Gaining in the Hub Realm

Chapter 1

Kale stepped into his apartment and sighed. Another long day in the office punctuated by returning to his empty apartment. His apartment was nice enough. It was high end and had big windows overlooking the city. It also had empty walls painted a bland off white color. He walked to the fridge. Sandwiches for dinner again. He didn't have the energy to make anything else. In fact, the only thing in his fridge was sliced cheese, deli meat and milk.

Sandwich assembled and in hand, Kale walked towards his bedroom. That is when he stopped, stunned. A strange blue light emanated from the space between the door and its doorframe. It reminded him a little of a tiny aurora borealis localized to his doorway. After a minute of staring at the doorway stunned, Kale took a bite of his sandwich and began to ponder what to do. Whatever was making that light was not normal. Was it even safe to open the door? Fires couldn't make weird auras like that. Kale looked down at his sandwich. Only one bite left. That meant that he had to decide now. What was he going to do, stand there without a sandwich to eat and just keep looking at the thing? No, it was decision time. Kale popped the last bit of sandwich into his mouth, chewed, swallowed, and yanked his door open.

What greeted Kale on the other side of the door was even more shocking. His room wasn't there. Instead, directly in front of his face, was a veil of swirling blue something. It moved like smoke but formed a flat surface in front of him, occupying his whole doorway. Tentatively, he reached out towards it and poked it. His finger passed right through. Was it some illusion or a portal or something totally different. Internally shrugging, Kale stepped into the mysterious swirling thing.

On the other side of the portal, an expanse of nothing greeted Kale. The door he stepped through was gone. The ground and the sky were the same color, a dull dark grey. Flat ground and empty sky stretched all the way to a flat horizon in the distance. There was no visible source of light, but an ambient uniform illumination allowed him to see the dull flat landscape.

"Hello?" he called into the nothing.

"Oh. Hello there," a female voice called back.

"Who is there?"

"Well, you can call me Desire," responded Desire from nowhere.

"Where are you?" Kale said, looking around in confusion.

"Oh yes, I forget. You types appreciate a physical form. Here we go," and with a pop Desire appeared in front of Kale.

Desire floated an inch above the ground, arms crossed, head playfully tilted. She was entirely purple except for her eyes which were pure white. Despite her lack of pupils, she still managed to be very expressive, amusement clearly visible as she saw the surprise on Kale's face. Desire was also completely nude, her curvy body clearly on display for Kale to see. Her breasts were modest sized and round. Her hips flared out slightly and accentuated her shapely legs. Her body looked like a models... if models were purple.

"Well, this is me. You sure seem to appreciate my looks," Desire said teasingly.

"Umm uhhh yeah sorry," Kale turned red.

"Oh don't be so shy. Anyways, I brought you here for a reason. I am, as of today, in the business of saving people. I am saving you from your horribly boring, monotonous life," Desire said.

"Thank you? So, what does that mean?" Kale said.

"We are no longer in your world and I have the perfect world to take you to. It will be much better for you." Desire explained.

"What is this other world? And why do you want to do this in the first place? Also where are we right now?" Kale asked.

"Oh we aren't anywhere," She said, addressing one of three questions.

Kale decided thinking about that answer wasn't worth the headache.

"And where to start with the other questions? So, there are a lot of worlds, universes, planes of reality, realms, whatever you want to call them. It takes quite a bit of energy to open portals to other worlds. I found a world that is very... lets say close for lack of a better term, to a ton of other worlds. It is like a hub that other worlds are concentrated around. Let's call it the Hub Realm. Opening portals to the nearby worlds from there is very easy. As a matter of fact, sometimes they just open spontaneously. That is where we are going. And as to why? First, I gain energy from fulfilling the desires of people. It's sort of where my name comes from. I make you happy and sort of feed off of this happiness essence that is released. That is my primary goal. You are perfect because you are so unfulfilled that basically anything I do will fulfill something," she explained.

"Ouch," Kale commented.

"Oh don't be so sensitive. And I am sure you are wondering why specifically you? There are countless unfulfilled people in your world after all. Well, I happen to know of your... proclivities. I am aware that you have a certain... appetite for growth. I happen to think that will be quite an interesting desire to see fulfilled," she said, a devious smile crossing her face as Kale's face turned bright red.

"So what do you say? Do you want to go to the Hub Realm or go back to depression world?" Desire laid out his options.

"Well, when you put it like that, I have to choose Hub Realm." Kale said, picking the obvious choice.

"Wonderful! Lets do this!" Desire cheered.

Desire closed her eyes and concentrated for a moment. Then suddenly, a purple light shone from behind Kale. Turning around, he saw a door, identical to his bedroom door, standing alone in the emptiness. Purple portal light shone from its edges. The door was identical to his bedroom door. Determined to get to the Hub Realm, Kale opened the door and stepped into the swirling purple surface of the portal.