Above the Vaulted Sky - Page 16

Chapter Three

                I can feel the point in the distance; like a lighthouse reaching out of the mist.

I see the world in a different way. When I closed my eyes when I was alive, I remember the soothing darkness. The simple closing myself off from the world that would soothe a headache, help me focus or coax forward the quiet of sleep.

I remember the echoes that light would leave. Spots of colour that I could never pinpoint. Flashes of fractured light that would pulse and then fade. Now though, the world appears as a single continuous immeasurable feeling, neither sight nor touch, but something tantalising and in between.

I focus on the feeling and the ground beneath me feels like it moves. The more I feel it, the faster I travel forward. The world widens before me, away from the road I stand beside, away from London, the UK, Europe and the earth.

The Sun, millions and millions of miles away, is a brighter beacon than I have ever seen, and still my mind expands, rushing and rushing towards the twinkling desolation of infinite stars… systems… galaxies…

I can feel the turn of the earth…

I’m nauseous and unsteady all at once. There it is again. The edge of this plain, everywhere and nowhere. The unknown is all around me. They are sensations that I am not quite ready to experience and with that, my eyes snap open.

I can feel Penny’s home calling to me. Maybe if I concentrate, and let the lighthouse see me, I will be there in an instant, like Benjamin said. It is fear keeping me rooted to the spot.

Slowly, I turn away from the road and decide to walk.

I have spent my whole life living in the pages of science fiction and the subject which saw sense in the world, knowing how fast the planet speeds around the sun, and the solar system through the galaxy. I have loved the world of superheroes, of the Iron Captain, The Bullet, Diviner, Titan, and all the others I love.

I love them because they are mighty, brave and powerful, but have the repeated experience of the real world humbling their alter egos. The mild-mannered men and women who found life hard despite their obvious superiority over everyone else.

Now, I feel like I have a power, but it is too much, and I ache for the return to my human body.