The Traveller: Advocate for Infinity
Chapter 1: The Mansion
You're super rad
When one gets adopted, what should they expect? Well, should they not plan on meeting their new family first? Well, of course. You may subconsciously answer to me. And, you'd be quite right. Lillian expected such as well, especially from people as wealthy and formal as The Barrows. Sadly, though, you might've already guessed, this isn't what will actually happen. A pity, too.
"D-Did you forget to pack anything, Lillian?" A blonde-haired girl asked to her friend.
Her friend smiled while snapping closed her dark brown suitcase. "Yeah, I think I've gotten everything. Thanks, girls." Lillian addressed the circle of other girls around her all with smiling faces, some with teary eyes.
The girl looked to her blonde-haired friend Mary Anne, she seemed to be smiling the widest, and tears had started forming onto her face. She jumped forward and wrapped her arms around her friend. Crying into her shoulder. "We're so happy for you, Lillian!" She sobbed. "We're so happy you're getting adopted!"
Soon after another girl jumped in, hugging both of them. After that, another, and then another, very quickly the situation became less a group-hug and more a collective mass of orphan girls. Even Lillian herself began to cry.
"Lillian, come down! The car is here!" A voice came down from below.
The crowd dispersed as Lillian picked up her suitcase, saying her last goodbyes she began descending the stairs. "Wait!" She was stopped by Mary Anne. Lillian watched as she ran down the stairs after her, holding a card in her hand. She handed it to Lillian. "All the girls wanted to give you this, to remember us by." Lillian took it gratefully. The card was colored pink, inside were drawings of all her friends, and in the middle was her. Underneath was written 'Don't forget us! We love you!'
"T-Thank you, Mary Anne." Lillian was getting teary eyed again, she put the card into her suitcase. "I'll never forget you or any of the girls." She said. Lillian hugged her friend one last time and descended the rest of the stairs.
She ran down to the door of the orphanage and was greeted by Sister Lucy. Her sweet smile was made only sweeter from her signs of age. "Oh, Lillian; we're all so happy for you!" She said.
Lillian smiled back. "I'm especially happy to, Sister Lucy."
"Now," The nun said while adjusting the red bow in Lillian's hair. "Make sure to be extra grateful for Mr. Barrows, it was his final decision to adopt you."
"I won't forget, Sister Lucy!"
The nun took a step back to look at the child. She had silky jet-black hair that reached to her upper back. Her skin was a natural pale, and her eyes were a deep dark violet. "Ooooh…" The nun began. "You've grown up to be such a beautiful girl! I remember when we first got you, you were just a little baby. It's been 15 whole years yet it still feels like yesterday."
"Thank you, Sister Lucy." Lillian replied. "I only hope that my new parents feel the same."
"What are you on about girl!?" Sister Lucy said, her eyes bulging. "They'll be amazed! They'll think that they've accidentally adopted an angel instead of a girl!"
Lillian laughed. "Thank you, I'm very gl-" She was cut off by the honk of the car waiting outside. Lillian hugged Sister Lucy and ran out with a big smile on her face.
Lillian stepped into the deep blue car and onto the red velvet seating. The interior absolutely reeked of wealth, with the silver lined windows and the cloud-like softness of the seats. Lillian put her suitcase onto the seat beside her and checked over her clothing.
She put on the prettiest things she could find, she had to make a very good impression for her new parents, after all. She wore a pretty black knee-length dress with grey lining. Her feet adorned shiny new black shoes, with laces. In her hair was a red bow, her favourite colour.
Lillian watched the car start driving as the familiar sight of her orphanage left, she was filled with emotions of sadness, happiness, fear, and some emotions she couldn't even identify. Familiar spots sprinted past her view from the car's window. The city she was used to soon gave way to the countryside. Long hills and farmhouses dotted her view, with the occasional forest in the distance.
After a rather long amount of time the countryside admitted defeat to another city, this however was still not her destination. Lillian had lost interest in the view now, and was getting terribly bored.
"How much longer might it take?" She asked to the driver, the wait was starting to become unbearable.
"Probably an 'alf dozen 'ours." He replied, with his incredibly deep cockney accent. Lillian had an accent as well, but it was much less defined than this man's. Lillian internally screamed. She looked out the window again, same old countryside view.
Only now did she notice how incredibly heavy her eyelids felt, was this how they had always felt? She asked herself, not knowing if the answer was worth the thought. She put her hand onto the soft velvet seat of the car's interior, it might be a fair passing of the time to have a nap. Lillian put her briefcase aside and lay her head down, almost instantly she dozed off.
She was in pitch black, floating, in emptiness. Nothing around her except the hollow void. She tried calling out, but out of her mouth came no sound. She attempted to try and swim through this emptiness, but it was of no use. She tried harder to swim, moving her arms and legs around furiously, she tried until she had exhausted all of her strength, and Lillian stood still, defeated.
But then, she felt something, she looked down and saw that she was standing on some sort of stone road. It was grey and perfectly flat, she tapped her black shoes on them. Still no sound, but then, she heard something.
It was like, a boulder rolling down a hill. She looked forward but saw nothing, behind her was only blackness, but not for long. At once thousands of outstretched arms with bloodied hands shot out from the darkness towards Lillian. Her eyes widened and she began running. She ran as fast as her legs could carry her on that grey stone road. But, whatever those hands were connected to, they were faster. The bloodied fingers of the hands rapidly accelerated, now it was only inches away from Lillian.
Tears fell out of Lillian's eyes, she looked back only once and saw the army of fingers from the voice reach out in an attempt to grab her. Her legs felt like they were on fire, her breath felt shorter, her heart felt like it was about to burst. But then, she saw something ahead.
It looked… grey, and metallic, Lillian kept running towards it and saw that it was a door! Just as Lillian could properly see the door flew open, leading to a brilliant white light. With new-found invigoration Lillian ran as fast as possible and jumped into the door. Just before the hands ran over where she would've been.
"Oi!" Lillian heard.
"Oi, girl, ge' up! We're 'ere!" Lillian opened her eyes, slowly she rose out of the velvet seat.
"W-What?"
"We've reached yer new 'home, girl. I can't drive past this 'ere point, you'll 'ave to walk the rest up." The driver said.
"U-Um… Okay." Lillian got out of the car with her suitcase, still a bit shaken by the nightmare she had. She began walking up the hill as the car drove off.
The walk was uneventful but rather long, Lillian walked up a winding hill and through part of a forest. She soon reached the mansion, which was… very, very large.
I say mansion; it was more like a castle! 2 stories high, green-tiled roofs, and a wall that circled it and its enormous courtyard. Lillian walked up the large metal gate, it was taller that she was! One the gate was the letter 'B', written in metallic vines. Lillian pushed on the gate, it swung open with ease. Lillian stepped through the gate and into the courtyard.
She saw the pathway to the man entrance was lined with marble statues of animals. Tigers, lions, and other majestic things. But, while walking through the enormous courtyard, Lillian couldn't help but feel a hollowness from the mansion. It felt… abandoned, empty.
She reached the main entranceway, which was a huge mahogany door, it was probably the same size as the gate, even. On the rich mahogany was also the same 'B' on the gate, along with wooden vines. Lillian gulped and made sure her clothing looked as good as possible, she rehearsed an introductory line and pressed her finger onto the doorbell.
"…"
Nothing, that was odd. Lillian pressed the doorbell again, no sound. It must be broken, she reasoned to herself. Instead, Lillian knocked onto the door, onto for it to slide open. It was unlocked, had they forgotten to lock it? Perhaps they left it unlocked specifically for Lillian? She peeked her head inside and peered into the grand vestibule of the mansion. There was… nobody there.
Lillian got a stronger feeling of unease as she walked into the house and into the vestibule. The floor looked to be of grand marble, so shiny she could see her own reflection. Just in front of her was the grand staircase, with two stairways leading to a stone catwalk, from each side of the catwalk was another stairway, most likely leading to the next story. But still, no people.
Lillian called out, but received no answer. She looked to her left to what looked to be the living room, empty. She looked to her right, which looked like the dining room, empty. Could they be asleep? That was the only somewhat-reasonable answer Lillian could think up of. They might be on the second floor. Lillian put her suitcase down by the door and began to ascend the stairs.
As Lillian reached the catwalk, she looked out the absolutely enormous window there. The window was in an arch shape, and reached all the way from the catwalk to the roof. And, by the looks of it, the roof reached up to the second floor. She looked out and saw the seemingly endless forests and hills that made up the view. She had just now realized what a remote place this mansion was in.
But still, no people. This was most odd, it wasn't like it had been abandoned; the mansion looked to be in fairly good shape, but it was just devoid of people. She called out once more.
"Mr. and Mrs. Barrows!" She yelled, she was starting to get a bit scared now. "If this is some kind of joke, it isn't funny anymore!" Then, she heard something, from the top floor.
-thump-
Without any hesitation Lillian ran up the remaining stairs towards the noise. This wasn't what she was expecting when she got adopted, she thought. She opened the door to the second story of the mansion and was met with a long winding hallway. The hallway seemed to go up a few room and then take a straight left to somewhere. There were a few small windows, but they let in little light.
Again, Lillian got that uneasy feeling. The hallway didn't look old or anything, there was no dust, or cobwebs, or any signs of age or neglect. In fact, it was quite well kept, the few pieces of furniture that were laid in the hallway were shining, the windows were clean and the walls looked perfect. It was just, devoid of people.
Lillian gulped as she walked past the first few doors, the only sounds she heard were the tip-taps of her black shoes along the wooden floor. She turned the corner to a corridor that led to several more room. At the end was a noticeably larger door, on was a label that Lillian was unable to read from her distance.
She started to walk towards the large door, meaning to read what the label had said. Then, she heard something behind her, a howl.
She turned around and her eyes widened in disbelief, at the opposite side of the hallway, she saw, a monster. It somewhat seemed to resemble a wolf, but Lillian had heard of no wolf larger than she was! Where fur should be was thick-looking black skin, showing the monsters pulsating muscles underneath. In the beast's gaping maw were rows of razor sharp teeth, drool came out of its mouth and onto the carpet. Above the fearsome teeth were a pair of narrow hate-filled yellow eyes. The monster roared once more at Lillian, moving in a pouncing position. And then, it ran.
She ran too, she ran as fast as her legs possibly could, was this going to be her end? Fated to die in the mouth of a monster? She ran towards the large door at the end of the hall, her surrounding turned into a blur as she tried to pick up her pace, she was undoubtedly fast. But the beast was faster. Very quickly it ran down the halls towards Lillian, just before it could grab her, though, Lillian ran past a door.
For a regular door, this fact would be useless, but, this time only, this door would be her savior. Just as the monster passed the door, something flew out and hit the monster. And it hit HARD. The monster flew from one side of the hallway to the other with such impact as to crash into another room. Lillian looked to the door and saw somebody was actually there!
"Get inside!" The person yelled, Lillian had no objections. She dashed into the room where this person had been. The mystery person shut the door and held it closed. Only moments after did Lillian hear why, from outside this room she heard the monster howling again, then once more, one more howl now... nothing.
"Alright, it's gone." This mystery person said, turning around. Only now was Lillian able to properly see her seemingly hero.
He looked, just as old as she was! Just a bit taller as well, he had brown skin and black hair. His eyes were such a dark brown that they almost looked black, and on them were a pair of black rectangular glasses, but... his clothing seemed to be the strangest: He wore what looked to be a white zippered sweater with a hood. The sweater had four pocket, 1 on each of his sides, and two acting as breast pockets. His trousers were also white, and also had 4 pockets, 2 of them on his thighs. The boy wore strange rubber-soled shoes of navy colour, each having an elaborate design on them.
"You okay?" The boy asked.
"W-What the hell was that!?" Lillian yelled, in a combination of fear and confusion.
"More importantly, what are you doing here!?" The boy yelled back.
"You cannot be serious," Lillian said. "I've been adopted by this place!"
"Oh..." The boy said. "Well, I'm not very sure how to put it, but..."
"Wait, are you kidding? No..."
"Everybody here is dead."
"No..." Lillian fell to the ground, this couldn't possibly be real. She had just been adopted, JUST been adopted. Tears welled up into her eyes. She hadn't even met her parents and now she's supposed to believe they're dead!? Wait...
"H-How can I trust you!?" She shot her finger to the strange boy. "And, if they are dead, how can I not know your to blame!?"
"Are you serious, love?" The boy said. "I'm a 15 year old kid wearing a white hoodie and cargo pants. You were just now almost eaten by a 6 foot wolf monster, what do you think?" Whatever the boy said about his clothing, she didn't understand, but whatever.
"I-I guess you're right... but, who are you? And, what the hell was that!?"
"Finally, an easy question..." The boy muttered. He then put out his hand. "Nice to meet you, my name is The Traveller!" He said.
"T-The Traveller?" Lillian questioned such a name. Was this boy some sort of mental patient, she awkwardly shook his hand. "L-Lillian, Lilian... Barrows. If that even means anything, if you're correct." She looked down, a frown upon her face. She had to face the truth, assuming that the monster was in here for several days... she didn't want to think it.
"That right there was called a Timbus."
"A, Timbus?"
"From the planet DC45-2, orbiting around the sun Usman Majoris, about... 45 lightyears away."
"Wait, what? What are you talking about!?"
"You know the giant wolf monster that just tried to kill you?" The Traveller asked.
"Y-Yes, of course.'
"That guy's from outer space."
Thank you so much for reading the first chapter of my story! I actually tried writing this dozens of times, but was unhappy with the result. But, I think this one'll be really good! I'm sure that a few later twists will surprise you! Now, humble and unquestionably amazing reader; I would be absolutely overjoyed if you could write a review. Thank you, I love you, and cheers.
The Unsuspectful Stone
ns 15.158.61.16da2
