The next day, Kiara discovered that finding a mysterious woman was a difficult thing to do. Guessing from the car she drove, the woman lived in the most affluent part of town, but between high rises and many large homes, she was little more than a ghost. If it were a movie or TV show, Kiara would have found everything she needed to know. Her date with Tristan would trigger an epiphany, and she’d leave with a crucial clue. These things, however, proved to deceptive. Even the car hadn’t been the hint Kiara thought it was—only telling her the make and model was fairly popular. The worst part about her search was being in a part of town that she didn’t know. Shops had extravagant things on display, with price tags to leave the mind blown. It made her wary of even the cheapest things, like the food she so craved now. She only got here by telling her parents she wanted to visit the observatory, so they hadn’t given her extra money. There was a time she had to return too, and it was encroaching fast. She had to save her money to get home, but her stomach disagreed. As it let out a protest, she sat on a nearby bench. Despite how much it’d slow her down, she thought over the things she actually knew.

In the shade of the tree beside her, she realized the woman was just as enigmatic as the stranger from three days ago. For the first time since she started her search, she wondered if the two were connected. Just like with the Speckled Beast. She had to get better at that. Every part of her said they should be, but a whisper in the back of her mind told her they weren’t. The woman simply fit in too well with the world that Kiara knew. She had a stylish air about her, from the way she talked, to the way she strutted back to her car. She probably spent her youth on every fashion site. She probably scoured the net for things she couldn’t buy in Yravell, and rather than buying online, flew there herself. Kiara could not decide if the woman made all her money herself, or simply inherited, but she knew without a doubt that the man wasn’t the same. His clothes screamed that he was trying to fit in. Maybe he wasn’t familiar with the city, but he’d have to be foreign to the country to wear leather this time of year. His sunglasses certainly fit the mold, but the whisper said otherwise. He was definitely wearing those glasses to hide his eyes. It made sense. By his own words, his eyes could tell a story. It would tell you who he was, or maybe even where he came from. For whatever reason, he didn’t want the world to know. How convenient that glass didn’t stick out. She let that thought simmer. What could their eyes says?

Kiara closed hers. She imagined both of them, trying to decide what their eyes looked like. For the woman, she saw The Speckled Beast’s. They were cat-like—predatory. The woman walked around like she was a starlet, but she was more a feline prowling above. Feline...that fit her well. The man, though… when Kiara thought about him, nothing came to mind. It wasn’t that she couldn’t guess. Blues, browns, green and even scarlet like her own. She could picture them all, and not one seemed right. It made more sense for his sockets to be empty. It felt unnervingly right that he watched with hollow voids. A chill ran up her back, and she almost jumped as her mobile chimed. It was time to go. The chill became a blizzard as she searched for a shuttle line. Down the way from her, the man had appeared.

No one seemed to notice him. He weaved through the throng of people, moving her way—an eerie phantom fading carelessly into the world. She rushed to the line as the shuttle approached. No hesitation. No doubt. She climbed aboard and sighed in relief as it pulled off. The man didn’t even watch it go. Maybe he wasn’t looking for her? She truly didn’t know. She didn’t even know why she was avoiding him, beyond the fact he was a stranger. There was just a part of her that wanted to get away. It could be irrational, but no other part spoke up. She sighed again, getting comfortable. She could find the answer during the ride.

“Perhaps because of the solitude.” A man beside her said. Kiara nearly jumped out her skin. She could look down the road, but she knew she wouldn’t see him. Even if the shuttle hadn’t moved too far away. The seat beside her was empty, after all, but now the stranger was there. “I am an anomaly, but not like the woman or her beast. The power within you recognizes this, and knows that we are similar. It has never met another like it though. Unfamiliarity feeds foreboding.” He looked at her. Kiara fumbled her pendant from under her shirt. Holding it tight, she glared back.

“Who are you?” She demanded. He nodded, almost as if to approve the question.

“Where I come from, I am known as Doltess. Where I have gone, I was known as The Stranger.” He said. The way Doltess sounded in her mind, made Kiara shake her head.

“What do you want?” She asked, and the nod came again.

“To assist you. To warn you. And I believe, to offer something to you.” He looked forward this time.

“What could you possibly offer to me! I’m warning you, if I don’t come home by 25:30, every police station in a twenty miles will know my location.” She barked. It was 23:50 now. She knew an hour and thirty minutes was enough time to get hurt, but she’d fight him every second till then.

“I can offer you information. I have learned much in all the places I have gone.” Doltess seemed to ignore the threat. “I know firstly, that you seek a woman.” He said and Kiara’s eyes widened. She hated herself for giving it away, but information was important.

“Who is she? Where is she?”

“I do not know who, nor do I know the where.”

She frowned. “Then what do you know?”

“I know that she is one of the first. She is one of those who has found new names in the beasts you have encountered. They fear you, and so it was only a matter of time before they encountered you.” Kiara’s heart sunk. If that was true, it was always going to happen. She brought her friends into this mess.

“Is it because I can make them vulnerable?”

“You do not simply make them vulnerable. You pull at them making them more a part of this world than they want to be.”

“What do you mean by ‘this world’?”

“Do you know the Myth of Two Worlds?”

How couldn’t she? How couldn’t anyone? The Myth of Two Worlds was a legend so old, people told it around the camp fires. There were plenty of books based on it now. Plenty of movies. Plenty of games. It spoke of two worlds in parallel with each other. This world, Nandaxia—built with rapid advancements in technology. And another—Magdalea—where magic forged the future instead. Though they live separate they are bound in secret places. Go to one when the day and time is right, and you could find yourself in a new world. In the last movie based on the myth, a boy lost his family in a crash, and stumbled into a nearby thicket. When he made it through the other side, he was in a magical world where an Elven girl helped him recover. They fell for one another, but this didn’t go over well with an Elven council. Kiara shook this thought out of her head as she answered his question. As if he was waiting, Doltess nodded.

“What if the two worlds are connected as the legends say? By bridge, or curtain, or burbling stream. If there’s a threshold to cross, then what of the things that lies between? Forevermore dwelling in this place between places, what becomes of them when they are jealous of both? What if there are people who can set them free?”

“But you just said I make them more a part of this world than they want to be. If they’re really envious, shouldn’t they be happy?”

“Would you want to truly enter the place of your dreams, if everyone there would hate you? You who feeds upon them, just to remain in their world. Would you truly seek it, if brutal wounds could leave you trapped again? A minor breach is safe. Lest you be banished home.”

A hole in the bottom of a canyon—so far beyond eyes that it might as well not exist. Light breaking the shadows after night stretches too long. A beacon burning over you, always promising escape. Maybe you could climb it sometimes. Maybe with enough effort, you could get free. And then careless and oblivious, a person casts you back. It could be a bump or a breath, and you’d still plummet below. Kiara imagined it, shuddering at the thought. She had no sympathy for the Speckled Beast, but she understood why it escaped.

“So one of these Dwellers attacked me, and that woman was its friend?”

“Yes, she was its friend, and she was also it. They are one in the same; her fury is its fury. It is the fury of someone robbed of their one true desire.”

“So she’ll definitely come after my friends.”

“Yes, and then your family, and you.”

“I’m not just going to let her do that! If you don’t know who or where she is, then what am I supposed to do to stop her?” Kiara’s chest tightened as the words flowed out. Did she draw attention. Did she even care if she did?

“You know that she will come. You simply need to be ready.” As Doltess said this, Kiara imagined him closing his eyes. “Just know that the key to stopping her is that you do not hesitate.” As he said this, Kiara felt he was both young and old at once. As the shuttle’s sign flashed her stop, she turned back to him.

“I won’t hesitate.” She clutched her pendant. Doltess simply smiled. When the shuttle stopped, she didn’t ask him to move. Before it even slowed down, he was already gone…