All around there was nothing... everything was dark.
It was as if he were standing somewhere in an wide desolated completely empty space.
But then, for a split second, he saw something.
The vaque images of constructs and buildings that spanned over miles in all directions.
It was a large city... or something close to his.
But not a city like he had ever seen it before.
The buildings he could see, all of them, were made from the same dark green colored stone. The tone somewhere between emerald and obsidian.
The walls of the buildings however were not vertically errected and simmetrical, but slightly canned and that in different angles. Giving this `buildings´ a bizarre and broken appearance.
And then there were the openings at the sides of these walls. Openings that were clearly entrances. But like the walls themselves not simmetrically designed and not even rectangular like normal doors, but triangulary shaped.
They were also far larger than any normal doors or gates would have ever been. At least four or even five meters high. As if whoever these doors were made for was far larger than humans. And large massive ramps instead of stairs that were leading to the part of the entrances that were above the ground.
There was one thought clearly in his mind. This city was not built by humans. Or was it something that they would have ever thought of building.
The sky above he monstrous town was equally dark, with no visible stars.
There were only two lone large unfamiliar globes shining in the firmament - one of them a large planet with a ring circling around it, similar to Saturn, the other a bright silvery star, maybe half as large as his home-planet´s moon.
Wherever this place was, it was clearly not Earth. Not it was far away from it.
Then suddenly the alien city was gone.
Peter was standing in empty space again. All around him there was nothing as far as he could see.
But somehow he still felt like he was not alone. It was as if someone was watching him...
... someone or something.
Suddenly he felt as if someone was standing behind him. But when you turned around there was no one there.
But then he suddenly heard the voice speaking.
"I see you..."
But at the same time he was sure that he had not really heard this words in any regular way.
To be more precise there had not been a single loud noise around him the entire time. It had been completely silent. Just like this place was empty, it was quiet.
But still he had `heard´ it.
As if the words had suddenly appeared inside his mind.
Like it was not a `normal´ voice, made from normal `loud´ sound that was made of sonic waves,
but... something else.
So he could not have `heard´ it in the regular sense.
And yet he did.
Telepathy... the word appeared somewhere in his mind.
"It is beginning," the voice spoke once again.
It was coming from somewhere out there, reaching into his mind. He could feel it.
Then it was silent again.
For another short moment he was back alone in the emptiness.
Then it all ended...
xxxxxxx
In the moment Peter woke up. He was breathing heavily.
Sitting upright in his bed. As he looked around he saw the furniture of his bedroom.
For one short moment however he felt as if the presence that he heard speaking to him a moment ago was still there, starring at him... looking right into his world.
Then the moment was over. Everything was normal again. At least as normal as it ever was for him.
Another dream, he thought.
As long as he could remember, he had this strange `gift´.
He had these dreams on a regular base for as long as he could remember. His entire life basically.
It showed him things. Pictures, scenes and words from different places and times, that suddenly appeared in his mind, voices that were whispering to him.
... And sometimes terrifying things. Like now.
And it were not just dreams.
Actually, visions would be a more correct word. Or something like some kind of sixth sense.
In fact he saw this images not only in his sleep, but sometimes also when he was awake. The ones he saw in his dreams however were clearer and more complex.
When he was awake, they were mostly limited to short scenes, words and vaque impressions and feelings. Nearly like a background noise behind his daily life.
This kind of made sense logically. His own conscious thoughts and normal activities were probably a distraction from seeing them more clearly. As strange as it was to even place a concept like `logic´ on something seemingly unlogical like visions and sixth senses in the first place.
He had no control over what he saw and when, it was just coming to him. But only at times when his mind was unoccupied with something else it seemed.
One thing however was clear. Being awake was something of a limiter.
Waking up like this was nothing unusual for him. In fact it was a more or less normal thing for him.
Despite all this, otherwise Peter Maynard was leading one - for the most part - more or less normal life.
At least on the surface.
Actually he had in fact taken advantage of his strange gift and become a known author of horror and fantasy novels. Where he had, at least to a part, used the things he had seen in his visions and dreams as an inspiration.
With this, he was ironically following the example of a certain very famous author of the same genres, who had once claimed that he imagined his stories based on dreams he had. One who was one of his own role models when it came to writing. Not that Peter ever actually hoped to become even half as famous.
xxx
The big question of course was: Was any of this even real or was he simply not completely sane? Was he maybe imagine all of this?
Since his childhood Peter had been asking himself this question. Doubting if maybe there was something not right in his head. If he was suffering from a mental disorder that caused all this?
In the end it were also the visions who delivered the answer to this question.
The scenes he saw in his mind were often completely different from each other and changed seemingly at random. From completely normal things that could - and often were - happening right in his neighborhood, to bizarre scenes that were clearly not from this world. Like the bizarre sinister alien-like city he had just seen.
But even this visions that took place in the normal world. Sometimes they happened not to take place in the future.
xxxx
One of the earliest examples he could remember was back when he was when he was in school, he had at one point the thought coming to him that a certain one of his classmates would be sick and missing for a while.
One week later the same boy really got sick and staid home for a few weeks. But there was no logical way Peter could have known this beforehand.
Another time Peter had been waiting at a bus-station. But then, as the bus he had been waiting for arrived, he had suddenly a feeling of insecurity. And Peter had learned to listen to this feelings his entire life. So he took another bus instead, even if it meant he had to wait a bit longer.
The next day he had red in the newspaper that exactly that bus had an accident by crashing into another car at a intersection. It had not been a heavy accident, so most likely nothing would have happened to him, even if he had taken that bus. But it had been reason enough that to take another one had been a good idea.
And then some years ago, Peter foresaw the death of his grandmother. For weeks he could just not shake off the feeling that it would happen. From time to time he even saw glympses of himself and family members at a funeral.
Then a short time later, it became true.
xxxx
This were just three examples of dozens he had seen.
A few times he even wrote down the things he saw and certain details. Just in case he could not entirely trust his own memories and his brain was re-editing them in the afterwards to make it seem like his visions became reality.
But this didn´t change anything. Things he saw were still becoming true.
xxx
There was no denying it for him anymore. What he saw was real.
He not only had bizarre visions of strange things, he also saw snippets of the actual future. And so Peter knew that this images were not just a product of his own mind or a delusion.
That of course led to another question. If the part of his visions that took place in the `normal´ world were true, what about the other ones? The ones playing in `other worlds´? Like the one now.
The one now, he thought... it had been different from most. Most were not as clear - even for one he saw in his dreams, not as complex, not as lifelike... and not as frightening, he thought.
The voice he had just heard. It still felt somehow familiar to him. He believed he had heard it before during his visions. But he was not sure where and when.
In this moment it rang on the door.
For a split-second, a irrational feeling of fear came over Peter as he was about to open the door. But this time he was sure it was not his sixth sense, but just the aftereffect of the vision he just had.
He opened.
As expected it was his sister Sarah. He had already been waiting for her.
Peter was just about to beginn a trip through a few countries of Europe today and Sarah had agreed to drive him to the train-station.
"Are you ready?" she asked him.
"Give me a few minutes," he said. "I was just making myself a coffee. You want one too?" he asked her.
"Yes - I guess I take one," Sarah replied after a short moment.
If there was one thing their family had in common, then it was their consume of coffee after all.
Peter had already packed yesterday. He could eat at the station or even on the train. For now he just needed a coffee to get himself fully awake.
At the same time, somewhere in his mind he saw something... some part of his mind was imagining the source of the voice he had heard. A vaque idea of a being far beyond his comprehension - watching him from somewhere... from some dark place out there.
And this time he was not sure if it was just his own imagination or not.