****
It’s late, the sun having already set hours ago the area around the warehouse is illuminated by a few still functioning lamp posts. Visions of snipers fill my head as I look at each island of light shining brightly on the snow beneath. It’s thirty minutes to midnight. A gust of wind screams through the air, swaying trees and fluttering my black trench coat as it sweeps the landscape. I shiver and not from the cold. We’re just waiting for my shadow’s return. Then down to the lowest level of reality, where god only knows what awaits us. Focusing my vision downward I can’t see farther past Whisper’s world no matter how hard I try. I will have to wait until I get closer.
“It is done,” says a voice from the surrounding darkness.
“The sigil stone is deactivated or destroyed?” I ask.
“I said it was done, moron,” my shadow says, bad tempered.
“Did anyone see you?” Whisper asks, nearly invisible in the snow at my feet.
“I am not seen unless I wish it, rat.”
“Did you wish it?” Whisper asks. A good question. My shadow has been in a foul mood ever since I forced him to help.
“No,” my shadow says, his voice dripping with malice. “Ok,” I say, feeling incredibly nervous. “Whisper, let’s do this. I don’t want to keep Sarah waiting.”
Laying a hand on Whisper I shift us to his world. The frozen parking lot recedes as Whisper’s warm jungle-like home replaces it. We are near the hive yet far enough way so that we are still in the jungle’s depths. Taking a deep breath I send my sight further down, to the spot where nightmares live. It isn’t as bad as expected. I shift us again.
An endless sea of shimmering blue sand surrounds us with an oval moon casting an eerie light over all. It’s so blue that at first I think it’s was an ocean and that we will plunge into its surface. The creatures crawling on its surface convince me otherwise. They are not terribly frightening, rather they are disturbing. The creatures are like large crabs, slightly bigger than I am with a moss color shell dominating the majority of its surface. It has over a dozen spindly, red exoskeleton legs poking out from under its protective casing. On the surface of its shell is a large human face that takes up the entire front portion. The face reminds me of the one that ate my neighbor so long ago but this one doesn’t look like a lunatic, instead it’s sad. Incredibly sad, like it alone shoulders the burden of misery for all those in existence. Two pale human arms jut from the shell, making it look like someone is trapped beneath its surface. The sight of the creature is bad enough but it’s the words that it speaks that really hit me hard. ‘Help me,’ it says over and over. Not in some way that it actually expects help, more like after an eternity of suffering and being ignored it says it as a type of reflex. The desire to help the creature is nearly overwhelming until it snatches a large rat-looking creature scampering on the blue sands with its human arms, quickly shoving it into its mouth. The sound of crunching bones reaches my ears and I can see bits of matted fur stuck between blocky teeth as it chews. The sad features are replaced by a look of triumph and greed, until it audibly swallows, then the look of absolute misery returns followed by another ‘Help me.’
“I don’t think they really need help,” I say, revolted.
“No shit,” my shadow says.
“Hmmm, helper crabs… I wonder if they taste like lobster,” Whisper says. Turning to him I am a bit startled. I thought shifting him further down might increase his already prodigious size, in fact I was hoping for it. But he is exactly the same size as in his own world. Interesting.
“I don’t really want to stay here to find out.” I reply.
“You could ask that,” my shadow says, pointing with his dark shadow hand barely seen in the low light around us.
A short distance away another helper crab scuttles back and forth, doing gods only know what, when a mound of sand rises beneath it. Before the helper crab could move away a pit opens up with jagged edges, pulling half of the crab inside. The notion that this was some strange type of geological event is dispelled a second later as it snaps violently shut, spraying blood and bits of shell in all directions.
“Help me!” The helper crab says and this time I think it’s genuine but I lack the motivation to do so. Another opening of its jaws and the rest of the helper crab disappears beneath the sand’s surface. A loud belch echoes across the blue sands, sending the other helper crabs scurrying away.
“I’d rather not stay here and make friends,” I say, hopping on Whisper’s back. Dashing through the blue sands we head in the general direction of the hive. Sending my vision back and forth I direct us as best I can. It’s odd looking into his world while directing him in this one.
“Shifter, we are not alone!” Whisper says and I can see that he is right. Brick was wrong, this area is guarded. Right where the hive is in Whisper’s world stand a dozen hivetung, all armed with spears looking exceptionally nervous, standing in a tight circle. Their nervousness isn’t unsurprising for like Whisper they haven’t increased in size and for another several of their dead lay around the area, feeding the helper crabs as they watch. Small pincers stretch forth from under the shell snipping pieces of hivetung flesh before bringing the chunks back under while the human hands on the shell itself greedily grab bits to feed the face on the top of the shell. Perhaps the likelihood that we would attack from this world never seriously occurred to Solarkar, after all you would have to be mad to do it. Luckily most people thought I was.
“Kill them quickly!” I call to Whisper. “I’ll shift Sarah here!” Giving a large ferret roar, Whisper is upon the startled hivetung in two bounds before they can even react. Crushing two with his landing, Whisper scatters the rest with a single swipe of his paw. Unseen until now in the center of the formation is a shifter much like Solarkar, with leafy green hair, delicate features and slit-pupil eyes like my own. His eyes widen in surprise and fear. Instinctively I feel him ‘shift away. With a pull on my own power I crush his attempt. Whisper’s head snaps forward with the speed of a mongoose, his jaws snapping shut before turning toward other prey. The shifter, now headless, still stands upright, blue blood fountaining from his neck. The standing corpse wobbles feebly for a moment before gracelessly tumbling backwards, moving no more. At least he didn’t have that strange armor Solarkar had.
Suddenly the fight is over. The hivetung are scattered, several being picked off immediately by the helper crabs and one mysteriously sinking into the. Sending my gaze to Whisper’s world I see that we are right in the middle of Solarkar’s throne room with the surrounding sigil stones. In the center is Solarkar atop his dais with Sarah strapped to a crudely carved wooden chair nearby. Solarkar has a superior expression as he looks through realities at me. Sarah is a mess, beaten and bruised with her blonde hair plastered to her face with blood. She is tied firmly in place with thick, green rope along with some duct tape of all things covering her mouth. She is unconscious.
“So you have come in the first world, Inti,” Solarkar says standing up, his armor’s sigils aglow with power and a spear held loosely in his only hand. “I didn’t think you would brave its perils, boy. It also saves me the trouble of sending you there. Alas, it has afforded you nothing. Your human companion is in not going anywhere until I decree it.”
“Solarkar, shut the hell up,” I say and he gives me a bemused look as I dash to Sarah. His look of amusement quickly changes to shock as I shift Sarah to this world, Inti as Solarkar called it.
“Impossible!” Solarkar says, his eyes wide in disbelief. I feel the tug as he attempts to shift us to his world but I am far stronger and block him easily. Sarah is still tied to the chair, the materials surviving the shift.
“Whisper, to me!” I cry. Instantly he is at my side, cutting through Sarah’s bonds with a single swipe, leaving a long furrow in the back of the chair. Picking up Sarah I carry her to the protection of the sigil stones while Whisp
er remains tense and ready.
“You infidel!” Solarkar screams from the safety of his world. He begins barking orders but with Whisper at my side he will need a lot of forces before he could become a threat.
“Sarah,” I say, peeling the duct tape from her mouth and leaning forward, ready to give mouth to mouth if needed and that’s when Solarkar’s plan becomes clear.
Suddenly small, black segmented legs protrude from Sarah’s mouth. I open my mouth to scream or yell, I’m not sure which, but the bug never gives me the chance. Launching itself like a bullet from where it was residing in Sarah’s mouth, it lands right on my mouth, quickly making its way inside, forcing itself past my teeth and cutting my checks and lips in the process. Revulsion surges through me as I gag, reaching inside my mouth after it but it’s useless. With the feeling of swallowing a live frog, it is down my throat and beyond my reach despite every attempt to bring it back up.
“Stupid boy,” Solarkar says and I glare at him through realities. “You think I hadn’t planned for such? I may have overestimated you before and I am impressed at your cunning. You have come in a world I didn’t think you would and somehow even managed to destroy a sigil stone right from under my nose. How did you achieve such a thing?”
“Fuck you,” I say coughing. I think I’m going to be sick.
Solarkar laughs. “No matter. I’ll leave you to your fate in the first world. Pray to Palentor that you die quickly.” Again Solarkar smiles. “Though I don’t think that will be probable.”
The truth of what happened hits me a moment later as my shadow, unseen by all whispers in my ear. His voice is laced with fear for the first time ever. “What the hell happened? I can’t shift anymore.” Reaching outward I notice immediately that he is right. That part of me that could shift isn’t there. Now I am trapped here in this world with no way home.