In Between

Epilogue: The Unknown Realm

Mel had never liked the colors of the Inbetween—black and grey were so plain and boring when they weren't being utilized for fashion. She had briefly glimpsed the loveliness of blue sky through the portal that had led to Earth, and it had been the most beautiful shade she'd ever seen. Mel wasn't in the Inbetween nor had she been lucky enough to end up on Earth...They had told her that she was in the Dark Realm.

Inbetweeners called the inhabitants of the Dark Realm, Shadowmen. That was the name chosen to represent the scary monsters hiding in the closet or under the bed, and it was what Inbetween children thought of when Earth children thought of the boogeyman.

"Who are you?" That was her first question when her kidnapper set her down. He had grabbed her while she had been running through the Dark Forest in the effort of putting some distance between herself and the people who had captured her friends. They're most likely dead by now, Mel thought solemnly, but what did she know about how long it took for the suffering to end when one was falling in the Abyss?

"You would probably prefer to call me a Shadowman," the guy said with an accent that stressed the syllables of Mel's native tongue in strange places. He looked to be about her age, if not a few years older, and his skin was incredibly dark just like hers. "My name is Jared. What's yours?"

"I'm Mel. You don't have a very threatening name, Jared."

"Do I look threatening to you?" he asked with a short chuckle. Mel thought that he had a lovely voice, but she rejected the adjective instantly and scolded herself for applying such a positive attribute to that monster. However, she began realizing something incredible over the next few days—the Shadowpeople weren't monsters as she had been taught in school. As far as she could tell, they appeared every bit as normal as the Inbetweeners and just as human as the earthlings. One of them, who she spotted through a window in the room where Jared had brought her, even looked something like the Guardians from the Otherworld.

Mel questioned Jared further and discovered that he had been sent to kidnap an Inbetweener; she was sure that Gilda's husband was among those who he had already taken. Jared had been on his way to the village when Mel had run right into him. She was apparently a very lucky find because of her skin color—the shade was unique to the Dark Realm.

After witnessing what Kieran and Draven had gone through, this information sent Mel into a panic over her own ancestry. Jared seemed to think that at least one of her parents must have been a Shadowperson, and it was inexplicable how she could have ended up in the Inbetween all those years ago.

"How did you get into my dimension?" That was Mel's second question after she had considered the origins of her family. Every story about Shadowpeople claimed that the door to their realm had been locked from the inside and a stone monument had been built around it so that nothing could go in or come out.

"I had help from a very special Guardian who I'm sure will want to meet you soon," Jared said. It didn't sound as though he were being deliberately unhelpful, rather, Mel got the sense that he was trying to make her experience there more bearable. When he locked her in the room, he looked at her through the bars in the metal door with the makings of an apology in his dark eyes. Once she was alone, Mel began to wonder.

Why did they bring me here, and where did I really come from? Why have the royals always insisted that the Shadowpeople are an ugly race of evil monsters? Who originally sealed the portal that linked our two worlds and why? Will I ever see my family or friends again? Mel didn't know the answers to any of these questions, but she had the feeling that there were more secrets involving this realm than anyone knew.

From then on, she had no choice but to sit in the room and watch the changing colors of the sky. The view from her window was even quite a bit nicer than what she was used to...Mel had never liked the black and grey colors of the Inbetween...but black and red, on the other hand, was a much more interesting combination.

The End