Chapter 3

“What should we do, Adrian?”

“I don’t know, Bastion.”

“Can we eat her?”

“No, Shade, we can’t eat her. Besides, she smells funny.”

“I know, but I’m hungry.”

“We’ll eat later. Right now, we gotta deal with that.”

“Nothing like dealing with a feral, mutated wolf, at beer o’clock.”

“Really? Is that is all on your mind right now?” The first voice hisses.

The voices dispute whether I live or feed me to the wolf for distraction. If I could just open my eyes, move my lips, make a sound, I can tell them all to shut up but I can’t.

I feel my bones snapping into place, my skin knitting itself together and function to my body kick start again.

Snarling can be heard nearby, the disputing voices stop and the sound of crunching rocks continue to get louder. The noise rumbles as if someone had started a chainsaw.

            “This will be fun,” one mutters.

            “Just don’t get yourself killed,” berated the other.

I can’t move.

A ferocious roar erupts from the closing beast, the ground shakes ever so slightly with each step of its massive feet. Unseen of what is happening. I hear the frustrated yelling, the primal snarls of both creatures, the insistent bickering follow afterwards and the dying whines and whimpers of the beast that lurked a few feet away.

I can finally twitch my fingers and able to feel life come back into my body once more. Like kick-starting an engine, a jolt started my heart shooting up from the ground, gasping for air.

            “Look at that, she’s alive!”

I look up and find myself staring at the mangled wolf's corpse, roughly the size of an elephant. With two rows of teeth, patches of brown fur and pink flesh covering its body. Almost torn in half, black blood pools from the creature's abdomen, its limbs torn off, thrown and scattered amongst the battlefield.

Three young vampires stand before me, the black blood covering most of their arms and upper torso, and splashes carefully decorate their faces.

            “What the fuck,” is all I can muster from my lips. The familiar pairs of red eyes stares back at me.

The tallest of the group smiles devilishly and strides over with overwhelming cockiness, with a posture that said I dare you. Dark chestnut hair sweeps across his brow in deliberate chaos, brushing the edge of amber‑red irises that narrow in sly amusement. His whole posture is a dare, shoulders loose, one hip cocked as though the room belongs to him. His face tapered to a quick, confident chin; mouth tilted in a half-smirk that promised trouble for anyone bored enough to join him.

 He bends down and offers me his hand. I ignore the offer and get up off the ground, only to stumble and fall back down again. The vampire laughs and steps away, shaking his head.

I stare at the other two vampires. The one carrying the Katana wipes on the matted pelt. His sun‑lit blond hair sticks up in restless spikes, framing his face, all clean angles, straight nose, sharp cheek-bones, set off by a slim silver ring hugging the left edge of a full lower lip. Irises glowed furnace-red around slit pupils, cool as a reptile sizing up prey. That calm, clinical gaze could only belong to a killer.

Crouched by a severed paw, broad-shouldered, relaxed. Warm brunette hair falls in short, choppy layers, a few strands hanging over the same crimson, slit-pupilled warning as the others, yet that hold surprising gentleness beneath. He flashes an easy grin, steady, grounding, yet every relaxed line of him feels like a coiled spring. 

“Right, since I’m still healing. Care to tell me where I am?” I ask. The cocky one opens his mouth but is quickly cut off by the one with the Katana.

            “Somewhere near Tokyo,” he replies nonchalantly.

            “Right,” I respond, looking at my surroundings again. Lush grass, tall as trees, looms over us, the sun just filtering through onto the muddy ground. I feel my fingers twitch, once more, I can feel the cool earth dirt beneath my fingers. I feel like Alice when she drank the potion to make her smaller. “And who are you guys?” I ask. This time, the cocky one steps in.

            “I am Shade,” giving a sweeping bow.

            “The idiot,” the Katana one mutters. Shade turns to him, baring his fangs and snarls.

            “The broody one over there is Adrian,” Shade introduces. Adrian rolls his eyes and hoists the sheathed Katana over his shoulder.

            “I’m not broody, just more responsible,” he shrugs, and Shade pokes his tongue in response.

            “Just cause you’re the oldest,” he jabs. A warning rumble comes from Adrian’s throat.

            “I’m Bastion,” the one crouching waves. Ignoring the other two, Bastion rises and offers his hand to me. I stumble again but use Bastion as a lean and find my footing once more.

            “And can you tell me what’s that behind you?” I ask.

            “A feral werewolf, what else could it be?” Shade puts in sarcastically. I roll my eyes.

            “I have never seen a feral look like that before.”

“This is the only world you will find them like this.” I watch Adrian approach a fallen tree large enough to convert into an apartment complex for a city block. He disappears for a second and come returns with a backpack. Rummaging through until he found a washcloth, and throws one each to Bastion and Shade.

“How is this world so big? Did I shrink when coming here?” Shade snorts out a laugh.

“You’re telling me you don’t know anything?” I shoot daggers at the vampire, before wrestling my body and forcing myself up from the ground.

“Fuck off. I only came here because a door opened.” The vampire frowns.

“Doors don’t open on their own.”

“Well, this one did. Now do you have answers or not.” Adrian approaches, purposely walking between Shade and looking back to me.

“Two centuries ago, witches and werewolves had a full-scale war. This entire world into plummeted into chaos. As a last ditch effort, witches use decay magic, killing thousand upon thousands of innocent lives just so they can gain the upper hand. An unnatural power from the use of corpses.” Adrian looks up at the sky and continues. “Mother Nature punished this world, stripping magiqs and their descendants of their power. And the world went through a dramatic transformation. Nature reclaimed what’s theirs, trees growing to unnatural sizes, the earth's crust changed, fractured and morphed into new lands and sinking old. Ferals taking monstrous forms surpassing purebloods in strength.” He inhales and looks away from the sky and exhales. “There not many human civilisations left. Scattered but scarce, while the rest is owned by Werewolves on the other half of the globe. Is any of this making any sense?” I open my mouth and close it again. I mull over the information in my head, getting the gist of this world's lore but only scraping the bottom of the barrel.

            “Mother Nature did this? I thought magic is just magic?” The three of them just shrug.

            “Magic is nature itself, without nature, magic wouldn’t exist, and no magic means no Magiqs, no multi-universe.” Shade puts in. I stayed silent among the three vampires.

            “And you’re here because-?” I trail off.

            “To get stronger,” Bastion finishes my sentence. “This world is the best place for it. With all the mutated ferals, not many vamps can come in here and survive on their own.” Bastion finishes walking over to the corpse and nudging it with his foot. “Reminds me of home back in Australia. If it looks like it can’t kill you, it probably can,” Bastion laughs and the boys begin their venture through the grass. I follow behind, listening.

            “But why?” It sounds Ludacris, why go through so much effort? If this place is that dangerous, then why?

            “We belong to a mighty family of vampires,” Shade answers. His sudden change in posture and attitude made me wary of the vampire’s next move. “We felt we had a responsibility to be strong, if not stronger, as our older brothers. We owe it to him to be strong, and weakness is no exception.” Shade snarls with a fanged smile and puffing out his chest as he looks to the other two vampires, both nodding in agreement.

            “How long have you been training?” Their dedication to their cause, their family only makes me respect them more.

            “Since we turned fifty. Which was–a hundred–wait–sixty, no–eighty? I think,” All of Shades' confidence disappears as he reflects and counts off his fingers. Adrian and Bastion snicker at him. “Fuck off, not like you lot can remember. Time moves differently in each world,” he snarls, and the laughter slowly dies down.

Time moves differently? How much has passed since I have left home? It could be days, months, even years?

The rhythm of my heart begins to pick up, finding it hard to breathe, I start to take deep breaths.

Fuck, I need to keep it together. I can’t overthink this!

I felt an icy hand on my shoulder. Looking up, I stare into Adrian's eyes. Focusing on the deep red of his iris, I feel as though I staring into a sea of blood. The slit pupils used to unsettle me, but now I find a strange comfort to them. I didn’t realise I stopped walking.

            “It’s ok, I’m sure a short amount of time has passed,” he assures me, and I nod. Swallowing hard at the non-existent spit, I draw in one last massive breath.

            “Are you going to have panic attacks on us every five minutes?” Shade asks lips tightening to a thin line.

            “You would freak out too if you had no clue about what is going on!” Adrain steps in and snarls at him.

“I’m fine.” I force the air in, steady now. “Three months ago, my biggest problems were a dick-head guardian, high-school drama, and a dead-end job. Then the universe flipped me the bird and dumped me in supernatural land, but sure—doing just fan-fuckingtastic.” I toe mud off my shoe.

“Three months?” Bastion echoes.

“Yeah. In that time, I learned vampires, souls, werewolves, Magiqs, and ferals are real; I’ve door-hopped across worlds and tonight I nearly headlined the dinner menu. But look, still standing.” The lump claws my throat. I swallow, jam my hands in my pockets so they don’t see them shake. “No way home, pure-bloods hate the hybrid, snacks are gone. Living the dream.”

Shade darts in, red eyes flaring, fangs out. “A hybrid?”

“Never thought it was possible,” Adrian murmurs, fingers brushing his katana hilt.

“No wonder you smell funny,” Shade sneers. I felt the sharp ache of rejection, still a constant friend.

“Get in line, every vamp so far wants me gone.” I square up. “Do it. You’d save everyone the trouble. Doubt anybody would notice.”

Adrian's eyes widen for a second before removing his hand and approaches his friend. Adrian’s hand clamps Shade’s shoulder. “If she wasn’t meant to exist, Mother Nature would’ve erased her already.”

Shade’s glare cools a notch. “Maybe. But hybrids shouldn’t happen, why allow it?”

Adrian only shrugs.

“So, do you have any cool powers?” Bastion asks. His eyes boring into mine.

            “W-well, I don’t know. My body heals rapidly, I can smell things more, hear it too.” Bastion's lips thin out, disappointment reaching his eyes. “Look, I’m practically boring, okay?” Bastion lifts his hands in surrender.

“Ok, that’s fair. Do you drink blood?” The question made my stomach lurch. Blood? Not once have I felt the craving, nor have I ever thought about wanting to drink someone's blood.

“No… I don’t. I don’t crave it, either…” they all fell in silence, looking at each other.

“Weird.” Is all Shade says.

“Since we got sidetracked,” Adrian sighs. “Let’s head back to the city. The longer we are here now, the chances of running into another feral are high.”

Leading us away from the battlefield. We begin our trek through the grass, weaving through the blades, and finally reach a clearing. A vast sea of green or bamboo and overgrown forests clash on the horizon, you can’t tell where one begins and the other ends. The boys say nothing and continue their pace uncaring if I stopped to take in the view.

As our walk never seems to end, and the insistent bickering between Shade and Adrian. All about directions and where to go. We finally reach the forest, a path, clean, orderly and well kept, you can see it someone has made an effort to maintain it. The deeper we go, the darker the forest gets and the harder the sun slips through. Lit lanterns sit on rocks, sticks the size of logs, guiding the way through the darkness. Weaving through to a staircase leading up to a Torii gate. It stands strong at the end of the forest trail. Too small for feral beasts but perfect for a human or vampire to get through. The boys push through, passing the gate. My fingers trail along the walls of the dense hedges, perfectly cut to form a tunnel into the city.

Darkness only looms through the passage, the sound of birds and ruffling leaves just come through the hollow path. We walk for another five minutes before light is shining through the tunnel, the smell of delicious street food wafts in the air. My stomach growls.

Given an odd look from our vampire comrades, they smile at each other and march forward. I couldn’t help but pick up the pace and reach the exit, drawing near to the delicious smell.

The thought of food quickly left my mind as my eyes fall upon the city in awe.

Just as you expect to know Tokyo as the city of technology. It is and forever will be the remaining champion. Bright screens and large trees mix together, creating this weird but beautiful city structure. All of it blended and jumbled together. Buildings sit between humongous tree trunks, shops and homes forged from the base and between roots of the giant trees. The night sky is barely visible here because of the foliage.

I wonder if they ever see the sun?

            “It’s like the other worlds, but this city certainly has developed. Technology and nature as one,” Adrian comments.

       “It’s remarkable,” I mutter.

       “No good just standing here,” Shade sneers and pushes us aside. “We have more important things to do, like eating,” he finishes grumpily and begins to walk deeper into the city.