Maybe.
Three
Miguel struggled to keep up with Raegan. She was so fast, so strong, so powerful. He was utterly amazed by her. In fact, she stirred up emotions inside of him that he didn’t even know he had. His entire short adult life had been focused entirely on survival, and that was actually even more important now, but somehow, he couldn’t focus on it.
All he could see was her.
They’d been looking for two days for the exit hole. Two of the best and worst days of his life. He knew he should be more focused on ensuring he stayed alive, but he kept finding himself watching the scowling expression on this mysterious woman’s face, the swing of her hip as she ran, the fire that blazed through her eyes all the time.
Everyone else he’d met seemed so… human, but Raegan was like an all-powerful machine. Godlike in her abilities. How could his mind possibly think about anything else?
“Have you ever been to that place with all the vampires?” he asked, shooting out another attempt to get her attention. She gave off vibes that he annoyed her all the time, but he could sense she wanted him around too, even if she couldn’t admit it to herself.
Raegan felt a small smile playing on her lips. Vampires. That should probably seem like a ridiculous notion, but after everything she’d seen, it was completely plausible.
“Nope. No vampires.”
“I tell you; it was freaking terrifying. I saw two people get their entire bodies sucked dry in seconds. They were completely floppy by the end of it. It was insane.” He shuddered. “I had nightmares for ages after. I kept seeing the redness all the time. The blood, you know. It was horrible.”
Raegan didn’t respond. As Miguel went into more gruesome details, finally glad to have an answer from her, she drifted off. She remembered Sara, the second woman she came across in this new crazy dimension switching existence. She’d been killed in a very similar way on the planet where everyone was invisible. She didn’t even see the attack happening, she was just suddenly drained. Nothing. Deflated. Raegan didn’t sleep well after either.
That was horrible for her, and probably the last person she ever got close to.
Luckily Raegan had been aware enough to run like hell, even then at such a young age. It had been that moment she’d learned she couldn’t be the same person she’d always been. She had to change, to really grow. She’d always been a popular, friendly young girl, but she’d also relied on too many people for too long. Her dad has always had her back, her friends had always been there too… it was even worse because she’d lost her mum so young. People had been overprotective her forever, and now she was alone.
Really alone in a world that didn’t look close to getting any better.
So, she’d grown up. It hadn’t been easy, but luckily, she’d been just about old enough to do so. There had been worse times than others, such as when she’d first hit puberty. That was not a time that anyone wanted to spend alone, but poor Raegan had been on a soft, bouncy planet which no one seemed to live on. She’d been there for two months and they’d been the longest two months of her existence. She’d almost gone mad along the way. It was hell, being alone. Having something to fight was awful too, but the loneliness damn near killed her.
She couldn’t be here for that long, not now she had a purpose. Her dad was alive somewhere and she needed him so badly it ached. The throbbing in her chest wouldn’t subside until she had her arms around him.
“How the hell are we going to get out of here?” she finally mused out loud.
“Um…” Miguel was stumped. Normally other people did the exit hole finding for him. “How do you… normally get out?”
“Well, it’s always a hole or a pit, something of that nature. Of course, I’m sure you knew that. But they always seem to have this energy about them. It’s the sort of thing that you can tune into. Once you know how the energy feels, they become much easier. But this one… is a real pain! I can’t feel anything. It’s almost as if there isn’t one.”
The idea of never escaping struck them both hard. Was that even possible? Had they been lucky up until this point?
“Yeah…” A growl sent a jolt of fear racing through Miguel’s system. He despised facing the beasts on this planet. It didn’t help that Raegan fought them with ease. He hated having to rely on her. Especially as he was pretty certain his feelings towards her were only going to get stronger and stronger. With her, he actually wanted to be a better person. He wanted to be the protector.
He remembered his father always telling him that men were the dominant species. That they had to look after women. He’d wanted to take that on board, but he’d been too young, too afraid. Then he’d grown used to being looked after.
Now, he wanted to grow once more.
He was going to do something. This time… he was…
His head started to spin; his stomach began to swirl. He gasped, his breaths coming out labored. Fear was consuming him, taking him over. He staggered backward automatically, watching Raegan as she prepared herself for what was to come.
He needed to do this. He had to. He wanted to so damn badly…
“Raegan,” he tried to call. “For you…”
But he couldn’t get his sentence out. The world was pin holing, becoming ever smaller until she was the only thing in his vision. Her almost translucent skin, her giant mane of wild hair, her stunning expression… wow, she was beautiful. If only he could find the words to tell her.
Then everything around him vanished and all he could see was black.
Four
Raegan heard Miguel fall to the ground with a loud thump, but that wasn’t something she could deal with right now. One of the alien beasts who made this planet their home was coming, and she had to deal with that first.
The beasts equaled death, and now that she knew her father was alive, death definitely wasn’t an option. Not that it ever had been really.
If Miguel was going to be a fainter, then he wasn’t going to last very long at all. She felt oddly disappointed about that. Maybe it’s because it was the first person similar to her age that she’d stumbled across in this whole mess, or perhaps it was just the link to family. Either way, she knew she was going to fight to save him too.
“Okay, let’s do this.”
She felt her body gearing up, the adrenaline pumping through her veins. The alien beasts didn’t bother her too much really, in the grand scale of things, they weren’t anywhere near as strong as things she’d had to face in the past. As long as she could kill them when they were alone, she was fine. The only thought that bothered her was getting surrounded. More than a couple at a time would become a problem.
It raced through the trees with its ugly, bumpy tail dragging behind it. Raegan raced too, knowing she’d have the best chance of catching it off-guard if she ran at it full force. She jumped up, pushing her strong thighs as high as they could carry her. She landed on its arm and swung out her fist to punch it.
As she threw her hands around and kicked with all her might, doing her best to harm the beast in any way possible, she spotted something. It was nothing of real significance on this planet, yet it was everything at the same time. She couldn’t believe that she’d missed it. She couldn’t believe that she’d finally found it and she was in the middle of a fight with this damn thing.