Alex lead Jason and Ben through the wet tree trunks. The rain had just recently begun to slow down, and the bush was scampering here and there, running in between Alex's feet, dashing ahead bit, but always returning. It never stayed too long near Jason or Ben though; each time it went close to one of them, it would zip back up to Alex's side. They were looking at it curiously, and Alex couldn't really blame them. Even though less than twenty four hours ago she had been giving the bush the same look, she had grown a strange fondness for it. It was like it was the dog she was never allowed to have. She knew that once they returned to wherever it was the bush came from, she would have to say goodbye. Really, the bush was the only reason she was trying to find the crazy other world again at all. It needed to be back in its home, it couldn't just keep coming back, eventually people would notice it, and what they would do to it, Alex couldn't imagine. Experiments, torture... and the bush had never done anything to anyone. It was just a baby.
"Are you sure this is where you found it?" Jason asked Alex from a few feet back. "I've been in these woods tons of times, and there's not any weird experiments or anything going on in here that could have made... that."
"It wasn't like that," Alex tried to explain to her friend. "I was just walking, and then it was like I wasn't in the same place anymore."
"Yes, that usually happens when you walk somewhere," Ben mumbled, loud enough for Alex to hear. Jason elbowed him in the ribs, scowling at his boyfriend.
Alex decided to ignore it and continued walking instead. "I mean I wasn't in the same... I don't know. Like I left this world and went into another one. Or maybe it wasn't a different world. Maybe it was a different dimension, or a different universe. It's impossible to explain until you're there."
"Well, it looks like we missed it this time," Jason said, coming to a stop. They had reached the other side of the woods, and it opened up to another neighborhood. The nearest street was only a matter of feet away, and Alex couldn't believe it.
"What?" She looked around. "No... this isn't right!" The bush looked up at her with it's hidden eyes and cocked its head to the side.
Alex turned and marched back into the forest. Ben gave Jason a look that clearly expressed his annoyance at the situation, and Jason just gave him an apologetic look back. Then they too began to follow Alex into the woods. The bush rushed past them to catch up with its newest friend.
Just a few minutes later and Jason and Ben were sitting against a damp tree trunk, watching the bush chase around bugs in the moonlight, making strange gurgling noises as it jumped and dashed after moths and gnats. Occasionally it would catch one and lay still as it digested its meal. Then it would continue its little game. Both Jason and Ben had to admit, it was pretty cute, and extremely mystifying, and they had no idea as to where Alex might have found such a strange creature. But as to the notion of there being a whole different world hidden in the forest right next to all of their houses... It was just too far fetched to be plausible.
Alex, on the other hand, was scrambling back and forth between the trees, searching ech trunk carefully until she let out another exasperated sigh, then continued on to the next tree and repeated the entire process. She spent at least thirty minutes doing this, and Jason was just about to tell Alex he and Ben were returning home, when an excited squeal resounded through the trees. Ben jumped to his feet, pulling Jason up with him, and the bush set off after Alex. The two boys followed close behind, and they found her smiling proudly at a tree with a large crude X carved into its dark trunk.
"What is that?" Jason asked, stretching the tiredness from his bones.
"I marked this yesterday so I could find my way back," Alex explained. "Which means..."
She left that tree and moved to another one adjacent to it. "Yes! Look, here's another one! If we follow these, these should lead us straight through!"
She moved quickly from tree to tree, and Jason and Ben had trouble keeping up with her. The bush quivered next to her ankles the entire time, as if feeling her excitement within itself.
Suddenly, Alex stopped. "This can't be right..." she mumbled, more to herself than to anyone else, but they both heard anyway.
"What can't?" Ben asked with just a touch of sarcasm in his voice.
"The X's just stop. They shouldn't just stop, they should continue into the other world." She turned to face the others, and the look on her face was so defeated that even Ben had to feel sorry for her.
"Well... Alex..." Jason began, but Alex's face turned into a scowl and he took a step back.
"What Jason?" She snapped. "Are you gonna tell me about how I dragged you here into the middle of the woods for no reason and wasted your precious night for no reason? Because I already know that, and I don't need to hear it from you."
Jason looked at her with a hurt look on his face. "Actually, Alex, I was going to say that maybe for whatever reason, the way into your other world closed, and that's why the X's just stop."
Alex was silent for a few moments, and the bush nuzzled up against her ankles to try and comfort her.
"Oh..." She mumbled. "Sorry."
"Look," Ben said, "it's been a long night for all of us. Alex, so your... other world... closed itself. Maybe we can try again later, you know? But right now, the sun is already starting to come up, and I'm hungry. I say we all walk to wherever the nearest diner is and grab some breakfast. Okay?"
Alex sighed. She had been so sure that it was all real, but now she wasn't so sure. She looked down at the bush and raised an eyebrow. It was the only link she had to the crazy other world that she had visited yesterday, and she wasn't going to give up until she found her way back again and returned her bush to its proper home. But she wasn't going to make her way back on an empty stomach... Shuddering at the thought, she realized that she hadn't eaten since lunch yesterday.
"All right, lead the way," she said to Ben.
Jason put his arm around her shoulder. "Come on Alex... you can tell us everything about this other world on our way, okay?"
And so, with the bush following dutifully behind, the three teenagers left the forest and headed down the street into town.
***
Raul leaned back in his chair and listened to the shower running in the next room over. He leaned over and rubbed his temples, shutting his mind against the world. He couldn't believe everything he had done in the past twenty four hours. He had broken into Earth's largest and most famous prison Stronghold, killed four of the guards on duty until he had found one with the key he needed, proceeded to descend each and every level of the prison (and there were a lot of them), and released who was considered by the Kingdom to be one of the most dangerous criminals of modern times. Once they had escaped from the prison, Raul had to get Heath Branson across three towns and a city to his farmhouse on the country side.
Sighing, he stood back up and headed into the kitchen. Why had he done it? It was completely and entirely necessary. Lately, natural disasters were attacking all four corners of Earth and everywhere in between. This wouldn't be such a big deal if it wasn't so shrouded in mystery. The Kingdom was trying to keep it all under wraps, as if there was something about it they didn't want to people to know. And for some reason, two things often accompanied discussions of the natural disasters: other world theories, and the name Heath Branson.
Raul snapped out of his thoughts by the sound of the bathroom door opening. Out stepped a young man almost unrecognizable to the one who had went in to the bathroom just an hour before. He had cut his hair so that it was cropped short and stuck up on its own, looking elegantly disheveled. With the grime and dust off of his body he seemed to have a healthy complexion. Yes, he was pale and a bit pasty from lack of sunlight, but that was to be expected. With his hair washed it was dark blonde in color, and properly clothed, Raul didn't see how anyone could mistake this boy in front of him for the criminal escaped from prison just last night.
Heath smiled. "Surprised, Mr. Mason?"
"I think surprised would be putting it lightly," he said, returning to his seat. He gestured to an open seat across the room from him, and Heath took it. "Now, it's time to uphold your end of the bargain. I want to know all about other worlds. Everything you know about them. Every last detail. And I want to know why you were put in prison, for real. It wasn't for killing that girl, so don't give me that bull shit. Got it?"
Heath was silent for a few minutes before he spoke again. "I'm a man of my word, Mr. Mason. I'll tell you everything you need to know, but first I want to know why you went to such lengths, risking both of our lives, to find out such information from me."
Raul was prepared for this, and he had his answer ready. "Strange things are happening everywhere, and he Kingdom is trying to keep it quiet. Some details about it all have leaked through though, and all those details seem to have one thing in common -- you. You and your theories about another world. This other world that might exist -- if it does exist -- is having some sort of effect on our world. And it's not a good one. I can't explain it, and neither can anyone else around here. I think you can do a pretty good job though. You might even be able to explain all of this, and come up with a solution. They're saying that if something isn't done, it could mean the end of the world. Of both worlds, or all worlds, depending on how many there are. Now... you're information, Mr. Heath Branson."
Heath straightened himself up, feeling his back pop from lack of use. He took a deep breath, and began to plunge into his story.
***
Alex stroked the bush softly in her hands where she was carrying it. She couldn't be sure, but she thought it was sleeping. Jason and Ben were engaged in a conversation about something or other, Alex wasn't following it too well. She found it hard to concentrate on anything at the moment. Anything that didn't have to do with the other world she had inexplicably found herself in yesterday afternoon. She knew well enough now she wasn't dreaming it. If the living bush that followed her home wasn't proof enough of that, the X's on the trees were. She just couldn't explain why or how she couldn't get back. Was it because she had other people with her? Or maybe it was like in that book that she had read in the fifth grade about children who traveled to another world, and she could only get to the other world if she wasn't trying to get there. She sighed. It was all too much for her to figure out. She reluctantly pulled herself back into the present and looked around. They were on a familiar street, one that she traveled often with Jason and sometimes even her mother when she wasn't drunk or passed out. Just last week they had walked down this street together, talking and laughing like any mother and daughter would. Alex missed her mom already, and she hadn't even gone anywhere yet. She didn't know how she could live without her. She had to find some way to get her to stop drinking. She had to.
"Hey Alex, is that okay with you?" Ben called out to her, pointing to a small diner that Alex recognized as a place she had frequented with her mother when she was younger.
"Yeah, sounds good," she called back, making her voice sound cheery, when really all she wanted to do was sit alone and figure out this new mystery life had presented her with.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, Alex felt it again. The feeling deep in her gut, like it was being twisted and turned into a thousand tiny knots. She stopped and closed her eyes, smiling widely. She knew this feeling, and she knew what it meant. She opened her eyes again and saw that both Jason and Ben must have noticed it too, as they had both stopped walking.
"What was that?" Jason asked cautiously.
"Come on," Alex urged. "Keep walking." She hurriedly increased the speed and fervor of her walk, and the bush, which had woken up around the same time Alex felt herself cross the invisible line into her other world, jumped down and began to walk next to her. Jason and Ben hurried after her, not wanting to be left behind. All around her, Alex began noticing the changes happening. It was a lot different than the first time she stepped into this world. This time she was paying attention, and she could appreciate the very first gust of new wind that swept her hair back, smelling fresh and clean like she had never experienced. She looked down at her feet and watched as the asphalt suddenly stopped and became rough cobblestone. All around her, her old world was fading away and becoming replaced by this new, more interesting world. The sounds around her changed, and she could hear what sounded like horses somewhere in the distance. Horses! And birds were chirping somewhere, just waking up in the first warm rays of the rising sun, so brighter in this other world.
Alex turned to face Jason and Ben, who were gazing around with their eyes wide and their mouths open. "Toldja so," she said, sticking her tongue out.
"Yeah... yeah, you did," Jason admitted sheepishly.
"Holy... shit..." was all Ben could muster.
Alex took in her surroundings. They were in a town now, much like the town she was in just a few seconds ago. The street was in the same place, and the shops were all in the same places. They were just different. Unlike in her world, however, there was a huge stone fountain ahead of them. It looked like it could have fit all of Alex's house inside of it, and then some. It was made of solid stone, and was so intricately carved and designed that is awed Alex just to look at it. Upon approaching it, she could see different coins littering the bottom of it. Such strange coins they were, some were so tiny they looked like buttons in the water, smaller than dimes. And then there were some that were the size of Alex's head, large and flat and heavy looking. They were all the same bronzy color though, and they amazed Alex.
"So, this is your other world?" Ben asked her.
"When I came in last time, I was in the forest, so I've never been in this town before. But it's definitely the same place. It has the same feel to it. The same smell. Doesn't it smell good? Fresh?"
"Yeah, it does..." he admitted.
"And the coolest part is," Alex said animatedly, turning around, "you can see where our world merges with this one, and that's how you get back, look," and she began walking back the way she came. After a few minutes, she knew something was wrong. The cobblestone road began curving slowly to the left, and Alex didn't remember any curves walking to the fountain. The bush followed her faithfully, but Alex didn't pay it any attention.
"Alex," Jason said, coming to her side, "it's the same as in the forest."
"What?" she asked, turning to meet his gaze.
"In the forest, how the way you went the first time closed, remember?" He asked. "I think the same thing happened again. The link between the two worlds closed. Only this time, we're on the other side."
Alex's heart skipped a beat. They were trapped. She looked down at the bush and realized this must be what it felt like when it tried going back into its forest and found it impossible. She gulped and took a deep breath. She looked around for any sort of sign of a way back. Sure, she wanted to find this place, but she surely didn't want to be stuck here forever. She felt tears begin to well up in her eyes and the bush rubbed itself against her ankles, the way it did when it tried comforting her. She looked at Jason and Ben who both had dark circles under their eyes from lack of sleep and fixed expressions on their faces. She knew Ben must really hate her right now, and Jason... she couldn't stand the thought of her best friend being disappointed in her.
What had she gotten them all into?
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