The First Pillar Read online

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Everville

  The First Pillar

  Copyright

  Everville Chapter 1

  Beginnings

  Everville Chapter 2

  Orientation

  Everville Chapter 3

  Back Again

  Everville Chapter 4

  Awake!

  Everville Chapter 5

  The Other In Between.

  Everville Chapter 6

  Battle Lines.

  Everville Chapter 7

  Revelations

  Everville Chapter 8

  The Keeper

  Everville Chapter 9

  The Feast

  Everville Chapter 10

  Registration

  Everville Chapter 11

  The Echo Club

  Everville Chapter 12

  Time and Again

  Everville Chapter 13

  The First Day

  Everville Chapter 14

  The Meeting.

  Everville Chapter 15

  The Makings of a Keeper

  Everville Chapter 16

  The Gallery

  Everville Chapter 17

  Land of the Giants

  Everville Chapter 18

  Practice Makes Perfect

  Everville Chapter 19

  Understanding

  Everville Chapter 20

  The Tunnels

  Everville Chapter 21

  Eating Out

  Everville Chapter 22

  Lessons

  Everville Chapter 23

  The Valley of Darkness

  Everville Chapter 24

  The Friends We Keep.

  Everville Chapter 25

  The Ascent

  Everville Chapter 26

  The Vote

  Everville Chapter 27

  The Roundabout Part I

  Everville Chapter 28

  The Dark Forest.

  Everville Chapter 29

  The First Pillar

  Everville Chapter 30

  The Roundabout Part 2

  Everville Chapter 31

  The Hamptons

  Everville Chapter 32

  The Café

  Everville Chapter 33

  Training.

  Everville Chapter 34

  Owen’s Journey Part I

  Everville Chapter 35

  Owen’s Journey Part 2

  Everville Chapter 36

  Consequences.

  EVERVILLE

  THE FIRST PILLAR

  Roy Huff

  COPYRIGHT

  This book is fiction. Any resemblance to real names, events, persons, or organizations is purely coincidental.

  Edited by Telemachus Press.

  Additional contributing editors including Sean P. Endress, Brian Driver and Liberty Huff.

  Cover by Damonza.com

  Formatting by awesomebooklayout.com.

  Published February 2013 by Roy Huff. All rights reserved.

  Visit Roy Huff on the World Wide Web at

  www.owensage.com &

  www.goodreads.com/evervillefans

  This book is dedicated to my good friend, Tony Miloni.

  EVERVILLE CHAPTER 1

  BEGINNINGS

  Feeling a bit queasy, I decided to stop by the school clinic just to make sure I wasn’t coming down with something. Whatever it was that was making me feel this way prevented me from walking any more than half my usual brisk pace. I pondered whether I was depressed for some unknown reason, or whether I was genuinely ill. Hesitantly, I walked through the grassy corridor to get to the main entryway. As I was standing in front of the oversized door, I noticed how the large gold entrance looked out of place. Just as I touched the cold metallic handle, I began to feel faint.

  There was no line at the front desk. I quickly scribbled my name on the sign-in sheet and was hurriedly whisked away into the examination room. After being asked a series of questions, the doctor said he wanted to check a couple of things and needed a blood sample. I wasn’t afraid of needles, but I frequently became light-headed whenever I had my blood drawn. I think sometimes I just forget to breathe.

  Moments later, I felt my consciousness slipping away. It was as if I were falling asleep in the air, with the wind at my back and facing up at the sky.

  I awoke in near free fall. The smell of wet earth, vines, and something I could not quite place was palpable. I seemed to be in some sort of narrow earthen passageway, a tunnel of sorts that seemed to go on forever. Was I dreaming or perhaps dead? I felt as if I were blind. Deep blackness surrounded me. There was not even a flicker of light. I must have been falling for what seemed like twenty minutes. Finally, the passageway slowly opened. I could see the darkness giving way to a murky brown. Gradually, lighter shades began to appear. Eventually, I was able to make out shapes and colors. They seemed to be going by so fast. Then all of a sudden, I struck the ground with a smack!

  I landed in what appeared to be a massive pile of leaves, but upon closer inspection, it became clear the pile was not made up of leaves at all. It was definitely organic, but from what, I was not sure. Slowly, I began to get my balance. My knees were weak and trembling, but I managed to stand up at the edge of the pile and slowly walk away.

  A few feet in the distance, there was a small stool and a wooden crate. On top of the crate, there was a bowl filled with some kind of fruit I didn’t recognize. Next to the bowl, there was a small note. “Breakfast,” was all it said. I hardly recognized the odd markings on the bowl or the unusual shape of the crate. I may have paid more attention if I weren’t so hungry. My stomach was growling more than usual for having only skipped one meal. It must have been all the energy I expended falling down the tunnel. Whatever it was, I could wait no longer.

  I picked up a piece of fruit and slowly sank my teeth in. The fruit was wet, sweet, and had a texture similar to a pear. The taste was unique but with hints of apple, grape, and watermelon. Greedily, I ate one after another. Before I knew it, I had devoured the entire bowl. My appetite being satiated, I took a moment to look at my surroundings. The room was nothing special. The ground was made of hard-packed dirt, and the walls were made of earth. It was as if a giant mole had dug a series of passageways. I took a few steps and looked ahead into a large opening. The room was connected to a colossal passageway. In the entrance of the passageway, there was a wooden sign. The sign simply said, “Welcome to Everville.”

  Looking at the torches hanging on the walls, I slowly walked through the passageway. The flickering light was surprisingly bright. The top of the ceiling was about the height of a ten-story building and about as wide as half a football field.

  As I walked, I began to hear the sound of shuffling and scurrying. In the corner of my eye, I noticed several figures walking in and out of the shadows. Then a tall slender figure began to emerge.

  “Good. You’re here.”

  “Where is here?” I asked.

  “Here is Everville. We are somewhere between here and there, sometime between yesterday and another day. There will be time for questions later. Right now, we have a lot of work to do. Come into the workshop.”

  The passageway seemed to go on forever. I walked through a series of massive cave-like earthen catacombs. We came upon his workshop. The sign on the door said, ‘The Keeper’s Workshop.’ The door creaked as we entered.

  I looked up and gazed upon the endless books that surrounded me. They were displayed in shelves that were built into the walls on both the left and right sides of the room. The shelves were vertically stacked as far as the eye could see. Each manuscript was categorized and labeled in a surprisingly efficient manner. On the wall directly in front of me, there were unusual-looking objects of all shapes and sizes overflowing i
n all sorts of crates and boxes. At the bottom was a large desk that sat in front of a mysterious-looking door.

  We hurriedly walked towards the desk. The Keeper reached up and grabbed a rectangular shaped object from one of the crates. He pointed at some characters that appeared on the screen of the object and said, “See. It’s all wrong!” I tried to make out what was on the screen, but the characters were unrecognizable. It was like some sort of ancient language I had never seen before. I asked, “What’s wrong?”

  “Everything is wrong. I don’t know if we can fix it.”

  “Fix what?”

  “Fix everything. Everything is out of balance. It is going to take a concerted effort to bring back balance to Everville.”

  The next thing I knew, I was back in the examination room. I awoke to the smell of a strong odor the doctor had used to wake me up after I had passed out. It took me a second to get reoriented. I thought to myself whether or not what I had experienced was real. It seemed like forever, but only a few seconds had passed.

  I was left to ponder about the possibility. Was I really that sick, or was there really a place called Everville?

  EVERVILLE CHAPTER 2

  ORIENTATION

  I was staring at the letter for what seemed like twenty minutes. ‘Freshman Orientation’ was all my brain could process. I couldn’t shake the experience I had the day before. The doctor had explained that I had a touch of food poisoning, but the memory seemed too real to be just a hallucination. Besides, I’ve had food poisoning before and it never affected me like this. Was that even possible? I have heard about people seeing things that weren’t there when they were really sick, but I wasn’t sure if food poisoning qualified. Still, for the time being I thought it best to try and forget about the whole thing. I didn’t want people thinking I had gone completely nuts after just one week away from home.

  Freshman Orientation

  Dear Owen Sage:

  Easton Falls University welcomes you Thursday, August 2nd to the 87th annual freshman orientation. We hope to assist you in your transition here; we want it to be as smooth as possible. To that end, we offer freshman orientation at the location listed below. While not mandatory, attendance at freshman orientation offers several benefits. First, you will have preferential registration over non-attendees. In addition, you will receive guidance from a vast field of counselors and experts ready to assist you in planning your program schedule and in techniques for becoming a successful first-year student. Finally, representatives from a variety of campus clubs will be offering information and membership applications. Please come join us, and help make your transition to Easton Falls University an easy one.

  Sincerely,

  Dean of Undergraduate Student Affairs

  George Swifthouse, Ph.D.

  I had always been the type of person who attended orientations. It wasn’t that I was eager to impress, it’s just that I thought I would miss something important. This time, however, my experience in the school clinic must have shaken something deep inside my core. I almost decided not to go, but I needed priority registration to make sure I got all my classes. More importantly, I wanted to meet up with a couple friends whom I hadn’t seen over the summer.

  I put the letter down and looked out the window. My dorm had one of the better views. Easton Falls was one of those New England schools with massive walkways, gigantic trees, and impressive gothic architecture. That was one of the reasons I was so drawn to the school. My fondness for the school had rubbed off on a couple of my friends, much to the dismay of their parents who had their hearts set on their alma mater.

  From my window, I could see the main entrance to the school and the historic oak tree. The tree towered over the students who passed nearby and blocked just enough of the sunlight to shade the administrative building. The shaded sidewalks in the view of the stone statues depicting the school founders from atop the admin building added an unmistakable mystical quality as one walked through campus center. Gazing across the walkway, I began to feel a little more like myself.

  I had been reading a lot about dreams after my incident. I was starting to convince myself that my experience in the examination room was some kind of lucid dream. I had read a book on lucid dreaming by an expert at Stanford University who explained how events from one’s everyday life could slip into the dream state. It was the brain’s way of recording information that had been experienced the prior day. In a lucid dream, the dreamer becomes aware of the dream and starts to shape the dream in the way they want it to unfold. Perhaps the magical quality of the campus architecture had seeped into my brain. When I passed out, I must have fallen into the dream state and my brain was incorporating what I had seen into the dream. At that moment, I decided that I would think of something much more interesting to do in the dream if it happens again.

  Enough with speculation, I thought. I needed to rest my brain. A long nap might help do the job, so I closed the window and sprawled out across my small dorm room bed as best I could. It didn’t take long before I had fallen into a deep sleep. I was starting to repeat my experience and seemed to be aware of that, or at least I thought. I must be dreaming!

  “OWEN! Wake up!”

  Startled, I jumped up. I half expected to see The Keeper or someone else from Everville, but it was just my good friend Dante.

  “Come on, man; we don’t have all day! We’re going to be late for orientation if we don’t hurry. Besides, they have pizza. If we’re not at least a little early, we’re only going to be left with the scraps.”

  I glanced at the alarm clock and realized I had forgotten to set the alarm and had slept through the whole day. It was already tomorrow!

  Dante was even more uptight than I was. I’m always punctual, but he likes to arrive an extra ten minutes early just to scope out the scene. I was a little irritated that I had overslept, but I figured my body needed it anyway so it was probably a good thing.

  It took me all of two minutes to get ready. Then, we headed over to meet up with my other best friend Anika.

  Anika was smart, funny, and very cute. She had a knack for always knowing the right thing to say and didn’t take crap from anyone. All three of us had been friends since grade school. Dante and I fit together very well, but to those who didn’t know her, Anika seemed out of place. Dante and I both had been crazy about her during different periods in our childhood. I’m sure Anika knew, but we never had the gumption to talk about it. Besides, we had a good thing going and we didn’t want to screw with it. Dante’s mom used to call us the Rat Pack.

  Dante and I had pretty uneventful childhoods. We both grew up with our moms who had been divorced since before we could remember. When we were little, our moms would take turns baby-sitting us. It was like we were brothers or they were sisters or something. I think we both worked pretty hard at school to make our moms proud.

  Anika came later. We met her in fourth grade. Her parents were divorced too. Shortly after her parents divorced, her mom died. That’s when she moved to our neighborhood and came to our school. She was really quiet at school that year, but we spent that whole summer hanging out together. After that, it was impossible to separate us. Ever since then, we did everything together.

  “Hey guys! Give me a sec.”

  Anika grabbed her purse and a couple of other things, and we headed off to freshman orientation.

  I looked at Anika’s purse as we walked out of dorm and realized it had the same markings that were on the bowl of fruit I had eaten during my experience in Everville. Some of the pieces started coming together, or so I thought. Content to forget the whole thing, I gazed across the walkway at the large mass of students gathering around campus center.

  Dante and I briskly walked over the tables to check off our name, pick up our nametags, and grab a slice.

  “Mmmm. Pepperoni, mushroom, and extra cheese!”

  If there was one thing Dante could not resist, it was pepperoni, mushroom, and extra cheese pizza. Neither could I, for that matter
. Dante and I scarfed down a couple of slices before we heard one of the administrators making her way through the front and begin to speak.

  The next hour seemed to pass by so quickly. I could hear what was going, but my head seemed to be in a different place. Dante and Anika spoke to me on occasion, but I didn’t notice anything they said. My mind was fixated on the symbols that I saw on the fruit bowl. My subconscious started to put together some of the pieces of the puzzle I didn’t immediately recognize. The markings on the bowl of fruit and Anika’s purse were also on the screen of the device that The Keeper was reading in his workshop. My mind wasn’t even thinking about whether Everville was real or not. It seemed only to be trying to decode the meaning of the symbols.

  Eleven thirty at night seemed to arrive sooner than usual. My mind still seemed to be in a fog, and I was fighting to keep my eyes open, but it was a losing battle. Before I knew it, my eyes were sealed shut.

  “Oh. You’re back. It’s about time!”

  I knew precisely where I was. The Keeper’s Workshop left an impression that was impossible to forget, and it was just as it was before.

  I remember thinking about trying to take control of my dream the next time I thought I was dreaming. Well, it didn’t seem to be working. I tried everything. Flying didn’t seem to work. Thinking really hard about all my favorite foods didn’t seem to make them magically appear, and I couldn’t seem to disappear either!

  “What are you doing? We don’t have time for any of that silliness. I told you; we have a lot of work to do!”

  EVERVILLE CHAPTER 3

  BACK AGAIN

  I took a deep breath. I realized I was either completely nuts or there was a huge part of the world I simply didn’t know about. I stopped believing in fairy tales and magic when I was six years old, so if I was going to believe any of this was real, it was going to take some convincing. For now, I decided just to see where this Keeper was going to take me.