~ Saracen Brooks ~
I had been lying peacefully in the abandoned hotel Taiga had recently brought to me. The bedsheets were torn and aging, and the headboard was beginning to crumble. What remained of the patterned carpet was now coated in a layer of grime, and if I wasn't mistaken, there were rats gnawing through the walls.
With a shudder, I propped myself up on my elbow and attempted to recount the events that had occurred up to this moment. Staring off into the peeled wallpaper of the once-grand suite, what had happened suddenly hit me like a train wreck.
"Are you sure you don't want to come with us?" my friend, Rachel, had asked, concern written all over her face.
"Yeah, I'm sure. You go on without me," I attempted a smile and batted my buddies away with a dismissive wave. Under the composed mask of calm I was wearing, my insides were in turmoil.
Apparently, my mother had gotten cancer, and my father had lost his job due to financial circumstances. It was all too much to bear. Why had this happened? My family used to be a well-off family, until my mother's health issues forced her out of work. Now with my father laid off from him job, and payments for chemotherapy due in the near future, I didn't know what I'd do.
The crisp air of autumn chilled my very bones. I began to walk aimlessly down the streets of the small town I lived in. Avoiding eye contact didn't deflect the many stares directed at me, and I attempted to meet the curious bystanders' eyes with a smile. Unconvinced, they continued on with what I was doing.
Ahead of me I could faintly here the sounds of construction, but it wasn't until I fell that I noticed the open manwhole in the center of the street. The thought that I might die occurred to me, but I barely gave it consideration. The fact that I landed on hard ground told me that I had, in fact, survived the fall.
"Where am I?" I whispered, my voice being carried away on a cold wind.
"Are you, by any chance, Saracen Brooks?" I turned around to find a short-ish girl with long brown hair, glaring up at me.
"Yes..." She smiled widely. It chilled me to the bone, and I find myself frozen in place.
"My name is Taiga, it is a pleasure to meet you," the girl told me. I sensed a bit of sarcasm mixed with something else... That I couldn't place.
Taiga snapped suddenly, and I felt I was being held up. Looking to the right and left of me, I saw nothing but shadows. And then I realized that what was holding me were shadows.
Panic and shock covered my entire body, and I fainted.
Days, weeks, and months had passed since that day, and I had learned a lot. Like where I was, for example. An alternate dimension of Earth in which these shadowy beings lived in resentment. Taiga just happened to be the leader of the group. If it wasn't for my powers of light I had soon discovered upon arrival of this world, I would probably already be dead.
"You filthy brat." Taiga's remark made me snap out of my reverie.
"If you would just let me go..." I tried. My attempts were useless, as always.
"Not gonna happen. I'm one of the only Alternates to ever capture their humans, and you won't get away that easily," she said heatedly, a slightly bragging tone in her voice.
"I don't understand why you hate the humans so much."
"You humans are making my life horrible. Anything good you mongrels do, ends up ruining everything here! I can only wish something bad happens!" Taiga snarled, causing me to recoil a bit. She had never told me that was how she felt.
"I-I... Didn't know you felt that way," I stammered in apology. "I'm sorry."
"I don't need your sympathy." I vaguely spotted the shape of a shadow fly in through the window, followed by many others. I didn't know for certain why they were there, but I had a feeling in my gut.
My Alternate's head suddenly snapped towards the window. I had sensed something as well, and suddenly realized what it was.
A human.
"Oh no..." I muttered, worry creasing my forehead.
"Oh yes!" Taiga exclaimed, a sadistic grin appearing on her face.
"You wouldn't..." I cast her a wary glance.
"Don't underestimate me!" she laughed gleefully. "This is perfect... Just perfect..."
With that, someone knocked on the door. It startled me. Who the heck could possibly be here?
Taiga skipped over towards the door. Upon opening it, I gasped in horror. In the framed wood of the doorway stood another Alternate. Behind him there were even more.
What exactly was Taiga planning here?
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We just need the Alternates and the rest of the humans to post before we can move on! :D
