Prologue

We tend to think that outer space is the "last frontier" right? Well that was the last thing on my mind when everything went down, believe me. My fiancé and I had been spending whatever spare time we had together, and this one particular night we had been laying on the beach watching the stars. Funny, how they look so small from down here on Earth. My fiancé's name is Alice, she's about five-foot-nine, with light brown hair that reached almost down to her waist, and if the sun caught it just right, would glimmer and shine better than glitter. Her eyes, she had these beautiful deep blue eyes that could tell a whole story without saying a single word. Five-nine, perfectly "average" build, and that hair, and those eyes, with a personality like gold, that is my Alice. She worked at the local foster care center and loved to occasionally bring in new things for the kids there when we could afford to. Of course, Alice was never afraid to get nasty if she had to be, I remember that clearly the day some sewer-dreg punk kid was hassling one of Alice's favorite kids from the center.

As for me, I am, or I should say was, a mechanic. I worked in a small garage in the slums of a little town in California, it wasn't much but it was enough to pay the bills and keep us afloat. My name is Floyd, and I'm about five-foot-eleven, broad shouldered, and built sturdy. My hair is shaggy and black colored, my eyes are a queer shade of hazel. I kept clean shaven when I could, always disliked having too much scruff. I met Alice one day when her car broke down, and she was just so kind I had to offer her a discount. She was adamant about paying the full price though, and I managed to get her number while she talked with me as I fixed her little hatchback.

I still gave her a discount though in the end, just to help her out. The night everything had first gone to hell was the night I had proposed to her. I took her down to the beach late at night so we could see the stars, hear the waves lapping onto the sand, and feel the cool, gentle breeze rolling across the coast. I had pointed out one of the constellations to her while I snuck the ring box into her hand. Her reaction was the sort that would just melt your heart. She said yes when I asked her the big question, and we just spent a couple hours together, happy and at peace, completely unprepared for what was about to happen to us.

The ground began to rumble a little at first, we thought maybe it was a small earthquake, so we ignored it and just went back to what we were doing. Then there was another rumble, stronger, and more steady than the first one. Alice said "Maybe we should get in the car, just in case?". I told her it wouldn't matter if it were an earthquake, we were on the beach and nothing could fall on us there. Then there was a third rumble, that made the ground roil and rock, the sand was visibly shaking on the surface of the beach, and so Alice and I quickly went for the car. As soon as the Alice and I had gotten into the car and shut the doors, she had began to cling to my arm in fright at what was happening. Soon after, there was a horrible shrieking, that was thankfully short lived but lead to something that I would learn was far more serious. A rift, a portal of some sort, tore open and began to pull our car towards it. Alice was terrified and tried to get out of the car and run, but as soon as she stepped out of the car, the rift had gotten a hold of her and was pulling her in. I threw myself out of the car after her and grabbed onto her, hoping our combined weight might be enough to keep us from being sucked into the rift. I was stupid to think that if it was pulling our car into it just fine. Alice and I were both quickly pulled in. The last thing I saw was her face, crying, and looking at me hoping there would be something I could do. Then everything went black and I could no longer feel Alice in my arms...