Chapter One: The Summons

Tiffany gets a strange mental message to go to the park at midnight. What she finds there, however, makes the message the least of her worries.

Tiffany Williamson was walking around the lake of Adams Park thirty minutes after midnight, gazing all around. She shivered; even in her thick coat, some of the January cold leaked in. She reached into her coat pocket and pulled out her cell phone. With her phone’s light, she checked her watch. She was at the right place in the right time, so what was supposed to happen?

Earlier that morning, Tiffany had felt something odd, like a bunch of words were being projected into her head. Adams Park lake, east side. 12:30 AM. Come alone. She’d thought she was just hearing things, but what she heard was oddly specific for that. She mentioned that to her parents, and they had told her, in a very suspicious manner, not to worry about it. Therefore, she had made her way to Adams Park at half past midnight.

Tiffany perked up her ears at the sound of crunching leaves. She turned to the left to face the sound. ‘That didn’t sound right’, she thought, ‘that was too big to be an animal.’ She intently listened closer, but no new sounds presented themselves. She nervously turned around and started to walk back home.

“Watch out!”

Tiffany turned to the right All she saw was a large dark streak come out of nowhere before it knocked her down with the force of a cannonball. Not a second later, she heard a loud crack and a soft curse.

The streak then landed neatly on the ground and tucked Tiffany under its arm in one fluid movement. “Hold tight,” a masculine voice ordered her. Puzzled, but also winded, she grabbed onto his arm.

After several long bounds, he finally landed near on a baseball field and laid her in a dugout. Tiffany stumbled to the ground and lay on her back. She felt like she was about to throw up for a while, but eventually managed to beat that feeling back. A little while later, her sense of balance returned and she got back up on her feet again.

Now she could get a good look at her abductor, not that it would do much good. He was covered in a large black parka and dark grey sweatpants, with thick black winter boots on his feet. All she could tell about him that would be any use to a police officer was that he was very tall (he almost reached the ceiling just by standing) and very strong, which he’d just proved to her.

He reached out for her again, but she jumped back. “Leave me alone,” she squeaked out. She might not have much of a choice, but she was going to resist as long as she could.

“I don’t mean you any harm,” the man told her again, in a low and slightly chilly voice. “Believe me; I actually want to protect you.”

That didn’t get anywhere. “Then why did you grab me back at the park?” Tiffany asked him testily. “What’s going on? Who are you?”

The man sighed. “I suppose you won’t trust me if I don’t give you any answers.” Tiffany determinedly shook her head. He groaned. “I so don’t have time for this.”

“Well I’m not going anywhere with you until you tell me what’s going on!”

***

Ramalan heard something coming from the trees. He quickly grabbed the girl’s mouth and peaked his head out. Yep, there it was, right on the edge of the woods.

As it stepped out of the trees, Ramalan could feel the girl shiver against him. “Bissa,” he explained, “...really squishy thing. Looks human now. Psychically makes things feel uncomfortable.

Ramalan thought things out. After a while, he poked the girl, who pinched him in return. “Got it,” he whispered, “here’s what we’re gonna’ do. Don’t say a word; he’ll hear you. While I go after him, you make a break for it. Tap my arm once if you understand.” A pause, and then a pinch on his arm. He had no idea what that meant, but just so long as it got her away from it, he was alright with whatever she did.

“Okay, go!”

They scampered, the girl turned and ran to his left while Ramalan moved out and away from the shed. “OI!” he shouted. The Bissa turned to face him, thankfully still looking human. “You know you’re not supposed to be here,” he shouted.

“Neither are you,” it pointed out in a deep voice.

“You broke the treaty first. Therefore, we have the right to intervene.”

“Like at Harfog, right?”

“That was perfectly legitimate.”

“No, it wasn’t. Look, just leave and let me do my work.”

“Go to Hell.”

It shrugged. “Sorry, then.”

And at that, Ramalan ran forward, pulling a glowing knife from his pocket as he did so. Almost immediately, the Bissa shot his right arm forward with a loud crack, intending to skewer him like a piece of ham. But Ramalan rolled to the side, pulled a few ordinary knives from his pocket, and threw them ahead at the abomination’s chest.

However, the Bissa reformed its left arm as a shield in front of it, blocking the knives from their intended course. Once they had all hit, holes opened up around them and they dropped to the ground. “Cute,” Ramalan deadpanned.

“Thank you.” The Bissa formed a long spike with his left fist and Ramalan had to roll again to avoid getting skewered by it. As the arm passed, Ramalan slashed at it with his drawn knife, which blazed with light as it struck. The knife dulled for a moment; the Bissa’s arm began disintegrating as its owner screeched in pain. In that moment, Ramalan rushed forward and raised his knife above his head, ready to slash down into the creature’s heart.

He was about a foot away when the creature drew its bandana down and spat something at him. It hit him right between the eyes with the force of a bullet. Ramelan stopped just short of hitting his target and fell to the ground. He quickly faded away, still wondering what had just happened..

***

Keller quickly willed his arm to sever at the shoulder. As his arm fell to the ground and disintegrated, he thanked Selanes for that ability. He knelt down and covered his remaining hand in his bandana. Slowly and carefully, he picked the knife up, wrapped it in the bandana, and pocketed it.

“ERRAW!”

He spun around at the grackle’s cry and saw his mark. He quickly stretched his arm out over the fence...

***

When Hoodie-man had said ‘go’, Tiffany started running. She didn’t know where she was going, but right now, that didn’t matter. All that mattered was distance; destination would come later.

Heart pounding and legs pumping, she leapt over the fence and kept running. A few feet later, she ducked behind a tree. After the talking stopped, she began running again. Just as she got to the next tree, she heard the other creature scream, a sound that set her on edge. Filled with dire need, she sprinted the last thirty feet to the woods.

Just a few steps away from safety, she felt a sharp tug on the hood of her jacket, and suddenly flew backwards through the air. Desperately, she tried to wriggle her way out of the jacket, but none of the clasps seemed to want to co-operate with her. As she got closer, it, whatever-it-was, shot out two other tendrils that pinned her arms to her sides. She was stuck, only able to struggle against them as she came face-to-face with the thing.

“Don’t worry,” it told her. “You’re safe now.”

“Let me GO!” She kicked out at it, but the tendrils still held her tight. She opened her mouth to scream, only to have another tendril cover her mouth like a gag.

***

“Listen,” Keller calmly stated. “My name’s Keller and I don’t want to hurt you. In fact, you’re very important alive. Terrible things are happening back on my world, and I need you to come back with me and set things right.” He relaxed his hold. “Now, I’m going to release you. When I do, I need you not to scream or run off.”

When she had finished gagging and clawing the taste off her tongue, she glared back at him. “Like Hell I’m going with you,” she hissed at him. “I don’t know why you’re here; I don’t know why the other guy came here; I don’t know why you killed him; I don’t know anything. I don’t care, either, so just leave me alone!”

“Take it easy, I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Oh really?”

Keller sighed. He stuck his lone arm back in his pocket, then paused. “If I could give you a good reason to listen to me,” he told her as he reached for the piece of cloth on his belt, “would you come with me?”

***

Tiffany stopped and thought about what he just said. What type of proof was he talking about? If it was as weird as anything else, she really didn’t want to see it. Then again, it might get him to leave her alone, since he could easily catch her again if she ran off.

“Sure.”

He nodded. “Good; now hold still.” As she wondered what he meant by that, he quickly drew a knife from his belt and nicked her forearm with it. She cried out in surprise and made to run off, but he grabbed onto her arm. “Look at it,” he told her. So she did, and her eyes popped out of her head. Her blood was pure black, and the skin on her arm where he had slashed at her had turned a dark grey, like someone had rubbed pencil lead on it.

“You’ve spent so much time here that you look like one of them,” the putty-arm explained as he released her. “However, you’ve still got a little bit of your birthworld in you. This dagger,” he raised it to her level, “was made on their world. It’s designed to kill people like us; I’m sure you saw what it did to my other arm.” Tiffany looked at his arm, and turned white as she realized. “Oh, no, you’ll be fine,” it interjected; “You’ve spent enough time here that it doesn’t affect you the same way. I’ll heal eventually, but you must come with me, before reinforcements are sent after us.”

Tiffany started. “What, now?” she asked him. “But I can’t leave right now! Can’t this wait for a few minutes? You know, set my affairs in order?”

Keller shook his head. “Now.”

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