Chapter 1: A not so ordinary fantasy Novel

  On my way home from a long day of school the sun didn't shine so hard today, it'd usually scorch my back as I walked home but this time, it was just a gray and unpleasant color in the sky.

I knew it was about to rain, I felt a few raindrops and made a run for it, I fell and gashed my leg on a sharp object on the curb.

I ignored the stinging pain in my leg and continued to run as the rain poured a little harder, people just stared at me in their lousy umbrellas, what's their problem, at least I'm willing to run in the rain than stay in the store until it stops.

The rain started pouring down on me, I opened the door to my house and immediately rushed to the bathroom to get my dripping wet clothes off.

I walked out of the closet and made it downstairs to the couch and flipped open the comic book I bought from the nearby store.

I felt my eyes getting a little tired, I let out a short yawn and the book fell from my hands as I dozed off.

I felt something heavy on top of my bandaged shin, I opened my eyes up just a little bit and saw my younger brother sitting on my leg reading the comic book I bought from the store next door, I felt the pain from the big gash in my leg and immediately pushed him off.

A subtle smile formed on his face and then he asked me where I got the book, I pointed through the window to the building next door and said "You can borrow it if you want, just be sure to return it if you're done". His smile stretched to both his ears as he threw himself on to the couch and flipped through each page with delight.

I laid down on the couch opposite of the one my brother laid on, I held the remote in my hand and switched the television on.

Suddenly, music started playing so loud that me and my brother jumped out of our seats, apparently somebody had a party in the house while I was away and forgot to lower the sound.

The deafening roar of the music had me crawling like a worm trying to grab the remote on the floor, my brother grabbed the remote at the last second and pointed it straight at the television, the loud roar became a faint little sound as my brother kept his finger on the button.

I let out a long sigh and hopped back on the couch and watched the movie.

My brother suddenly dropped the book and fell asleep, that book truly has some effect on how sleepy you are.

I turned my head back to the television and continued to watch the movie which had already passed the ending credits, I carefully took the remote from my brother and held it in front of the television, just one small click and the screen went dark.

My arms were folded comfortably over my chest, I lay comfortably on the couch with my eyes closed and my mind fixated on my dream.

I was suddenly pulled out of the dream and back into the world, my sleepy eyes opened up slightly and my brother was poking at the big laceration in my leg, " Hey Toby, what happened to your leg?" He asked me with obvious concern in his voice, I sat up straight and looked at the blood-soaked bandage, "I'm fine, stop poking it please" I answered.

He walked towards the kitchen and came back with some cloth in his hand, he unwrapped the bloody bandage and replaced it with the cleaner one, "Oh, thanks" I said to him.

He sent a smile in my direction and tossed the bloody bandage into the trash, I rested my head on my hands and fell asleep again.

Deep in my dream, I was in a strange world, wait this is the same world that was in the book.

As I walked along the woods, I couldn't help but notice the eerie silence of the atmosphere, that unshakable feeling of something stalking me urged me to walk on.

Looking left and right, I saw nothing but trees and darkness, I stopped in front of a pair of red glowing eyes in between the trees to my left.

I shrugged it off and continued to walk through the darkness, I looked down at the cobblestone path, not moving my head up.

I looked up for once and saw a dark figure with the same pair of red eyes standing in front of me, I squinted my eyes and slanted my eyebrows, I charged at it with full speed with my hand ready to punch it in the head.

I ran straight through it, I looked behind me and it was still standing there, it rushed at me at full speed with its head ready to hit me.

I had no time to react, it hit me right in the stomach and knocked me to the ground, a sudden flash of light destroyed the figure turning it into dust.

Then I woke up on the same couch with my brother, Toby, standing in front of me with a flashlight, I still don't get why we have the same names.

"Its time for dinner," he said as he flashed the light into my eyes, "Did you cook dinner?" I asked him, he nodded and pulled me to the dining room.

He gave me a plate full of food, I took a bite out of it and gasped at how delicious it was, "You like it?" He asked, "Damn, it tastes amazing, " I told him. I would usually cook dinner for both of us but since I was taking a nap, he put together the most amazing meal I had ever tasted in my life.

He put down a plate for himself and sat on the other side of the table, "How did you suddenly become a master chef?" I asked him, he simply told me "I don't know, I just put random stuff together and I didn't expect you to enjoy it so much".

I emptied the plate completely and tossed it into the sink, he looked at me and said " I'm done with the book, it was actually pretty good".

I smiled at him and returned to the living room where the book was laying on the table, I picked it up and sat back down on the sofa again.

I was strangely drawn to the plot and the characters of the story, it was like I was with them on the journey, as I flicked through each page, I immersed myself in the story and got a better understanding of what the writer was telling me, before long, I dozed off again. I go deep into my dreams again, this time, I'm with a bunch of random- wait these are the people from the comic, I just can't believe my mind can make up such things.

The clothing I was wearing was strangely different from what the other people were wearing, I simply had a brown jacket, as I walked with them through a small town, I just had to stop and look at the big walls surrounding it.

"Come on Toby, we've not much time, those dark humanoid figures are coming," somebody upfront of the group said, he had quite the resemblance to my brother, I'm starting to think my mind is fabricating these dreams out of my love for fantasy stories.

As we approached the colossal gates, the townspeople bid us farewell, I sent a shy wave in their direction and turned my head back to the gate.

The man who looked like a muscular version of my brother groaned loudly as he tried to force the gate open, "Oh, I'll get it" one man from the group of townspeople ran up and simply pushed the gate open, Toby, that's what I'll the muscular man, looked away in embarrassment.

The gate slowly revealed the outside, the next thing that happened was that the gate exploded and sent us all flying, I fell straight through the roof of a house, I could hear the horrified screams of the people as they panicked. I could barely lift my body, standing in front of me was a shadowy humanoid with the same red glowing eyes from the other dream.

I let myself relax as I waited for it to kill me, suddenly, strange energy coursed through my body giving me the strength to stand up, I let the power run through to my hand as I threw it forward with my fist clenched. I gave the shadow a strong punch to the face, it faded into dust.

I rammed myself into the wall and left a big hole in it, outside was dark shadows attacking the town left right and center, the sky was dark and full of flying bird-like shadows.

I tested out the strange powers I had, I was able to jump up really high by just transferring the energy to my legs, same with making myself able to kick really hard.

  I jumped up as high as I could to get a proper aerial view of the town, I saw three other people fending them off at the foot of the castle, I took another leap and jumped right in front of them.

"Toby?" Toby said, I looked behind me and nodded, "Let's fight!" I yelled and charged at all the shadows with the spirit and bravery of a lion.

I took my fist and plunged it deep into one of the shadows, one with big arms jumped at me from behind but luckily, Toby destroyed it before it could hit me.

He smirked and nodded before jumping into the air and tackling and defeating yet another one of the humanoid shadows, I jump from one of them and land on one of the bird-like creatures.

Piloting a bird was much harder than I thought, I almost got jolted off of it multiple times before deciding to just jump off and focus on the ones on the ground.

I had my eyes slightly focused on the ground as the shadows stood in front of me, I made a run for it, channeling the power to my legs, I took off the ground at a speed faster than a bullet toward the broken gate. "Toby! Why are you leaving us here to die!" the girl from the group yelled, I stared at the anarchy unfolding, I stared deeply into the eyes of the shadows, getting increasingly stronger in the process. Without any second thoughts, I transferred the power through my whole body and I threw my fist into the ground creating a huge wave of light that eliminated all the shadows.

At that moment I realized that the dream I had previously was linked to this one, I was two people at the same time, the flash of light that I saw in the other dream came from me in this dream.

I fell over and woke up, I wished that it never ended, there was a nice comfy blanket covering me and keeping me warm.

"Wake up older brother! It's time for school" somebody yelled, I pick up my phone and check the time and date, 7:18, Saturday, November 7, I guess he was just trolling me.

I looked into his eyes, they were filled with excitement.

"You gonna tell me a story?" I asked him, he gasped and told me about the crazy dream he had, "I was a muscular man with a group of five people, one of them looked like you except a little thinner and weaker." He said.

He told me the entire story and also about how my lookalike defeated every single one of those shadows, I sat up and clasped his cheeks, "I had the same dream too, except I was that lookalike you were talking about" I blurted out right into his face.

"Let's take a look at the book for any secret messages!" He exclaimed, I snatched the book from the table and immediately we flipped through the pages for any strange arcane messages.

"May this book be the gateway to the other world" was written in very small text on the back of the book, I slowly opened the book on page 165 as stated in the little text written on the back, a bright light flashed into my eyes, I felt the world around me disappear as it all turned into a strange spiral of colors.