In Between

Chapter Eight: The Captured Portal

Apryl's next thought was, Kieran was wrong. He's going to hand us over to the Warriors, and her stomach suddenly felt heavy as if its contents had turned to ice. She looked helplessly at her sister and asked, Should we run? And was even able to direct the thoughts only to Bri. Mr. Dalhart reached forwards and wrapped a hand around Apryl's arm. She screamed.

"No, no! I don't want to hurt you. I only meant that you should come with me into the lab. I think I can help you," he said quickly because Apryl was struggling to get away and Bri was beating him with a fist. Kieran had stepped in front of Bri with his hands raised, and Draven had even tried to move in front of Apryl. She shoved him away.

"You mean you're not going to send us to be executed?" Bri asked for confirmation.

"No! I'm sorry, that came out wrong. Please, I'll show you what my team has been working on. It's right through this door," Mr. Dalhart explained, his dark hair tousled crazily.

Apryl wasn't ready to be trusting strangers even if they were handsome, aristocratic men. She did trust Kieran, though. There was just something so genuine about him..."Okay, show us," she said, and she moved to Kieran's side.

They all followed Mr. Dalhart through the door after he unlocked it with a long code that he was careful to hide from them. The laboratory looked like a larger version of the front lobby and was filled, not with desks and computers, but with equipment the likes of which Apryl had never seen. She could tell by the look on everyone else's face that they were just as awed as she, and maybe even more so when it came to Kieran and Draven. Apryl saw basic similarities between some of the instrument and the technology from back home like televisions and remotes and such, but she knew that this dimension didn't have those luxuries, so the scientific instruments likely had wildly different purposes.

"Hey, Gabriel! Who'd you bring?" someone asked, but Apryl only heard the strange, backwards-sounding speech that Kieran had first spoken to her with. It came out quite fluently even with the awkward way the speaker had to curl their tongue to produce the different sounds. There were people in the lab who Apryl hadn't noticed before with her eyes drawn to the blinking contraptions and panels, and they were likewise speaking in the unfamiliar language. Three men and one woman, all in white professional lab coats, were moving forwards to meet their group.

"Oh, it's Kieran. Hi!" a tall, lovely-looking man said enthusiastically. He was beautiful, like everyone else in this dimension that Apryl had seen, with extremely long and wavy coffee-colored hair and a handsome, sturdy build. His shining brown eyes inexplicably reminded Apryl of a cute, baby weasel's, except for the long eyelashes. Apryl liked him immediately simply because of his friendly expression.

That's Timon. He's my dad's best friend, Kieran explained, waving at the man.

She smiled, thinking, Timon—like the meerkat, not a weasel. The name suited him.

"Hey, Timon! These are my friends. You know Draven, but this is Apryl and her sister, Bri. They're...visiting," Kieran said, but he said it in English so that Apryl could understand.

Timon's smile froze for a fraction of a second, but he bounced back as though nothing were out of the ordinary, saying, "Well, it's always a pleasure meeting Kieran's friends!" and he shook Apryl and Bri's hand. This time he also spoke in English. Apryl filed a reminder away in her brain to ask Kieran how all of these Inbetweeners knew how to speak her language so fluently. She was tempted to say, "Hola! ?Cómo estas¿" which were three of the only Spanish words she knew, just to see if they understood it as well.

"It's nice to meet you, too. Are you all scientists?" Apryl asked, even though they obviously were. She looked around at the other three faces, inquiring about them through her thoughts. Kieran did some brief introductions for her.