Through Space and Time

Eleven

What the...? Raegan's head ached as her eyes flickered open. Where am I?

Her hand scooched to one side and relief flooded her as she felt Miguel. She didn't even need to turn her head to know it was him. He'd become almost as familiar to her as her own body.

"Ah, you are awake, at last. I wondered when my spell would wear off."

Raegan bolted upright as a glimmer of memory came back. Her and Miguel found themselves in danger at the hands of a stunning woman...

Oh!

The person she found herself looking at now wasn't the same. It seemed the form she'd chosen to greet them in was a fake one, to make her more pleasing. She hid her purplish spotty skin and her straggly dark hair which reached the ground. Her long legs had been replaced with tentacles which spread out as far as Raegan could see.

"I do not need to hide myself from you, because you know."

"I know?" Raegan pushed herself into a standing position and moved in front of Miguel who remained passed out on the floor underneath her. She didn't want to blame him for their current situation, but she never got captured alone! "Know what?"

"You are smart, you can see through deception. I can speak honestly."

"Right. Honestly. Of course."

She darted her eyes from side-to-side, drinking in the new environment surrounding them. No longer could they see the sky, they appeared to be surrounded by a dark, damp tunnel.

"Hi sunt, qui secum in finem mundi. Illi diabolus misit eos perdere..."

The voice didn't just come from this one woman. It seemed to echo around her, as if a hundred people spoke all at the same time. Raegan gulped, trying to swallow down fear. Terror would kill her more than the strange words being spoken.

"I thought you wanted to speak honestly," she demanded. "Not words I can't understand."

"Omne quod scimus quia veniam ad finem."

"Hey, stop that! I'm starting to get annoyed now. You want to talk then do it!" Raegan squeezed her fists together, trying really hard not to lose it completely. "I don't want to be here, I just want to leave, but for some reason you've made us stay..."

"You came here by mistake?" the woman asked, her ethereal voice shuddering through Raegan. "That's what you're telling me?"

"Yes! We fell through the exit hole without any knowledge of where it would take us. We didn't want to end up here. Why would we want that?"

"That's what the last one said as well. He told us that he didn't want to come."

"You...you saw another human?" Something about this made Raegan's heart stop beating for a millisecond. The idea of another person being in this exact situation was almost too much for her to handle. "Someone else was here? Do you know who it was?"

The woman glared. "As if I would care about something so insignificant? The only reason I bring it up is because he murdered one of us. He did what we thought was impossible and ended one of our endless lives. That created a divide between us all. Some of us want to die, others do not want their immortality threatened. That is why your presence is a big deal and why you need to be controlled."

"I don't want to kill anyone, and nor does Miguel. You can trust me with that one."

"Mi...guel?" She cocked her head to one side curiously.

"Yes, Miguel." Raegan pointed behind her. "He wouldn't hurt anyone. I don't know who hurt you people, but that is nothing to do with us."

"You humans ruined your planet, you are the destroyers. All you want to do is wreck more. Including us. I cannot let this happen. Fifty years ago you came here and turned our lives upside down..."

"Wait, fifty years ago?" That made Raegan's head hurt. The nuclear war hadn't even started then...but of course, she'd been to what looked like Earth in the year 2015, so perhaps she shouldn't be so stunned.

A hole had been torn in reality, in time and space, anything was possible.

"Okay, well I'm sorry this happened to you, I understand this must be really hard, but there's one way you can make sure that we don't do the same. Take us to the exit hole and send us on our way. That way you don't ever need to see us again. We can't come back."

"But we need you. We need you to work out the way to die, so the one's who do not want immortality can have it. You are key, like I said." Her lips twisted up into a nasty smile. "Also, more importantly, I want revenge. I would prefer to make an example of you. You should die for the sins of your people."

"Our people have suffered enough. The war killed billions of us..."

"Your own fault," she screamed. "You are the destroyers."

"But how is that fair...?" Raegan started, but it was pointless, the woman had gone.

She dissolved into thin air leaving her alone with Miguel who still showed no signs of life. The darkness threatened to completely consume Raegan, her eyes could no longer pick out anything.

"Miguel," she hissed into the thick blackness. "Miguel, you need to wake up now. I cannot do this alone. This is serious, we need to get out of here."

She fell to her knees and scrabbled around on the ground to try and find him. Tears balled up behind her eyes, she knew they'd fall if she let them, but she was determined not to. She absolutely couldn't, especially not while she was by herself. Weakness wasn't her forte. It never had been and it never would be. Especially not now.

"Oh dear," a silky voice broke through the darkness, making Raegan jump. "But you are not alone. In a place like this, you are never by yourself."