Auroralite

Chapter One

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. Unless the vacuum of space is actually a being and not a place. Then that is a different scenario altogether and the screams are actually the eerie sounds from space that we have all heard the recordings of from NASA. I have first hand experience with this. So I will write this down with as much information as I can give you with all the details I know.

Let me start from the beginning. My name is William Orantz I live in a small town in the Poconos of Pennsylvania. I frequently would set my gaze to the skies at night and ponder the stars. The skies here are not polluted with light so the stars seem to go on forever. Ever since I was a child my mother would make sure we went out and watched the meteor showers and celestial events in the night sky. We made special events around eclipses and always took time to bask in the glow of the full moons.

As I grew older I found that I was able to combine my love for the sky with nature. Camping and hiking allow me to spend hours enjoying and imagining what was lurking out there. Until one day I found a strange rock on a hike in a magical place called Boulder Field in the middle of a forest. A glacial landscape that rests in a state park close to my home. Large boulders spreading across an immense field piled and layered atop one another. A unique place to practice your agility.

I know we should never remove anything from a state park but this rock was nestled down in between the boulders in a crack that just by chance caught my eye. I had explored this field many times. I never saw it there before so it was something entirely new. So taking this from the park didn't seem to be breaking any rules. Perhaps someone had dropped it there and I was just retrieving it from littering this pristine park.

On this day is when I began the research that would lead me to a strange and dangerous discovery. One I hope will be able to be explained and I will do my best to share with you what I know. With the hopes that someone will be able to find a way to communicate or at the very least find a better understanding from where I have left off. This will be very confusing and obviously hard to believe. But I will do my best, as a man from a small town, with nothing to lose really. You can believe me or not. It's entirely up to you.

Let me tell you that the rock I found was actually a piece of a meteorite that had just so happened to cross my path. It was made of a material that has yet to be discovered as it is not on any database I could find. I tentatively named it Auroralite, something to match its beauty. It is truly something to marvel at, probably also something that should have been contained. Studied by scientists or highly educated astronomers, however here it sat on my nightstand. Such a peculiar little rock no bigger than my fist with a darkness that seemed to eclipse light. Then with a flash it was glowing and dancing with colors in ribbons of patterns. The blues and purples and splashes of green, were colors I recognized though just beyond what my eyes knew to be reality were swirls I cannot explain.

I would stare at this rock and try to figure out what it could be, where it came from, it truly did seem alive to me. I would find myself having conversations with it hoping for an answer, now and again even demanding one. Just as I would raise my voice and my tone would change, the flashes would stop and slowly morph into a constant wave almost like it was listening to me, trying to learn from me. That couldn't have been further from what was actually happening. I should tell you that it was not trying to learn from me but to use me I think would be more accurate.

I am a simple man but not a stupid one, I knew there was something more to this rock and I knew it was important. I did seek help to figure out what it actually was without much luck. I had been very selective who I shared this with because honestly I didn't want to have it taken away. It was like a treasure that was clearly mine and NASA would have stolen it away. I was certain of that. Looking back at this I should have probably wrapped it up in a bow and just left it on their doorstep.

After many weeks I began to lose hope of figuring this out at all. And it found its permanent home at the back of my night stand wedged between the wall and the fan. Only glimpsing at it for a few moments a day is more like a curiosity now that it has become a novelty item that mimicked a night light of sorts. The wonderment had ceased to exist and the efforts to find answers became unimportant. The Auroralite sat there for several more weeks barely even being noticed just blending into the background noise of my everyday life.

This is where it's going to get a little strange. So buckle up and try to keep in mind that I have no reason to make this up. To lie about this or to even exaggerate what I'm about to tell you. This dragged me into a world I knew little about, above a mere love and appreciation of the beauty the night sky had to offer. What I know now has driven me almost insane and made me question everything I ever thought I knew.

The more this rock seemed to be getting ignored the more it began to flicker in mostly hues of blue. I think I may have even told the rock why you are feeling so blue. Just making small talk with inanimate objects is something you do when you live alone. The time seems to pass a bit quicker and you feel less isolated even though the isolation is clearly a choice I made. Probably not one of my best ones since making decisions is not my strong suit. As you will certainly come to understand.

One night I was following the patterns with my finger, something I had never done before. As I did this I felt a connection or at least reason to become intrigued again. The room would feel lighter and a subtle vibration would fill the air with these strange sounds. That would sound like distant moans or screams. Unwittingly I had begun to awaken something that should have been left to sleep for another few millions of years.

The Auroralite never moved, it would become even heavier and sit there producing these vibrations without movement. I had no idea how this was even possible. I never had a feeling of impending doom or anything like that. All in all it was amazingly relaxing. Given tides of curiosity I began experimenting different tones with combinations of tracing patterns with my fingers across the surface. Noticing that it would become colder with low tones and hotter with higher pitched tones was exciting.

In the immediate area of this rock, up to 8 feet in radius the temperature change could be felt. The vibrations spanned further to almost a 10 foot radius. The sounds, those haunting sounds could be heard in every room of my home. Gradually increasing to a constant presence that began to accompany me wherever I went and wherever I was. It was unusual at first, not frightening at all, just an odd sensation. Over time becoming a companion to me I felt less alone and more at ease. At times I wouldn't even notice it, the sounds would be drowned out by common daily tasks. Mostly at night I would find myself paying closer attention but really it became like elevator music. Hardly noticeable until it stopped.

This is the point I found myself obsessing about this rock. Trying to make it talk again. Like I said, making good choices was not my strong suit. But it kept me company in a strange way. I had noticed a sense of loneliness without its eerie complexities. I would stare at its darkness, not even a reflection of light on the surface. The flashes had died out as well, like its batteries went dead or something like that. Trying to coax this rock back to life had taken over almost every thought of my waking time. Even a great deal of my dreams were being infiltrated by Auroralite.

I had been doing some research on where I had found this rock. The stories and folklore of the area are crowded with cryptids, ghosts, and mysteries of all sorts. But this field of boulders had many stories. I was told that for as long as it had been in existence not one animal, not one bird nor one human would cross this field. Until recently when it became a tourist site. People would see how the wildlife avoided it and chose to do so as well. The ignorance we carry with us now as an advanced civilization is considerably lacking in common sense or respect. A mistake we will all find tragically consequential in the end.

Deciding that the only way to wake up the Auroralite again was to find a way to recharge it. I had sat it out in the moonlight, in the sunlight, during thunderstorms nothing was working so my last hope was that maybe the connection had to be made there at that very spot to revive it and bring it back to life. So I decided to bring it back to where I found it. Desperately trying anything I could, I even brought saltwater with me hoping it would be a sort of conductor to help. I was not really thinking otherworldly at this point and I really don't know why, it just seemed far-fetched that it was from outer space.

I hiked out to the field at night and stumbled over these large boulders that would rock back and forth as I stepped on top of them. Until I reached the very spot of my discovery. Here I sat positioning the rock in all different directions hoping to see a flash of light, a hum, anything. I plopped it in the saltwater, nothing, then I wedged it between two boulders. When both sides touched it came to life with a flash of red. Just like placing a battery, it needed the energy from a collective. All these boulders that are stacked on each other are creating energy.

The excitement I felt was unmatched, I was thrilled to have my experiment back my treasure and even in a small way my companion. I spoke to it as I had before changing my tones and tracing designs on the surface. The colors were even more vibrant than before and then it started to make those familiar eerie sounds. They were different than before they were stronger and echoed through all the boulders. I could feel the vibrations almost like an earthquake. The boulders were rocking back and forth on their own, banging together. The sounds were getting louder and the whole area began to feel like you could float. My body was so light I felt I was barely sitting on these huge boulders and with one good push I could fly away.

How does one person create this kind of cosmic oddity? I have no idea, I also had no idea I had to stop it. I was feeling nervous and anxious. I knew I needed to stop it. I grabbed it out from between those two boulders. I thought for sure that would cause it to stop but instead I think I freed it. I believe that is what was supposed to happen all along. I had made a grave mistake bringing it back here, unleashing whatever this is on humanity. Whatever this was clearly intelligent and immensely powerful.

I was panicking as the Auroralite began flashing brighter and encompassing the entire field shooting up through the night sky. I hoped that perhaps a ranger would see it and find me here. Struggling to gather my composure I fought with that rock but it weighed itself down to the point where it wouldn't even budge. I clawed and banged other rocks on it. I even tried to pry it off with sticks lying nearby. Nothing was working. I didn't know what to do except try to escape.

No matter how light my body felt I couldn't seem to move fast enough to get out of there. I effortlessly jumped from one boulder to the next but never seemed to get closer to the edge of the field to escape its pull. Darkness fell over everything and when I say darkness I am speaking of a color like Vantablack but darker. The same as the rock except the flashes of light had stopped and all there was, was nothing.