I can do this.
I can stab him in the back, then throw him off and leave him in the sand. Maybe he’ll turn to ash just like the bike.
But where are we going? Does the desert ever end? If I leave him behind, what will happen to me?
I’ve come too far to die of starvation. I won’t let that happen.
My grip on the wood loosens. Perhaps the best foot forward isn’t violence. I’m a journalist, after all…
“What’s the ‘in between’?” I ask, my throat cracked and dry.
“A place where humans shouldn’t be.”
No shit! This is like getting blood from a stone.
“Then why did those things chase me here?” My words lose their potency on the wind.
“Toeatyou. Obviously!”
I roll my eyes at his haughty sneer. This man is irritating as hell already.
“Do you have to be so condescending? Not everyone is used to magical circus tents.”
Yet my enemy still helped me. Those creatures backed off as soon as I leapt onto the back of his bike.
Why did he help me? Is he trying to lure me into a false sense of security or something? Or does he feel the same burning desire as me?
“Why did you help me, then? Why not just rip a chunk out of my neck before I could escape?” I shift uncomfortably on theseat, wishing I hadn’t asked just because some delusional part of me wants him to tell me he feels the same.
“Who says I still won’t?” He throws me a devilish smirk over his shoulder. “Hold on!”
I hardly hear him over the roaring sound of the bike. I peek over his shoulder and see a huge sinkhole appear in the ground. First a canyon, and now this?
“Please tell me you’re not doing what I think you’re doing?!” I throw caution to the wind and wrap my arms around his waist. The feeling of having him pressed against me brings me warm, fuzzy sensations that I can’t even begin to understand.
With a voice full of mischief, he says, “I’m doing exactly what you think I’m doing.”
Before I know it, we’re plunging down into a pit of eternal darkness. There’s no light. No air. It feels as if I’m being squeezed tightly by a giant snake, my ribs threatening to crack beneath the pressure.
And then it’s over as quickly as it began.
5
Danni
I land with acushioned thud. The familiar scent of popcorn and dirt invades my senses. I open my eyes to find the vampire I was clinging to… has vanished. Lying on the ground, I stare up at the striped tent ceiling, knowing that I’m right back where I started. My entire body is tight and achy. No doubt thanks to the mysterious squeezing sensation of the pit.
Well, I guess he was right about something. The inbetween is not meant for humans.
“You useless bunch of idiots! Her fear will ruin everything. I’ll put all your heads on spikes if you don’t bring her to me!”
The blonde’s high-pitched voice pulls me to my feet. My eyebrows furrow when I realize I didn’t land back in the center of the ring but in the middle of the crowd. Even more disturbingly, it’s like no time has passed at all. When I gaze out onto the ring, everyone is right where they had been before thedesolate inbetween appeared. My brain explodes with too many questions and very few answers.
How is any of this possible?
The blonde vampire’s eyes narrow as she searches for me within the laughing crowd. I duck into a crouch between the legs of the people nearby until I hear her voice carry off into the opposite direction. When I stand back up, I freeze with disbelief.
The creatures are clowns again. No green skin and no red eyes. My gaze travels around the ring, searching for an answer other than the vague explanation of “magic.”
