He was sitting in the dark, on a wooden platform. There were many platforms all over the dark room, some of them just as large as that one he was sitting in. He could see shapes moving around and hear other voices echoing back to him from all across the place.
"Hello," one of the voices spoke. It sounded quite young, like it hadn’t been out there for very long. He tried to turn his head but found that he couldn’t move any more than an inch or so without losing control of his body completely. The lights above him began to flicker, and suddenly they became bright again, as a boy with wearing a white robe came into view. The boy silently walked up to the edge of the platform and stood there for what seemed like hours, just watching Eugene. The boy wore a plain white robe with sandals and carried a very confused look on his face. And above his head, there floated a little white flame that hovered around the top of his scalp. And surrounding his entire body, was a charming mix of white, blue, and yellow light. Then, finally, the boy broke the silence in the room by speaking:
“What are you?” Eugene asked. His voice raising in slight tone as he now became very nervous.
“What am I?...” Eugene spoke in confusion and disrupt. "My name is Eugene! Now you tell me: Just who and what are you?" the old man spoke throwing the question back to the little boy.
Eugene's question seemed to catch the boy off guard for he paused in thought as if recalling a memory of some sort. Then, after recovering from his state of reverie, the boy spoke:
"I am Soul! But you can call me Yami".
Eugene, a little marvelled to hear such an otherworldly reply, couldn't help but give a warm and awkward smile to the boy. Then, after some careful thinking, he decided to ask something else that had been on his mind for a while now.
"Why am I here? Why do I keep dreaming about this?"
“I don't know. It's your dream silly. The boy replied simply.
"Ah.." Eugene sighed as they both fell silent again until it started to rain. Then, a new thought occurred to Eugene.
“Hey,” he said. “Where am I, really? What are these dreams about? I mean, you seem to be familiar with this place right? Surely you can tell me?...”
“Yeah, of course,” said the boy after a slight pause. “This is...this is the Astral Plane!”
Startled by the boy's reply, Eugene raised his eyebrows and glanced down at himself. His clothes were different now; He wore blue trousers instead of black slacks, and had a white button down shirt. There wasn't much color to be seen on the clothing though.
“Astral plane?” Eugene replied in confusion.
“Yes! Astral plane,” replied the boy. “The place where all souls go to after their bodies have died in the physical plane. It is where we live and continue to move on." the boy replied nonchalantly.
Now, Eugene felt truly disturbed. A slight dread of dispear came upon his face.
"Does this mean I am dead?" he asked the boy in fear.
"No... I don't think so Mr. By the mark in your Chakra, I can tell you still belong to the physical plane" the boy sooke with a non doubtful expression.
"Phew... that was a close one. I've been dreaming about this place so often that I was afraid I had died!" Eugene spoke in relief but suddenly, a new thought came to in:
"But if I may... You say this is the Astral plane right? And we have also concluded that I am just dreaming right? Then tell me... how did I even get here in the first place? Is this even real?..."
The boy paused again for a second, just like he had done before when lost in thought. Then, after recollecting his thoughts, he answered:
"Dream Travel! Yes... that's it!" the boy spoke with an enlightened expression on his face. "Like I've said before Mr, this is the realm all souls come to after they die. However, some(not all) souls have found that they may be able to reach this part of the plane when they dream! You know what that means Mr?" the boy asked the man in excitement.
"Uhm... No." Eugene replied still overhelmed by all that had been happening.
"It means that you're a Dream Traveler!" the boy belted out.
"So... I'm not dead?" Eugene replied.
"No!... Not at all." the boy replied enthusiastically. "Come, come Mr! I will show you around our world at once. And, I will take you to the master, Z!" the boy spoke excitedly as he carefully dragged Eugene out of his chair by his arm. As he was pulled away, he looked up at the small floating ball of light that floated near him. When it heard him calling to it:
"Hey, what's that?"
It immediately turned around, and then floated forward towards them. They followed it through the darkness until finally, they arrived outside what appeared to be a large door made of golden stone.