Through Space and Time

Twelve

"Nrughrrn," Miguel murmured, finally stirring.

Raegan glanced at him, but only for a second. She needed to work out what this new threat was. A stranger's voice that had her heart pounding furiously.

"Who's there?" she called out into the echoing cave.

"I'm not the enemy," it replied, for nowhere and everywhere all at once.

"How can I trust you?"

"I can't make you trust me, I don't have the time to prove to you who I am. But if you want to get out of here alive instead of being subjected to horrible experiments, then I'm the best chance you have."

"But...you're one of them, aren't you?" Raegan wanted to believe what was being said to her, but she'd been through too much to let her guard down.

"I am. But we don't all want to cause harm. In fact, most of us don't."

Raegan shrugged into the darkness. "Well, I guess I don't have any choice."

She moved to wake Miguel up, but magic lifted him upright. His confused face tried to drink everything in at once. Raegan did want to explain it all to him, to have him on the same page as her, but they didn't have the time. He'd understand in the end anyway.

"What now?" Miguel whimpered.

He didn't know much, but he was aware knew that something had gone terribly wrong.

"I'm taking you to the exit hole. You need to come with me."

A sliver of silvery light came into view. It wasn't so much a person, more an energy. Miguel wanted to question it, but he recognized that look on Raegan's face. This wasn't the time.

"We do not have time to waste. You must follow me now."

The slither of light began to vanish, cuasing both Raegan and Miguel to race after it. Neither of them truly had the strength for this fast-paced mission, but they did what they could. It didn't help that every so often they would feel something pressing down on them. A force they couldn't see. It troubled Miguel when he struggled to breathe, but seeing Raegan power through it made it much easier for him. If she could do this, he could too. For her.

Raegan's hand reached out to grab his. It was a place they'd been numerous times before, but for some reason in the intense powerful dark surrounding them, the electricity sizzled between them even more phenomenally than ever before. Neither of them spoke aloud, but their feelings continued to grow increasingly by the second. It became damn near impossible to remember why they'd been pushing their emotions down.

Why not just go with it? What did they have to lose?

"I want you to escape," the slither of light burst out, making both of them jump. They'd almost forgotten they weren't alone for a moment while they got lost in the lust. "To make things right. There was tension between us, years ago, and while I'm sure you've heard a skewed version of the truth, we have not been innocent. Not by a long shot. You should not have to suffer because of that."

"I would like to know more," Raegan mused. "I feel like there's a deep history here that we should know about. In the future, when things are..."

She trailed off. She didn't know how to answer that question. She never ever wanted to lose hope, that would take her one step closer to death, but it'd been slipping off her like a wet towel for a while now, without her even noticing it.

"We do not have time," the light insisted again. "Not if you want to live."

Living beat having all the answers, she supposed, but she still wanted to remember. Just in case a time came where she could finally record all of this.

The hallways inside the cave didn't seem to end. Miguel was just about to get to the point where he assumed this was a trap when the light shimmied upwards.

"Oh, look!" Raegan cried. "A ladder. We must have to climb it."

It wasn't exactly a ladder, but it appeared to be a contraption which did the same trick. Where Raegan climbed with ease, Miguel struggled to find his footing, but determination kept him going. Every time his hands felt slippery and sweaty, he didn't stop, whenever his foot fell, he didn't allow himself to fall, he followed the woman his feelings surged for.

"Prohibere! Iisdem indigemus aperire aditus gehennae."

A voice suddenly exploded out from behind them, proving that they'd been caught.

"Oh no!" Raegan screeched as blasts of light flew past them.

Miguel tried to duck, but it wasn't easy. He struggled to focus on everything at once. His eyes blurred with fear, the wetness of his palms became a real issue, Raegan disappeared into the light above...

Don't die here, he begged himself. Not much further.

"Miguel, we've found it! The exit hole. Come on."

He couldn't lose Raegan, he couldn't never see her again. Losing one group had been hard enough, losing this beautiful woman he was falling head over heels for would destroy him.

He pulled himself hard, fighting with every scrap of willpower he had. Flashes and anger burst like fireworks around him, sound seemed to come from everywhere, the light above got smaller rather than bigger, he wasn't sure that he was heading for it at all, but he didn't stop.

Not much longer...

Come on, Miguel, you can do this...

The light surrounded him. He didn't even feel himself pull out the cave, it just seemed to happen.

But he couldn't find Raegan. Seconds later, before he'd even had a moment to look around, he was tumbling again, falling into the abyss. He knew this feeling, it was an exit hole, he'd already began to sink through it...alone.

"Raegan," he screamed into the nothingness. "I fell, I didn't mean to, but I feel already. Where are you? I need you with me!"

He didn't want to be lost, he couldn't be lost, he wouldn't be able to survive without her.

Raegan was his destiny. He didn't want to realize that just as he'd lost her.