Hidden Realms

by Unknown

  He took one look at me and rushed to my side. “What on Earth? What’s wrong?”

  My voice came out as soft and defeated as I felt. “Is Cassie around? I need to talk to her.”

  He ushered me through the door, briskly rubbing his hand down my arm. The heat of his skin burned. “It must be ten degrees out there. Where’s your coat?”

  I pulled in a deep breath. “Forgot it.”

  He nodded gravely. “Did you have a fight with Grace again?”

  “She’s the most ridiculous person alive. I didn’t even get to tell her about my scholarship.” A ragged sigh escaped me. “She just said no.” I swiped the moisture out of my eyes and gritted my teeth, determined to not break down in front of him. Even though he hadn’t ever mentioned it, I knew he pulled some strings to get me accepted into St. Mary’s College, not to mention the scholarship that came out of nowhere. If I couldn’t go, it would be a total slap in the face to his generosity.

  He smiled at me and nudged my chin. “Give her time to mull it over. She’ll come around.”

  “Rayla?” Cassie asked, pulling my attention to the ornately carved staircase. Wider than most hallways, it curved gracefully along the rich paneled wall. “What are you…” Her face turned in a frown when she looked at me.

  I ran over to her and shook my head in response to her unfinished question. Her pale eyes softened with compassion as she placed an arm around my shoulder. “We’ll be upstairs, Dad.”

  Mr. Lambert smiled. “Remember the old saying, Rayla: The world is always darkest just before the dawn.”

  Were words really supposed to make me feel better? My tomorrows had no chance of getting any brighter if I didn’t do something to change my life today. I returned his smile, then, let Cassie guide me to her room.

  She closed her door softly as I flopped on the bed, pulling the covers over me. The TV showed an old rerun of Happy Days. I grunted, wishing my life could be so uncomplicated.

  “Spill,” she said, sitting beside me.

  I tucked my arms around my stomach. “She wouldn’t even listen to me. I hate her!”

  Cassie touched my arm. “Maybe we should go to Snow our first year. We could transfer to St. Mary’s next year when she’s had time to get used to you being gone.”

  I shook my head. “She wants me home every blasted weekend. Said Jenny couldn’t handle taking care of Sarah.”

  Cassie sucked her bottom lip into her mouth, gazing up at the ceiling as if it were a starlit sky. She shrugged after a while. “I just don’t see how we could make it work.”

  “I’m eighteen,” I reminded her. “She can’t make me stay here.”

  She gave me a mournful smile. “She’s the only family you have left. Don’t you think you should just cool off for a bit?”

  “I’ve never wanted to go to Snow anyway.”

  Her smile turned to a light frown. “Everyone we know will be there.”

  Uh-oh. This couldn’t be good. “Everyone?”

  She stood up and paced in front of me. “Chase is going.”

  My eyes flew wide. I knew it. That weasel still had his teeth in her. “When did you talk to him? I thought you were done being used.”

  She shrugged. “Can’t seem to get him out of my system.”

  “You deserve better than that jerk. Think about it, Cass. Notre Dame. Real men, not that louse who acts like he’s James Dean reincarnated.” Her wide eyed gaze told me I had her interest. Now was time to close the deal. St. Mary’s College not only offered an amazing art program I craved to explore, but it was only minutes away from the one thing Cassie would die to see on a regular basis. “Oh, and don’t forget about football.”

  The corners of her mouth turned up fractionally. She considered me for a moment, then, bounded over to her laptop, yanked it to her chest and sat beside me again. Her already bright eyes nearly glowed in the dim light.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  She smirked. “Looking up the team roster.”

  My heart beat faster, but it wasn’t because I cared a whit about football. She was in the game again, and with her help I could do anything.

  Chapter One

  We spent the next eight months figuring out the details of my escape. I would have never been able to swing it if it hadn’t been for Cassie and her dad. As far as Aunt Grace was concerned, I would be going to Snow College tomorrow morning. What she didn’t understand wouldn’t hurt me.

  I sat my suitcase down by the bottom of the stairs. Jenny and Sarah waited for me with outstretched arms. I leaned into them, inhaling the scent of cheap strawberry shampoo.

  Sarah wrapped her arms around my waist, gazing up at me with tears in her eyes. “I don’t want you to go,” she said before burying her face into my abdomen.

  I held her tight for a few moments, feeling like the biggest loser but not the good kind. “I’ll be home before you know it, and if you promise to be good for Jenny, I’ll bring you a present.”

  She pulled away from me, her eyes brightening. “Really?”

  “Promise.”

  She ran into the kitchen, her tiny voice raised in excitement. “Rayla’s gonna get me a present, Momma!”

  “Is she now?” Aunt Grace said, stepping into the foyer. Her face was tight with worry. “You call me when you get there.”

  “I will,” I said, having every intention of following through.

  “I don’t see why you can’t just stay here tonight.”

  Not this again. I’d already explained the plan ten times. “We have to leave really early. I don’t want to wake anyone up. Cassie’s parents aren’t even in town right now, so we won’t be bothering anyone at her house.”

  Jenny hugged me from the back. “You better e-mail me.”

  We were probably the only family on the planet that couldn’t afford a cell plan with unlimited texting. Once I got a job, I was going to get a new phone and hopefully a new plan.

  I touched her hand perched on my shoulder. “Promise.”

  She bounded up the stairs yelling for Travis to help her move her stuff into my room. He stopped by the railing, stared down at me and gave me his lopsided grin. He flipped his head to get his blond bangs out of his dark eyes. “See ya round, Cuz.”

  I tilted my head in an upward nod. “Sure thing.” I pointed my finger at him. “Be good.” I wasn’t much older than him, but I felt as if we had ten years between us.

  He huffed. “When am I ever not?” Without even a backward glance, he took off around the corner before I could say anything else.

  Sarah had already pulled Aunt Grace into the living room for her bedtime story. I waved goodbye, but neither of them noticed. The ancient door creaked when I pulled it shut. I quickened my step feeling like I had the devil on my heels, but no one followed me to the car.

  The tires threw up a cloud of dust as I sped away toward freedom. I gazed at my home through the haze of the rear view mirror. The moon set an eerie cast to the scene, bringing visions of graveyards and ghouls to my mind. The old Victorian had seen better days. Time had transformed the once stately manor into the humble residence of a working family. It needed a paint job. The porch swing still hung by one chain, flopping around in the breeze, and bicycles littered the two-week overgrown lawn. It wasn’t anything compared to Cassie’s house, but it would always be special to me. I swiped the tears from my eyes and rolled down the window. The time for crying was over. I was officially on my way.

  Cassie waited outside for me when I pulled up. Her grin spread larger than the Cheshire Cat. The handle gave her some trouble, so I reached over and opened the door. Before I knew it, she plopped onto the seat. Eyes glowing, she reached into her purse and pulled out a wad of cash. She riffled through the bills, sniffing for added effect. “Dad’s going away present.”

  I kept my cringe to myself. I was tired of feeling guilty for taking advantage of Mr. Lambert’s endless acts of kindness. I needed to find a way to pay him back. “You’ve got to have the coolest father
on the planet.”

  She grinned, tucking a strand of dark hair behind her ear. “Yeah. Isn’t he great?”

  “You sure you’re ready for this?” I asked with mock seriousness.

  She laughed, slapping my shoulder with the tips of her fingers. “No backing out now!”

  One day I would tell her how much she meant to me. She’d given up her plans for mine. She’d helped me figure out everything and handled some of the details with St. Mary’s I could never have managed from home.

  I waggled my brows before I put the car in gear and lowered her window. The invading night air sucked the moisture from my body like a sponge. She just shook her head at me, smiling, but I knew what she was thinking without hearing one word. We would have been much more comfortable in her car.

  “Sorry,” I said. “I didn’t think it would still be hot when we planned this whole thing.”

  “If you it’s bad here, you just wait until you have sweat dripping from you twenty-four-seven.”

  She’d already tried to explain humidity to me, but I didn’t care if I had to take three showers a day. I was on my way to my new life. We’d pulled it off without any snags. Nothing short of death would keep me from claiming my dreams.

  . . . . .

  We were on a lone stretch of Wyoming highway. The newness of our trip had swiftly worn to raw-edged fatigue. I was going to have to wake Cassie up soon. Even if I could manage the weight of my eyelids, I couldn’t shake the dread that had attached to my spine ten miles ago.

  Icy gooseflesh erupted across my neck, skittering down my entire body like a million frosty spiders. I shrugged off a shiver before I checked the rear view mirror again. No monsters lurked in the back seat with the sole desire of making me their next juicy snack, so why did I feel like Satan himself was stalking me? And to make things even better, my horrendous scar picked this exact moment to drive me crazy. I found it odd that the usually void of any kind of feeling jagged patch of skin suddenly wouldn’t stop itching. Having the thing erupt with sensation for the first time since my horse riding accident seven years ago was more than a little weird.

  Cassie rested against the passenger door, blissfully sleeping away. I stretched my hand toward her, only pulling back just before I touched her shoulder. No way was I going to wake her again because of my absurd paranoia. This trip didn’t need me complicating it to make it unbearable. My fear of the dark would not cripple me anymore. Hopefully, St. Mary’s offered counseling.

  A thunderous rumble shattered the milky silence, sending a quiver through my bones. Even though the empty dawn had greeted me in the mirror moments before, a motorcycle rocketed toward us. Where had he come from? I shook my head. It was just a stupid motorcycle. No need to panic.

  I held my breath expecting him to zoom by, but he matched my pace instead. The bike zigzagged haphazardly in the lane, as if the driver was loaded. Great, just what we needed.

  I honestly wouldn’t have cared if he did wheelies behind me if he hadn’t been centimeters from my bumper. Why was he craning his neck in my direction?

  He flashed his lights repeatedly, as if I was hogging the entire road. My car wasn’t that big. I rolled my eyes and inched closer to the shoulder. When my tires hit the rumble-strip, I jolted. He had plenty of room to pass. No other vehicles were in sight. What was he waiting for?

  Even if Aunt Grace had miraculously discovered what I was doing, she wasn’t ridiculous enough to send this lunatic to bring me home. What could he possibly want from me?

  If I had more than noodles for a backbone, I would have pulled over to see what the heck was wrong with him. I sped up instead. I was weaponless—like it would have helped if I had an entire arsenal in my car. You sort of have to know how to use a gun for it to do you any good. I wasn’t stopping. He could be a rapist … or a serial killer … or both.

  The jerk wouldn’t back off no matter what I did. My entire frame quaked under the reality that this man was most certainly trying to get me to pull over.

  What if he was in trouble? I shoved the thought aside. It was too risky to stop. This wasn’t the Sixties. Besides, his bike worked fine from where I sat.

  I took a deep breath then, clutched the steering wheel harder, hoping to anchor myself, and moved the car back into the center of the lane where it belonged. Biker dude would just have to pass me. Eventually, he’d get sick of hanging onto my tail end. All I had to do was wait him out.

  I just wished the butterflies in my stomach would chill. A strange urge to stop the car bombarded me like a repeating alarm. I would have sworn on a Bible this dude was secretly weaving puppet-strings around me; it was all I could do to keep my foot on the gas. Worse was the barrage of absurd thoughts swirling in my head about the stranger.

  I hadn’t even really seen him, but in my mind I was neatly tucked behind him on that beast of a motorcycle. The vision grew into something almost tangible. The wind whipped my hair around us as the spicy scent of him drove me over the edge. I leaned closer to him, inhaling spice and man. Even the daydream of him smelled divine.

  What was I doing? Vivid couldn’t come close to describing this fantasy. No one should have that kind of power over me.

  My back stiffened automatically, determination welling up in my heart. He wasn’t going to terrorize me an instant longer.

  I stomped the brakes, hard. He was either going around me — or over the car.

  He was next to me in a nanosecond.

  Cassie woke up with a startled yelp. “Rayla, what are you — what the hell?” She jumped away from me, as though I were ablaze.

  I turned toward bike guy to see what had freaked her out so badly. He should have been six miles ahead of us by now. Maybe she had the same tantalizing snapshots rolling around her mind and wanted to call him back?

  The minute my eyes registered the scene next to me, I screamed. Instinctively, I jerked away from the thing, no longer resembling a motorcycle, next to my car. The back end fishtailed, but I managed to correct us before I gunned it. I looked again, sure I had imagined whatever that was. It was still there. I blinked several times to dislodge the image. Nothing changed.

  Instead of seeing chrome and leather, flank and sinew of what looked like horseflesh rode beside me, black as midnight, taut as a cord. The low flap of an enormous, obsidian feathered wing sent a shudder through me and jostled the car. I was losing it. I was totally losing it. Was I dreaming? Had I fallen asleep at the wheel, and was I even now careening toward a gruesome death?

  The only sound louder than the roar of the motorcycle was Cassie’s chant of, “It is not there,” which oddly enough didn’t comfort me. She gave a final scream before she covered her eyes with trembling fingers. I wished I had the option.

  The creature was colossal, bigger than all the horses I had ever seen. He was the stuff of legend. A pegasus was supposed to be white. This monstrosity was deeper black than a bottomless pit. Smoke billowed forth from his nostrils, as though he had a fiery furnace for innards. If his wings weren’t bad enough, a purplish-black glow radiated from him, encompassing the car like a magic bubble of doom.

  After every thrust of his gargantuan wings, my car veered. I had been going nearly a hundred miles-per-hour, yet the thing kept up, as if I were out for a scenic drive.

  The rider was a mammoth of a man, suited in what looked like leather armor. His jacket strained under bulging muscles like the seams would burst. A helmet blocked any view of his face, but his head was turned toward me. Ghostly white knuckles gripped the handlebars.

  Wait, what happened to the pegasus? A breath before, a mythical beast rode next to us: one that could have only escaped from the depths of Hades. Now, an ordinary motorcycle flanked my car.

  Well, ordinary was not right. The chrome gleamed in the dim light as though it were alive. Once again absurd thoughts about the man and motorcycle stole my mind. I ached to settle onto the supple black leather while I curled my fingers around the high-set handlebars. Even from here, the rumble of the powerfu
l engine shook my entire frame. Still, it was only a bike.

  I refused to analyze the intrusive images of the mysterious stranger, especially because I wouldn’t have minded if he scooted back a bit to give me some room.

  I reacted to him on a cellular level, as if he were a new source of gravity and I a wayward comet. An emotion I didn’t want to recognize stirred underneath my overpowering fear: need. My mind screamed at me to pull a one-eighty to get away from him, yet my body craved to get closer to the stranger. I felt as though I were his somehow.

  I didn’t like it one bit. I was not the type of girl to lose her brain over a guy. I couldn’t even see his face, but I wanted to. In fact, the curiosity left me feeling cheated.

  Cassie kept her gaze locked blindly forward, as if nothing abnormal were happening. I wished I could be so calm. The specter of insanity loomed close by me, ready to strike at any moment.

  The man cocked his head to the side, saluted me. Then, bike, rider … everything disappeared into the hot night air.

  This time when I hit the brakes, the car skidded wildly to a stop. I craned my neck in all directions I could manage. He was gone. What the heck? Had a trap door in the road swallowed him?

  I pummeled the steering wheel to ease the tension welling in my heart. The loss of him surrounded me, instilling a panic I couldn’t explain. How could I lose something I never had? How could a stranger cause such a deep reaction in me? What was that thing he’d been riding? Where did he go? Was he there in the darkness, waiting for me even now?

  “Bum-scum!” I shouted into the night. My shrill words hung momentarily in the air before shattering into silence. I shoved my hands through my hair and squeezed my eyes shut.

  Cassie shifted in her seat. The aged leather let out a shadow of the groan I currently had caged. I glanced over at her.

  Her gaze locked onto mine before she licked the side of her mouth and sighed. “I wish you’d swear like a normal person, Rayla.” Her tone sounded more irritated than she looked. “That is so disgusting.”