Halfway Between Worlds: Bloodline of the Pure Read online

  The Crossing

  The sound of the leaves rustling wildly swept through the forest, the trees swayed violently but were barely visible through the darkness as Alice sat there silently.

  As Alice gazed into the darkness, a feeling of strange harmony and contentment filled her, the loss that she had felt for the past month had left her as she had finally come to terms with leaving everything that she knew and loved behind. It was her third and final night in the forest, her mind was subdued and at rest, her emotions were unchained and controlled, her will was disciplined and strong and her focus and attention had unified into awareness. She was in a fluid state, absent of fear and fully alive, it had been a month since contact was made and now the time had finally come.

  All her life Alice had explored her inner states and those of others, briefly journeying inside, but only recently had she gained the discipline and self-control to channel her inner world and peak beyond the darkness. Six months ago, when Alice became more immersed in her meditation and self-exploration, she realized her ability, with preparation and when in the right state, to channel into certain places and things from within.

  Whilst in trance she had started to sporadically see natural places - forests and rivers both alien and familiar, different types of plants and strange and recognizable creatures including insects and snakes.

  Over the following few months as her practices deepened, Alice began controlling and understanding her journeys with more clarity, when one night whilst in deep meditation, she had a frightening experience that would change her - a woman's face appeared to her.

  The face appeared for a few seconds in Alice's vision before cautiously pulling out and opening her eyes, she was shocked and could not dismiss the realness of what she had seen, the woman's head was hooded but her face was clearly recognizable.

  It took Alice over a week to build the confidence to venture back into the unknown, and when she did, the same woman's face appeared to her, only this time Alice carefully faced her fear and communication was made. It was only a brief communication, but the heaviness of the contact had a huge impact on her.

  The woman told Alice that she was being called - called to join the higher, natural world of magic where she belonged. She told Alice that her and her people had become aware of Alice when she was twelve years old when she had unintentionally journeyed in a close-to-sleep state, and that they were finally able to make contact now that Alice had cleansed and disciplined her mind. She said that everything would be explained and taught to Alice after the crossing, that she would be well taken care of and that she must make a choice - to stay and to suffer the injustices and spiritual hindrances of this material world under the reigns of ignorance, or to progress her soul to its full potential in this life time and harness her true power, for once the crossing had been made there would likely be no return.

  The communication ended by the woman giving Alice instructions for her self-preparation leading up to the crossing. She said that if Alice chose to take her true path, she would go to the forest, where she usually meditated, for three nights of solitude leading up to the next full moon, where she would be met by the woman's people.

  The aftermath of the contact was strong for Alice, an anxiety filled her, and she barely ate for several days whilst processing what had happened.

  Alice had recently turned seventeen and was about to start her final year of school, she had her whole future ahead of her, yet she felt unfulfilled, she had always felt unfulfilled.

  Her father died when she was a baby and her mother died when she was eleven years old, she lived with her aunt briefly until entering high school, where she went to boarding school that was payed for with her inheritance. She would occasionally spend the school holidays at her aunt's house whom she had a good relationship with.

  Alice had a rather good life and had plans for travel once she had finished school, but she had always felt disconnected and different to most. She never agreed with how things were and there was a feeling of slight helplessness and emptiness that constantly dwelled inside her. She felt that something wasn't right, that something was missing, and as days passed after the contact, she came to realize that her drive to find that something missing was too strong.

  Alice then understood that she did not have a choice, she was inevitably going to go out to the forest for the full moon, and as that realization dawned upon her, she thereby began her self-preparation.

  The wind slowly died down as Alice sat there patiently, the moon was almost directly overhead but could barely be made out through the dark, sprawling branches.

  Alice's long, black hair still slightly blew in the breeze and as she sat there in silence, a chill suddenly shot through her as she realized that three figures had emerged from the darkness.

  Alice’s senses heightened, she could barely see the black shapes of the figures at first but as they slowly approached, they became more visible to her.

  As the figures reached approximately five meters from where Alice sat, they stopped and stood still, and a moment of silence ensued.

  Alice’s heart momentarily sank before quickly regaining her composure, letting her fear drift away as the three people, who Alice could now see clearly, stood there staring at her.

  There was one man and two women, the man was older, and both the women were middle aged, they were all wearing black, hooded robes and were carrying wood.

  After a long pause, the woman that stood in the in the middle of the three took a few steps forward and placed the wood that she carried onto the ground, she then walked over to Alice and stood directly in front of her.

  “Are you prepared?” the woman asked calmly as the two others proceeded to prepare a fire, her voice was rather soft, and her accent was strange.

  Alice quickly rose to her feet as the woman spoke, the woman seemed serious but calm as she stared deep into Alice’s eyes.

  Alice could not see or sense any thoughts, intentions or emotions in the woman’s eyes as she could with most other people, she seemed selfless and unattached yet in total control.

  “Yes” replied Alice quietly, it was the first time that she had spoken in three days, she had numerous questions to ask yet in the moment there were no words that came to her.

  “Come” said the woman calmly, leading Alice over to where the other two had stacked the wood, “take a seat” she said, pointing to the ground directly in front of the wood.

  Alice cautiously sat down, and as she sat facing the wood, the three others also took up positions around the wood. The man and the woman who had not spoken yet sat directly opposite and facing each other, and the woman who had spoken to Alice sat down on the other side of the wood, opposite and directly facing Alice.

  A short moment of silence went by and then the same woman spoke.

  “You have undertaken your preparation. Do you feel ready?”

  Alice paused for a moment.

  “Yes” she responded calmly, dismissing an awareness of potential nervousness and anxiety from creeping into her, she knew that these people would see any weakness or indiscipline in her.

  “Do you have any questions before we begin?’ the woman asked in a serious tone.

  Alice froze and momentarily didn’t know what to say, there were so many things she wanted to know, she didn’t know who these people were, she didn’t know anything about the crossing, and she didn’t know anything about the place she was about to cross into.

  “What’s going to happen?” she cautiously asked.

  “When the fire burns, you will stare at the flames and completely let go. You will go into trance, looking deep within the flames, nothing should
be hindering your mind. We are here to channel the crossing for you, once you are deep enough you will see an entrance appear inside the fire, you must raise yourself and walk through with no hesitation and complete confidence and courage for the crossing to be successful” the woman responded.

  The realness of the situation had hit Alice, she was almost in shock but was managing to keep herself together.

  “Who are you? Are you from that world? Will you cross with me?” Alice blurted out a few questions at once.

  “No, we reside here in the material, maybe one lifetime soon we will join the higher, natural world of magic, but not now, you will cross alone. We are the contacts of this world that help those who have been called to cross. We are in regular communication with our people of your new world that you made contact with, they will be there waiting for you to ensure everything goes smoothly, you will be in good hands, they are good people” said the woman calmly.

  “Can you tell me about the higher, natural world of magic? Where is it? I know nothing about it, yet I am about to put all of my trust and faith into entering a place that I don’t even know, how do I know I will be safe?”

  The woman paused for a few seconds, looking directly into Alice’s eyes as the two others sat still in silence.

  “The higher, natural world of magic is a world of less materiality, the forces of nature, power and magic are more alive there. It is believed to be one of the higher incarnation points for the more evolved, intuitive souls leading away from the material universe and towards the spiritual realm. However, there are still intuitive souls that incarnate into this material world, for whatever reasons it may be, that possess power and are ready for the next stage of their spiritual evolution.

  “This is why you have been called, the watchers have discovered that the amount of latent power that exists within you is highly abnormal for this material world and that you are destined to join them in the higher, natural world of magic. You were able to cleanse the mind and discover your inner world, it was not the people of the higher, natural world of magic that found you, it was you who found them, this is how we know that you are ready to cross into their world.

  “The people that you had the contact with belong to an organization, if you would like to call it that, a society of very well-trained shamans and mystics, they are the watchers of the worlds. It is their job to find and locate not only the intuitively developed souls who dwell in the material that are ready to cross, but also to find the intuitively developed souls that dwell in the material that may be trapped and chained to ignorance, hindering their ability to cross in this life time. They try to lead those souls to truth as best as they can, but at the end of the day, it is up to the individual to discover their inner world and to discover the latent power that exists within them.

  “It is unknown exactly where the higher, natural world of magic is located, but it is somewhere between this world and the world of spirit, after the crossing you will be halfway between worlds, my dear.”

  Alice sat there in amazement, a warm feeling of relief momentarily flooded her, she had never heard anyone speak like that before.

  “You must make an act of faith, you must either trust your intuition and that feeling deep within you that craves the connection to the spirit or turn away and do as much good as you can in this world here, all we can tell you is that the people that you are going to are good people” the woman stated.

  Shock had slightly settled into Alice as she gathered the words to speak.

  “One more thing, the woman that I had the contact with said that once the crossing has been made that there would likely be no return, why is that?”

  “Once the crossing has been made you will be in a world of slightly less materiality and higher connectivity, the energy, if you like to call it that, is higher. Although the world itself is made of material, the creatures of nature are more alive and are governed by intuition and magic. Once you cross and start your development as a person in that world, your inner state will heighten. Why indeed it is possible to cross back into the material, but the possibility of not being able to fully control and to lower one’s state over a prolonged period of time introduces the risk of becoming trapped in the material. The potential risks to one’s sanity and health crossing multiple times are a great danger and is strongly advised against.”

  Another moment of silence went past as Alice processed everything the woman had said.

  “What do you choose to do?” the woman broke the silence by asking, her voice was still calm and serious.

  Alice knew that this was it, if she decided to cross there would be no coming back.

  Thoughts of her aunt, her few friends and school momentarily swept past and were let go as Alice decided that the time had come to leave.

  “I’m ready” said Alice calmly.

  The woman rose to her feet and removed a small flask from her robe, walking over and handing it to Alice, it was half full, with a greenish liquid inside.

  “What is it?” asked Alice cautiously.

  “It’s a mixture of plants, it will help to make you more lucid, it is a precaution that we take in case one’s mind clings on and obstructs the person from crossing. We will all drink from the flask and in ten minutes we will be ready, you may feel a little nauseous after you drink and even more so after you cross, don’t worry, that’s normal” said the woman as she removed her own flask of green liquid from her robe and walked back to her place around the wood, the two others were now also holding their own flasks.

  The woman then sat back down facing Alice.

  “Good luck on your journeys, Alice Teller.”

  Alice stared back at the woman in shock, she had never told these people her name.

  “There shall be no more talking before the crossing, only for emergency, and remember, when the flames burn, my dear. Let us drink” the woman declared.

  All four of them raised their flasks and proceeded to drink the liquid inside, placing the empty flasks onto the ground next to them. The liquid tasted unpleasant, strong and bitter and it took a moment for Alice to swallow and to keep it down without throwing it back up.

  After what seemed like ten minutes had passed, Alice started to feel slightly nauseous and strange inside, she realized that her mental processes had melted away and that her vision and awareness had expanded. She now felt more connected to the present moment as she had ever been before.

  The woman opposite Alice suddenly rose to her feet again and removed another small flask from her robe, this one had a clear substance inside. She stared at Alice for a moment before pouring the liquid over the wood and placing the flask onto the ground, she then lit a match and dropped it onto the wood and upon impact, burning flames erupted.

  Alice stared into the flames and felt herself immediately enter a trance state, she felt lost within the flames and extremely relaxed and comfortable. She had no sense of time and as she drifted off into the fire, she noticed that something had appeared, and as it started to grow within the flames, she realized that it was the entrance taking shape.

  The entrance slowly grew until it became fixed within the flames, it resembled somewhat of a door made of the flames within the fire, and the space through the entrance was blurred and could not be seen.

  Alice knew that the time had finally come, she was about to leave the only world that she had ever known behind.

  Alice slowly rose to her feet, she was completely confident and lucid, and without any further thoughts or hesitation, she walked forward, disappearing through the fire.

  The Wild Lands

  Alice felt her feet slam onto the ground violently as if she had fallen from a height of over three meters and then stumbled onto the ground, she quickly got to her feet but lost her balance and fell straight back onto her hands and knees and vomited.

  Alice looked around as she spat the vomit out of her mouth, she was dizzy and nauseous and couldn’t see clearly, she could tell that it was dark and that she was in a f
orest.

  Alice focused on taking deep breaths for a moment and tried to regain her composure, her vision had started to settle and was slowly becoming clearer.

  After a couple of minutes, she started feeling better and slowly rose to her feet, her dizziness was gone but she still felt nauseous.

  Alice looked around, she was alone in a strange, new forest that was like no forest she had ever seen before, the trees were massive, they were at least twice the size of the trees in the previous forest and were more spaced out, allowing the moonlight to shine through, giving the forest a dim visibility.

  Whilst Alice stood there admiring the trees, she heard a rhythmic drumming sound coming from not too far away, she listened attentively for a moment and then slowly started to walk towards the sound.

  The drumming grew louder as she moved closer, and as she emerged from under one of the massive trees, she paused and stared up in awe as she saw the moon for the first time, it was almost twice the size of the earth moon and was beautiful.

  A feeling of joy and wonder came over Alice as the understanding that she was no longer in the world that she knew dawned upon her. Everything that she had previously known was now gone, and as she gazed up at the moon in amazement, a frightening energy suddenly came alive in her stomach as she heard something move behind her.

  Alice quickly spun around and saw a man standing less than ten meters away facing her, the man was wearing black pants and a long-sleeved, black, hooded shirt and his face could barely be made out.

  The sound of the drumming continued as Alice stared contentedly back at the man, when suddenly another energy struck through her as she heard movement to her left.

  She quickly glanced over and saw that a woman had appeared about five meters from her. The woman was wearing a hooded, black robe and had long, curly, dark brown hair, her eyes looked lifeless and her head was slightly titled to the side as she glared back at Alice.

  “This is no place for an analyct” said the woman in a calm but chilling tone.