Breakdown

By L Lyott

Science is not infallible... Belief is everything... Reality breakdowns are on the increase...

Since the 1940’s there has been an increase in paranormal activities- and in what we believe.

Chaos has begun and Total Reality Breakdown approaches...

L Lyott's BREAKDOWN- part one (You Will Believe) is a retro-sci-fi/horror fantasy with an appeal for all that love the fun, the intrigue and the mystery of strange and bizarre escapist tales of the paranormal and the inexplicable. There is also, however, a contemplative element. Omnis- an alternative theory of existence- suggests how the impossible can and does really happen. The prediction is that our belief and our reality is changing.

Pat Sall, a serious but affable ageing hippy and one of the oldest of the group, chairs the meetings. Along with Renata, one of the younger members, they narrate the history, the tales and the future. The group, a half dozen members of mixed gender, race and age, meet in the function room above a pub in North London. They have compiled an immense catalogue of the inexplicable- impossible occurrences which are evidence of reality breakdowns. The evidence, along with the group's alternative theory of reality, is predicting a pending escalation of ‘arbs’, the conclusion of which can mean only one thing...
Armageddon is approaching and soon... You Will Believe...

Watch the video... https://youtu.be/W9MPgot4Qfo

Please visit Leslie's website- https://www.youwillbelieve.com/

• Language: English
• Publisher: L Lyott
• Release date: Apr 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005761516

L Lyott

L Lyott is from a working-class background and since childhood days in East London has been inspired by the mystery and imagination of the classic Sci-Fi/Horror creators of TV shows, comic books and cinema- The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, Strange Tales, Weird Worlds and endless movies. L Lyott is consequently a writer of Retro- Sci-Fi/Horror with a love for the paranormal.As a child, Leslie had night time hallucinations and plenty of nightmares but these experiences only furthered the desire for the strange and the paranormal.

Book preview

BREAKDOWN

Part one

You will believe…

by L Lyott

Copyright © 2021 L Lyott

Published by Eggo Publishing at Smashwords

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favourite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Prologue

1. The First Few Days

2. The End of the First Week

3. Pat Sall

Part One- Renata

4. Acceptance

5. The Beginning of the End

6. Banjee

7. Far Out

8. The Pie Maker

9. Voices from a Darkness

10. Infinity Rules

Part Two- Pat

11. Incident at Maheshwar

12. In The Beginning

13. The Doors to Other Worlds

14. The Oil Lamp

15. Out on the Lake

16. To Dream

17. Dream On

18. There’s Nothing in it

Part Three- Renata

19. Frightening Forest Fauna

20. Vin and Leb

21. The Four Assumptions

22. Mad Tom

23. Oasis

24. Forbidden

25. Friends

26. Near Miss

27. Dreams and Secrets

Part Four- Pat

28. My Place

29. Magic

30. The Messenger

31. The Message

32. Loudspeaker

Part Five- Renata

33. Witnesses

34. The Omni-verse

35. Not So Far Out

36. Lara and The Boys

37. Deep Thought

38. Nature

39. Most of the Time

40. Suicidal Tendencies

41. Unbelieving

About The Author

L Lyott's website is https://www.youwillbelieve.com/

[e-mail]

Prologue

1. The First Few Days

Hahana

Aroha waited impatiently for what would be the most beautiful sight she would ever witness. All checks done, all procedures followed, and now after a lifetime's waiting, Kevin Carter, her fellow extra-vehicular activity astronaut, was about to open the hatch door for her to follow him into outer space.

Aroha's anticipation and anxiety had brewed to a climax. From her cramped position in the confines of the payload bay, she watched Kevin reach to take hold of the door release handle. She quickly turned to make a final peep back into the decompression chamber. At the tiny window, on the other side of the airlock, just one singular human face smiled back at her- the veteran, Derek Kingley. It was Dereck who had given Aroha the necessary encouragement for this, her first EVA walk in real space. Knowing Kevin’s view of her was restricted, Aroha moved herself away from the tiny window to slowly raise a fat glove up to the glass. She gave Derek an awkward but beautiful thumbs up. As she turned away and back to Kevin, she saw the flimsy hatch door wobble open and swing outwards to reveal a slender selection of the starry universe.

Kevin leaned out into the black world of space to attach his tethering cables. Then, reaching for the first exterior handle grip, he gradually began his move to the outside. Aroha watched the cumbersome spaceman very slowly being fed out through the hatch to the exterior void. The legs, last to disappear, briefly paddled as the outside devoured him.

Aroha pushed away from the wall to float and drift effortlessly towards the hatch. The vastness of the universe opened up before her as the doorway grew larger in front of her. Then, as she reached to grab hold of the opening to space, Earth's spectacle moved into view. The planet poured itself into her eyes, saturating her mind, swamping her every thought. Many times she had viewed and admired Earth's magnificence from within the ISS, but now it was laid bare before her to meet with her face to face, for the very first time. Her mind needed to take time to cater to this very special, very momentous occasion, so she paused to bath in the new luxury. The brilliance of Earth's pure and magically coloured radiance was unlike anything ever seen. A giant circle of wondrous, bright blue ocean speckled with a scattering of cotton wool clouds dominated its surface, but appearing through the warm hazy aura at the horizon was a golden ochre of approaching land. From space, the planet appeared so innocent.

Aroha breathed deeply whilst the silent, suspended sphere slowly revolved in a continual display. Earth called for her to observe and absorb the wonder it beheld. Her emotions became overwhelmed. Aroha, under a spell, stared in awe and remembered the words she had spoken just a week ago when, for the first time, she'd seen the Earth's beauty from the ISS cupola. She had told her crew colleagues that if she has a baby girl in the future, she will name her Hahana- meaning radiant light.

Aroha’s hands moved to pass the work pack out through the hatch to Kevin. The pack briefly floated then disappeared as Kevin’s hands took hold. Aroha next fastened her tether to the outside and reached for the exterior. Then, the tiny woman in the giant spacesuit was carefully manoeuvred through the hatch. Grabbing the outside, she pulled herself up and through the hatch to swing herself out into space, her mind afire with the vision of Earth's spectacle, a spectacle that would remain with her to the end of her days. Unfortunately, that end was approaching far quicker than she would ever have anticipated.

While she adjusted her tether on the harness rail, Kevin, waiting two metres ahead of her, gave her a wave. He'd recognised that his colleague had finally managed to tear herself away from Earth's calling and was now able to focus on the exercise- replacing an outdated communication antenna on Node Two.

The two astronauts climbed up and around the airlock, then up and across Node One, making their way to Node two. The hugely impressive ISS structure before them spread out in every direction. It was such a magnificent feat of science, engineering and ingenuity that it captivated the two astronauts, tempting them to look away from their destination ahead. However, briefly pausing to site-see was a necessary accepted part of all EVA, and especially so for Aroha, the rookie.

Once focussed on the task ahead and on the personal safety of herself and Kevin, Aroha recognised her growing anticipation, excitement, and vulnerability. Aroha became very much more aware of her environment. She felt the warmth of her EVA suit and heard her breath as she inhaled and exhaled. She smelt the familiar plastic smell inside her suit, and she remembered her training. She recalled how alien the suit and her environment had felt to her when she'd first floated around the mock capsule in the training pool on Earth. She now remembered and felt all those same feelings once again. She turned her head to scan across the craft and out into space. She studied the vast blackness peppered and glowing with the millions upon millions of twinkling stars that she'd always dreamt about, ever since she was a very young girl in Wanganui. In the corner of her vision, she saw Mother Earth watching her. The world of Mother Earth below her, where she once existed, and the world of devoid space, where she now existed, were two very different worlds. Since the beginning of their creation, these two worlds had always existed side by side, but a few days ago, something had happened, something that had not yet been recognised. That timeless bond between the two worlds had been broken. The science of reality had been broken- Earth was changing. Things had been changing for several days, but all the signs had gone unnoticed. Now, something more was about to happen, something that would not go unnoticed.

After a few minutes of crawling over the vessel- attaching, detaching and reattaching their tethers- and Node Two was finally reached. At Node Two, they re-secured their tethers to position themselves at the antenna. Kevin detached the electric screwdriver from his belt and released its tethering cable, allowing it to reach the work area. His gloves reached back to his belt and released a tethering cord for the antenna. As Aroha watched Kevin hook the cable to the antenna, something up above, to her right, caught her attention, something inexplicably odd. There, in the solar panels of the port array, she saw a neat and tidy hole. The hole cut across the junction between two panels. It was less than half a meter across- a distorted hexagonal-shaped hole, perfectly neat and so unlike anything that could have been the result of an accident. She stared, making sure that what she was seeing was not a trick of the eye, an optical illusion.

She thought the hole could not have been made by a meteorite because of its strangely tidy, linear shape. As she looked, a voice from the ISS spoke, While you're out there, you might wanna check out the port solar array. It's suddenly showing an efficiency drop. Kevin's arm holding the tool shot up and out, his body convulsed. Perfect spherical droplets of blood drifted around his shoulder. He floated backwards, away from Node Two. A section of Kevin's shoulder had disappeared, leaving the same perfect, linear angle that Aroha had, just a second before, noticed in the solar array. There is no noise in the silence of space, and Kevin made no sounds. Through the intercom connection, Aroha hadn't heard Kevin's first gasp, but she did now hear his last agonising cries as his blood, his tissues, and his life all escaped into the blackness of space. Aroha cried out, her screaming words shocking the ISS crew.

Back on earth, the first tiny happenings and their tiny consequences to earth and its occupants would soon be recognised- but not understood. Those first tiny consequences that had sprung up from the changing earth had hit the ISS. The prediction was now more than just a prediction. The end was no longer a myth- Breakdown had arrived.

2. The End of the First Week

Hurghada

Forty minutes out from Hurghada, the tourist boat had dropped anchor and moored just twenty metres from a singular, monumental red rock. This huge ocean obelisk, protruding from the calm, azure beauty of the Red Sea, was the size of a tenement block. This wasn't the location that Mark had preferred, but Carol hadn't taken to the name of his preference- The House of Sharks. Mark had agreed with Carol that an uncomfortable voice had whispered to him when he contemplated their affordable choices of dive locations- so, The House of Sharks this was not.

The morning sky was brilliant. The sun overhead was brilliant, the ocean was brilliant, and so too was the excitement and the anticipation, but the location seemed not so. This place appeared empty and dull. Four metres below the surface was a near barren sandy seabed showing only an occasional dark static plant, a few lone fish or the occasional glittering shoal of tiny, unknown fish. There was even a plastic water bottle lying motionless, half-submerged in the sand of the seabed. All in all, it was a pretty disappointing place. It made the couple wonder if they'd perhaps made the wrong choice after all.

Along with the other dozen or so tourists, Mark and Carol queued to jump from the boat- or climb the ladder to slowly lower themselves into the cool, dark water. The not so confident young couple waited in the stern, last in line at the ladder. Both wore hired flippers, masks and snorkels, and, back in Hurghada, they had both learned how to snorkel dive- just the day before. When it was finally their turn, they realised that wearing flippers to climb down the ladder was not the thing to do. Perhaps they should have paid for a better, custom-designed boat- too late now. Mark fitted the mask to his face, and holding tightly onto the snorkel, he jumped, smashing into and through the calm blue waves to briefly disappear below the surface. When his head reappeared above the surface, he trod water while he re-secured his mask and waited for his girlfriend. Carol fitted her mask to her face, hesitated, waved to her partner, held tightly to her snorkel, and crashed into the water alongside Mark.

By now, most of the half-submerged, glistening bodies of snorkelling tourists had dispersed to be almost unnoticed amidst gentle waves and the monolithic towering structure. The stronger and most enthusiastic of the swimmers had already reached the rock and laid claim to their blue territories. Carol and Mark, not such good swimmers and so not too confident, had nonetheless swum quickly through the deep blue, to soon reach the closest rocky region. There, they began to tread water, their heads turned downwards as they studied the waters below their swaying flippers.

The sandy bottom was still a good diver's depth below. The rock's structure spread out below the waters and formed branches and gullies that were navigable for the novice, and through the glassy distortions of the lapping sea, what they saw appeared both attractive and reachable.

It wasn't so easy communicating whilst breathing deep, treading water and scanning below for the riches of the Red Sea. Mark raised his head and waited for Carol to do the same, and, when she did so, he shouted to her, I’m going for it! Whilst treading water with just his legs, Mark placed the snorkel in his mouth and wobbled it around in an attempt to make it tolerably comfortable. Likewise, he wobbled his mask, making sure it was well and truly snug, and when he felt comfortable enough to go for it, he did. He raised himself up as he drew a final deep breath through the tube and pulled himself down, out of sight below the sparkling, gently bouncing waves. A little uncomfortable alone above the waves, Carol quickly copied Mark- snorkel in and adjusted, mask adjusted, final few breaths, and down below the surface she went.

The water and the low rumbling sound of the ocean filled her ears. She arched her back, pulling hard with her arms, kicking hard with her legs and going deeper. She could see Mark off to her right, but her focus was on the much nearer wonders that were on offer. Before her lay the coral, the fish, and all the crazy, colourful spectacle that the guide books had offered. The growths that protruded from the rocks below the surface came in all shapes and colours: fans, brains and cauliflowers, tubes and fingers. The fish were of equal variety- tiny and shiny, round and golden, fast and sparkling, red, blue, mauve, black and green. Mark dived deeper, wanting to find other life forms- maybe crabs or lobsters, eels, or anything unknown. Any earlier disappointment felt by the couple was instantly vanished.

The couple surfaced and, between breaths, sung praises to each other about their little patch of paradise. Then, another dive and another, and then another. The riches of the Red Sea enticed and inspired them, and they swam with each other, and they swam alone. They dived, and they swam, but eventually, they rested on the far side of the rock with the boat out of sight. They lay, warm and tired, on a tolerably flat stretch of rock where, under the hot Egyptian sun, their wet skin dried quickly and would, just as quickly, be in danger of burning. After a reasonable five minute rest, the couple decided to swim back to the boat but took a few final dives on the way.

Even with assistance from Mohammed, the skipper's mate, wearing flippers to clamber back up the boat's ladder was a struggle, and the return to full body weight, once their bodies had risen from the water, came as a shock to both Carol and Mark. But far bigger was the shocks and surprises that were about to happen.

Once aboard and with flippers, snorkels and masks removed, they moved to sit under the shade of the canopy, and there they saw the first surprise. Radovan, a young Serbian, was clasping his foot and screwing his face in obvious pain. A slender splinter of something, very dark and very hard, had somehow pierced through his foot. The skipper was contemplating whether or not they should attempt to pull the splinter from Radovan's foot. The decision was Radovan's, and he'd decided to wait until he was in the attendance of the more medically qualified and where, hopefully, there would be some anaesthetic. There was a short discussion to assess what the splinter was and how it had managed to completely penetrate through Radovan's foot. It seemed not to be an urchin's spine- but what else could it be? A couple of fellow divers, sitting close by, claimed to have seen some remarkable needle coral that had stuck up way above the surrounds. Some suggested that Radovan, who hadn't been wearing flippers, must have somehow trod on this. Radovan said it had pierced him when he had swum away from the coral and was on his way back to the boat. The enigmatic splinter conversation grew as more divers returned to the boat. Still, there was no conclusion- no one else had seen anything like the described needle coral. The conversation ended abruptly when a commotion back at the rock was heard.

Two swimmers, who stood on one of the rock's buttresses, were waving their arms above them in big sweeping gestures as though they were beckoning an aircraft onto a runway. One man cupped his hands to his mouth and called across the choppy waters, but his words in the wind were muffled and inaudible. Carol squinted at them with her handheld to shield her eyes from the sun, high overhead. The waving continued. The skipper waved back to acknowledge their cries. There was a silence, and a very uneasy feeling, aboard. The next surprises would be even more shocking and even more of an enigma.

Other swimmers were now approaching fast. The first one to arrive grabbed hold of the ladder, looked up at all aboard, and in a French accent, said, There's been an accident!

The skipper reached down to help the man aboard, and he asked 'him what had happened. The Frenchman waited until he was on deck before saying, I don't know. Someone is unconscious. They have dragged him to the rocks.

Everyone waited for the man to sit down, regain his breath and continue, He does not look good. The woman with him is hysterical.

More swimmers arrived at the boat and were helped aboard. The skipper waved at those on the rock, then turned to Mohamed and spoke to him in their language. Mohamed went to the helm. As the skipper told everyone that he was going to take the boat nearer, the engine started up. The engine growled, revved up, and the boat bounced and turned on the water to face the rock.

Whilst the boat manoeuvred towards the rocks, Radovan once more received attention as he recounted his incident to others who had not yet heard, and once more, no one could understand what it was that had happened to his foot.

The skipper waved and cried out to the people on the rock. He shouted to tell everyone to keep back whilst the boat was carefully and cleverly manoeuvred. The boat was soon partly wedged, bow first, into a large gap between rocks that protruded from below the surface. The engine rumbled, and the boat juddered, groaned and lurched as her hull rubbed over the rocks. Once she was as stable as could be expected, a team of people awkwardly managed to carry the injured man to the stern of the boat, where he was lifted aboard and laid on the deck. The casualty and his wife were in their late forties. The man was completely lifeless. No one aboard had any significant medical or first aid knowledge, but everyone, excluding the man's wife, was thinking that this man was dead. They were right.

The dead man lay on his back. No one had noticed the tiny splinter of rock protruding from his heart amidst dark chest hair. What was noticed was an identical, thin slither of rock splinter was now, miraculously, sticking out of the boat's bow. It was only the thickness of a straw, but it was as tall as the boat's canopy.

Faces were pulled in disbelief when they all saw the slender pole of rock sticking vertically upright from the deck, in stalagmite fashion, just a few feet from the bow. Carol told them that she'd seen it appear whilst everyone's attention was on the casualty lying on the deck. She described how it had appeared in a single, silent instant- no sound, no vibration, no warning. Someone then asked, Has anyone heard of arbs?

3. Pat Sall

The universe is not real, time does not exist,

you do not exist, and soon…

You Will Believe

In the cold darkness of a December night, many years ago, a small innocent child lay in bed, thinking. With the bed covers pulled tightly around his head and his small, white face staring blankly into the black emptiness of his tiny bedroom, the child was forced to ask himself a question- a question that few ever dare to ask with true sincerity. The voices in his dreams and his nightmares had been whispering the question to him for a long time, and on that New Year's Eve, the young, vulnerable boy promised himself that he would find the answer and, thereinafter, his destiny had been written. The question was, 'What is reality?' and that child was me. My name is Pat Sall, and I am a dyslexic, retired artist, and some would say I am, perhaps, a little insane. But who and what I am do not matter; it is what I tell of that is crucial. Those, who like me, have spent their years searching for the answer to the big question, will eventually discover that the answer brings with it the burden of an insanity which has, since time immemorial, laid in waiting for all who brave the sincerity of the question- What is reality?

Belief is everything. What we believe leads us to our future- but what we believe may not be of our own free will. Our belief is a thing that should take time for us to contemplate. True belief is not easily reached, and true belief may not be easily accepted.

Initially, you may think of me as just another mystic stranger preaching of the weird and the wonderful, bragging of knowledge as yet unheard of, and telling of the portent of pending doom, but when you have listened and absorbed, you will understand all. I belong to a small group of devotees who have pondered the big questions and who, since recognising the truth, have changed their faith. We, The Group, hypothesised and created a theory that answered all that science cannot, and this theory we disclosed.

I and my colleagues told of what we had witnessed, and we told how the impossible can and does happen. Our purpose was to present the evidence that showed that our science was about to change. The science that had taught us all that we knew and that had brought us so far was finally nearing its end, and we had to prepare for what was to follow.

Science has always sought the truth, but the real truth is that nothing is real- you, I, the universe and everything we know of exist simply as ideas that live like the thoughts in our heads. Science, like all else, is merely an idea, an idea that does not, and cannot, present all the answers we desire. Our science is not, as we think, infallible. However, it is science that gives us the rules to our existence, and the existence of all science is vital to our existence. We need science to understand, learn and progress and, most of all, we need science to give us stability. There would be no rules without science, and our world would be incomprehensible, unpredictable, and unstable. Without our belief in science, we are lost souls. Belief is everything. Our belief is our reality, our reality our belief, but our reality was about to change- the evidence and the witnesses were abundant and increasing.

How do I know all this? The answer to this, along with the answers to everything that science has not yet explained, shall be told. I was not alone in my discoveries and beliefs, and our numbers were increasing. There is a pathway to the truth of existence. Some find it by chance, some by devotion, and others, however, like I, are destined to find it. We lived in an age of freedom- a freedom that allowed us to question all, but it was an age in which science questioned the very answers it discovered. What is real and what is not may be the question humankind has always asked, but now, when we find a clue, we find with it more questions, and our answers no longer suffice. In conclusion, we are constantly hungry for more knowledge. Knowledge gives us belief, and belief is everything, but belief is not easily acquired. From the start, as always, the contentions of belief brought us enlightenment, debate and, eventually, conflict. What we believed was never so important, and the message of Breakdown could not have come too soon.

How I fell to where I am is a long story that began in the darkness that belongs to children and ends in a place in which we all are destined to dwell. We told of what we knew, but only the patient, thoughtful and willing, would benefit. Breakdown was coming, and my words- our words- would be its testimony.

What I have experienced, what has happened to me, and to others, were told, and, with the tales, came the warning that this knowledge may come at a price. I paid dearly for my knowledge- but I survived.

I, like many, was only a small child when I opened, unknowingly, the door that leads to other worlds, but unlike most, my door closed behind me. From a very early age, my dreams began to grow. They lured me into deeper places and, each time I returned, some small part of me would be changed. How did this happen? I can tell you it began a long time back, and it began with comic books and novels, with TV and cinema, with dreams and with questions. It began in a time of exploration and of ignorance- a time when science and beliefs faced each other, and the battles between fact and fiction brewed and fermented. But it had begun before my time. It had begun in a special time, the advent of Roswell- in the days when UFOs were first of prominence. It was a time of significant free thought and of paranormal interest. The increasing media of TV gripped an ever-expanding group of followers: followers of the paranormal, parapsychology, cryptozoology, the occult, UFOs, and all things strange. TV had created a cult interest like nothing had ever previously been able to. People open to the beliefs that stand outside of science were able to feast like never before. These were the days of new beliefs and a new awareness. However, belief can be quickly ridiculed. Belief can be destroyed, and for that reason, many who had witnessed the strange and the impossible entered their realm of belief at a risk. Many tales had been hidden and suppressed, but some such tales we told- all was disclosed. The truth was to be revealed. Reality is not the inescapable existence we had always thought it to be.

People saw the inexplicable but believed it to be a trick: a prank, a hoax, a proverbial slight of technology’s hand, but still, there was something in them which they wanted to believe. The impossible gives us a hope that we cannot find in science or in our experiences of life's routine. The impossible is adventure, freedom and excitement, and above all, it is dreams for the future. The impossible leads us onto another place, a place of dreams and reverie. We witnessed the impossible, but we viewed it as neither believable nor unbelievable because our technology was in the hands of the many, and their goals were frivolous. This was when it first truly began- when our eyes and our minds experienced the impossible, but we cared not. When this happens to a world, the inhabitants miss the danger of the approaching ultimate Total Breakdown of their reality.

Fact is said to be stranger than fiction, but the first fact I must convey is that there is no such thing as fiction. Facts and fiction are both simply ideas that we have in our heads. When remembering them, only their clarity is of importance. When someone steps out of the room, do they cease to exist? Does the tree falling in the empty forest make no sound? Facts are merely fictions that conform to our own chosen rules of possibility, and fictions are merely facts that have not yet satisfied our test of reality.

Of course, I do not expect the uninitiated to take to this notion readily- they must first enter a realm of contemplation that is not muddled with the science and beliefs of a world trapped by ignorance, a world which, from the beginning of time, has suffered the constant turmoil and conflicts of what should be believed, who should be believed, and why we should believe. Those unable, or unprepared, to risk entering into new realms of contemplation may perceive themselves as safe, but whilst in such ignorance, Breakdown approaches. Ignorance is bliss if we wish for it. Still, on the other hand, if we wish to venture into excursions of the unknown and the bizarre and embark on a journey into controlled insanity, we need only re-examine more closely the world we think we are living in. However, all must take heed, for the perils are numerous- my history shall be the evidence. The truth, when known, opens doorways, but not all doorways lead to sanctuary.

Fiction does not exist, and neither does fact, because what you believe to be reality, is not what you think it is. I and my colleagues shall tell tales of our world, and they shall be read as fiction or as fact; it does not matter. All that matters is that soon, you will believe...

Breakdown is coming.

Part One- Renata

4. Acceptance

When I was a small girl, I'd frequently have strange experiences, and I would tell everyone about them. Unfortunately, I was never able to tell them particularly convincingly enough, and so, no one ever took me seriously. I eventually questioned my own experiences and developed self-doubt, but many years later, on the Silver Coast beach in Portugal, I lost all self-doubt. For a full fifteen minutes, I'd seen something fantastic, something so ridiculously unbelievable that I wouldn't dare tell anyone. That was until I saw the 'You Will Believe.Com' website blog, asking for true stories of the impossible- reality breakdowns, or RBs, or what was later simply referred to as arbs. The day I posted my tale, a door opened, and I unknowingly stepped into... I can't say what! I can only say that it changed my belief and my life, and maybe it changed the world- maybe the universe! I really can't say because what I have since come to believe is so incredible. However, if you knew what I knew, I know you'd believe it too. The big question would then be- what should we do about it?

Before it all began to happen, people would have seen me as a striking young woman. This was not because of my fortunate good looks but because my style is in your face prominence. I'm different and always have been. My clothes and appearance are unconventional because I chose to show everyone I am different- I warn everyone. I'm not saying