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Across Worlds with You, Part 9 (Final) by Kit Campbell

Part 1Part 2Part 3Part 4Part 5Part 6Part 7 Part 8 Across Worlds with You, Part 9Kit Campbell “Okay,” Theo said for the fifteenth time. “So, just for the record, we might die instantly.” “You said that already,” Will said. He should be worried about potentially dying instantly, but for some reason he wasn’t. Maybe his brain had gone back to the psychotic episode theory. Maybe he’d bought into the whole prophecy thing. Or maybe he innately trusted Theo’s magic. Or just Theo. Anyway, Theo or his magic hadn’t led Will astray yet. They were standing in yet another waystation. While Theo opened the gate—was he getting sick of opening gates? Had he ever opened a gate before he’d come to save Will?—Will stared around at it. This one was a light blue stone, almost like turquoise or aquamarine. Who had created the waystations? Why were they all subtly different? Or maybe they weren’t there at all—maybe it was just how their brains, or Will’s, at least, perceived it. He should ask Theo what he saw. Although not right now. The blue of the gate opening illuminated the corridor in front of Will, bringing it up to daylight levels. He turned to find Theo packing his supplies back into his bag. They’d packed the amulets as well. “Okay,” Theo said yet again. “Let’s go over this one more time. I’ve enchanted these”—he indicated two new, different amulets in his hand—“to block the Darkness’s powers so we can walk through it without…

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Across Worlds with You, Part 8 by Kit Campbell

Part 1Part 2Part 3Part 4Part 5Part 6 Part 7 Across Worlds with You, Part 8Kit Campbell Destia’s foot was a shriveled husk, the skin gray and dead. Like the life had been sucked out it. The life had been sucked out of it. Will buried his head in his hands. Theo had sent them straight back to Helstena before leaving Will and Destia to talk to the Council. The Historian had arrived shortly after, helping Destia to a safe place for her to sit. Destia hadn’t said a single word since the gate had closed. He was really messing this up. Other people were getting hurt because of him, and despite them retrieving the amulets—well, most of them—he still couldn’t actually do anything. Why would the prophecy have named him? The world was doomed. The Historian sighed and stood, coming over to join Will where he sat on the edge of the terrace, staring out at the world he was soon to destroy. “Good job,” she said, not sarcastically. It took a moment for Will to parse the words. “Good job?” he echoed. “Destia could have died because the Darkness can somehow figure out where I’m going.” “She could have,” the Historian agreed, “but she didn’t, because you pulled her to safety in time.” “She wouldn’t have even been in danger if it wasn’t for me.” “Oh, well, now that’s not true.” The Historian groaned as she lowered herself onto the ground beside him. Closing her eyes, she took a…

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Across Worlds with You, Part 7 by Kit Campbell

Part 1Part 2Part 3Part 4Part 5 Part 6 Across Worlds with You, Part 7Kit Campbell Despite being hyperfocused on listening, Will heard no sign of the dragging, hissing sound he associated with the Deathcrawlers. Of course, he’d always come across them in built-up areas—areas made of concrete, and stone, and asphalt. They probably didn’t make the same sound if they were crawling through flowers. Despite that, they made it to the town across the field without being eaten or whatever a Deathcrawler actually did when they caught you. Theo, once again, sped up as they approached the amulet. This one ended up being embedded in the back wall of an inn. Destia distracted the innkeeper with questions about the safety of her establishment while Theo plunged his hand into the wall. This amulet was silver with a deep blue gem. It, like the last one, went into Theo’s bag. “Are you going to stay or not?” said a particularly frustrated innkeeper. “I’ll have to check with my employer,” Destia replied. “Come on, boys, duty awaits.” Back outside, the fog was more obvious. And definitely getting closer. “Does it normally move so quickly?” Will asked. Theo had gone pale, though that could have been the drain of the spell. “I’m not sure. We had it mostly contained by the time either you or I were born. I don’t know what it was like at the beginning.” “It swept in from nowhere,” Destia said, her gaze distant, remembering. “It liked wooded areas…

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Across Worlds with You, Part 6 by Kit Campbell

Part 1Part 2Part 3Part 4 Part 5 Across Worlds with You, Part 6Kit Campbell “They’ve got to be tracking Will somehow,” Theo said around a mouthful. They were back in Helstena. Theo had managed to close the gate before the Deathcrawler had gotten through, but it had been with shaky hands that he’d opened a gate straight back to Helstena instead of going back through all the waystations. The amulet had been put somewhere safe and guarded, and now Will found himself eating dinner in one of the nicer houses in the village, though he’d not followed whose house it was or why they were feeding him. “That’s not good.” Destia ripped a chunk of the loaf of bread on the table in front of her, not actually seeming concerned. Will glanced down at his own plate, where he’d only managed a few bites. What was not good was how the amulet hadn’t responded to him. If he were the one from the prophecy, and the amulets were the key to stopping the Darkness, that was a major issue. Or he wasn’t the one from the prophecy, everyone had been wrong all these years, and they were all going to die. He tried to muster the thought that he was having a psychotic break, just to see how it felt, but it rang empty. His brain would never have come up with all this on its own. “Or,” Destia said, “maybe the Darkness was just lucky.” Theo stared at her…

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Across Worlds with You, Part 5 by Kit Campbell

Part 1Part 2Part 3 Part 4 Across Worlds with You, Part 5Kit Campbell “I thought you locked this?” Will asked. They were, once again, up on the marble terrace, standing in front of a pair of massive wooden doors. “I didn’t lock anything, the Council did,” Theo said, his voice echoing even more here. “And it was the gate between here and Earth.” Will looked over at Destia, who shrugged. “World gates are weird sorcerer stuff,” she said. “I just stab things.” As if to emphasize her point, she pulled her sword out once more from…somewhere. Maybe it was a magic sword. It didn’t matter as long as it got the job done, Will guessed. “Okay,” he said, just to say something. “Now what?” “Now sorcerer boy has to put in the right coordinates for whatever world he’s tracked the amulet to, and in we go.” Destia took a few steps away and did a few practice parries. “Is that what you did to get us here?” “Sort of.” Very slowly, Theo retrieved a similar bag of supplies that had been left off to the side. “The difference is that I knew how to get us here. The amulet is on an uncharted world.” “Uncharted?” “Like I said earlier, there’s an infinite number of worlds. Until the Darkness came in from one, we didn’t know about any of them. Using the worldslips is a new skill, born of desperation.” Theo began to chalk up the ground in front of the…

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Across Worlds with You, Part 4 by Kit Campbell

Part 1Part 2 Part 3 Across Worlds with You, Part 4Kit Campbell The Historian was an elderly woman who lived, or at least worked, in a small cottage on the edge of the village. Her long, gray hair hung loose around her shoulders as she opened the door and beckoned them all inside without saying a word. Inside, the cottage was clean though cluttered, mostly with books and tea cups. Theo wrung his hands. “Greetings,” he started. “Sit down,” the Historian said. They all sat, squeezing onto an older sofa. Will found himself stuck between Destia, who took up more room than her size would entail, and Theo. “I know we’re early…” Theo started again. “Early? Ha!” The Historian put a kettle on a wood stove in the corner before bustling over to one of her overladen bookshelves. She pulled a large book, papers hanging out of the sides, off and dumped it unceremoniously onto Will’s lap. It opened onto a random page, where the drawings of three…necklaces?…were displayed. Wordlessly, the Historian waited. “Okay,” Will said. “Um, let’s assume I don’t have any idea what’s happening.” Destia gave Theo a look across Will. Theo glared back. “Oh, this is that timeline.” The Historian sighed, then dragged an armchair over. She lowered herself into it. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes. When she breathed out, her breath misted, creating a dense cloud which floated between her and Will. “Many years ago, before you were born, a Darkness came.” On…

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Across Worlds with You, Part 3 by Kit Campbell

Part 1 Part 2 Across Worlds with You, Part 3Kit Campbell When the light finally died down and Will could see again, he was in yet another new hall, though this one was made of a gray-ish stone, maybe marble, with a large terrace in front of him overlooking a green valley. He blinked once, rubbing his eyes. Then Destia and Theo barreled into him, and all three went down. “Shut it, shut it!” Destia scrambled to her feet, sword in hand. “It’s shut,” Theo answered, not bothering to right himself. “I built that into the spell. What we need to do now is lock the gate.” He finally sat up, rubbing the back of his head. “I have no idea how Deathcrawlers are managing to move between worlds, but I don’t like it. And we have enough Deathcrawlers here without having to worry about more coming in from elsewhere.” Will was half-pinned under Theo’s legs. “Where are we now?” “Beautiful Helstena,” Destia replied. “Or what’s left of it, anyway.” Will twisted so he could see over the terrace again. “Looks fine to me.” Theo’s eyes went blue and something unseen blew through, messing up everyone’s hair. Will had the strangest urge to straighten Theo’s. After a moment, Theo’s eyes faded back to normal and he extricated himself from Will, offering him a hand. “I’ve sent a report. They’ll take care of the gate.” Will accepted Theo’s help. The other man pulled him up with surprising strength, his grasp lingering…

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Let’s Talk About Books!

Oof. May was A Month, friends. But it’s behind us now, and let us not dwell on the many disasters it contained (except perhaps the basement, which is still having, shall we say, issues). (Also, if you missed it, the first part of my new serial, Across Worlds with You, is now up! You’ll get a new part every month until we’re done.) But anyway, let’s talk about books. Specifically the books I have read lately. I mostly read scifi and fantasy (and my guilty pleasure, cozy mysteries) but I do try to read outside of that periodically to expand my horizons and all that jazz. We Have Always Been Here, by Lena Nguyen (2021, science fiction) I really liked this one! Aside from colony missions and strange new planets and other things you’d expect in scifi, you also get an interesting delve into consciousness, what makes us human, androids, and interpersonal relationships. I basically read it all in one sitting, which is hard because it wasn’t short. Built, by Roma Agrawal (2018, nonfiction) We have a local restaurant that uses random books for decorations, and this one caught my eye, and then when I looked it up it sounded interesting, so I hunted it down. Ms. Agrawal is an architectural engineer, and she explains how things like skyscrapers and giant bridges and what have you get built, as well as looking at historical examples and how they worked (or didn’t). I learned quite a bit! Not least of which…

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Across Worlds with You, Part 1 by Kit Campbell

Across Worlds with You, Part 1Kit Campbell Will was six before he realized his reflection was wrong. Oh, sure, most of the time it was nothing, but every now and then his reflection misjudged what he was going to do, and would have to flail a bit to catch up. And once, when he was about ten, his reflection sneezed when Will did not. At first he’d tried to point this out to the adults in his life—his parents, his teachers. But his reflection was always perfect when someone else came along, and after a while Will had stopped trying. It wasn’t hurting anything, after all. As he got older and into college, he came across stories of ghosts and other paranormal entities and mirrors, but his reflection wasn’t like that at all. Will came to think of it as a slightly-confused but mostly well-meaning friend who just happened to look exactly like him. Well, mostly, he didn’t really think about it at all. It just was. On his twenty-second birthday he woke up, rubbed his eyes, and stumbled into the bathroom. After splashing water on his face, he toweled off and looked into the mirror to find…nothing. His reflection was gone. The towel dropped out of Will’s hand. He could see the dingy tiles of his apartment’s shower, the mismatched towels hanging haphazardly on the towel bar, the toilet which leaned subtly to the left. But he—or his reflection, at least—was conspicuously absent. Will rapped gently on the mirror.…

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All’s Fair in Love and Vampires

All’s Fair in Love and VampiresKit Campbell Even chocolate started to taste bad after the third bar. Sophia forced herself to swallow the last of it anyway, said, “Right,” and went out into the dark streets. The chill seeped through her coat as she kept to lonely alleyways and forgotten corners. “C’mon,” she murmured. “I didn’t make myself sick for nothing.” “You smell divine,” purred a voice from behind her. “I do so miss being able to taste food—especially chocolate.” Finally. Sophia reached under her coat, then froze as she sensed movement off to her left. “What’s a sweet thing like you doing in a place like this?” said a second voice, then laughed. Ugh, even the undead were crap at pick-up lines. So, for future note, three bars were too many. Sophia tightened her grip on her stake—her only stake. “Back off,” said the first one. “I smelled her first.” “Come on, bro,” said the second. “Didn’t your mother ever teach you to share?” Well, served her right for being unprepared, but she’d be damned if she didn’t go down fighting. Sophia spun, pulling the stake out as she went. She lunged at the first vampire, who hissed and danced out of her reach. She cursed under her breath. She was out of her element—normally she waited until they were on top of her before she struck. But with two— “Not cool, dude,” said the second one. “That’s not playing nice.” His voice sounded closer, but Sophia couldn’t pick…

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