When Jared woke, it was with difficulty.
Even though the gentle noises he heard, the rustle of fabric and swish of doors swinging open and closed, told him he was no longer in the in-between, it took him a while to believe it. It took even longer to remember who he was, to allow the parts he'd shut down to reawaken.
The emotions came first, loose and untethered, and then the memories. Of the in-between, of Leah and Brenton and Seth. Of the weeks of pain and depression, split though with the ridiculous hope Seth Azemar had provided.
He struggled against the surface of those memories, trying to break through. But it was only when that final memory slashed at him — a flash of a claw, a blaze of pain down his chest — that fear propelled him awake, and he slammed back down into his body.
The back of his eyelids were lit to an orange glow, his head pounding and his stomach crawling with pain, and Jared let out a groan and squinted his eyes open.
He was in a room with a plasterboard ceiling and two fluorescent lights embedded into it's surface, and his eyes watered as they readjusted to a brightness he'd been deprived of for weeks. He glanced around, trying to figure out where he was, but then a head leant over him, eclipsing the glare.
"Jared?"
He blinked, rubbing his eyes, and Leah came into focus.
She was haloed by light, her hair falling down in waves and brushing his cheeks.
If it wasn't for the bags under her eyes, her vacant expression and cracked lips, he might've thought it was all over; that he'd died and ended up somewhere peaceful and quiet and entirely of his own making.
"Leah?"
She leant back at the sound of his voice, as if it'd startled her, and the lights flared strong again, blinding him.
"Ugh," Jared grunted. "Can you turn the lights off?"
Leah disappeared, moving away, and then the bulbs flickered out.
Jared sighed as a warm darkness descended over him and his eyes stopped watering. Light still filtered in from the curtained window, enough to see by, and Jared took in the hazy shapes and silhouettes around him.
It was a small room, with a small bed. The only other object was a chair Leah had clearly been sitting in beside him. He watched her move back to it, curling her legs up so her feet were pressed to the seat and her arms roped around her shins.
She didn't say anything, and Jared stared at her, tracing the lines and shades and colours he'd memorised long ago, that haunted him incessantly.
He wasn't used to her looking like this, though. The Leah he knew claimed space instead of curling up, shone brighter the more dire things became. Whoever it was that sat beside him wasn't that. They weren't even close.
"Where are we?" he asked, unsure where this quiet, ghostly version of Leah had come from.
She wasn't looking at him, but she bit her lip and blood pooled beneath her skin, shockingly red.
"The world of the dead. Riley and Zarah pulled us out of that place."
Jared took that in, tried to process it, but he kept getting stuck on his last moments in the in-between, on the fire that'd enveloped his body and the creature that'd crouched over him.
He pulled the sheets back and frowned down at his torso. Three long claw marks ran the length of his chest, disappearing beneath the waistband of his pants. They looked months old, years even. The only evidence that they weren't an ancient injury was the dull throb in his gut, a wary reminder that any quick movements were still dangerous.
He glanced at Leah to find her looking too, her gaze running the length of his chest with a dead expression.
Slowly, he lowering the sheet back down, wincing when even that made pain ripple.
"How did they find us?" he asked.
Leah was still staring at the sheets, as if burning the injuries she'd seen underneath into her brain.
"I don't know," she said. "They haven't told me much."
"But they knew we were there?"
Leah closed her eyes, squeezed them tight.
"Yes."
He knew then, simply from her reaction, how Leah had ended up in the in-between, how he had too. He should've realised it already from the times he'd seen Riley appear in the live world, flickering in and out of focus right near Seth Azemar, looking like she was whispering to him.
"They sent us there, didn't they?" he asked.
Leah started shaking, and she hugged herself tighter, still refusing to look at him.
"Leah—"
"Don't."
Her voice was hard, sharp, and her eyes shone bright in the darkness. Jared almost flinched back at the self-loathing he saw there.
"It's not their fault," she said, her voice cracking. "All of this is happening because of me."
Jared's mouth hung open, his brain rushing, trying to make sense of this all. He reached out, wanting to touch her, to fix this somehow, but then the door swung open.
"What are you two doing sitting in the dark?"
The voice was demanding, instantly familiar, and the lights flared on.
Jared cursed and brought his hands up to his eyes, pressing the heels of his palms into the sockets.
"Bloody hell, Riley," he hissed.
"Oh, right. Sorry."
The lights switched off again and Jared lowered his hands, blinking.
Riley stood in the doorway, her hair pulled back into a tight ponytail, with a man and a blonde girl behind her. Jared recognised the blonde instantly. He'd spent enough time tailing Arelie Kaser when he'd first come to Narra to spot her anywhere, but the man he couldn't place.
From the way Leah tensed beside him, though, he was certain she could.
Riley moved to Jared's side, blinking as her eyes adjusted to the dimness, and pulled the sheet off him.
"How are you feeling?" Riley asked, eyeing him critically as Arelie and the man hovered by the door.
"Okay."
"Really?"
She looked down at his chest, and Leah followed her gaze again, guilt and torment drenching her expression.
"Yes," Jared snapped.
"Hmmm." Riley looked at his chest with less interest now. "I suppose a lot of people have been trying to kill you lately. Perhaps you've become a bit desensitised to it."
Jared didn't bother replying to that, but instead looked at the man standing by the door. He'd been quiet up until this point, watching, but when Jared met his gaze, he moved forward.
"We were hoping to ask you some questions, Jared," the man said.
Jared looked between him and Riley, vaguely aware that Leah had shifted closer to him, as if sides were being picked.
"Who is we exactly?" Jared asked, letting some boredom drip into his tone.
"You've met Riley before," the man said, glancing at her. "And Arelie, or so she tells me. I'm Mark. I work in a branch of the defence force here. One focused on inter-dimensional rules and regulations."
"Ah," Jared said, and suddenly Mark's face fell into place: ambushing Leah and Jared when they'd been travelling to the whirlpools, flashing from behind windows of police cars and vans as they chased them. "You're the dickhead who kept failing to catch me."
The corner of Mark's mouth twitched, and Jared felt Leah tense beside him.
"What do you want?" Jared asked.
Arelie stepped forward, her eyes flickering between Jared and Leah with a wariness Mark either didn't feel, or wasn't willing to show.
"We just want to know if you transported anyone between the worlds, like Leah did," Arelie said. "If anyone stayed in a world they didn't belong for a prolonged time."
"Why?"
"Just answer the question."
Jared glanced at Riley, then at Leah. Both their faces were tense, suspense-filled, and Jared realised that whatever answer he gave mattered. A lot. Perhaps enough to bargain with.
If these people had been the ones who threw Leah and him into the in between, he wasn't going to make it easy for them to do it again.
"Yeah," he said casually, lying back. "I moved loads of people between the worlds. It was part of my job."
Mark's face clouded, and a vein on Arelie's neck grew taut.
"How many is loads?" Arelie asked, her voice carefully neutral.
Jared shrugged. "I dunno. Hundreds?"
"Do you remember all of their names?"
"No. Should I?"
Arelie opened her mouth to speak but Mark silenced her with a look.
"That's fine, Jared," Mark said. "We'll leave you to rest. Arelie."
The last word was a snapped command, and when Mark turned and walked out the door, Arelie followed behind him.
For a moment, the room was quiet, the only sound the hum of the electricity, but then Riley turned to him.
"Once again, Jared Maverick, you've managed to fuck everything up. Congratulations."
The smile breaking out on her face contradicted her words though, and not for the first time, Jared wondered if Riley Rodriguez was more dangerous than anyone gave her credit for.
...
As I said in the last chapter, sorry for the delay on this one!
I hope everyone is having a lovely November so far.
Next chapter will be out in two weeks :)
- Skylar xx