Across Worlds with You, Part 2 by Kit Campbell

Across Worlds with You, Part 2

by Kit Campbell

Part 1

“Will? Will? Can you hear me?”

Oh. He wasn’t dead. At least, not if the aching in his body meant anything. Gingerly, Will raised his head. He was lying on a tiled floor in a large hall of some kind where he’d definitely never been before.

Beside him another man, his same age, knelt. He, like the hall, was also new. But, hey, not dead. And the dragging, hissing noise was nowhere to be heard. But, oh hell, his final. Dr. Frobisher had probably burned it.

The man beside him wrung his hands. He was a lanky fellow who looked like a strong breeze would probably best him in a fight. “Can you hear me?”

“Where am I?” Excellent, his voice worked too. The tile beneath him, and, indeed, all of him, was drenched. “Did you drag me in from outside? Which department is this?”

“Oh, well,” the other man said. Then, instead of saying anything useful, he ran his hands through his hair, which served to make it stand up straight.

Will managed to push himself up into a sitting position, only having a hand slip out from under him once. The hall was easily four stories tall, made out of a deep red stone that he hadn’t seen elsewhere on campus. Several stone columns held up the ceiling, and other archways led off, well, somewhere. It was fairly dark past the archways, making it hard to tell how long the connecting corridors were. Nowhere were there any windows, but hopefully the rain had stopped. And hopefully whatever had been chasing him had drowned.

How to broach that subject? “Hey,” Will said, “when you brought me in, did you, you know, hear anything?” No use asking if he’d seen anything. Even Will hadn’t seen anything.

Maybe there hadn’t been anything. Maybe he was hallucinating, and whoever this guy was had found Will in the puddle after he’d knocked himself unconscious running from literally nothing.

“Will,” the guy said again. “I’m not sure—”

“Theo!” someone yelled from behind Will, and the other guy startled. “Why haven’t you gotten him dry yet? Did you really pull him in just to have him catch his death of cold?”

A tiny woman, perhaps a little older than either he or who was apparently Theo, stalked into view, wearing all black and looking like she’d crawled out of some sort of spy thriller. She swept into a bow. “Destia, at your service.”

“Uh,” said Will.

“Sorry, sorry,” Theo muttered. He sat up straight, cracked his hands, and took a deep breath. After a moment, his eyes turned an intense shade of blue.

Will almost fell over again.

Theo spoke a few words of what sounded like nonsense. A wind blew up from underneath Will, however that was possible, forcefully pulling the water out of his clothes and hair. As quickly as it had come, it was gone, Will was dry, and Theo’s eyes faded back to hazel.

“I am dead, aren’t I,” Will said.

“Well, no—” Theo started.

“You didn’t tell him what was happening either?” Destia broke in, looking exasperated. “I thought you had this well in hand, sorcerer.”

Theo frowned at her. “Did you check the worldslips to make sure nothing else got in?”

“Of course I did.” But she didn’t look sure, and after a moment she meandered off toward one of the archways like it was her own idea.

Theo closed his eyes and took several deep breaths, his hands curling where they rested on his knees. “Okay. Okay. I know this is all very strange.”

That was putting it lightly. But Will was much more comfortable now that he was dry, so he was willing to have some patience. Especially because him being insane was looking more and more likely. “Why don’t you start at the beginning?”

Theo steepled his hands in front of his lips. They were very nice lips. Will moved his focus elsewhere. “No,” Theo said, “that will be too confusing. Let’s start at the end.” He gestured at the stone surrounding them. “This is a waystation, a place between worlds. Mirrors and other reflective surfaces are liminal spaces. So I used the puddle to pull you here and out of that Deathcrawler’s path.”

Will blinked, trying to get his brain to parse Theo’s statement. “Okay, well, I understand each of those words individually. Except Deathcrawler.” Except he did understand it, felt that understanding deep in his bones, and shivered. “Wait. Wait. You pulled me through the puddle to…here?”

Theo nodded.

“You’re my reflection.”

Again, Theo nodded.

Will took another moment to look at Theo. He didn’t resemble Will in the slightest, but Will supposed that if the man could change his eye color and dry Will in a second, creating some sort of illusion was probably nothing. “So, uh, have you always been my reflection? Like, my whole life? Or did people switch out with you? Do you follow me around all the time?”

“What? No, you’re not always in front of a mirror.” Theo shifted, pulling his legs out from under him and sitting criss-cross on the tiles. “But also yes. I mean, it’s just me. Has been since we were five or so. There were other surveillance techniques before that, though I don’t know what exactly.”

“Hasn’t that been boring, just watching me?”

Theo’s cheeks went slightly pink. “No. I mean, well, no, but—” He shook his head. “No, we’re focusing on the wrong thing. Once Destia checks everything out we need to keep moving. If they’ve found you on Earth we can’t send you back there. We’ll have to return to Helstena and hope that what we’ve put into place over the years has made us ready.”

Will’s brain finally caught up. “Wait, who’s looking for me? What’s Helstena? What do you mean, surveillance techniques? Why have you been watching me?” He scrambled to his feet. “I’ve got to go back. Even if Dr. Frobisher has burned my final, I’ve still got another one, and then my shift—oh God, how long has it been?”

“Will—”

“No, no. This is crazy. There’s not…waystations, or worldslips, or freaking Deathcrawlers…”

“Will!”

Will froze, staring at Theo. “You’ve seen me naked.”

Theo went bright pink.

Destia chose that moment to stroll back in. “Perimeter’s secured, and the gate to Earth is still locked.”

Theo coughed. “Yes, good. And the Helstena gate?”

“I’ve started the preparations.” She peered at Will curiously. “You know, you’re not quite what I expected you to be.”

“Why would you expect me to be anything?”

Destia gave Theo another look that clearly said he was slacking off.

Theo stood as well. He was actually a little taller than Will, and now that he was standing Will could see that the other man wore leather breeches and boots and a green tunic that wouldn’t have looked out of place at a Renaissance Faire. It should have been ridiculous, but it looked good on him. Really good.

God, what was wrong with him? Here he was, either going insane or actually being hunted by some sort of extradimensional creature, and he was crushing on some guy who was potentially just a hallucination.

Or had just saved his life.

Theo put his hands on his hips. “You can’t expect me to fit thirty years of exposition into five minutes.”

“I don’t see why not.” Destia nodded at Will. “Hey, you. We had to hide you in another world because you’re prophesized to rid our world of an evil that’s slowly destroying it, and somehow they found out.”

Will stared at her. “Nope,” he said. “Put me back.”

“We can’t put you back,” Theo said, glaring at Destia. “Even if that Deathcrawler’s left, they know that world now.” He paused, then gently patted Will on the shoulder. “Earth will never be safe for you, not ever again.”

“Unless,” Destia interjected, “you get rid of the Darkness, and then you can go wherever you want! Because it’ll be dead, and not trying to kill you.”

Behind one of the archways, a flash of light lit up what turned out to be a very long stone corridor. It lasted only a moment, but Will caught Theo and Destia exchanging a look that was definitely not encouraging.

“Is it supposed to do that?” he asked.

Destia ignored him. “You take him and head to the gate. I’ll give you time.”

“Right.” Theo indicated another archway, in the other direction. “We need to go over here, now.”

Will nodded, but then stopped. What was he doing? He didn’t know Theo. Maybe his name wasn’t even Theo. Maybe he was just feeding Will a story, and when Will went with him, he’d get murdered or something. Even murderers could be cute.

He needed to go home. He needed to take his finals, or his whole semester was going to be useless, and he’d be trapped at the coffee shop forever.

Theo had made it to the archway. “Will?”

Will opened his mouth to insist on going back to Earth, if he had ever really left it, when he heard it. The dragging, hissing sound that had chased him out of class. His heart seized, ice flaring down his spine.

No, not exactly the same. It was louder, echoing on itself. Like…like there were more of them. The Deathcrawlers, Theo had called them.

Unlike Will’s classmates, Theo could obviously hear the sound as well. He gestured frantically for Will to catch up, just like his reflection had back at school, before turning and jogging through the archway into the darkness beyond. Will hurriedly followed, glancing back over his shoulder, but there was nothing to be seen except Destia hovering near the other archway.

Well, now she had a sword. Where the hell had that come from?

Theo murmured something and a ball of dim light sprung up over his hand, barely illuminating the space but providing enough light for Will to not trip over him. Behind them, the sound swelled, the hissing running over itself.

“Will Destia be all right?” he whispered.

“Probably?” Theo said, which was not reassuring.

Up ahead, barely visible with Theo’s limited light, a double door loomed, easily fifteen feet tall and made of wood, arched on top like the archways. Intricate carvings of trees and vines decorated both sides, and a small pile of…something…sat in front of it.

“Hold this please.” Theo dumped the ball of light into Will’s hand. Will jumped back, but the ball floated over his palm like it had Theo’s, and was neither hot nor cold. Will reached out a finger to poke the ball, but the light parted before it, always evading his touch.

Theo had gone to the pile and pulled out several candles, which he placed in a circle and lit. That done, he retrieved what looked like a chalk stick and began drawing lines between the candles in a variety of combinations.

Will tried to focus on what Theo was doing, but all he could hear was the hissing, dragging, down the corridor, and how it seemed to be getting louder. “Uh, what are you doing?”

“Opening the gate,” Theo replied without looking up from his work. “The Deathcrawlers shouldn’t have been able to get in here, but now that they are…” He trailed off, frowning down at his design.

“What?”

Running feet echoed down the corridor. Will backed up, closer to the door, holding the ball of light up, for all the good that did. What if the Deathcrawlers had gotten past Destia? How was drawing on the floor going to open the gate?

Destia panted into view. “Seriously, sorcerer? Why isn’t the gate open?”

Without answering, Theo slammed his palm down in the middle of his drawing. The whole thing flared a brilliant blue. The ball in Will’s hand went out. And, behind them, down the corridor but not as far as Will would have liked, came the hissing, dragging noise. If he focused, he could see movement. Dozens of pale, hairless, human-ish creatures swarmed in the darkness, moving unnaturally quick.

Destia’s sword was in her hand again. “Any time, sorcerer!”

The blue light from the design on the floor crawled up Theo’s arm, twisting and dancing across his shoulders and head. His eyes, once again, flared intensely blue, and, in front of them, the door inched open, light in the same shade spilling out. “Go as soon as you fit,” Destia ordered. Will didn’t wait, squeezing through. Something or someone grabbed him, and blue light swirled around him as everything else vanished.

Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9