The In-Between

Chapter 2

John is running down the middle of a highway. There are no cars. The translucent grey world he is traveling through is quiet with no echoes. His footsteps barely exist in this world.

The sun may have set where he safely left his body, but in here, it is still daylight. There is never a dark sky. Never a cloud or any weather for that matter. The perfect, quiet utopia.

He has been running for a while now, and normally he would be winded by now, needing to take a break. But not in here. His body is lighter and the running doesn't take that much effort. He can also traverse further distances than what normal gravity would allow.

He hears in the distance loud electrical chords, as if from an electric guitar.

Ashley must be over that way.

He knows full well he skipped out on his team's excursion...yet again. But at least he had a good excuse this time. He didn't bother meeting up with them and continued on towards headquarters.

The highway had four lanes on both sides, making it an exceptionally large one. But seeing how this was L.A, it wasn't uncommon. At least there was no traffic here. If he focused enough, he could see blurry, transparent grey cars all around him. He only wished he could take his body with him, that way he could cheat and never have to deal with transportation.

As he ran on, he constantly paid attention to his surroundings. He would also wander through the lanes, not keeping a straight path. This was a tactic taught to him long ago. If he was being chased by something it would not be able to surprise him with a pounce.

Further up ahead of him he could see slow movement. It was still too far away to tell what it was. There was a very large tree behind it that made it very hard to determine what the movement was. Especially since everything in this world is a translucent grey, it all tends to blend and merge as one.

Probably harmless, he figured, but he still moved away to be on the opposite side of it. As he neared it, though, it moved forward away from the large tree and John could clearly see what it was.

'Shit! A Long-legs!'

He halted immediately and lay flat on the grey translucent concrete. Only his head moved, looking up to see if it had noticed him.

The grey creature was walking slowly, its long six foot stick-legs covering a lot of distance with each step. The body looked like a series of interwoven tree branches that started from the spine and all intertwined to point at each other at the underbelly, like a zipper. With every breath, the belly's branches would separate and reconnect slightly, revealing that the underbelly could open and expand. The head was triangular, with the pointed end down, and interwoven branch-like material wrapping around the head and neck to connect with the body. There were two dents in its head to symbolize what could be the eyes, but there was nothing in them. This creature did not resemble anything else in this world and was an alien to its surroundings.

As he watched on, he thanked his lucky stars for having noticed it first, and not the reverse. Of all the creatures in this grey in-between, this was the deadliest. It had to be avoided at all costs.

The last time he had seen a Long-legs was when he had first discovered he could travel to the in-between. He had been with a team of people, learning the ropes of this world. We had turned a corner and there it was. Nick, our team leader, stayed back with Henry to fight it off while the rest got away. But I hadn't gotten far before I heard an agonized scream and turned around to see Nick had been stabbed in the chest by the creature's pointed head. Henry had tried to pull Nick away but the creature had opened its belly, scooped down and grabbed him with its branches and closed him in to a cage. Then the creature squeezed its belly tighter inward until Henry...