Page 5

I stare into the darkness of the alleyway, and I feel the call of the…

Thevoid.

There’s no other way to describe it. Thevoid.

The sickening sensation of letting go.

This morning? I was logical. Precise.

But now, I feel insane. There’s a dark undercurrent that flows beneath the day-to-day life we breeze through, and it’s as if I suddenly detect it for the first time.

That taxi? It’s driving by just alittletoo close. The slick patch of ice? You could break your neck on that.

Suddenly, I see it all – the teeming danger, poised all around us. We all like to pretend there isn’t danger in our modern, sanitized world – but suddenly I’m tuned into it. It’s constant, lurking everywhere around us, yet flowing beneath the surface where most people don’t detect it – or willfully choosenotto.

I don’t know what I’m doing, but I do it.

I take a step forward, into the alleyway, toward the unknown.

My high heels click against the cobblestones. I enter the alley, stepping away from normalcy and into this insanity I suddenly feel.

“I’ve gone mad,” I mutter under my breath.

It’s the only explanation. The stress of the day’s trauma has turned me insane. What other reason could I have for walking into a dark alley, knowingly pulling myself away from the safety of the world?

My jaw drops as reality suddenlysplitsin front of me. The dismal alley’s defining feature had previously been the stink of piss and garbage. Now, suddenly – hanging in the middle of the air – there’s aslitopening in reality.

I stare at it, rippling and crackling, and I know with complete certainty that I’vetrulygone insane. The alternative? The alternative is impossible.

In real life, a portal doesn’t open in front of you.

In real life, you don’t have three towering, broad-shouldered, Greek Gods of men stepping out of said portal, and right into your reality.

Shirtless, in nothing but loinclothes, with every inch of their rippling, marble-hued muscles covered in tribal tattoos – stepping onto the cobblestones of that piss-strewn alleyway like the crackling portal was somehowbirthingthem.

The dark light of the alley, combined with the ripples of the portal, reflect against the marble skin of these… these interlopers.

I gasp. Bright green blood vessels snake beneath the surface of their skin, contrasting against their pure, ivory musculature. These… thesethingsare both hideous… Terrifying… And yet beautiful…

I can still see the rippling slits of the tear in reality, past the huge, bulky bodies of these three towering strangers, and through it I see bright, vibrant light. The smell of jungle – warm, sticky and verdant – drifts from their side of reality – orunreality – to mine.

“What… what’shappening?” I demand out loud.

But Iknowwhat’s happening. I’ve gone mad.

I know with one-hundred-percent certainty that I’ve truly lost it.

I’m suddenly taken back to the panic attack I had in that courtroom – how everything seemed to disappear, and all I could feel was a deep, primal fear. Right now, my heart is pounding just as fast as it had on that day.

I’ve finally broken down.

I know, because I’mseeingthings. What’s unfolding in front of mecan’tbe happening.

It’s all a figment of my fractured imagination – no matter howvividit seems.

The figment of my imagination that is the leader of these three, beastly men has a dark shock of hair – as black as obsidian. His features are the polar opposite of my former fiancé, Joshua. Whereas Joshua has an almost feminine, playful face, this man is all hard lines and a strong jaw. His eyes are a deep, dark green – so green that it’s impossible, and yet so bright that they could almost be radiating light. This towering stranger stares down at me – as though he’s been lost in the desert for days, and isn’t sure if I’m an oasis… Or a mirage.

I almost laugh at that. He should talk!