Crystal Grid

Christine Houghton

Description

On summer break, Will, Dan and Tara come across an unusual girl in a sticky situation. In saving the girl, they become entangled in a conflict that extends between worlds, experiencing paradigm-shifting events and insights. Their journey is fraught with heartbreak and challenges where ultimately their choices are linked to the fate of us all.

Informations

• Publié par: eBookPartnership.com
• Date de parution: 25 août 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781908400437
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE CRYSTAL GRID by Christine Houghton
On their summer break from University, Will, Dan and Tara arrive in California to head into the hills and climb Mount Shasta. During the trek, their trip gets hijacked when they come across a strange young girl being threatened by two sinister women. In saving the girl from her sticky situation, they become unwittingly entangled in a conflict that extends between worlds. It is a race against time, where the fate of their world and ours hangs in the balance. The next few days is a journey across dimensions, where the three teenagers see a world unlike any other, experiencing paradigm-shifting discoveries and insights. Their journey is fraught with trauma, heartbreak and challenges, where ultimately their choices are inextricably linked to the fate of us all.
Prologue
There was a time in the beginning when all of mankind was united in a way of thinking - in the way of how things should be done. Through that collective consciousness, great things were achieved; achievements so great they could not even begin to be imagined today.
Then things changed. A new consciousness arose, and in that consciousness was a need; a need for power, and yet more power. As this need fed into the consciousness, man became restless, and into this restlessness, a new feeling was born.
This feeling was fear, and when fear gripped the very hearts of men it did indeed change them, for fear is the downfall of men; fear takes over compassion, breeding distrust and contempt.
Man soon forgot where he came from - he pushed love away. In its place grew hatred, and greed. By destroying the ability to love, he had removed the very thing that binds the universes together. This was the fall of man.
Then came the flood. Many died, drowning in the fall from grace. Some escaped, and went their separate ways to the four corners of the earth to pass on knowledge, and to create other advanced civilisations. Others went deep into the earth, deep into Gaia, and Gaia welcomed them. There, they sheltered from all that was around them, and soon they were forgotten. They became a legend; a legend like Atlantis itself.
Thousands of years, and civilisations later, long after the flood waters had settled and the darkness had gone, something happened.
It happened slowly at first. No one noticed as it began to seep its way into the consciousness of man like subtle threads of silk weaving its way through their hearts and minds. This was a new wave of consciousness, man began to develop, and began to care. This was enough to spark the change, and in doing so, man changed reality.
Chapter One
The Beginning
Guys c mon! fumed Tara, her hazel eyes flashing. Chop chop! My granny can move faster than you lads. It didn t take much to wind Tara up. Dan couldn t resist doing it at every opportunity he could find. Now both he and Will were grinning like the two naughty schoolboys they were not so long ago. Alright, don t wet your pants. said Dan. He turned to Will. You good to go, mate? he asked. Yeah. I m set for now, said Will, as he checked hesitantly around the room one last time. Anyway, we can always pick stuff up along the trail if we ve forgotten anything. It s not like we re off to the middle of nowhere.
True, but we are going up Mount Shasta, mate. said Dan, grinning. I can t see Seven-Eleven or Boots having a branch up there.
The three of them had touched down in California the evening before. Not only was it late when they arrived, but their Motel was not entirely what they had imagined either. Both their rooms, which were painted orange, looked clean but shabby. Faded bed covers, which at one time had presumably matched the walls, had now faded out through either too much washing or sunlight. Curtains hung limply from a piece of wire and a bare light hung loosely from the low ceiling. At this point, none of them cared one way or the other; they were all too tired. Moreover, considering the Motel owner Fergie was an old friend of Will s mother, who was letting them stay at a very reasonable price, they thought themselves lucky. After all, it was better than nothing. They were all too shattered after their 12-hour flight to care and besides, as Tara pointed out, it was only for two nights.
Soon they would be off trekking, which was the reason for coming to Mount Shasta in the first place. It was just what they needed after months of study for their first-year exams at University that were finished at last. After all, it was this that had kept them going through the long nights of study.
The party should have been four but Jen had to drop out at the last minute due to an illness in the family. Her father had suffered a stroke and despite the fact he was fine now, Jen felt she couldn t leave her mother to cope alone. After much thought and deliberation, she had reluctantly cancelled.
On arrival, the three friends unpacked what was needed for their short stop in the Motel and then slept far into the next day. When they surfaced sometime in the afternoon, they ate at the Diner, which was across from the Motel before wandering into the small town nearby to stock up on supplies for their trip.
After a lengthy debate at the camping supplies store on the possible menu choices for their trek, they went back to the Motel and discussed which route they would be taking to climb Mount Shasta. By the time all this was sorted out, it was already early evening.
Tara persuaded Will and Dan to eat at the Diner again for supper, as it was easy and close.
It was quiet when they first arrived, but soon after they sat down and ordered, Tara noticed three other people come through the door. A party of one man and two women sat in a corner away from the few people who were eating. She stared at the three wondering idly why some people always seemed to make a point of trying to isolate themselves in a public place.
Dan, who was quite renowned for his satirical sense of humour, was soon in full flow with almost everyone who was sat near them in the diner. He too had noticed the three people who had entered a few moments earlier. He weighed up the two women and started to smirk. Tara and Will could almost feel the cogs in Dan s head turning.
Soon enough, the food came and the conversation started to fizzle out as they grew more and more tired. Coming to life suddenly, Tara whispered, Have you guys seen those two in the corner?
On Tara s instruction, both Will and Dan glanced over to the three in the corner. Rolling her eyes, Tara clicked her fingers and took the two boys out of their trance. Subtle, boys real subtle. she muttered. You could have at least not turned around at the same time.
So what about them? asked Will with disinterest and disappointment, half-expecting something exciting.
I ve seen happier people on a morticians slab, the miserable gits!
They look like something out of a bad horror film - is she wearing a wig? That must be a wig. Either that or she s never heard of conditioner.
Will stole another quick glance, then shook his head in confusion and thought. What was it that drew Tara to these people?
They sat for a little while longer before Dan yawned loudly and stretched dramatically, attracting the attention of the three that were the hot topic of the night. Then, he said he thought it was time for bed. He stood up and prepared to go, not waiting for the other two to agree with him. Dan was a good-looking boy with black hair and dark brown eyes who didn t like to take life too seriously. When things got uncomfortable for Dan, his first reaction was to laugh it off, or to make a joke of it.
Will agreed with Dan about being tired. He was shattered and thought that it would be better if they turned in for the night so they would be ready for an early start the next day. As they crossed the concrete courtyard making their way back to the Motel, Dan told Will and Tara all about the mental image he had conjured for the two woman who were in the corner of the Diner. They both rolled with laughter as Dan described the larger woman as that bush pig wearing a tent-of-a-dress, whilst elaborating at great length on how the other woman with the bad hair looked like a bulldog chewing on a bag of spanners.
Dan, there s something not wired up right in that head of yours, but it does crack me up! stammered Tara, between giggles.
Still laughing, they went to bed with smiles on their faces, only to fall into a deep sleep as soon as their heads touched the pillows.
*
Early the next morning, the owner of the Motel stepped outside into the fresh morning air. Mr Ferguson, or Fergie, as his friends and regulars knew him, was a bachelor, though not by choice. He craved company and in his experience, life seemed to get lonelier the older he got. Even though he enjoyed a good rapport with his guests at the Motel, many of whom returned year after year on their holidays, he still felt he could not call any of them a friend.
Mr Ferguson was a tall man in his mid-forties with greying hair at the temples. He smoked the odd cigar now and then but that was his only real vice. Despite having the occasional drink, he wasn t what you would really call the drinking type . One of his best assets was his sense of humour, which had got him through his darkest hours and had definitely saved him on many occasions in the past.
He had thoughtfully ordered the three young travellers a packed breakfast, which was sent over from the Diner for them to eat when they were hungry. He had woken early to drive the teenagers the twelve miles or so to the nearest campsite where they would begin their trek. They had agreed amongst themselves not to stay at the regular camp sites situated along the mountain paths, but to take an unstructured trekking holiday, and camp where they pleased to really experience the wilderness that Mount Shasta has to offer. The drive didn t take long, and as they said their goodbyes they told him to expect their re