“Eagleton!” the figure called.


    The old man shuffled slowly into the room. “Yes, sir?”


    “How is the fivebrid creature doing?”


    “Um...it''s...dead, sir.”


    “DEAD!?” the figure bellowed. “How can it be dead? After all my careful planning...” he trailed off.


    “Well, sir, someone killed it.”


    “WHO?”


    Eagleton cowed. “I don''t know sir.”


    “I want you to find out. And do whatever it takes. Kill if you have to. Torture anyone who you even think might have information. I want them found. That creature was my enforcer.”


    “Yes, sir,” Eagleton said before leaving the room. “Jerk,” he muttered when he was out of earshot.


    *    *    *


    I jolted awake, finding myself in a dark room. Dreams plagued me the whole time I was asleep. They were all different, but three things remained the same: a large, misshapen creature cloaked in shadow; Nell screaming in pain; and, of course, the ever-present dark cloud.


    As I tried to calm myself, a noise came across the space. Light entered the room in the shape of a door, with a dark figure in the entryway.


    “Who''s there?” I asked.


    “My name is Lliw,” a male voice that sounded a lot like mine said.


    “Turn on the light,” I said, wary of the new presence.


    As he did so, I did a quick mental check and saw that the cloud was light. There was no danger, at least not for the moment.


    When the light came on, I was momentarily blinded, but I was not prepared for what I saw once my eyes adjusted. I stared, unable to form words due to the heavy shock I just received. My eyes traveled up and down Lliw''s body. Short dirty blond hair, blue eyes, pale skin; I was looking at a mirror image of me.


    Holy frack! Did I wake up in some mirror world?


    Lliw read the shock on my face. “Calm down. I know we look alike, and I''ll explain it all to you later. But now, I need to take you to your friends. Come on.”


    My heart thundered in my chest. None of this made sense. There was no logical reason for this to be happening. Then again, since I found my pendant, nothing had been logical. I didn’t even know how I ended up in this place. I looked around for my friends, but Lliw was the only person in the room.


    The room I was in looked similar to my own. Blue walls, brown dresser with a mirror on the left wall next to the main door, closet door next to the dresser, bed on the opposite wall facing the door. Even the entertainment center was the same, though it was empty, whereas mine wasn’t.


    I slowly got out of bed, still unsure of what to make of Lliw. He may look exactly like me, but that didn’t mean I could trust him. Were evil twins really a thing? I noticed I was still dressed, and my shoes were at the foot of the bed. I slipped them on, then followed him out of the room.


    How did I get here? Why are we separated? Who is this guy? Did he do something to us? Where are we going?


    Despite all of these thoughts, the cloud still didn''t do anything, so I didn''t know what to believe. Before I could speculate further, Lliw opened another door and I saw my friends. Nell was lying in a bed, and Sam was sitting in a chair nearby, his face in his hands.


    I slowly entered, Sam didn''t notice. I walked to the edge of the bed, touching Nell''s arm. Sam looked up. His face was pale.


    “What''s wrong with her?” I asked.


    It was Lliw who answered. “She''s unconscious. She fell right after you brought her in.” He paused. “What happened to you guys, anyway?”


    I shrugged. “I don''t remember. Do you, Sam?”


    He just looked at me.


    “He hasn''t said anything since he pounded on my door. We''ll find out what happened when Sam decides to talk or if she wakes up.”


    I jerked my head in Lliw''s direction. “What do you mean by ''if she wakes up''?”


    “She sustained numerous injuries. Broken ribs, a broken left arm, a lot of deep bruising, including one over her heart. I wasn’t sure if that bruise was part of a bigger injury that may have affected it.”


    My legs collapsed under me. Luckily there was another chair to land in. “Oh man,” I moaned, taking Nell''s hand. “Please don''t die.”


    Sam came over to me and put his hands on my shoulders. Together, we watched as Nell struggled to breathe.


    All at once, the cloud intensified in weight and color. If anyone else could have heard it, the thunder would have deafened them.


    *    *    *


    Red completed his report to the Administrators with mixed results. They were angered by the lack of progress in the main objective but were elated with the news of the pill. Despite this elation, Red was still ordered to return to the main task, but there was nothing he could do to rush the research.


    Despite that fact, Red was a patient man, even if his bosses were not. They were the ones in a rush for this to happen. Whatever it was. Not even he knew the full extent of what was going on. And it was designed that way. No one person knew any more than they needed to.


    Even armed with that knowledge, he knew things were still very rocky. There was an apparent deadline that he was unaware of and it was fast approaching. His place was to follow orders and not question them. He knew that if he broke either of those orders, he would be gone. Briefly, he wondered why the others who carried his title had vanished but thought better than to ask those questions. That was another road that he would rather not go down. If he did, he knew for a fact he would not be coming back. Not in any physical form.


    *    *    *


    When the small band finished their assault on the village, it was nothing but a smoldering ruin. Dead bodies lay scattered everywhere. Those who didn''t die in the assault, had run off, hoping to keep their lives or warn others about what was coming.


    “We have killed them, but some people ran. We have learned nothing,” one person said.


    The leader growled in anger. “Spread out. Locate the survivors. If they ran, they must know something. If they don''t, kill them. We still have a job to perform.”


    The other members of the band nodded and spread out, hastening to obey since it was a task they relished performing.


    *    *    *


    I kept my vigil at Nell’s bedside that night, hoping she would wake up and ignoring the constant thundering in the back of mind. My eyes never wavered from her unconscious form. A slight rise and fall in the blankets, indicated that she was breathing, at least for the time being. I hoped that wouldn''t change anytime soon.


    My eyelids were getting heavy. I was beginning to doze off when I heard a sound come from the bed. At first, I thought I had imagined it. Then I heard it again.


    I jerked myself awake, studying Nell for any sign of movement. She remained unchanged, then she slowly stirred. I was cautiously optimistic that this was the moment she would wake up, but the cloud in my head wouldn’t leave me alone. As far back as I could remember, it had never alerted me to anything involving other people, but this could be a first.


    I kept watching, willing Nell to wake up. Time seemed to slow as I stared, but eventually her eyes fluttered open. They darted around the room, finally landing on me. I held my breath as I waited for her to speak; to indicate that this wasn’t a fluke or some last thing that happened before someone died.


    She took a ragged breath and said, “Why are you watching me sleep, you weirdo?”


    I exhaled and laughed. I couldn’t help it. Leave it to Nell to say the right thing to alleviate all my worries with a single sentence.


    “Where are we?” she asked, once I had stopped laughing.


    I updated her with what I had learned since I woke up, which wasn’t much, finally asking Nell what had happened on the beach.


    “You don’t remember that?” she asked, immediately concerned. She struggled to sit up. “You need to be in this bed instead of me.”


    I stopped her. “Nell, relax. It’s not a big deal. I’m sure it’s just the stress of everything that happened. It’ll come back to me once my mind accepts it.”


    “You sure?”


    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    I nodded. “Now you get some sleep. I’ll be here if you need anything.”


    She laid back down. “Alright, but if you feel like you need this bed, wake me up, and I’ll move for you.”


    I had no intention of getting her out of bed until morning, but I assured her I would. That satisfied her enough to close her eyes and go into a natural sleep. I watched Nell for a little while longer, before settling back into the chair and allowing myself to finally doze off.


    Morning came a lot sooner than I would have liked, but I had to get up. I looked over at Nell, who was sleeping peacefully, and sighed in relief. She had made it through the night. Even after our talk, I still didn’t know if she would wake, but now I knew for sure she would be okay.


    I let Nell sleep while I went to find some food. Lliw and Sam were nowhere to be found, and I didn’t want to look for them at that moment. I wanted to be alone. I made a sandwich and sat down on the couch, trying to remember the events that caused us to be here, and why Lliw looked like me, and just where the frack were we? As usual, I had no answers for the multitude of questions that plagued me, and I was tired of it.


    Then I wasn’t alone anymore. First Lliw came into the kitchen, Sam joined us a moment later, and to their obvious surprise, Nell walked in looking perfectly healthy. They went up to her and bombarded her with questions about how she felt, but for the moment she ignored them.


    She crossed the gap between us and gave me a hug. “Thank you,” she whispered.


    I didn’t know what she was thanking me for, and it didn’t feel right to ask, so I just nodded, and she let go.


    She looked back at Sam and Lliw, then did a double take. “What’s going on? How do you look like Will?”


    “It may sound insane, so bear with me a bit,” Lliw said. “This is a parallel dimension to the one you live in. There are many similarities, such as many people looking like people you know.


    They are, of course, not these people. I look like Will, but I am not him.”


    Nell threw a glance at me. “Well, that’s obvious.”


    Lliw ignored her. “You got here through one of many openings between our world and yours. The pendants are the keys to opening each of these doors. We don’t know how they work, though.”


    “The cave shaking thing, right?” Sam asked.


    Lliw nodded. “We just know that they were given to us, and we sent them on to your world based on the instructions that came with them. We were told that they would save us, but we weren’t destined to use them. We also don’t know who sent them to us, we never saw anyone, but since we were told they could help, we obeyed.”


    “Just because you were told they could help?” Nell asked, totally glossing over the rest of the story.


    Lliw nodded. “We are desperate for help. Lord Phiale is destroying our world. Of course, we tried to use them, but we couldn’t figure out how.”


    “I still don’t understand what’s going on here, but whatever. Things have been crazy lately,” Nell said. She turned back to me. “How’s your memory?”


    “Still don’t remember what happened,” I answered.


    “Then I’ll tell you,” she replied and told me what had happened up until the part where she was knocked away. Sam took over from there.


    “I flew?” I asked incredulously. “First electricity and now flying. This is insane.” How could I have flown? That ladder sent my nerves into overdrive!


    Sam looked rather pleased with himself. “Don’t forget me shooting the water and Nell’s fire.”


    I nodded. “I don’t think that’s something I’m likely to forget now.”


    This was incredible. I looked from Nell to Sam and back, but they didn’t look any different. However, I felt like my memory was coming back after they described what had happened. Indeed, I was able to envision the events they talked about and the more I thought about it, the more I felt them.


    “But why is this happening?” Nell asked. “You said they didn’t do anything for you.”


    Lliw nodded. “Only because we didn’t know how to use them. You apparently do.”


    I shook my head. “We are in the dark as much as you are. We have no idea what we did to get these. . .abilities?”


    Sam looked thoughtful. “I don’t think we’ve done anything special to activate them.” He paused. “Well, except for when we all got covered in that green stuff.”


    “That has to be it. I had some on my fingers before my pendant lit up in that pipe. That was the first instance. Then we were covered in it.”


    “That makes a lot of sense,” Lliw said. “It explains why we couldn’t get them to work. This green stuff must be connected to them. When it came into contact with your pendants, they bonded with you, somehow giving you these abilities.”


    I wondered how Nell would take this. She seemed nonchalant when she and Sam described the events on the beach, but adding all this to her mom being killed and finding her body must have been overworking her mind. I looked at her. Her face was stoic.


    “But are we worthy of them?” Sam asked.


    No one answered him. We fell into silence for several minutes.


    Finally, Nell spoke. “I’m ready to go home if you guys are.”


    “Sure, I’m ready,” Sam said.


    “But what about us? We were told you would help us,” Lliw said.


    “We are still learning about what’s going on. Give us some time to understand what all of this means,” I replied. “We won’t forget about you. We will be back.”


    Lliw nodded at my answer. “Until next time then.”


    We took our leave, hoping there weren’t any more surprises left for us to find.


    After going a good way back down the beach, a group of five men in matching black uniforms with gas masks approached us. I didn’t understand why they wore masks since, as far as I could tell, the air wasn’t toxic.


    One of them stepped in front of the group. Clearly, he was the leader. I stepped up to meet him.


    “Your presence has been. . .requested. . .in connection with the disappearance of the fivebrid creature,” he said. His voice was muffled, but I could still understand him.


    Requested? Yeah right. I pretended to think it over. “Will there be snacks?”


    This was not a reaction he expected. He was taken aback for a moment but regained his composure. “You will not have that sense of humor much longer.”


    “And how do you plan on taking it away from me? Do you have some sort of humor removing machine?”


    He stiffened. “How dare you talk to me this way? We will simply have to make you come with us. I don’t think the boss cares if you are a bit roughed up when we bring you in,” he snarled.


    “Get them.”


    They lunged at us. Sam raced to the water, Nell backed up, and I, unsure of what to do, tried the flying ability that Nell told me about. I jumped into the air while my stomach remained firmly on the ground. The blood flowed straight to my head as I floated up, forming little black dots in my eyes. The sudden blood loss from my limbs made them tingle with anxiety.


    I gulped. Why me?


    *    *   *


    Nell didn’t know what to do. She had no idea how to activate her fire. She saw Will in the air, watching everything, and Sam was in the water. Two of the men were advancing toward her so she had to focus back on her situation. She kept backing away, trying desperately to get her fire started. The men simply laughed at her.


    They were nearly upon her when her arms finally exploded.


    She grinned at the men. “Now you’re in for it,” she said.


    She didn’t know what she was going to do now, but she knew she had better do it soon or else she was in big trouble.


    *    *   *


    Out in the water, Sam was formulating his own plan. He saw Will up in the air and Nell’s arms had just ignited. He had no idea what their own plans were, but he worked his out. He watched two of the men staring up at Will, completely ignoring him.


    “Don’t just stand there,” the leader yelled at them. “Fire!”


    They pulled guns out and started firing at Will, who deftly dodged each one. Sam took this opportunity to spray the three men with water. This wasn’t much in and of itself, but Sam knew that Will would take the hint. Which he did. Bolts of electricity came raining down. Only one of the men got hit, taking him down.


    At least it’s something, Sam thought miserably.


    The two remaining men turned their gunfire on Sam, who hid beneath the surface. Bullets hailed all around him.


    What do I do now? he wondered.


    *     *    *


    I watched as Nell tried blasting her fire at the two men who came after her and the remaining two firing at Sam hiding in the water. I realized I failed my fight.


    My stomach did flip flops while I was hovering above everything. My head felt light and I dipped due to my dizziness. I closed my eyes and shook my head to clear it. My friends were in danger and I had to help. So far, only one of the men had been taken down. It was a good thing my bubbling anger was in control, since it seemed like my electricity was connected to it like when I zapped the cop.


    How to control my flight was a different story. I had done minor dodging but I had no real control. With the men focused on Sam, who looked like he was playing a wet and violent game of whack-a-mole, I had time to think. But what? What was I going to think of?


    An idea struck me. I forced all my energy on flying down. I angled toward the men, focusing on them. I dove in their direction. It was time. I flew in the path of the bullets trying to draw their fire, which worked. They turned their attention to me. Too bad I wasn’t quick enough to evade their fire.


    Holy frack I’m gonna die! I did not think this through!


    The bullets hit me square in the chest.


    They’re not hurting me? I thought incredulously.


    I flew directly at them, firing electricity, no longer caring for my safety. The leader dodged, but the other man wasn’t so lucky. The bolts caused him to violently convulse until he died.


    Another one down. I paused. I killed another guy?


    My stomach rebelled against the thought but I had to push it away. I promised myself to let it out later.


    The leader was now alone with his two remaining friends, who seemed to be in a bind of their own. He tried to fire on Nell, but I wasn’t having that. Boiling hot energy flared through my body and I saw red. Even the cloud in my mind roared in anger, sending shockwaves through my nerves. He wasn’t about to hurt her while she was distracted and couldn’t get to him. Fortunately, his aim was erratic and he missed each one so far but he could still hit her. I dove in the path of the gun blocking his shot.


    “No way, fuck face,” I snarled. “You fucked up.”


    I fired a bolt at his hand. He yelped and flung the gun away.


    *    *   *


    The two men had dodged each fire attack, getting close to Nell. The fire had gone out when Nell lost her concentration, now she was at a loss as to what to do. Then something happened. Some new force welled itself up inside of her and took over. She grabbed the two men by their necks and began to squeeze. They started flailing around, trying to hurt her, but to no avail. She was vaguely aware of Will flying down in front of her, but she didn’t know why. She kept squeezing, unsure why she couldn’t stop herself, slowly choking the life out of them. When there was nothing left, she dropped them, leaving the leader left alone.


    *     *    *


    Behind me I could hear the other men choking and gurgling, but I didn’t dare look. I wasn’t taking my eyes off this bastard. Whatever was happening, the guy saw clearly, causing him to shake.


    Sam came out of the water while I landed, and Nell came up to my side. The group leader stood on trembling knees, holding his injured hand, as he looked at each of us with wide eyes.


    “What was that about making us?” I asked him.


    He babbled incoherently. He didn’t know what to do. So, he tried to run, but a blast of water stopped him.


    I said, “You’re not going anywhere.” My anger had eased, but it was far from gone. He had to pay for thinking he could shoot at Nell.


    “Please, I was just following orders.”


    I thought about it. “Well, we can’t have you telling your boss about us, but you’re not attacking us, either, so killing you wouldn’t be very fair.”


    “But he was earlier,” Sam pointed out.


    “Yes, he was, but now he’s not. What should we do with him?”


    I actually didn’t know what to do. We had killed his companions, but did we really want to do that again or at all? My stomach certainly didn’t like that thought and I had no idea how Nell felt. Maybe they would have lived if they hadn’t attacked us, but we had no way to subdue them for any length of time. They would have gotten away from us eventually. His boss, probably Lord Phiale, would be out to get us if he knew who we were. Or worse, since other people in this dimension looked like us, they could be the targets of his wrath. I was at an impasse.


    I looked at Nell. “He tried to shoot you, so you get to decide what we do with him.”


    Before she could answer, he solved my dilemma for me. He fired at me, but the bullet just flattened against my chest.


    Nell took this opportunity to incinerate him where he stood. “Looks like I can use it again,” she muttered looking at her hand.


    “Well, that solves that problem,” Sam said, staring at the pile of ash that used to be a person.


    “I didn’t know I could make it that hot,” Nell quipped. “I guess I was furious and scared he would fire on you while you were offering him mercy.”


    I shrugged. “What could you do?” I thought for a minute. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I need to throw up.”


    I stepped away from them, no longer able to keep my stomach in check. The combination of flying and what seemed to be casual murder was too much for me to handle. I doubled over and everything came up. My throat stung and my eyes watered as my stomach rejected all of its contents. Even after it was all done, I dry heaved until even the air was out.


    I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, panting, as I kicked sand over my mess. My friends were waiting for me by the water which I used to wash up. I wondered how Nell handled the situation but I thought it best not to ask.


    We took one last look at the bodies before Nell burned them to ash and we continued on down the beach toward the cave, my mind racing and stomach churning and aching.