone, everything was exactly the same. It seemed that somehow the entire motel room was transported to a totally different place. He checked his phone- no service. He checked his contacts on the phone, almost empty- Lisa and most of his friend’s numbers were gone! He looked at his watch again, it was 10:15 in the morning. He took his backpack where he had kept his sword and walked out of the room. It was a strange sight- a motel room in the middle of nowhere, alone and desolate, no sign of civilization for miles, only jungles and mountains.

Johnathan was now sure that something or someone was responsible for this and he also realized that whatever or whoever it was, it had to something or someone very powerful. This was some next level stuff! Nevertheless, he thought it best to explore the area and look for clues, after all he must have been brought there for a reason!

The sun was high in the sky and it was getting unbearably hot. The silence of the forest was deafening- no sounds of birds or animals, no sound of cicadas- the only sounds he could hear was the sound of his own footsteps on the rocks and the eerie sound of the howling wind…something was definitely off about the place…