⚜ Rayne ⚜

I've never felt more alone.

My thin hair falls between my fingers as my forehead begins to collect sweat. I can't tell if it's from my palms or where my palms rest, but either way, it doesn't matter. It's only a moment of distraction in the fuzzy uncertainty crushing my lungs. None of this can be real.

But somehow, deep in my bones, I know it is, and I have a feeling it's going to get a whole lot more real than I could ever imagine.

There was this pull to the portal that I can't comprehend, and I'm not sure if it's because of Hayden or because it's away from this wretched world I call home. What a home...

I reach into my pocket and pull the stone out. It glows slightly as I look at it, pulsing like a heartbeat as the leather straps fall to the dirty carpet below me. My heart aches for my best friend. I should have stayed. He wouldn't have run like I had--how could I have been so cowardly? What is wrong with me?

Tears claw at the back of my eyes, threatening to fall. I quickly put up a wall and build a dam as I hold my breath and they reach the brink--but it's no use. My wall crumbles and the floods cover my cheeks. I know there's no use in crying, but it makes me feel a little better.

My eyes drift to my clock. Eight. I'm late for work.

But is that what matters right now?

Seven missed calls from Mandy, my boss. Three texts. I don't bother to read them as I press the number one--speed dial. She answers on the first ring.

"Rayne? Where are you? Is everything all right?" She wheezes over the phone. It must be busy. But...

I shake my head. "No... Something's come up and I'm not feeling too well either... I'm sorry I didn't call you sooner."

I can hear her sigh on the other side of the phone. "Well all right. You've never called in before, so I'll let it slide. Next time, let me know in advance."

"Yes ma'am," I breathe as she hangs up. Everything inside me shudders with disappointment and sorrow as I run my hands over my face once more, the somber mood taking over my small apartment.

I lost my only friend.

But that girl... I remind myself, my eyes finding the glowing rock once again. She had been raised by werewolves--if that's even true. But right now, I'd believe anything. I was in a parallel world, or something, with my best friend who had disappeared before my eyes. The impossible has become the possible within the past few hours--and I was in that other world for more time than an hour.

My eyes snap to the alarm clock once again. Only two minutes have passed since I last looked. Does time flow differently in that world?

The stone glows brightly, casting green light through the room wherever the sunlight doesn't reach. The picture on the face of the stone is finally clear to me--a fleur-de-lis with tendrils wrapping around it in an elegant way. This is probably one reason Hayden immediately thought of me--it's something I obsessively used to doodle in class. It's how we became friends that first day.

"What is that?" He asked, sitting the wrong way in his seat. The class had only just met him and he was acting as if he'd been going there all year. I hadn't outgrown my glasses just yet, and they slipped down my nose as I looked up. He was actually talking to me. No one ever did. Especially new kids.

"Uh," I stuttered, hurriedly covering the picture up with my hand, embarrassed. "It's nothing."

"Sure it's nothing," he smiled, and my heart did a little jump.

"What do you want from me?" I asked quietly, my eyes falling to the table as I drew the paper to me.

"Nothing," he responded gently, and this made me look up at him. He was being so nice... I didn't know whether to believe it or not.

"Come on, show me. I won't laugh."

It took me a moment to remove my hands from the paper. And there it was, fully shaded as if it were a three-dimensional object, a fleur-de-lis sat, with a hand holding it up like an up-right top. He stared at it for a moment and a sad smile appeared on his lips.

"It's really pretty," he said quietly and looked back up at me. "There's no need to be ashamed of a gift."

"I'm not ashamed..." I said just before he could turn around. My voice quivered and buckled.

"Then don't hide such a lovely talent." This time, he stayed staring at me for a long moment. I shifted in my seat and he took a breath as the bell rang. "Can I walk you to your next class?"

I shrugged. "You probably don't even know where it is."

"I'm a fast learner," he joked.

And he learned. And he walked me to every class. I had my hopes up of him liking me, but I knew that was too far-fetched to be true. So I settled in the "friend-zone" or whatever and watched our relationship from there. I knew I wasn't good enough for him. But he always made me feel like I was, in a way.

I sniffle and a tear drips from my chin onto the stone.

"Oh, Hayden," I whisper, wishing he was here with me.

The glowing goes out like a light, and it makes my heart jump.

The world changes around me.

Darkness. And then, light. It pools in a circle at my feet, cascading down from above. Shuffling and scraping reaches out to my ears in the darkness.

"I'm here," someone says. "I'm okay, my melamin."

The voice strikes my heart and sends a bolt of warmth and ice through it at once. "Hayden?"

"It's okay, Rayne." His voice is strangled, and barely above a whisper. "I'm all right."

"Where are you?" I cry as I spin in a circle. "Where am I?"

"You're in The Between. The stone called you here; it's like where you go when you dream."

"But... where are you?"

He chuckles quietly, and I can hear pain in his voice. What did they do to him?

"I'm fine," he repeats. "But I'm only communicating with you, thanks to the stones."

He utters a cry of pain, and my heart begins to hammer in my chest.

"Hayden!"

"Be careful, Rayne," he warns, and I can hear the strain in his voice. "You're a part of the prophecy. But it's up to you to choose which half you are."

He cries out again, and I feel a tear falling down my cheek.

"Don't let the darkness consume you."

Another cry, then, silence.

"Hayden!" I scream, a sob clawing its way out from behind my sternum. "Hayden!"

Hissing comes from the darkness.

Hands grab at my body.

Just like the dream.

I scream as the hands begin to pull me out of the light. My fist reaches into the darkness and begins to burn, as if fire has ignited upon my skin--but nothing of the sort has happened.

"Help me!" I shout, desperate to the light above me. But no voice comes as my shoulder is covered in pain and darkness. I let out a final scream, and the world around me changes once more.

My apartment.

But the light outside has disappeared.

How long had I been in The Between?

My clock reads eight pm.

A howl in the distance.

I follow my heart out the door and down the stairs, once again disappearing into the woods. Only this time, I'm looking for someone else, and not to save her, but to get some answers.

I will get my answers.