30th July 2019

NOAH

"How was your day, man?" Kyle asked cheerfully in my head.

"Boring," I answered tiredly. My friends wondered why I didn't show up to duty that often nowadays, and I avoided their questions by telling them that my shift had changed.

They believed it. They didn't care much about what sneaky Noah was up to anyway.

"Hey, have you heard of the Astrascends?" Kyle asked once we'd walked out of the ISA quarters.

"The what?" I questioned, puzzled.

"The Astrascends. They're this new liberalist group that's gaining popularity," Raina informed.

"Liberation from the ISA," Matt clarified. "And the best part? They promise to show you the way to reach the White Realm."

"Wait, hold up," I paused in my tracks, stunned. "They help you reach the White Realm?"

I threw a look at Shay who had been quietly walking with us, not bothering to talk.

Was she behind this risky nonsense?

"I know right!" Louis exclaimed. "No wonder they're gaining popularity!"

Shay caught me looking at her. Then she ignored me and turned towards Raina.

"Where do I sign up?" She asked innocently.

Like I'd believe that.

"You can't," Raina shook her head sadly. "They only send invites to the chosen ones, who are sure not to betray the group to the ISA."

That was so neat. They made it seem rare and exclusive when they really sent an invite to everybody they knew. I bet all my friends had signed up.

But why hadn't I received an invite yet?

"You don't talk about it to others. That's the whole point," Matt explained.

"So, the ISA must know about them right?" I asked carefully and saw all of them stiffen. "I mean, they're so popular and stuff."

"Yeah, the ISA knows," Shay answered roughly. "But they can't track their secret location."

We glared at each other. She lectures me to not use the Shield, but now she has this secret organisation and she's covering it with the Shield?

What a hypocrite.

"Shay, how do you know that?" Kyle raised an eyebrow.

"I saw Sir Claudius talking to Madame Irene," She replied immediately.

My friends soon fell into another conversation, which Shay and I conveniently didn't take part in. And once they all floated back home, I turned to Shay, shaking with anger.

"The Astrascends? What the hell is that?" I spat out.

"Are you jealous that I came up with a cool name for a liberalist group?" She answered coolly.

"I know for a fact that your pea-sized brain didn't come up with that," I retorted. "Who are you working with?"

"I'm not answerable to you," She said authoritatively.

"I'm here, spilling out every detail in my life, and you don't tell me something so colossal?"

"Did you really think that I could be behind something like that?" Shay laughed suddenly. "Noah, I'm joking! I'm just a drunk wasted Shay -"

"You haven't drunk in three weeks," I pointed out.

"I love Isaac, okay? I'm not going to misuse his stuff like that," She assured, before jabbing my elbow, "Jeez, you work too much with Renee, you're starting to sound as uptight as her."

"Shut up Shay," I pulled my elbow away.

"Is tonight the night?" Shay teased. "You and her, trapped in a cosy little bubble, lots of cuddling, lots of kissing, maybe even touchy-"

"Shut up, Shay," my face burned from what she'd just hinted. "I am not answerable to you."

"Sure, Noah," She winked. "All the best!"

And she skipped away quickly, and I realised only later that she'd completely diverted the topic.

*****

A galaxy of stars blanketed the night sky, glowing like little specks of glitter, making the whole place magical. I wished that I could spend the night with Renee, camping in her Realm and stargazing and laughing and talking all night, just spending time with my girlfriend and feeling normal for once.

But normal was never a part of our story. And today, we will reach the After Realm, to gain access to the eighth and ninth dimensions.

"Noah," Renee spoke in my mind, not wanting to interrupt the silence of the night.

I turned around and saw her walking towards me, her eyes alight with playfulness and her mouth in a soft smile. She sat down next to me, and kissed my cheek, before grasping my hand and admiring the night with me.

That made it the two of us, completely alone in the whole wide world, the bliss of solitude that soothed my anxiety about what was coming next.

"Ren, we need to be leaving," I whispered, after a while. My watch glowed in the dark, showing me that the time was eleven-thirty.

"Five more minutes, Noah," She uttered softly, placing her head against my shoulder, her fingers clasping mine tighter than before.

Something told me that she was more scared than what she let on, something about the way her soft hands were chilly, and clutching onto mine desperately as if she never wanted to let go. I stared into her brilliant grey eyes, mirroring my fear, and kissed her gently.

Then I gave her a nervous grin and stood up, pulling her along with me. Renee walked reluctantly, her grip still tight, watching the Portal warily.

"If you come with me, won't the ISA find out?" Renee asked.

"I'm wearing the Shield," I told her, pulling out my jar, and expanding the Shield. It was like wearing goo, minus the sliminess, covering every inch of me.

"I think I should wear some too," Renee suggested. "Just in case."

I placed some of the Shield around her, realising that I still hadn't taught Renee how to control the Shield. After building the complex portal, this would be a piece of cake.

"Think about being defensive. About being invisible," I said as I coated the Shield over her hand. Renee used her other hand to help me out, gaining control of the Shield immediately.

I looked at her proudly and saw her cheeks redden. I don't think she expected it to be this easy.

Since we were the ones who had cast the Shield we could still see each other. However, we were invisible to everyone else.

Once we were all covered, we exchanged a nervous glance.

I swallowed.

Then before my mind could say no, I grabbed Renee's hand and walked into the Portal Maker.

It was basically like a huge metal hoop for blowing bubbles. When we stepped inside the device, it formed a shiny bubble around us, which gently floated upwards into the sky, like a hot air balloon. It had the power to cross three astral planes, taking us from the fifth to the eighth.

Renee and I were huddled close to each other, she was watching the whole thing in awe, while I was watching her, mesmerized.

We soon neared the edge of her Realm, and the portal bubble squeezed through it gently, without disturbing the Shield that covered her Realm.

This was it. We were out of her Realm.

"Oh my god," Renee gasped silently. "Are all those Realms?"

Hundreds of bright glowing spherules of light were present, all floating on an imaginary astral plane. They were like multiple moons glistening in various shades, wafting through the astral plane, always rocking softly.

"We can't see ours," Renee said, as she turned back, looking at the space where our Realm was. "All thanks to the Shield."

I took an exaggerated bow, and Renee's laughter tinkled inside our little bubble.

The Spirit Realm came into our sight, the largest glowing orb on the astral plane, making the other Realms look like mere dew drops. Renee gave me a knowing look and I nodded, somehow we were less talkative than usual today.

I still blame it on the nerves.

In a way, this was exciting, sort of like the adventures you often read about in children's storybooks. Moving in a giant shiny bubble, over other glowing bubbles; ahh, the perfect bedtime story.

Sure enough, Renee was snuggling against me, her little head on my chest. I wrapped an arm around her, thinking about how cold it was, even though we were both wearing hoodies.

"How long is it going to take?" She yawned after a while, curling an arm around my torso.

"Three hours and forty-four minutes, to be precise," I told her, before explaining the calculations. "The time increases exponentially, from each astral plane."

This meant that we would reach the After Realm at three in the morning, considering that we had left around eleven-thirty.

"I think we should call this our second date," She told me. "This is so romantic."

"Okay," I said, wondering if the night was tricking me into believing that everything was alright.

And we spent the next few hours, joking and laughing, trying to hide how nervous we both truly felt.

*****

31st July 2019

We reached the eighth Astral plane in precisely three hours, forty-four minutes, just like I'd calculated.

We could see the After Realm, a glowing orb in front of us, huge, but not as huge as the Spirit Realm. Of course, the After Realm housed fewer Spirits, most of whom returned to the Spirit Realm to work for the ISA.

"That's the place?" Renee asked in a hushed whisper, immediately alert. "Do we need to go inside?"

"Yeah," I answered, trying to sound brave. Would the Shield even hide us in the After Realm? Technically it had to, but I didn't know for sure.

"Alright," Renee swallowed.

The bubble moved towards the After Realm, and we were thrown into a hyperrealistic world that made the Spirit Realm look like reality.

The trees glowed green in the darkness, like huge eerie monsters guarding the streets. The brightly lit houses were few, but they looked similar to the ones in the ISA. The streets glowed too, reflecting the light from the trees while emitting their own.

And the worst part, I saw figures in the distance, wearing blinding white robes like Claudius, with blurry facial features.

The Higher Spirits.

Renee and I jumped out of our bubble, and I stored the remnants in my pocket since we had to use them to go back. Thankfully we were still invisible, but we also felt extremely bulky compared to everything around us.

The After Realm was a delicate place, and I realised that we had to ascend to our first higher forms, the one we had unlocked after the sixth dimension. Staying in our lower form had a higher chance of giving us away.

Both of us closed our eyes and unclogged our wheel of emotions. Then we quickly unclogged our wheel of communication in the throat.

Within no time, we were in our angelic Spirit Guide forms, hoping that the Shield still covered us. I tried not to stare too much at Renee, knowing that any lowly thought would turn me back to normal. But it was hard not to, not when she looked like a glowing goddess.

"Do you remember what we did last time when we were like this?" She asked me innocently, but her smirk was a giveaway.

"How can I forget something like that?" I deadpanned, my fingers reaching out to touch her smooth face. She closed her eyes under my touch, and I pulled my hand away, scared. It was best if we didn't fool around, not at a critical time like this.

"Noah?" She questioned as she opened her eyes again.

"Not now, Ren," I replied. "We still need to wait for thirty minutes before we can ascend."

According to Isaac, it would take an hour for the Realm to recognise us before we could ascend dimensions.

We sat down on the empty sidewalk, hoping no one saw us. Time ticked steadily, and Renee grasped my hand, playing with my fingers. This night adventure was definitely thrilling, with the added fear of getting caught.

"Ten more minutes," She pointed to my watch, sounding anxious.

Five more minutes.

We had already gone through this procedure a million times. And yet my heart was ticking like a time bomb, and my mind composed various storylines, mostly involving us being discovered by the ISA.

Two more minutes.

We closed our eyes, visualising our dimensional corridor. We soon went to the Blue room that stood for the seventh dimension, waiting for the door to appear.

One more minute.

The beautiful music in the blue room rose and fell over me like waves, filling me with calmness. Then I saw a new door being formed, a purple one, more intricately designed than the other doors.

Walking through that would lead us into the eighth dimension.

*****