The Bridge

by Rachel Lou

  “What is your natural form?”

  “I don’t know. I think I’m still growing into it. Lately I’ve been losing control over it. Sometimes I shift without knowing it.”

  “I don’t think you’ll lose control.” Everett ghosted his lips across Bryce’s.

  Bryce turned his head, and Everett kissed his cheek. “I don’t think we should.”

  Everett sat back. “Why?”

  “You’re drunk.”

  “I’m okay now.”

  “No you’re not.” Bryce gently moved Everett off his lap.

  They sat against each other, scrunched together on the driver’s seat, surrounded by the dark and silence. Everett shifted so he could comfortably drape an arm over Bryce’s waist in a loose hug. He rested his head on Bryce’s shoulder and breathed in the sharp mint of Bryce’s soap.

  “HURRY UP. Your grandpa is going to wake up sometime.” Buzz tittered.

  Everett grabbed Bryce by his shirt collar and yanked him into a bruising kiss. “Thank you for tonight.”

  They had slept in Bryce’s car until Buzz woke Everett up with a shout at three in the morning. Bryce had driven back like a zombie, but after that hard kiss from Everett, he was as awake as anyone could be at three in the morning.

  “I’ll see you soon,” Everett said.

  “Yeah. We should have a lesson soon. Do some grappling. It’s a lot of fun.” Bryce cleared his throat.

  Everett slung his bag over his shoulder. “We’ll see about that.”

  Bryce sighed, and then turned the car off and rushed out. He slid over the car’s hood and enveloped Everett in a hot kiss, his hands running everywhere as if he couldn’t get enough.

  Everett had low energy for spell casting, but it seemed he had high energy for fooling around.

  “Everett, seriously. Hurry up.”

  “Did you hear that?” Bryce breathed on Everett’s lips.

  “My familiar.”

  “Stop projecting your hormones and get inside.”

  “One more minute,” Everett said and boxed his arousal in his mind. He didn’t use salt, but he wanted to kiss Bryce instead of congratulating himself on his independence from Buzz’s snooping eyes.

  He rucked up Bryce’s shirt and dug his nails into Bryce’s human skin. So this was what teenagers snuck out at night for: the tantalizing burn of lust and the sweet taste of romance and knowing they were wanted.

  “You don’t have to be human now. We’re in a blind spot. Cameras can’t see us,” Everett said.

  “I warned you. He’s awake now. Going to the bathroom. Stay until I tell you to come up,” Buzz said, both to Bryce and Everett.

  “The bathroom window overlooks the back lot,” Everett explained and kissed the corner of Bryce’s mouth.

  They stayed flat against the wall until Buzz gave the okay. Bryce drifted out of the back lot, headlights off, and Everett snuck into the apartment, using a spell to dull his sounds.

  “Look, pa! No salt!” Everett mentally laughed.

  “Maybe you should sneak out before tomorrow. You’ll have a lot more energy then,” Buzz said.

  Chapter 28

  EVERETT WENT through his morning without thinking about the two-way bridge he was to summon at three in the afternoon. He had gotten the text from Jake shortly after he woke. It was a death beacon he followed without preamble. What happened today happened. He could only hope he was as prepared as he needed to be.

  He sat against the tub’s wall and sobbed into his hands. He had no one to hide his tears from, but he felt ashamed all the same. He didn’t think about why he cried, only about the hurt in his chest that wouldn’t leave.

  The shop was busy today. He didn’t get much time alone with his grandfather, so he soaked in his grandfather’s appearance and committed it to memory. If something happened to him across the bridge, he wanted to see his loved one’s face before he died.

  As the clock neared two thirty, his anxiety became obvious. His skin was pale. He was covered in sweat. His heart pounded in his head. He got distracted easily. Customers asked if he was okay.

  At two thirty he said, “Grandpa, I’m going out.”

  “Be home by eight. Don’t sneak out to see Bryce again. I’m giving you one more chance.” His grandfather continued to scan through a customer’s basket. The customer, an old man with an extraordinarily long beard, laughed and said something about his granddaughter who continuously snuck off to see her girlfriend.

  “Buzz, we’re going now,” Everett said.

  “I’m already outside. Hurry up. I want to get the show on the road. We’re going to whip ass today. I can tell.”

  “Or we’ll get our asses whipped,” Everett muttered.

  BRYCE’S CAR was parked in front of the old white house. Sunny, Jake, and Lena were parked on the other side of the road. Everett parked behind Bryce’s car. He put his messenger bag in the trunk, grabbed the note and tape tucked in his glove compartment, and then texted his grandfather.

  I’m sorry. Read the letter.

  He texted the address of the house the hybrids were meeting at and then tossed his phone with his bag and locked the car.

  BRYCE ANSWERED the door, face pulled tight in confusion.

  “They didn’t tell you I was coming?” Everett asked.

  Buzz popped on top of Everett’s head. “Hello!”

  Bryce stepped closer and looked down at the jellyfish. “I’ve seen you before. You were at the dojang. Is this your familiar? It’s a jellyfish.”

  “He can swell to the size of a school bus.” Everett pulled Buzz off his head by the cap and held him out for Bryce to see.

  Bryce looked Buzz’s tentacles up and down. They weren’t as skinny as they had been yesterday, but they still looked like shriveled noodles. Everett didn’t find it funny anymore. He wished he could spare a laugh.

  “What happened… here?” Bryce touched the end of the most shriveled tentacle.

  “Don’t touch me.”

  Bryce cradled his hand to his chest as though stung. “Sorry.”

  Everett slipped past Bryce into the house. “I’m the Bridge Master who is going to create the bridge.”

  “I didn’t know. Sunny only told me that Jake found someone willing.”

  Bryce pushed the door shut behind Everett. Everett pulled Bryce to him. He slipped his hands under Bryce’s shirt and ran his fingers along the ridges of Bryce’s torso. He dragged his nails and delighted in the soft surprised gasp that Bryce made.

  “I’m going to introduce myself to the others.” Buzz floated down the hall, his tentacles fluttering behind him like pink party streamers.

  Bryce kissed the top of Everett’s ear. “Sleep over tonight.”

  “If we come out of this alive, I’ll sleep over.”

  Bryce squeezed Everett’s hand and pulled him down the hall. Hand in hand, they went to the master bedroom where Buzz was attempting to entertain the other three hybrids.

  “So I’m about to leave and check on Everett when I feel this thing in my tentacles. In that instant I knew something was going on.”

  Lena was smiling with her mouth wide open. She was the only person who looked entertained. Jake looked sick to his stomach and Sunny looked bored.

  “Take your guise off. You’re turning green,” Sunny told Jake.

  Jake glanced at Everett. Everett nodded. The skin transformation took seconds. Everett blinked and only caught the last second of Jake’s skin turning to dirt brown.

  His ears stretched to a point and his fingers lengthened to claws. He shook his head like a dog, and then his eyes were bright yellow and he had two sets of eyelids. The extra set was translucent and left streaks of liquid over his eyes when they blinked. He shucked off his sweater and stretched out leathery wings the same color as his flesh. There were slits in his shirt for the wing bases. Each slit had a zipper that led to his T-shirt collar. He toed off his shoes and socks. His toenails became claws and a sharp hook poked out the back of his foot. It folded agai
nst his foot, the tip curved with his heel.

  “Feel better?” Sunny asked.

  Jake stretched out his wings. They were horrifically beautiful. “Much better.”

  “Everett’s handling this well,” Lena commented.

  “You guys can shift too. If it’s more comfortable, go ahead,” Everett said.

  Sunny said, “We’ll do it when the bridge is connected.”

  Buzz edged along the walls to Everett. “I’m sensing a lot of strength from Jake.”

  “Could you take him down if you had to?”

  “If I cloned myself, possibly.”

  Everett patted his shoulder, and Buzz sat on it.

  The room was completely empty except for the brew. It was in the corner of the room in the wooden bowl, black and the consistency of clam chowder. Everett knelt in front of the bowl and unpeeled the plastic wrap. An acrid smell penetrated his senses.

  He held his breath and carried the brew to the center of the room. His forehead was slick with sweat as he poured the brew on the carpet to make the ward. If there was going to be any evidence for the Order’s investigation team, this would be the physical proof. So would Jake’s paranormal residue.

  He exposed Jake’s residue. It was black and thick, but not as thick as the residue in Omar’s house.

  He put the bowl back in the corner of the room. He went to the ward and held his hand over it. Closed his eyes. And made the connection.

  “It’s just like before,” Sunny said.

  Red light played through Everett’s eyelids. He opened his eyes and was captivated.

  This bridge had flames the color of blood. White and black sparks frizzled along the flames with the beauty of sparklers. The bottom of the flames was pure black. It was the darkness that all souls knew before death. It was a warning to the living that crossed over.

  “How do I get us through?” Everett asked.

  “We hold hands and you lead us in. It’s natural to a Bridge Master. There’s not anything to learn,” Jake said.

  “It’s like that quote. Something about existing because you can think,” Lena said.

  “What does that have to do with this?” Sunny asked.

  “I don’t know, but it sounds really deep so it must mean something.”

  Everett stuck his finger through the flames. The fire flowed around his finger. “It’s a philosophical proof of existence. If you can think, you exist.”

  “If you think you can bridge us to the other side, then you… can?” Lena said.

  Everett stuck his head in the flames and saw a world unlike any he had ever seen in mass media. The rest of his body was still on Earth, holding Bryce’s hand.

  “Hello?” he shouted. His voice echoed across plains of white grass. Clouds of musical notes drifted across a purple sky.

  He pulled out of the bridge. His ears popped.

  “I can get across,” he said.

  Bryce was holding hands with the others, forming a chain of bodies. Buzz sat on top of Lena’s head.

  “Let’s do this,” Bryce said.

  “You got this, Everett!” Buzz whistled loudly. Lena grimaced and flicked Buzz’s cap. Buzz flicked Lena’s head.

  Everett took a deep breath and walked into the bridge. White snowflakes filled his vision, and he passed out.

  Chapter 29

  “YOU GOT us through, Everett! Wake up!” Buzz perched over Everett’s forehead and slapped his cheeks.

  “His nose is bleeding,” Sunny said.

  Everett touched his nose. Warm blood dribbled on his lip and dripped down his cheek.

  Musical notes scrawled across the sky floated by on a strong wind. The temperature was perfect. The grass under Everett was soft like cotton. He plucked a blade of grass. The grass was made of twined pieces of pink cotton.

  Someone helped Everett sit up.

  “My head.” Everett groaned and touched his forehead.

  Someone massaged his temples from behind. He leaned his back against a chest and closed his eyes.

  “How do you feel?” Bryce said.

  “Dizzy.”

  Bryce wrapped his arms around Everett’s waist. Everett opened his eyes. Bryce’s arms were covered in gray scales. His nails were black talons and his legs on either side of Everett were covered with midnight-black scales. His feet were bare, his toes like his fingers, and vertical ridges ran down his legs. Everett reached to touch, but Bryce caught his hand.

  Bryce laced their fingers and rested their hands on Everett’s lap, careful not to nick Everett with his talons. “Now how do you feel?”

  “Where are the others? I heard Sunny and Buzz.” From what he could see of the vast pink grass and sparse trees, he and Bryce were alone.

  “You fainted two times. You heard Sunny and Buzz when you woke the first time. They went with Lena to find Omar a few minutes ago.”

  Everett turned in Bryce’s arms and then fell back. “What is that?”

  Bryce looked at the massive prop he was sitting against. “I think it’s a tree trunk.”

  Everett crawled to the trunk and grabbed a strip of bark that stuck out. He pulled it off and bent it between his fingers. He sniffed it. Licked it.

  “It’s taffy.” Everett nibbled the end.

  Bryce’s claws sharpened to daggers. He raked his hand down the trunk and peeled off his own strip. He opened his mouth, his teeth became fangs, and he swallowed down the taffy after little chewing. His teeth were back to their normal shape when he finished. “In Between is a strange place.”

  “It’s not supposed to make sense.” Everett twirled his fingers in the grass. He looked Bryce’s form up and down. “Is this your true form?”

  Bryce shook his head. “If it was, I’d be out of control.”

  Everett used the bark to climb to his feet. “What direction did they head in?”

  “That way.” Bryce pointed.

  Everett fell to his knees after his first step. Bryce helped him up.

  “I can run us there.” Bryce bent forward so Everett could climb on. “Hang tight.”

  Everett wound his arms around Bryce’s neck. Bryce sprinted them past more tree trunks of taffy. The grass became fields of rainbow cotton candy. The musical clouds became flying books.

  In Between was a world where fantasy became reality, where there were lands flooded with creatures who tried to lure traveling spirits to the hellish afterworlds, and some creatures who tried to aid spirits on their trips to final destinations—but most of the creatures were evil and lived to see spirits suffer.

  A few witchtales included In Between as a setting. Everett had never imagined the descriptions would be accurate. His memory offered up details from the witchtales that portrayed other In Between lands—the Sea of Rust, the Underground Mountain, the Floating Lake. And the Warden: the ruler who represented all the lands.

  “If you ever end up in the In Between, do the right thing and the rest will follow,” Everett’s father had said ages ago. Everett had assumed that would be when he died.

  After they rescued Omar and left In Between, would it be wrong for Everett to return and explore the lands? In Between was vast, and there was no ending, no four corners.

  “Everett, I have bad news,” Buzz said.

  “Where are you? How are the others doing?”

  Buzz’s voice was grave. “This isn’t a rescue mission. The hybrids aren’t looking for Omar. They’ve gone straight to the Warden.”

  Bryce stopped walking, and Everett first thought it was because he heard Buzz’s voice too, but then Bryce hunched his head forward and horns sprouted through his head.

  An image of smoky creatures in the shape of human-monster hybrids—wisps—poised for a chase flashed in Everett’s mind.

  “They’re coming.”

  Everett grabbed Bryce’s horns. “Turn around. They’re coming after us.”

  Bryce changed directions, going toward a forest of colorful paper trees nearly a mile away.

  Everett imagined two portals:
one in front of Bryce and one at the entrance of the forest. They appeared and Bryce fell into one. They popped out of the other portal. Everett fell on top of Bryce. The wind left his lungs.

  Seconds passed. He remained conscious, though his entire body felt dizzy

  Bryce pulled Everett to his feet and pushed him against a tree. It was solid, made of pressed cardboard. His hands roamed Everett’s body, feeling for injuries. He breathed hard as he framed Everett’s face with his trembling hands. His gray skin was pale and slick with sweat.

  “Are you okay?” Bryce said, and then shook his head. His eyebrows dipped, eyes glazed over for a slight moment. He shook his head and seemed to teeter before he caught himself.

  “I cast a hard spell and I haven’t fainted. I’m doing more than okay. What about you?”

  “I’m a little dizzy, but otherwise good.”

  They kept moving, walking fast with their fingers laced. The trees were made of every color Everett could think of. The bushes were also made of cardboard. The smaller flora, such as flowers and leaves, were made of construction paper.

  Everett tested out the realness by imagining an apple. He focused on its healthy red skin and brown stem. No worm inside. No bruises or washed-out coloring. The perfect red apple. It didn’t appear.

  “Everett? Where are you?” Buzz sounded out of breath.

  “In this forest of cardboard trees.”

  Buzz sighed. “They ditched me. All the hybrids and demons ditched me. I couldn’t find anything new. I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay. Just come to Bryce and me. We’re finding a way out of here.”

  “Buzz is coming over.”

  “How is he going to find us in here?” Bryce asked.

  “He’ll find us. He can sense me from miles away.”

  A black wisp of smoke latched around Everett’s ankle like a whip. He saw Bryce’s panicked face, and then his foot was ripped out from underneath him. He landed hard on his hip and then shot into a bush, the paper leaves cutting his skin.