ALEX

𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝚂𝙺𝚈 𝙱𝚁𝙾𝙺𝙴 𝙸𝙽𝚃𝙾 𝙰 𝙿𝚄𝚁𝙿𝙻𝙴 𝚃𝙸𝙽𝚃 𝙰𝙵𝚃𝙴𝚁 𝙰 𝙳𝙰𝚈 𝙾𝚁 𝚂𝙾 𝙾𝙵 𝚃𝚁𝙰𝚅𝙴𝙻𝙻𝙸𝙽𝙶. Some creatures—squirrels, deer, stuff like that—inhabited the area, and the farther Alex and Scarlet walked, the more they appeared. Alex made a note to stop at one interval, because while she hadn't necessarily enjoyed the presence of deer, she did enjoy the nature they represented. While this place was deadly and unpredictable, it hosted some of the most beautiful scenery she'd ever seen. And perhaps that was because it had, for the most part, been left undisturbed by humanity; no big machines were powering through the trees and ripping all plant life from their designated resting places. It was peaceful and uniquely silent. Approaching a frozen riverbed, Alex heard a bird call in the quiet: Tweettweet . . . tweettweet . . . tweettweet . . .

  The mist had been torn away by a period of building wind. Alex had to wrap her grey scarf around her mouth to keep the lips from freezing. She thought she still had enough adrenaline from her fight with the dragon to wear off hypothermia, had that been an actual worry. Plus, she could always activate her power if push came to shove. However, for Scarlet, she would have to survive on sheer will alone. She wasn't a weather-caster, nor did she possess enough wintry clothing to make it through a Russian city in December, let alone a one-hundred-mile forest with everchanging conditions. Looking up at the skywaves—quite literally skywaves—and then down at the deer, which didn't run off as she had expected it to, Alex reached a hand to pet the animal. "Hello . . ." Her voice was welcoming and posed no threat, and the deer seemed to know this.

  They were standing under a blue canopy beneath which sprawled blue sedges and foliage.

  "Have you ever pet a deer before?" asked Scarlet, crossing her arms low, her breaths coalescing on the air.

  Alex shook her head, not saying a word. She broke this silence within seconds when she said, "He reminds me of home." A gale whistled overhead, carrying a vagary of frost through the air. When she returned her eyes to the sky it started snowing again—for the fifth time that day, she figured.

  "Actually," began Scarlet, taking a step forward and petting the deer, "that's a girl. No antlers."

  Alex realised she was right, though, she hadn't known antlers marked the difference between the male and female species until Scarlet said it. This sudden realisation made her feel a little more educated, like that short piece of happiness one gains from applying something from school to a real-life situation, which happened to be quite rare. There had indeed been a couple instances where something like this happened, most of which involved math, and not the sort with all the fancy formulas and head-splitting equations. They involved simple calculations, and in this world . . . maybe time was something she'd have to calculate, even if there had been a great deal of it.

  Am I going to spend the next couple decades of my life trapped here, just like Scarlet? thought Alex. She realised her hand had trailed down the deer's furry scalp to its leg. There's a fat chance, I think. I'll probably be too old to party or do anything. I won't get to experience graduation, go to the prom, and . . . fall in love with Phoenix, if I haven't already. I'm not sure what true love feels like, but I'm sure it must be something like this.

  She slowly drew her hand away from the deer, and in seconds, it galloped into the forest, becoming one with its surroundings, and perhaps finding a way back to its own family.

  Alex wrapped the grey scarf tightly around the lower portion of her face and the upper part of her neck. Up ahead was the frozen riverbed, and beyond it more trees travelling into . . .

  "A new division?" said Alex with sudden excitement. The sky changed colour farther ahead; Alex could tell, there was a clear separation between the clouds.

  Scarlet stepped in front of the girl, examined the sky and said, "A subdivision. The next division is a long ways away. But you're learning fast, I told you you'd pick this up." She paused for a second to clear her throat. "We won't have to go through the forest or make any more pitstops. I'm frankly sick of looking for cabins anyway." As she went on, she began making her way towards the riverbed. The Spiral whipped a purple glint off of the surface of the ice.

  "Wait," yelled Alex, hurrying over behind her, "I was wondering, how many divisions have you been through since you got here?"

  Scarlet looked back at her thoughtfully. "Pull your scarf down, it's hard to hear you."

  Realising her voice had been muffled, Alex tugged the scarf, revealing an open mouth with braced teeth. She was panting heavily, but that also came with the territory of being a mouth-breather. The freckles on her cheeks looked like miniature stars in the saucy, purple skylight. "I said how many divisions have you gone through? I mean, since you started?"

  Scarlet's puzzled face metamorphosed into a smiling expression. Alex could tell it was genuine. She stopped in her tracks, shoulders lifted, hands in their respective pockets, and said, "You're full of questions, aren't you?"

  Alex waited a few seconds before saying, "I guess so. I mean, I'm just curious, that's all."

  Scarlet began laughing in a hearty, old-maidish way; she had no wrinkles under her eyes, nor any blemishes that would take Alex away from the fact that she resembled her mother. Her smile, too, was perfect; straight white teeth, well-cleaned and taken after, even in this world it seemed. Or maybe they stayed that way no matter what. Then again, if people grew older, they'd likely lose a lot of the features that society had scribbled down in their sketchy little notepads as 'attractive'.

  Again, Alex feared that would be her fate. As she was certain it had been many other people's, in this world, or in the other.

  Scarlet seemed as if she was about to answer—her lips had made those sudden movements to prove it—but stopped herself from doing so. Her eyes popped open while looking over Alex's frost-crested shoulder. After a few seconds, she raised her hand, flexed her forearm, opened her palm, and unleashed a pulsing white aura. It boomed and spat Alex across the ground until hitting off one of the canopies, and a mere fraction of a moment later, a large spiky object whizzed past. It struck the ground inches from where Alex had been standing. A semi-transparent spike with a gold outline.

  "Get behind the tree!" shouted Scarlet, dashing from the riverbed to the canopy—the one where the deer had originally been.

  Goggle-eyed, Alex gasped and manoeuvred behind the tree she'd come into contact with, making sure she was fully covered. She broke this cover by peeking her head around the bark. Another spike was whirling towards. Alex screamed, snapping back, hearing the spike break into the tree.

  "Get out of my way!" a voice yelled. It was young and somewhat croaky; not Chrono—it was far too high for that—but one she hadn't heard before. Another whizzing sound pierced the air, and instantly an additional two spikes sliced into the ground, one near Alex, one near Scarlet.

  Scarlet glimpsed over at Alex from the opposite side of the dirt path, a scowl manifesting upon her visage. She yelled, "You're gonna regret this! You're gonna really regret this! We have a weather-caster and she's not afraid to kill you!"

  "I don't even know what that is!" the voice shouted, and seconds later a pair of footsteps came crunching up towards Scarlet. On the rightmost side, a chubby figure emerged from a copse of trees, a mask worn around the head, long braided hair pushed up into a sheaf. Over the eyes were a pair of goggles—not Chrono's (she'd thought he killed him and nicked his belongings at first), but instead an entirely different pair with no iridescence to boast of. They were pitch-black and rather large, making the man's appearance creepy yet somewhat comical if one were to think about them for long enough. Around his torso was a brown trench coat draping down to just below his knees, revealing a pair of bluejeans with horizontal tears. "But you better get out of my way, I'll . . . I'll kill you both!"

  "Just relax!" said Scarlet, shoulders glued to the bark, head half-peeking and half-covered. She flexed her forearm in preparation for what Alex had presumed was a powerful strike. A bright white light began forming to confirm it, similar to the time she threw the boulder across the glade as if it were a stone one would skip through a river, only now there was a sharpness in her eyes that meant business.

  "Don't tell me to relax!" the man croaked. A gold-laced spear began forming over his arm. "You don't know the hell I've been through!"

  Alex, badly panicked and teary-eyed, saw what was about to happen—what could happen. The man would lunge forward and impale her, causing a mote of blood to squirt over the undergrowth. She'd fall, scream in agony, and look Alex in the eyes with conviction: Remember me, avenge my death, and remember, never turn back. The people are the real monsters . . .

  Hazily, another voice began speaking to her: The way I see it, there's a sixty-seven per cent chance a god exists.

  Phoenix, Alex's mind whispered. That's totally . . .

  You have to save her, Alex. She's all you have. I need you back here on Earth, and I need you to take her with you. You know why? Phoenix asked.

  Why?

  Because there's a sixty-seven per cent chance God exists, those are the odds. And those numbers alone aren't enough to save her.

  Those odds were entirely accurate, so Alex believed. Thinking of this, feeling her heart-thumping fear transform into newfangled bravery, she levitated into the air. The next emotion was unexpected: apoplectic rage. Eyes glowing blue, she raised her hands, imagining thousands of invisible hands clawing at the ice of the riverbed, until large fractures split into spiderwebs. In an instant, hundreds of ice-discs shot into the air, all hovering next to each other in an uneven, bouncy line. Her eyes never left the man's mask, and by the time the man realised what was happening, a group of discs flew towards him.

  "Not again!" Alex shouted.

  Scarlet ducked, making sure to avoid the oncoming projectiles, even though Alex had full control of their direction. Nonetheless, the discs glided through the air and whirled around Scarlet, reaching the other side where the man had been standing. What happened next frightened her.

  A semi-transparent bubble manifested around his body, catching the ice-discs like a magnet. They didn't pop as Alex had expected; instead, they gathered on top of one another, filling up the gaps of the bubble until none were left, and then all at once exploded. The discs flew out into the forest and sliced through the trees, leaving bite-sized marks in the bark. The ice blocks shattered into millions of snow particles shortly after.

  "I said," the man began, quiet at first, "GET OUT OF MY WAY!"

  Alex witnessed the surrounding trees depart from their routes—even the ones behind which Alex and Scarlet took cover—and fly off in all directions. Alex and Scarlet were blown away too, splashing in the riverbed.

  Hair now glowing bright blue, Alex formed a suit of water around her body and peeled above the river. "I'm not afraid of you!" Alex said, but a part of her believed it was a lie—the heart, perhaps.

  The man relaxed his shoulders, panting, and pulled off his mask. He was young, only a teenager at most, with tan skin, bushy eyebrows, and a thin moustache. His braided hair fell down over his shoulders. "Neither am I . . ." he said, lifting his forearm. A transparent shield formed at the end of it.

  "We were never going to attack you! All we're trying to do is reach the Spiral!" said Alex. Passing a glare down over the river, she saw Scarlet slosh to the surface. The woman gasped heavily.

  "You all say that!" the boy said. "You're all out to kill me! All of you!"

  This statement alone sent Alex's mind into a plight of confusion. "I just got here! I don't want to kill anybody!" she yelled. "I just want to get the heck out of here and go home!"

  Voice lowered, yet still stern, he said, "I'm new, too . . ." His eyes conveyed the message that he was not entirely convinced. "And so far, since being here for God knows how long, I've already had to kill four people! Four people because they wanted to kill me! I didn't want any of this! I just want to go home to my mama and wake up from this fucking nightmare! It's absolute torture!"

  Breathing regulating, Scarlet managed to squeeze out, "We're friendly, we promise you. We were just scared, that's all. You came at us out of nowhere!" She looked somewhat relieved, although still quite afraid—afraid of what might happen. Whatever it may be, Alex would be sure to protect her. No matter what.

  The boy pointed at Alex and said, "What about her? Her eyes are glowing blue, she has a body of water shielding her, and looks downright pissed!"

  "Again," began Scarlet, trailing her eyes up to Alex, "she's just scared. You attacked us first."

  "Well, what am I supposed to do?" asked the boy. "Test the waters and see that you're friendly? I don't know what you're capable of!" The more he spoke, the lower his voice became. It eventually to the point where Alex struggled to hear him.

  Brow creased, eyebrows frowning, Alex said, "I don't know! You almost killed me either way! And we just met one evil bastard already, and he could control time!"

  Slowly, the boy's face humbled. He breathed, "Time? The man with the clock?"

  "Chrono," said Scarlet, keeping herself afloat. "His name is Chrono."

  "I know the man with the clock," said the teen. "He tried to kill me back in the glade . . . He . . . He . . . I couldn't breathe and . . . I had to copy his power."

  Alex, eyes bulging, the aura of blue now dwindling to nothing, said, "Copy his power? What does that mean?"

  "Exactly what you think it does," Scarlet said promptly. And after a silence, she added, "He can mimic other people's powers."

  Alex reverted her gaze from Scarlet to the teen. "You . . . you can . . ."

  He nodded, and after a moment, said, "Hm."

  "What's . . . your name?" asked Alex, descending into the riverbed.

  It took a while for him to answer, but when he did, he said, "Braeden. Braeden Willingham, and I'm looking for my mama."