Esoterica, Chapter 1: Stolen (F4A) [ES03.0]

Transcript

I want you to imagine you are laying down on a bed and maybe you already are right now. Feel how your bed is comfortable, very pleasant. The ambient temperature in your room is perfect.

Not too cool, not too warm, it's just right. You feel incredibly loose and relaxed. You turn your head slightly and look out the window.

It's dark out there, very dark. There are no lights, no stars, you can't even see the moon. It's also very still outside.

You don't hear any near or distant traffic, no passers-by, no chirping insects, barking dogs or brawling cats. Just dark silence. As the cliche saying goes, it's so quiet you could hear a pin drop from across the room.

The stillness is eerie and disturbing. And yet, the silence soothes you, intoxicates you, wraps you into herself and consumes you. If you had to guess, it might be around 3 or 4 in the morning, but you're not sure what time it is.

There is no clock in your room, in fact, you're not even sure if you have just woken from sleep in the middle of the night, or perhaps you're still sleeping and this is just a dream. Just as you start to question your current reality, the air around you begins to vibrate ever so slightly. At least, you think it is.

It's almost like hearing the sound of a low hum, barely perceptible. You're not even sure if what you're feeling is real, but slowly, the vibration seems to increase in intensity. It grows stronger and stronger, until you no longer doubt your senses.

Soon, the resonation begins to infect you. You feel it through every part of your body, your body, the humming vibration in your body. It's doing something to you, something, but it's so surreal, too surreal, you're back to doubting your senses.

And then something happens you never imagined could even be possible. Your body seems to disappear before your very eyes, becoming essentially transparent. This must be some kind of lucid dream.

It must be. It's the only thing that has any real logic. It must be.

But things just keep getting more strange. Because now, now you feel yourself float upward. Just slightly.

You levitate higher and higher, almost as if you're being drawn towards something, as if something is pulling you upward. Soon, you're just inches from the ceiling. You prepare yourself to bump into its cold, hard surface, but you feel nothing.

Not only do you not feel the ceiling, but you pass right through it. Like it was just an illusion, a hologram, everything just made of air. But it can't be an illusion.

You see every detail inside the ceiling as you glide through. The paint, the drywall, the wood, nails and screws. And you pass through all of it, feeling nothing except that low, droning vibration.

You continue to pass through every other supposed physical barrier beyond it in the same way, seeing every internal detail, feeling nothing but that constant, low vibration. You're completely through your house now, and on the outside. But still, you continue to rise.

Further and further into the sky. Then suddenly, a bright light flashes, only once. And then, everything goes dark and silent, once again.

No more vibration, just pure, total quiet, enveloped in absolute black. You feel yourself begin to fade, fading into the darkness. A heavy drowsiness drags you down, and your consciousness drifts to nothing.

A warm, sweet, somewhat floral scent nudges you from your state of unconsciousness to your first waking moments of awareness. That scent. You think you can pick up lavender and maybe vanilla and something else, but you can't put your finger on it.

At any rate, the smell is for some reason irresistible, and you crave more. Slowly, the memories of the quiet, dark night, the vibration, the dissipation, the ascension, it all comes back to you. As your eyes are still adjusting, you peer at your body.

You can see it again. It's fully there in its entire form. So, was it just an amazing, crazy dream? But before you dismiss the idea completely, your sight has now fully returned, and you realize you're in an unknown room.

You don't recognize anything around you. And to make things even weirder, everything is pure white. The walls, the chairs, the objects around the room, everything white.

So, maybe, you wonder if you've died and you're in some kind of afterlife. And then again, you smell that alluring aroma, beautiful and calming. And every time you become aware of the essence, you feel your body and mind slightly soften and surrender.

Not to anything in particular, just everything kind of loosens, and you just absorb the moment. Everything is strange and unfamiliar, but oddly, there's no fear in your heart, just a mystifying calm. And then you hear something.

Quietly. Almost a whisper. It's a voice.

And it's saying, Number 21089. You hear it again a little louder. Number 21089.

And again you hear it, just repeating. It's hard to tell if the sound is in your ears or if it's just in your head, but you do hear it. Number 21089.

Finally, you call out, asking if anyone is there. And to your surprise, the voice answers you. And it says, I am here.

You ask the voice where you are, and it answers. You're exactly where you're supposed to be. Strangely, you don't feel the need to clarify what that means.

The voice answered you with such assurance, you accept that statement as fact. You are exactly where you are supposed to be. You then ask if you are dreaming or dead.

The voice responds. You are neither dreaming nor awake. Neither dead nor alive.

Again, you feel no need to ask for further clarification. It's simply stated as fact. Fact that you accept willingly.

The voice, which you're still trying to determine if you hear it in your ears or in your head, is firm yet soft. Deliberate yet delicate. You ask the foreigner if they will reveal themselves to you.

There is no response. But after a short while, you hear the same low humming resonance that you did before. The same vibration that seemed to transform your body from a solid mass to nothing but an apparition.

And then in front of you, a shape begins to form. Dead.