1 Falling Into a New World

Casey Bennett found himself in quite the dilemma. It started as he was climbing off of his bed having just gained the necessary motivation to face the day. Placing his feet on the floor, he had a sudden realization. There was no floor.

"AHHH!!!"

Casey screamed until his voice was hoarse and only then realized that through all that screaming he had yet to hit the bottom. Not that he was complaining, the longer he fell the longer he had to live and the longer he had to wonder why his bedroom floor had a hole this deep in it. Though it's not like finding out why his floor was gone would do him any good as he could do nothing to slow his descent.

After what seemed like hours of falling a change began to occur. The darkness around him seemed to get brighter. It didn't allow him to see any of his surroundings, instead it was as if the darkness was changing into some sort of pristine white dimension.

Out of nowhere a booming voice echoed over the whistling sound of the wind.

"FINISH THE STORY IF YOU WISH TO RETURN HOME!"

And then the pristine world burst and a landscape was revealed below. One that was surely beautiful, only Casey had no opportunity to admire the view as it was rapidly coming closer.

He realized this was it. It was the end of the road and in a few seconds he would be flattened. His life began to flash before his eyes as he remembered the faces he would leave behind. His parents, his little sister, his asshole of a brother, and his cat named Dot. Really not a lot of faces there, few friends, no girlfriend. 'Ha I haven't even kissed anyone, how pitiful.' This would be his last thought before smashing onto the stone.

Casey shut his eyes against the oncoming ground and waited for his death. And waited, and waited. At some point he noticed the wind hitting him had stopped, with that he slowly opened his eyes.

His rapid descent had halted, and he found himself floating inches above the ground. Before he even had a chance to get his bearings, whatever was holding him up vanished and he fell face first onto the hard ground.

Smack! The pain of hitting the ground even at that close distance caused his eyes to water. Casey slowly picked himself up while rubbing his nose and took in his surroundings.

It was dark, the only light he had was the full moon above his head. He had landed on a stone walkway bordered by hedges on either side. The hedges towered over his head by at least four or five feet. He had no way to see over them to get an idea of where he was. Figuring it was either curl up into a ball or start moving, Casey decided to start moving. No matter how appetizing curling up into a ball felt to him, it wouldn't solve anything so he picked a direction and started walking.

He soon came to a fork in the path leading to the right and to the left. As he was debating which direction he began to notice an odd sensation. It was like a tingling on the back of his neck. It only occurred when he was facing the path to his left. It didn't feel like a warning, but more like it was drawing him towards that path. With no other ideas he decided to follow that feeling.

He came to several forks after that and at each one the sensation returned when he faced one of the paths, almost like it was leading him somewhere. It was after he had been walking for several minutes that the sensation changed. This time it was a sharp pain. He ducked to the side just in time to avoid two men walking around the corner. They carried torches and spears, and each had a sword hanging at their sides. They wore chain mail under a red and blue tunic.

Casey held his breath as he tried to stay in the shadows, attempting to avoid the torchlight. His heart was hammering so hard in his throat that he was surprised the men didn't hear it.

The guards finally turned the corner and he nearly collapsed in relief at not being caught. 'Swords and spears? Just where the hell am I?' Casey quickly collected himself and continued on his way.

Having successfully dodged the guards, he managed to find his way to the exit of the maze. Under the light of the moon a magnificent view revealed itself. Looking around, Casey discovered that the area holding the maze was in fact a large courtyard surrounded by high stone walls on three sides. On the last side facing the exit of the maze was a dazzling palace. It seemed almost out of a fairy tale with three majestic towers reaching towards the sky. The central tower was protruding directly from the central wing and was the largest of the three. The other two, despite being smaller in size, were no less spectacular. The only sound that disturbed this scene was the babbling of a tiered fountain in the center of the courtyard. The moonlight reflecting off of the water nearly took his breath away.

A gust of wind woke him from his wonder causing him to shiver. Feeling the chill in the air Casey began to consider where he should go from there. At this moment his foreign sense of direction decided to make itself known again pointing him towards the leftmost tower. This tower protruded from another wing of the palace and boasted a conical roof that seemed to be painted red. Growing closer to the tower he realized he was being led towards a small door almost hidden from view beneath the tower. The door seemed to be fairly old with a rusted iron handle. Carved into the stone above the door was the figure of a fox.

Surprisingly, the door opened easily when he pushed on the handle and a corridor was revealed within. The only light in the corridor was a single burning torch hanging from the wall just inside the doorway. Fearing someone might see the light from outside, Casey hurriedly entered and shut the door. Having come inside he was faced with a choice, go right towards a lighted passageway or go left through an iron gate that was left ajar. This passageway also happened to be pitch dark. Naturally the sensation was pointing him towards the dark passageway.

"Well I guess it's better than having to explain to someone I happen to run into why I'm sneaking around in a palace." And with this twisted logic, Casey grabbed the torch from its wall bracket and made for the creepy iron gate.