Imagine an ordinary world, very much like our own, where you feel invisible and tired of the boredom of everyday life. You work nonstop and still have nothing in the bank to show for it, and even with your fancy degree you’re still just your average nerdy guy.
It’s on a very routine walk back from work to your apartment complex that you suddenly hear the desperate screams of what sounds like a young woman in distress! You take your headphones off, not sure if you’re hearing something or if it’s just your music being weird. It seems like you’re the only one who heard the screams, so you try to shake it off as nothing. You feel certain you heard something though, but don’t want the people around you to think you’re crazy.
Suddenly, a golden light appears, and without thinking, you sprint towards this sunburst, like Icarus flying straight into the sun. Again, it seems like only you see this bright light, but you continue to follow it as it becomes a golden tendril. Like Ariadne supplying Theseus with the thread that would lead him safely through the Minotaur’s labyrinth, this tendril leads you to a glowing door inside an abandoned alleyway. Through it you see what looks like an ancient world, and a drop-dead gorgeous girl being tied up by machines inside the ruins of a Greek temple. She begs for help again, this time fainter, and this spurs you on as you reach your hand into the strange portal and are sucked in!
