Samie Sands - Through Space and Time

“You… you saw another human?” Something about this made Raegan’s heart stop beating for a millisecond. The idea of another person being in this exact situation was almost too much for her to handle. “Someone else was here? Do you know who it was?”

The woman glared. “As if I would care about something so insignificant? The only reason I bring it up is because he murdered one of us. He did what we thought was impossible and ended one of our endless lives. That created a divide between us all. Some of us want to die, others do not want their immortality threatened. That is why your presence is a big deal and why you need to be controlled.”

“I don’t want to kill anyone, and nor does Miguel. You can trust me with that one.”

“Mi… guel?” She cocked her head to one side curiously.

“Yes, Miguel.” Raegan pointed behind her. “He wouldn’t hurt anyone. I don’t know who hurt you people, but that is nothing to do with us.”

“You humans ruined your planet; you are the destroyers. All you want to do is wreck more. Including us. I cannot let this happen. Fifty years ago, you came here and turned our lives upside down…”

“Wait, fifty years ago?” That made Raegan’s head hurt. The nuclear war hadn’t even started then… but of course, she’d been to what looked like Earth in the year 2015, so perhaps she shouldn’t be so stunned.

A hole had been torn in reality, in time and space, anything was possible.

“Okay, well I’m sorry this happened to you, I understand this must be really hard, but there’s one way you can make sure that we don’t do the same. Take us to the exit hole and send us on our way. That way you don’t ever need to see us again. We can’t come back.”

“But we need you. We need you to work out the way to die, so the ones who do not want immortality can have it. You are key like I said.” Her lips twisted up into a nasty smile. “Also, more importantly, I want revenge. I would prefer to make an example of you. You should die for the sins of your people.”

“Our people have suffered enough. The war killed billions of us…”

“Your own fault ,” she screamed. “You are the destroyers.”

“But how is that fair…?” Raegan started, but it was pointless, the woman had gone.

She dissolved into thin air leaving her alone with Miguel who still showed no signs of life. The darkness threatened to completely consume Raegan, her eyes could no longer pick out anything.

“Miguel,” she hissed into the thick blackness. “Miguel, you need to wake up now. I cannot do this alone. This is serious, we need to get out of here.”

She fell to her knees and scrabbled around on the ground to try and find him. Tears balled up behind her eyes, she knew they’d fall if she let them, but she was determined not to. She absolutely couldn’t, especially not while she was by herself. Weakness wasn’t her forte. It never had been, and it never would be. Especially not now.

“Oh dear,” a silky voice broke through the darkness, making Raegan jump. “But you are not alone. In a place like this, you are never by yourself.”

“Nrughrrn,” Miguel murmured, finally stirring.

Raegan glanced at him, but only for a second. She needed to work out what this new threat was. A stranger’s voice that had her heart pounding furiously.

“Who’s there?” she called out into the echoing cave.

“I’m not the enemy,” it replied, for nowhere and everywhere all at once.

“How can I trust you?”

“I can’t make you trust me; I don’t have the time to prove to you who I am. But if you want to get out of here alive instead of being subjected to horrible experiments, then I’m the best chance you have.”

“But… you’re one of them, aren’t you?” Raegan wanted to believe what was being said to her, but she’d been through too much to let her guard down.

“I am. But we don’t all want to cause harm. In fact, most of us don’t.”

Raegan shrugged into the darkness. “Well, I guess I don’t have any choice.”

She moved to wake Miguel up, but magic lifted him upright. His confused face tried to drink everything in at once. Raegan did want to explain it all to him, to have him on the same page as her, but they didn’t have the time. He’d understand in the end anyway.

“What now?” Miguel whimpered.

He didn’t know much, but he was aware knew that something had gone terribly wrong.

“I’m taking you to the exit hole. You need to come with me.”

A sliver of silvery light came into view. It wasn’t so much a person, more an energy. Miguel wanted to question it, but he recognized that look on Raegan’s face. This wasn’t the time.

“We do not have time to waste. You must follow me now.”

The slither of light began to vanish, causing both Raegan and Miguel to race after it. Neither of them truly had the strength for this fast-paced mission, but they did what they could. It didn’t help that every so often they would feel something pressing down on them. A force they couldn’t see. It troubled Miguel when he struggled to breathe but seeing Raegan power through it made it much easier for him. If she could do this, he could too. For her.

Raegan’s hand reached out to grab his. It was a place they’d been numerous times before, but for some reason in the intense powerful dark surrounding them, the electricity sizzled between them even more phenomenally than ever before. Neither of them spoke aloud, but their feelings continued to grow increasingly by the second. It became damn near impossible to remember why they’d been pushing their emotions down.

Why not just go with it? What did they have to lose?

“I want you to escape,” the slither of light burst out, making both of them jump. They’d almost forgotten they weren’t alone for a moment while they got lost in the lust. “To make things right. There was tension between us, years ago, and while I’m sure you’ve heard a skewed version of the truth, we have not been innocent. Not by a long shot. You should not have to suffer because of that.”

“I would like to know more,” Raegan mused. “I feel like there’s a deep history here that we should know about. In the future, when things are…”

She trailed off. She didn’t know how to answer that question. She never ever wanted to lose hope, that would take her one step closer to death, but it’d been slipping off her like a wet towel for a while now, without her even noticing it.

“We do not have time,” the light insisted again. “Not if you want to live.”

Living beat having all the answers, she supposed, but she still wanted to remember. Just in case a time came where she could finally record all of this.

The hallways inside the cave didn’t seem to end. Miguel was just about to get to the point where he assumed this was a trap when the light shimmied upwards.

“Oh, look!” Raegan cried. “A ladder. We must have to climb it.”

It wasn’t exactly a ladder, but it appeared to be a contraption which did the same trick. Where Raegan climbed with ease, Miguel struggled to find his footing, but determination kept him going. Every time his hands felt slippery and sweaty, he didn’t stop, whenever his foot fell, he didn’t allow himself to fall, he followed the woman his feelings surged for.

“Prohibere! Iisdem indigemus aperire aditus gehennae.”