Void Walker

Johny Steel stood there looking at the door that had just appeared before him. The door looked to be around seven feet tall and five and a half feet wide. Johny was only thirteen years old and had a height of five and a half feet tall.

"Come… door… all will be… explained." A booming voice said seemingly attempting to whisper and failing horribly to do so. The voice seemed to come from the door. Maybe it was the door itself speaking.

"I have to go to school." Johny said in disbelief. He stood in his room everything normal except for the massive door which had now taken the place of his own door. The door seemed to understand or at least understand that Johny would not be journeying through it not today at least. The door faded away revealing Johny's normal everyday door. Johny opened his door and walked through it.

"Honey?" Martha, Johny's mother, called up to him cheerfully.

"Yeah it's me mom." Johny said to his mother.

"You're almost late for school. Is something wrong?" His mother asked worriedly, obviously thinking he may be sick.

"Just the door." Johny said to his mother hesitantly. He knew she would be able to feel its power in his room for days so there was no reason to lie.

"Did you go through it? Are you okay?" Martha asked as she ran over to him checking for any blood or injuries.

"No mom." johny said somewhat offended that she would think that he would ever do something so stupid. Johny's father was once in the picture. They were the perfect family for a time but then the door appeared. Johny was only eight months old when it first happened. Johny's father was in the nursery holding him and comforting him after he had woken up and started crying loudly. The door appeared right as Johny's mother had entered the room she saw her husband speaking to the door he left and he never came back. Was what laid through the door dangerous or simply better than what Johny's father had?

"Good. Be careful, ok honey?" Johny's mother said as she stood, grabbed Johny's lunch from the counter and handed it to him.

"Sure thing mom." Johny said as he walked out the door of the house. Johny walked along the sidewalk while thinking about the door.

"The door has been showing itself more" johny thought to himself. Johny didn't know why the door kept coming to him and speaking to him but he knew that there must be a reason. Johny made it to his school just in time. As the bell rang he sat in his seat. The art teacher Mr. McMartins entered the classroom. Mr. McMartins was Johny's favorite teacher and art was his dream.

"Hello everyone." Mr. McMartins said cheerfully as he entered the room.

"Hi Mr. M." All of the students said almost completely at the same time.

"Yesterday's assignment was to draw one memory that is ingrained into your mind and you were all supposed to add your own spin on it. Let's go ahead and bring them up to my desk please everyone." Mr. McMartins said, his voice was cheerful as always.

"If any of you wish to share your artistic genius with the class you can come up to the front and show us all." He was obviously proud of the admittedly bland works of art. He did not see the work itself but the heart that each of his students had put into it.

"Here you go Mr. M." Johny said as he laid the art onto the large desk. Mr. McMartins saw the art and his face became a new emotion; it wasn't his normal happy or proud expression, it was worry.

"Hey Johny," Mr. McMartins started.

"Yeah?" Johny asked not yet understanding why he would be worried.

"I thought you were going to make a drawing of your dad." Mr. McMartins said as he looked at the beautifully made almost professional drawing.

"That's all I can remember of him Mr. M." Johny said seemingly not bothered by this fact.

"If you ever need to talk I'm always here to help." Mr. McMartins said reassuringly.

"Yeah, I know." Johny said happily knowing full well that Mr. McMartins would be there if he ever needed to talk but also knowing he could never talk to him about the door. Everyone would think that he was insane.

"This is an amazing drawing. You could have a bright future in art." Mr. McMartins said completely genuinely.

"Thanks Mr. M. See you tomorrow." Johny said as he walked out of the classroom and towards his next class. Mr. McMartins looked down at the beautiful drawing of the large red door and couldn't hold back the single tear that fell down his cheek. He knew how it felt to lose a father but he had no idea how being left behind by a father felt he couldn't hide the sadness he felt for Johny. Johny sat in his last class of the day, math, his least favorite class.

"Just one more hour." Johny thought. Johny suddenly heard something strange like muffled screams down the hall.

"What was that?" One of his classmates asked, mildly frightened by the sudden noise.

"Probably nothing." They all said before continuing the conversations that were already ongoing. Johny felt something.

"Goosebumps." He thought worriedly as his arms were slowly covered in bumps. Johny suddenly stood out of his seat. His hair stood on end, his body felt like it was just dunked in cold water and sweat poured down his face.

"What is this?" Johny thought suddenly understanding what it was. A warning. Johny walked into the hall and looked towards where the screams had come from. Where the classes had been, there was only darkness and an abyss, within the abyss there was ten people, a few classmates, his math teacher and Mr. McMartins. The people floated in the abyss. One by one each of the people began to slowly disappear.

"Erased." Johny said as he shook violently. Suddenly almost instantaneously they were all gone all except Mr. McMartins who was now nothing more than a mouth.

"Run." The mouth screamed. The voice was barely understandable as the sound was being sucked into the vacuum of the abyss. The mouth was then erased. The abyss then slowly crept forward taking then erasing everything it touched. The red door appeared on the wall next to Johny.

"Run… or enter." The door said its booming voice seemed strangely understanding of his current predicament. Johny turned and ran out of the school. The door stayed in place as the abyss enveloped it but instead of being erased it simply faded away as it always had before.

"Mom!" Johny screamed as he ran in and saw the vicious scene. His mother laid on the floor and a man stood above her. Suddenly the man turned and in one lightning fast movement the man grabbed him by the arm and threw him through the red door which Johny had only now noticed. Johny fell to the floor of the massive room that laid beyond the door. The man followed through the door then slammed it shut. Johny looked around quickly. The massive room he found himself in was two or three stories tall and had a massive window that surrounded the entirety of the first floor of the building. The entirety of the room was the color of rust but it seemed to be made of a material other than metal. Johny looked up at the man.

"Dad." Johny said completely broken by the fact that his own father just doomed his mother to erasure. His father's face hadn't changed at all since the picture Johny had seen was taken of him. Thirteen years and he hadn't aged a day.

"I'm sorry. We don't have time." Johny's father said.

"You… mom's going to die. You left us. You killed her." Johny said as he stood.

"Hate me then, but first listen to me." Johny's father said before continuing by saying, "The night you're mother gave birth the door arrived we entered it and it spoke to us told us the truth. The void, Johny, it is taking everything and everyone. You were born outside of the void you were born in the eye of the beholder. It can't erase what was never on its canvas. The eye knew the void would awaken and we would need a hero. I'm sorry son…" Johny's father said quickly before the erasure began. His legs slowly faded away and he fell.

"You have to be that hero. The eye will…" suddenly his torso and arms faded away as if they had never been there in the first place.

"Explain everything." With that the man who had once been Johny's estranged father was gone. Johny stood there frightened and alone until a voice spoke. The voice was the same that had come from the door only it was clearer and less broken in its speech.

"I'm sorry." The voice said solemnly.

"Who are you?" Johny asked tears streaming down his face.

"The eye. You are safe here, you will not age and I will protect you. Go to the glass." The voice said gently. Johny did as he was told. He looked out of the massive window and saw an unimaginable sight.

"That is the void." The eye stated hatred for the voids' very existence seeping from each and every word. Johny saw an infinite expanse of pure darkness with hundreds of millions of massive floating islands spotted throughout the darkness, each island separated by a thin invisible wall.

"Why am I here?" Johny asked.

"There are creatures that could assist in the destruction of the void. On the islands. Luckily I am able to access them all." The eye said.

"So I'm here to gather help to stop this thing?" Johny asked obviously overwhelmed.

"Yes. We have time for you to learn everything you need to know. Our first recruit has already been chosen." The eye of the beholder said reassuringly.

"Who?" Johny asked curiously.

"A creature by the name of Elijah Gray on Island four five eight." The eye said.

"OK. Let's get to work." Johny said almost sounding confident.