Page 10

She started to mutter a curse, fearing she’d ruined the image she’d been working on before her lapse of consciousness, and was surprised to see she’d clicked open a folder she’d previously thought held backups of plug-ins for After Effects.

And there it was.

A month ago, she’d gone into the sort of trance some great authors experience when in the grip of a great inspiration. The words had flowed through her fingers and to the empty page with fluid grace- like a shimmering cream in the moonlight. Her dream had willed it.
And she’d lost it. She’d saved it somewhere far from prying employer eyes (for it had been at work, where else?)  during her half-trance and had forgotten where the hell she’d hidden it. The perfect hiding place- that which even the person who had chosen it couldn’t remember it. And she knew she’d saved it somewhere. The urge to read it again and again as she had with all of her so-thought “trance works” tore at her mind and she’d searched fervently. Of course, without the knowledge of what the bleeding hell she’d called the damned thing, Windows’ search option was fruitless with every keyword she’d tried.

And now, here it was. Patience be damned.

And, of course, it had been named “adjacent.” It seemed so idiotically simple to her now, and she kicked herself in the head several times mentally for not realizing it. She hastily opened the file and read it to herself.


“you want to go, don’t you?”
“I still don’t believe you. What kind of game is this?”
“it’s not a game. Come on, I’ll show you. Oh, and you’ll need different shoes for where we’re going…”

I was still skeptical, even with everything I’d witnessed. Other dimensions just didn’t seem possible, especially in this particular castle where “casual” didn’t even really exist.

Page 11

I followed him to the steps that looked over the inlet, stopping by one of the marble pillars. He took the disc from under his arm, setting it on the marble slab several feet before the steps began. I folded my arms.

“Now what?”
“you’re not going to get different shoes?”
“these will do fine.”
“alright, then, come here.”
He was standing on the disc, arms open. I stepped up as well, and he enveloped me in his tanned arms. I frowned, looking up at him. His eyes were closed and turned to the ceiling in some sort of reverence. 
“close your eyes and hold on tight.”
I did so.
“now you must ask me to take you to the adjacent realm.”
“… take me to-”
“no, in your mind.”
I sighed, closed my eyes, rested my forehead against his collarbone and humored him.
Take me… to the realm… adjacent…

Suddenly there was a strong, cool gust of cyclic wind around us, bright blue light, and a violent lifting sensation. Everything winked out.
And all at once our feet were touching stone again. Uneven stone.

We opened our eyes.
We looked over the steep cliff before us to an alien sea of deepest emerald that swelled to a deeper blue. The skies glowed a pale blue in early sunset… the sun, to my astonishment, was a full circle, not a crescent. I turned, then, seeing the wink of a mirror in my left eye, and I saw such strange structures rising to the sky. They were covered in mirrors, and they reflected most perfectly this bizarre scenery. I didn’t know how far away we were, but these monoliths looked to be several hundred men’s heights tall. I turned back to him, my mind feeling as if it were in a fuzzy haze.
He breathed deep, grinning.
“Now do you believe me?”