⚜ Rayne ⚜

The circle of light pulsates before us, lighting up the forest surrounding it. My eyes blink fast, the bright light burning into my retinas and drawing the breath from my chest. This can't be real.

"Hayden," I gasp, unable to find any words as I cling to his arm, afraid, confused, and disbelieving. My knees nearly betray me as he moves forward, fiddling with the sleeve that covers his wrist, eyes never moving from the portal.

"I've waited a long time for this moment, Rayne."

"What moment?"

His eyes finally trail to me, and there's something there that makes them shine on their own, my heart fluttering at the thing I can only describe as purity reaches into my soul and holds it gently.

And I know that I can never get him to feel this way about me.

"The moment I can return." His voice is breathless as my heart breaks inside of me and I take a step back, more confused than I should be. I've never actually had... feelings like this before toward my best friend, not until now, not until something strange happens and I realize how much I don't know about him and how the unknown draws me closer to him.

I shake my head, ridding of these feelings surfacing at the wrong time, returning to the issue at hand as my thoughts become a tangled mess.

"I--I don't understand," I breathe, my heart pounding in my chest as the ache ebbs away and panic and confusion settle in. "What are you talking about, Hayden?"

He exhales softly through his nose, his eyes soft in understanding as he takes my arm with his right hand, the left lifting up slightly to show me something placed on it. A leather bracelet wraps around his wrist in thin tendrils, growing thicker as they near a glowing green stone in the center, the light too bright to see the pattern slightly outlined atop the flat face.

"This is what I needed, what I've been searching for since I got stranded here. This is the Opening Stone."

I turn my attention back to him, his eyes screaming for me to believe him, no matter how crazy it sounds. It's hard to. Seeing isn't always believing, especially in moments like these. And with dreams as vivid as mine... this could only be a dream.

But he's my friend. If I told him a story to this extent and asked for him to believe, he would. No matter how insane. And this moment, even through the strange and startling differences in his appearances and the possibly-not-so-tall tale he's made up, he's still my best friend. My only friend. And the only person to ever try and lift me up from a bad situation, whether it be in my head or outside of me. He was always there for me. It's my turn to be there for him.

"Okay," I finally say, taking a deep breath and nodding as I wrap my arms around my midsection to contain the chill running down my spine. "But why did you want me to follow you?" He never said it flat out, but I know that face. Especially the one he gave me before he... disappeared into thin air.

An excited and nervous smile tugs at his lips and his fingers fiddle with the collar of his white shirt, his brown leather jacket shifting around him as he moves. He produces a necklace wrapping around his neck, just as the one around his wrist does, several leather tendrils hiding mostly beneath his shirt. He begins to unwrap it and my eyes fall onto the green stone glowing, intricate metal wrapping itself around the metal holding the gem and fingering its way onto the face with the design I can't make out in the glow.

"Here," he says as he takes my hand, flips it over, and rests the glowing rock in my hand. The long leather string nearly touches the ground.

"Why are you giving this to me?" I ask, it being my turn to stand breathless.

His eyes bore into mine, glowing that blue glow I've never seen before tonight in all the years we've known each other, and he rests his hands on both of my cheeks, keeping me still and preventing me from looking anywhere else.

"I didn't want to go without you."

I can't find air.

"Hayden--"

"I know, this--this is so crazy. All of it. But it's true. And when I found the Opening Stones, I... I thought of you. And I didn't want to be without my best friend. I didn't want to leave you all alone, not with how your family is, not with how people treat you, and where you live, and... Rayne, please come with me and believe me. Somewhere, I know you need me as much as I need you."

I stare at him for the longest time, it feels, the stone in my hand seeming to vibrate the slightest, calling to me.

I shut my eyes and back away, keeping them shut until I'm sure I'm awake and this is all real. A shaky breath makes its way across my tongue and past my teeth, escaping and melting in with the air outside my body. So normal in a moment of strangeness.

"I still don't understand, Hayden..." I whisper, staring at the stone.

"I have twenty-four hours until this portal closes," he explains, coming nearer. I watch as he takes my hand again and draws me closer, looking at the stone too. "This one, called Tengwa en' Templa, goes directly to my home, Yaaraerea in the Elvin Realm. Your sophomore year here in the Human Realm, my parents accidentally left me here. Luckily, our world works very similar to yours, and I understood a lot about living here, should we ever find ourselves amongst humans. We were to adapt to human lifestyles as much as we could, without spending too much time in the sun--it could kill us."

"But... we've gone sight-seeing in the middle of the day," I squeak, still unable to vocalize correctly.

He nods. "I'm a..." he chuckles and smirks a tiny bit, almost regretfully. "I'm not fully elf. I'm half human. A Peredhil. We're kind of... unique in a rare way."

"Of course you are," I say under my breath. Leave it to my best friend to be a rarity in a parallel universe. If all of this is true and everything, I mean...

"We can stay for a handful of hours out in the sun at a time. But the sun drains us so very quickly. That's why I'd pass out immediately after hanging out outside and why I'd wear hoodies even when it was scorching outside up over my head."

I nod, moving the stone around in my hand and watching it glisten as it glows. Wisps of smoke, like when Hayden disappeared, dance around the edges as I move it. It seems so... magical.

"What are these for?" I ask.

"Oh," he says, growing somewhat excited. That's the Hayden I remember, energetic and optimistic. "Without those, we will die in the portal and become nothing but smoke between the two worlds."

Optimism gone.

"Okay," I say, eyebrows up. I'm somewhat trembling now as I lift the necklace a little higher and take the leather string, half the width of my finger, in both hands. "You said you were looking for these," I start again, curious. "Where did you find them?"

He hesitates, which makes me turn to him. Hesitation in Hayden is never good. The face he made at my door before he changed flashes before my mind. My heart leaps into my throat.

"What did you do?"

He smiles nervously. "I stole them."

"From where?"

"A... a werewolf."

I gape at him.

"Okay, I'm going. I've listened to your story for long enough--"

"No--no, please, Rayne, wait." He grips my arm and tugs me back, his eyes pleading. "They'll kill you if they find you have it."

"Then take it back--"

"No," he interrupts, forcing me to close my hand around the Opening Stone. "Please, come with me."

A chorus of howls rise from the trees and I begin to quiver.

"What am I supposed to expect on the other side?" I whisper frantically, scared.

Another shrill howl. A scream.

My hair stands on end as the sun begins to rise.

"A few doppelgangers, a caste system, and a kingdom more glorious than you could ever imagine. Unless you've envisioned heaven... then it'll be the second."

I crack a small tense smirk and nod. Howls ring out in the distance as the sky begins to lighten. I'm teetering between two options. Believe or run.

"Please, Rayne. You and me. Forever."

"Forever is a nice word, Hayden, but--"

"But there's always forever once this forever ends, as long as our hearts are right."

I look back down at the stone. My hands are shaking. A scream erupts through the trees, and then there's silence. Eerie, terrible silence.

And I know I have to believe.

I nod, wrapping the long string around my neck, the green stone resting in middle curve of my collarbone. It warms my body, the air's bite nearly gone. Hayden takes my hand and nods as I gulp down my last controlled breath and we walk forward, right into the circle of light.