It was a starry evening, thought Dave when he glanced up to break the chain of random thoughts that had been racing through his mind in the last few minutes as he walked down the strangely empty rocky pathway besides his office building.
It indeed was quite an evening Dave had been through. One of the most bizarre ones he'd had so far he thought. The day had started off as any other Tuesday since he'd turned 23. He woke up by the sounds of his neighbour's dog barking mad at 8 AM, lazily dressed up and got into the drivers seat of his very old and very bent up Peugeot and set off to work.
It was when he'd parked up outside his office building that he noticed the first of many things that'd happen that day. A man wearing a suit of armour, just standing there in broad daylight and none of the people passing by spared so much as a second glance to the fellow. In fact, he noticed, a few dumbstruck blinks later that nobody actually even glanced at the bloke to begin with.
Dave, shaking his head, pressed on to enter the building where he'd worked as an architect for the last 8 years. But as he got closer to the entrance of the lobby doors. He couldn't help but notice that the armour's colour this seemingly invisible guy was wearing appeared unnaturally a lot more golden than Dave'd realised.
"Ah nevermind" he thought out loud as he progressed through the revolving doors.
The usual tuesday proceeded as anyone would expect, a couple of screaming calls from the boss. A text saying his friends are having a party over on the other side of town for no goddamn reason and post a sad lunch alone in his cubicle, a couple of emails from his client bashing the designs he had been working on for their bakery for the last three months.
When he finally decided to call it a day and headed out of the building around 5 PM. He'd totally forgotten about the guy in the armour, but as he got out the revolving doors, something inside him made him look left to the spot where he'd seen the man and saw some thing else this time. Something he definitely knew that only he could see this time around.
And that, was all he remembered before it got truly bizarre...
What is this? A statue? Thought Dave when he'd processed what he was seeing. Right at the spot where he'd seen the average height weird armored guy, stood a structure that was atleast 30 feet high if not more and as wide as a small airliner. It wore the same unnaturally golden suit of armour that seemed to flow and as Dave's sight travelled further upwards, he gulped and saw what he supposed were the statue's eyes. Completely golden, seemed like a helmet fromsomething he'd seen in some superhero movie. The statue had no face whatsoever, just the eyes and what seemed like a helmet made of pure gold that reflected a reddish tinge of the setting sun.
Yet, as Dave's eyes darted back down for a second, people on the street were walking around its huge feet oblivious to it's existence. And just as Dave made a mental note to make his evening coffee stronger did he panic for the first of many times that evening. The statue, if he could call it that any longer moved it's enormous hand downwards in a swift but smooth motion and grabbed Dave by the waist. This was the moment Dave decided would be apt to pass out of sheer fear.
"Get up, you filth" shrieked an abnormally high pitch voice what seemed hours later.
"Get up already you worthless pile of shit, get up!"
"Okay, okay" moaned Dave quietly as he struggled to get his bearings and started rubbing his eyes with soiled hands trying to open them.
As he opened his eyes, he thought he'd passed out cold on the street and hence everything seemed so yellow and bright. Wait, what? Yellow and bright? he thought as what he'd just witnessed flashed back at him in pieces. The glow was so much he could barely see anything from his position. To him it seemed he was propped up against some wall, squinting his eyes as tightly as he could, he saw the weird outline of someone standing above him. Before he could shout back at her that he wasn't lying down in filth out of pleasure the figure shoved a pair of glasses on his face and everything seemed to tone down a notch and he could see his surroundings for the first time.
Dave took a huge gulp again as he started registering what he was seeing, he was it seemed to him, inside that statue's face. He could literally see inside the 23rd floor of his office building through what seemed like a set of windows
which he presumed to be the creature's eyes
that had not been cleaned for atleast a decade. He still couldn't understand head or tail of what was happening exactly. He glanced down at his watch and saw that the display had gone blank, "damn you, smart watch" he thought. The shouting woman who'd given him the glasses was staring at him all this while and as soon as he finished looking at his watch and started to blink profusely again did she say. "Get up, will you?" rather politely. Dave looked up to her face now, no longer having to squint and his bewilderment quadrupled.
This woman, no more than 4 feet tall had no nose or mouth. She seemed to be covered in a golden coloured uniform from head to toe except her arms which were bare, but the uniform seemed to be of a lower quality of metal. Her noseless, mouth less face was slightly squarish and her arms had these huge golden rings every few inches right from the shoulders to her wrists. She spoke again, and Dave realised the voice was coming out of her hollow golden eye-holes. "Get the fuck up Dave"
He immediately stood up and finally voiced what was trying to burst out of him since he'd stepped out of the office building. "What in the unholy fuck is happening" He tried to yell but his voice broke midway out of fear and it seemed to the woman that he was about to cry.
The woman didn't respond.
"Where the heck am I?" Said Dave his voice breaking again
"You're at the transgateway to Nebulinzina platform from codrial 6 ante" she said mechanically
"Is that supposed to mean something to me?" said Dave clearing his throat and trying to sound manly
"It isn't, which is why I deem your question pointless." Said the woman
"Okay then, let me try this. Who are you and why am I here" said Dave a lot more confidently as his adrenaline finally started to kick in
"I am Iris, your attendant. You are here to learn more about your mission, Dave Antares"
Mission? What mission? How do you know my last name? Seriously, what the fuck's happening here? said Dave panic beginning to set in his voice again
"Shut up and follow me Dave" said Iris bossily and she turned around set off.
"No, dude I want answers first , you have no right-" Dave broke off angrily as Iris started to turn her head, just her head back towards him
"Do not speak about rights human, for you have none here. You raise your voice another time and you will be penalized. Follow me now and you shall learn what you wish to know." Said Iris' voice commandingly
She turned her head back to align with the rest of her body and set-off again.
Dave set off slowly following her and now realising that he had hands that worked, he reached for his phone in his left pocket, he took it out and as he suspected. The screen seemed dead.
Iris laughed "your peasant devices won't work here Dave" and he realised that those glowing eye holes were not her eyes, she could see through the back of her head as well.
He followed her down a flight of golden brown stairs and through what seemed like a very high ceiling tunnel and just as he was about to exit the tunnel behind her, Dave heard a loud "bang" Iris glitched into a purplish colour and all went black.
Dave opened his eyes on the street outside his office. It seemed like night had fallen and he was standing right where he remembered he was last. He looked in every direction but couldn't see another being in sight. Everything seemed a tad hazy to him so Dave rubbed his eyes but that made no difference.
He was utterly bewildered at this point. He looked down at his watch and saw it was half past 11 PM. And just as he looked up he could faintly see Iris' figure hovering in front of him.
Dave quietly said "Nope, nope, nope". Turned around and started walking away from where he'd parked his car.
He could feel that he was being followed. And now that he was back where he'd started, he began processing what'd just happened. Was he just abducted by aliens in real life? He spent a huge part of his teenage years looking at YouTube videos of creepy stuff happening all around the world. Was this just a manifestation of his imagination? Or was this for real? Why was everything so hazy right now? Did he just travel dimensions? Where was he even going? His car is parked the other way. It was at this thought that Dave stopped, and he looked up.