The seven challenges. A short story of fiction

I do not know what it is with the number seven but it is everywhere. All places I go to, I see it.

How it all started is foggy to me. I just somehow knew. I guess it was faith. I had to follow it. I had a team. I knew no one in it. They had no faces but somehow, I was attached. Trusting them. I woke up... No, I guess I had been standing there before. I was in the middle of a forest. The kind you find in the North. But not too far up. It was green, mixed with birches and fir trees. There was a commotion. A busy city in the middle of a forest. And yet there were not many houses.

Huts, an enclosure huge. Straw roofs that seemed to come from the past century. But also technologically advanced elements. A weird world. But it was mine. There was a booth right in front of me. A mysterious man standing behind it.

''Are you here to participate?'' - a little madness in his eye. A little sparkle and wonder. He had a deep voice. Like the one that the narrators have. And maybe it was his job.

''Participate?''- but I already knew. Silly me, I do not tend to act a fool. But it was like I was born anew, in a new world.

The man just looked at me. Waiting. With his brow raised. He, too, must have known. The thoughts that were going on in my mind. Only now did I notice that he was holding a map. His hand was reached out to me. I took it. And I instantly knew. Seven clues to find, to discover the thing that we are all looking for. All of the answers that grip at our tiny existential minds.

I noticed what I was dressed in. Combat boots. Army attire. Hmm, I had come ready. From where, though? For what exactly? That is the million dollar question, isn't it? My feet started moving. My mind expanded even more. It was like I was waking up. There was much more here than just a forest with huts. A train waited for me behind the booth. How could have I missed the huge metal beast? The sounds that now blasted in my head?

It was not that important. I knew what had to be done. My steps took me on board of the iron beast and my companions followed. Silent like shadows. They had faces now, too. A woman with her hair braided high. She resembled me strikingly close. A man with indifferent features. The second we got abroad, the train started moving. As if it had been waiting just for us. As it moved along on the tracks, I looked at the map. A key. I knew what I was looking for but I did not know where to start. But I guessed that the train would take me there.

Out of the window, there was nothing to see. Nothing that made sense. The colors swirled and there was no fauna to admire. It was just circles and circles of green and white dancing like waves. Like cream that is mixed with a huge spoon. So thick and dreamy. So unnatural. I glanced at my partners, sitting on the opposite side. She smiled at me. He just looked out of the window. As if there was something to see.

It seemed to be just mere minutes before a server came to us. She had whiskey on her tray. I hate alcohol but I took it. It had no taste, I just knew that I had to drink it. For the sake of the narrative. The glass was cool against my lips. My female companion still observed me. I felt like I was in a western movie. If it wasn't for my own clothes. Suddenly, I felt something lay against my hair. I touched it. A straw hat. It seemed to be shaped in a form of a cone. Hmm. That did not fit in with the western theme at all.

As the thought hit me, the breaks on the iron steed started emitting that sound. Resistance. I got up as the train still moved and we all went to the door. It never really stopped, just slowed down. We jumped out and landed on the busy streets of the East. I had never been in Asia but now... It was beautiful. Marvelous even. It was not the culture of today. Rather something from the past. There were men pulling carts. Lanterns everywhere. Kids playing and adults rushing along. Dragons gracing buildings. My breath caught in my throat. It was mesmerizing.

I was gently nudged by my female partner and we started moving along. I noticed that her clothes had changed, too. And she was leading us. She knew where to go. A key and a box. Crimson red. Next clue. You have to get to it first. You want the answers, you have to get them. Work for it.

We moved along slowly. Me dumbstruck and excited but never moving away from the target. We traveled through the town and solved equations. Unraveled riddles and let the smells tickle our nostrils. It was lifting. I felt free. But then we found that crimson box and, in it, a heavy key, made of gold and entwined with thin threads of decorations. As well as a map, with a place circled around. In bloody red. We were in a hut with low ceiling when it happened so leaving was our priority. I hate tight spaces.

As we exited through the low door, there was that train in front of us again. In the middle of the city. The conductor, identical to the first man we had seen, extended his arm, to get the map back. The first one that was given to us. I handed it to him and he looked at it for a moment. Then back at us.

''I am sorry, this one is for two passengers. I see three.'' he pointed to all of us and I looked at the woman right next to me. Questioning.

She smiled and said the first words I ever had heard from her ''We are two.''

I felt a pull as I was watching her. In front of my eyes, she was dissolving. Her body swirling towards me. Like that creamy thing outside the window of the train. I felt a slight tingle and then she was me. Inside of my body, my mind. At first, it felt unsettling but then a realization hit me. She was me. A part of me separated from my body so I felt safe. Not alone. Now she was back where she belonged all along and I recalled her voice. It had sounded like mine.

As we got off the train at the second stop, the same happened to the man that had been indifferent. In addition to that, I realized that the train did not move on tracks. There were none. But it did not surprise me. As I found the second clue, I realized there was no train anymore at all. I was on a road. Alone. The sun was rising, it was beautiful. This was more like home. The asphalt road and the houses that were all still fast asleep. I stepped forward, with my map in my hands and looked in the sun. It was bright, white. Filled with light.

Too much. Maybe. Maybe just enough. But I blacked out on my wonderfully riddled third clue. There was just darkness. A split second before moving on. Before your mind decided to change direction.

Was it real or just a dream? That million dollar question. Has anybody ever gotten to the last missing part? Does anyone really want to? Or are we not meant to get there?

---

Well, we do not have all the answers even though I believe that we do. They are stored in our brain but we are not able or willing to decipher them. Maybe this was my subconsciousness telling me that. Either way, it was amazing. A marvelous dream. I had fun and even though I did not reach the end, a fact that always makes me annoyed, I enjoyed myself.

Oh, a funny thing. I wanted to tell you that there was a pigeon in my bedroom yesterday. No kidding. I had my window open as I slept and my boyfriend did not close it. So, a pigeon flew in. It must have been scared as it tried running into the glass of another window a couple of times. Sleepy me got up and opened it. The pigeon ran into the galss again and then flew out. No worries, there were no casualties. All is well what ends well. I just thought it would be funny to mention :D

Have the best day! Today, tomorrow, and forever.
Linda