Dimension Ah

Hiroko reached out to grab April's hand, a reproachful look on his face.

"Go to bed, April."

April flinched the moment he touched her.

"Oh, hey! Okay, okay!"

She tried to pull her hand away but the boy held onto her wrist hard. She struggled but he just started pulling her along in the direction of the door.

"Listen, I know this is your weird… introvert thing to act out but can you at least do it during the day where you can't get hurt?"

April pouted at his words. He sure knew how to make her feel better. And he was most especially subtle about calling her the odd one out. And she was not acting out, or at least that is what she told herself she wasn't doing.

She subconsciously muttered:

"This is how I am, naturally."

Hiroko suddenly stopped on his advance to the door when she said that.

"That is so weird."

April, who was caught in her pouting, accidentally walked into his back. She grunted softly and looked up to see him standing tall and still. She wondered why he had stopped and slightly why the room was suddenly so bright but was more attracted to the offense in his words.

"Oh, hey, now–"

"April, look!"

He let go of her hand.

April blinked several times before peeking ahead of Hiroko to look. Her jaw immediately dropped ajar.

"What the heck is that?" Hiroko asked.

April's breath escaped her lungs with the words,

"Aliens!"

"What?"

A chilly wind swept over the kitchen floor, mournfully blowing as the blue and iridescent phenomenon swirled in midair in front of the two. Hiroko glanced at April, and she glanced back at him.

"You're seeing this, right?"

Hiroko blinked.

"I don't know. Maybe I'm asleep. Is that a vortex?"

The mysterious vortex that had appeared from nowhere floated right there, dormant and blinding, undisturbed.

The girl took a decisive step forward toward it. It was a few feet ahead of Hiroko and it was the most beautiful if not an eerie entity either of them had ever seen.

"What are you doing?" Hiroko hissed, tensing with her every step.

"I'm gonna take a better look at it… maybe touch it."

"What?! Why the hell would you want to touch it? April?"

"So, I can see if it's real!"

Her arm extended forward.

"No, don't! Let's get Ms. Montgomery. The police! NASA!"

Hiroko warned her but his own legs couldn't bring him to go after her.

"But it might not be here when they get here."

Her hand pierced through its surface, warping its perfect lollipop swirl, and vanishing through.

"Ha! Look at that!"

Hiroko cringed desperately as he mimed and mirrored her actions nervously, anticipating all the worst that could happen to her. But nothing, in particular, happened… except for the fact that she started giggling in delight, her green eyes adopting a luminescent glow and the blonde ends of her hair glowed too.

She touched it…

"It's like a whirlpool in midair," she whispered, clearly entranced.

"April, are you okay?"

"Yeah?"

"Then leave that thing alone… and come to me. Now."

"Okay."

She tried to move away from the vortex but ultimately failed to budge. She seemed awfully calm though.

"Huh… I'm stuck."

"What?"

Hiroko had responded with confusion when both of April's arms sank into the vertical blue pool. She squeaked and he instinctively came and grabbed her waist, watching as something on the other side fought against his strength, slowly pulling her in, deeper.

"Jesus, I told you not to touch it!"

"It's swallowing me!"

"I know!"

A lot of evidence suggested it was not your regular run-of-the-mill vortex, not that vortexes were a regular thing in New York. But the girl's frantic, struggling actions broke its lollipop swirls. It spread onto April's arms and chest and even touched Hiroko's hands. By whatever force of nature, the vortex - as nothing else would have been the cause - evoked strange visions in their heads—visions of glimpses into two different worlds in the fabric of space. April saw smiling people, a castle, and trees, while Hiroko saw dark purple clouds, black rocks, and bones.

She cried his name before her head went through, followed by her neck, chest, torso, waist, and Hiroko's arms. It did feel cold and wet, and if it were water, April would perish out of breath. Hiroko braced his feet on the floor and fought against the vortex's pull, managing to pull April's head out and she coughed and hoarsely gasped for air.

She cried out:

"Hiroko, let go before it pulls you in with me!"

That was an absurd request.

"I'm not letting you go! It could kill you!"

"Hiroko, let go!!"

But it was not up for debate. Hiroko held onto April and pulled. The vortex, tired of the endless tug-of-war, doubled in size and rumbled. Hiroko knew what was about to happen. He shook his head.

"Oh, crap…"

In an instant, both the girl and boy were sucked into the portal and started being propelled through a blue tunnel, their screams vanishing the moment they got absorbed.

The opening dimmed, seemingly agitated, slowly changed the direction of its lollipop swirl, and suddenly vanished from the kitchen with a loud shushing sound!

…The whole tunnel was wet, zig-zagged, and twisty like a sea current, only they were not in the sea. It was surprisingly bright. They were bombarded by more of those earlier said visions, April seeing a mountain, a white but blurry figure of a person standing far away and Hiroko saw war between gray-skinned people with horns and enormous creatures of the monster variety.

* * * *

It was the end of the tunnel.

April tried to swim against the current, still seeing images of the smiling people in her head but she was pushed through the opening before she could realize it. She was spat out and came hurtling toward solid ground, falling on her front. Upon impact, she recoiled, her whole torso pained, especially her delicate chest. She vomited out the blue portal substance and sharply gasped for air, forcing herself onto her knees.

The vortex vanished, and the minute it did, her visions cleared too, and she was yet again engulfed by darkness.

"Hiro… Hiroko?" She squealed.

But there was no answer. Her knees locked and her body trembled from both the wetness and fear. The ground was glowing faintly and there were a lot of tall, dispersed and narrow trees. She was in a lumber wood tree forest, out in the middle of the night! The disbelief!

The light shining on the ground was fed by the moon whose face slowly peaked out of those clouds slowly wafting away. How she maintained consciousness was a stupid joke that made her scream out Hiroko's name and shudder to the brilliant echo.

'Where in the hell am I?!…'

* * * *

'Get out, get out. Get out!'

Kept company by the inconsistent flashes of the fantastical visions, and clutching onto the golden half of her hair, there was no way April could fall asleep. Before she fell face-first into that unknown territory, the wall clock in San Adelle had read two in the morning. She had been out and alone in that forest for what felt like hours, but it was still night time.

To top it all off, she was constantly being startled by those sharp forest sounds like scuttling and rustling.

Where on Earth was Hiroko? And if that was Earth, where did the second and larger moon come from? She was not in New York City anymore. She was now in a bizarre, strange world of two moons: one white and one yellow.

She cupped her knees and buried her face inside. Voices started flooding her head, driving her to pained moans and cringes. With every moan, they grew louder but less clear.

'Get out…!'

She hit her head against the tree she leaned against and… they silenced.

While listening to make sure, she was startled by a sharp jerk in the tree's trunk. She sat frozen for a minute, asking herself what that could have been. First of all, trees do not move, and if they did, it was when they were being pushed by strong gales in powerful storms.

So, whatever she had her back against was not a tree… April moved her hand slowly up and down the unknown anomaly's surface, eyes wide and breath sharpening.

She willingly craned her neck back and met with the face of a giant wolf. It had mercurially white fur, gray eyes, teeth – big, sharp, white teeth to be exact – and five bushy long tails!

What in the name of abominations…

All of the blood on April's face rushed away.

The wolf sprayed a hot deathly breath on her face. She was incapacitated for a brief moment, gawking at it but when her senses came back on, and a sudden vision of the wolf howling flashed in her eyes, she bolted away from the beast, gasping.

It followed.

Large paws pounded behind her. She could tell she could not outrun it no matter how hard she tried. But there would be a greater loss if she did not try – constantly dodging trees that appeared in front of her out of nowhere. As did more visions of the wolf flash before her eyes, constantly obstructing her view, and disappearing whenever she was about to run into a tree.

It growled and snarled, landing in an instant in front of her, and like a rock, she ricocheted away from it and ran in the opposite direction.

No athletic reflex was involved. Utter complete fear was steering.

Her legs – which were still in shock – dared not let her stop. Not unless she wanted to be wolf chow. Her lungs were on fire, her chest was half its usual size and her ears a metaphorical furnace.

She ran like hell.

Quite ahead of her, a line of trees stood. The landscape beyond it looked far away and gave a mental picture of a steep embankment. Those trees were a barrier and surely that massive wolf proved to be in its senses as it halted at the barrier of trees and watched as the girl jumped into the air…

'Well, that was stupid…' she thought, the visions clearing and she, catching sight of the moons in the lower sky.

For a moment, time slowed to a crawl. The heat in her chest subsided and she believed that this was all a dream…

But of course, at the end of every dream lies reality… The moment she started plummeting downwards she knew she was awake, and she was in for a lot of hurt!

The landing was emphasized by a loud grunt as she landed on her knees and elbows. Like a log, she rolled down the slope, quickly, as if pushed and the colossal wolf watched with its gray eyes glinting fury and curiosity as she quickly tumbled into the deeper darkness. She instantly vanished from its sight. Then, with a bellowing howl, it took one great leap and like a shadow, disappeared into the night.

On her end, April reached the bottom of the slope on her belly. Her body trembled tremendously. There was a strong bloody, iron taste in her mouth and her ears were ringing. The ground before her was unstable and she felt absolutely bullied by the fall. She groaned and gasped and tried to stand herself up. But her elbows were burning, and her ankles and knees throbbed in a heated pain. She tried to move her neck but her response to the extreme harrowing agony was but a choking and fearful cry.

It felt like everything was broken inside of her. Visions of hundreds of long-haired people flashed in her eyes like a stereo tape, coming to suddenly pause at the face of an incredibly pale boy… and she succumbed unconscious…