Decipher Prologue

This prologue introduces readers to how society is in my book. This prologue serves as a stepping stone to more complex worldbuilding concepts later on.

Prologue

Five years ago, strange openings began appearing around the world. Initially, the government kept these portal-like phenomena hidden from the public. The world’s top scientists studied them but couldn’t gather any reliable data. The only things the researchers could confirm was that the holes were were unleashing large amounts of energy every minute, and that the openings were what are known as wormholes, capable of connecting two points millions or billions of light-years apart in just minutes. They couldn’t determine where the other ends led, how far away they were, or how long a journey through them might take. The largest and most powerful of these wormholes was discovered in Denver, Colorado. When it opened up from the ground, even the Rocky Mountains trembled in horror.

As time passed, the problems of pollution and global poverty worsened. Desperate for solutions, people began advocating for the wormholes to be used as dumping grounds for the earth’s steadily growing waste, and their energy harvested to help further improve communities all over the globe. Some claimed these openings were acts of divine or cosmic intervention�"a gift from a higher power to save humanity from its self-destructive path. Others believed that the openings lead to dark and endless celestial interludes-cold, barren, and devoid of life. Theories spread across the internet, and protests turned into riots as people demanded action. Eventually, the governments relented. Under extremely strict security and protection measures, the wormholes were opened to the public, and soon trash from landfills began pouring into these seemingly endless voids, while machines were simultaneously hooked up to the wormholes to harvest the abundant energy they provided.

That was in 2035. Now, five years later, the wormholes are still used as garbage disposals. Theories and speculations continue to surface, but those pushing them seem more interested in attention than in truly understanding the mystery behind the phenomenon. No one is willing to dig deeper. What nobody seems to get is that they are more than just worthless cracks in the ground. They are symbols of something bigger�"of a world on the brink, of systems fraying at the edges. What once sparked fascination has now faded into indifference, and yet, something about their presence still feels… wrong. People have learned to avert their eyes, to live with them, to walk past them with the same casual disregard with which they pass an overflowing trash can on the street. But if you stand near one long enough, if you listen closely, there’s a hum, a faint whisper, as though the air itself is holding secrets. If you look closely, you’ll see that the rocks surrounding the holes are slightly levitating, and the holes themselves are emitting a golden light, as if the whole area is infused with the essence of the supernatural.

We used to dream of gateways to other worlds, of answers hidden in the stars. Now, we bury our problems in these openings, too afraid to face what’s on the other side, too distracted to ask what those whispers mean. For all the technology, for all the knowledge we claim to have, the truth remains: We are terrified of the unknown. And in our fear, we’ve chosen to reduce these wormholes into something mundane, something useful�"too afraid to admit that perhaps they’re much more than we’ve allowed ourselves to see.

Every once in a while, there’s a fleeting moment, a pause in the clamor of the city, when the wind shifts and the skies feel different. It’s as if the wormholes themselves are waiting, holding their breath, as though they know something we don’t. And just maybe, the biggest danger isn’t the wormholes themselves, but the fact that we’ve stopped wondering what they are. We’ve labeled them, boxed them in, and turned our gaze away.

But not everything fits so neatly into a box. Not every mystery can be ignored. The past, after all, has a way of echoing back, of shaking the ground beneath our feet when we least expect it. The wormholes remind us of what we’ve forgotten�"of the dangers of complacency, of the beauty and terror of what we do not understand.

One day, the ground tore open. And all we did was bury our problems and turn the other way.

“We called the wormholes a ‘miracle’ and yet, we quickly found ways to industrialize them, rather than try to truly understand their ethereal nature. Once we defined them by our own needs, we stopped exploring what they could mean. The danger of labels is that they can obscure deeper truths, leading us to become complacent. Instead of seeing the complexities around us, we settle for the comfort of definitions, allowing ourselves to drift through life without questioning or seeking the unknown.

Yet, as we cloak the unknown in convenient labels, we become trapped in a cipher of our own making�"ignoring the deeper truths that lie just beneath the surface.