Endless Nights

Parallel

Parallel

As the screen goes black I wait for the four other members of my class to jump to their feet and leave the room. Fiddling with my notes I hear the room shift and the door open behind me. Turning I see Rob waiting at the door with a grin on his face, smiling I wave and throw my bag over my shoulder. Walking around the desk I say. “Hey Rob, thanks for waiting. So for lunch…” As I walk my head gets light headed.

            Frowning I look up at the blue eyed friend of mine and see a man with hair a deep shade of red behind him. As I look into his red eyes he smiles, my heart thuds roughly in my chest. Reaching out I put my weight against the nearest wall, Rob walks up to me as I hold my chest. “Niya, is everything alright?”

            I hold up my hand and try and wave him off, I must have stood up too quickly. “I’m fine, just a little light headed.” I try to stand straight but the world flickers as I collapse to the ground. Suddenly I feel myself being pulled to the chest of someone; trying to clear my vision I faintly see that Rob is frantically shouting my name trying to wake me. Again the world disappears but the next time I start to come to I see the red headed man, he has a disinterested look on his face as a man leans over me.

            Clarity shoots into me as I shove the man in white away from me. “Don’t touch me!” I roll away from the group of people staring at me and push myself into the corner. When my back is against the wall I feel my heart being strangled in my chest. Grimacing I wrap my arms around my chest. Am I having a heart attack? But I’m only 21.

            When I start to become light-headed again I start coughing from deep in my gut. I’ve read through many medical books and if I were having a heart attack then I need to keep my heart pumping. The force of the coughing will keep it pumping as long as I continue. I hear whispering near me but I hold up a hand to keep them away, if they touch me I can’t guarantee they will live. “Ni, what are you doing?” Rob’s voice is close, looking up I stop coughing. The pain stops and my heart started to beat normally.

            Looking up into his blue eyes I am met with the iris of a cat, pointed and sharp. “What’s wrong with your eyes?”

            He looks exactly the same, dark brown hair combed back with his bangs defying his orders and clothes hanging loosely on his thin frame. A startled look haunts his face as he pulls me to his chest and hides my face. “Don’t move, follow my lead.” Feeling him turn I stay frozen. “She’s fine, she has a heart condition. I’ll take her home so she can take her medication.” Leaning down he covers my ears so I can’t hear what they are saying, his voice gets high but not loud enough for me to understand what the rumbling meant.

            Finally he starts walking, pulling me along with him. Leaning down he whispers into my ear. “Don’t look into anyone’s eyes.”

            Confused I walk with him, there has to be something up but I don’t fight him. When we make it out to where the parking lot is supposed to be I see a huge black shining tower in the center of a large expanse of gray. “What is that, what’s going on Rob?”

            He continues to pull me until he gets to a slick silver car, definitely not his car, and throws me in before running to the other side and getting in. After the purr of the engine starts and he drives away he touches a screen and looks at me with his blue cat eyes. “You’re human aren’t you?”

            Frowning I try and keep my voice low for if I start to speak loud my panic gets out of hand. “Of course I’m human, what’s wrong with your eyes?”

            Rob stares at me for a while with his jaw agape. “You’re truly a human?”

            Holding back my frustration I try to keep looking in his eyes but they are so bizarre that it dawns on me that he isn’t Rob. “Yes I’m human, what have you done with Rob?”

            Shaking his head he smiles in astonishment. “You have a friend that is similar to me?” He laughs then looks at me; his face sobers down and becomes familiar again. “My apologies. I should explain, I’m just so intrigued. I’ve never seen a full switch before.”

            Groaning I try and keep tears in. “You never change; please just tell me what’s going on.”

            For a moment he looks at a loss for words then his eyes do something that is very familiar, they soften and glow. “My name is Jason, I’m from Gordon. It’s a planet that is parallel to yours, as is Florian. We, myself and your partner body, go to the school of night. We train to enter your world, Earth. We can’t go there physically so we use our body’s partner to see your world. Are you following?”

            My jaw is dropped, annoyance riding on my nerves. “If this is some type of joke, I’ll beat you so bad that your head will spin.”

            Frowning he leans forward and flicks me on the forehead with a glare on his face, his voice drops and he sounds like Rob completely. “That’s enough. I don’t have to be kind, I’m choosing to be. Got it?”

            “I’d rather you be normal, you acting all sweet is creeping me out.” Rubbing my forehead I look out the front window and see buildings floating in the sky. My jaw drops as I practically jump onto the dash to see buildings of gray and white dangling in the sky, little windows dot the outside of the enormous sky scrapers. The more I stare the more I can’t deny that I’m not home. Turning to my window I start touching it, looking for the way to roll it down. “Roll the window down please.” When he doesn’t respond I glare at him. “I’ll listen if you listen.” We stare at each other for a few moments before he leans over me and whirls his finger so the window disappears. I lean out, looking at the building towering above me. The city gets larger and appears to be floating on the clouds.

            I look down now and see an electric road beneath us, beside us a green billowing cloud keeps pace with us. Even with the wind pushing at me I reach out and try and touch it. Rob reaches out and pulls me in by the waist. “What are you thinking? If you touch that it will rip your arm off in a matter of seconds.”

            Pulling myself into the seat I fiddle with my hair, pushing it back into place. “Like I knew that, I’ve never seen anything like that or a floating city.”

            He pulls a seat belt over my lap and rolls the window up with his finger. “Then don’t do anything without asking first, it’s dangerous here if you don’t know what you’re looking at.” Sighing he rubs his forehead. “You can’t act like this around anyone, they’ll figure out what you are.”

            Crossing my arms I look at him. “How am I supposed to know how to act, it’s not like I got to cheat like you.”

            Frowning I see his eyebrow twitch. “I didn’t cheat; the school was made to train demons to enter your world. It’s just the way it is. Just because humans don’t know about the parallels doesn’t mean we are cheating.”

            I stare at him a while without answering, when I do I glare at him. “You’re a demon.”

            Leaning forward he flicks my head again. “Let me guess, you’re under the notion that demons are evil. That we pillage and ravage your home, we take over your people and lead them to darkness? Did I get that right?” When I don’t answer he smirks. “You humans have two mind sets, either we are evil creatures or we are your servants to demand around to get petty wishes. Is that really the only possibilities that you see?”

            Sitting precariously on the seat I look ahead and see that the city is not truly floating in the sky but embedded in a mountain side so tall that the clouds hug its buildings like a child to its breast. “I don’t think that. Maybe your ideas of humans are skewed.” Pursing my lips I refuse to look as the demon version of Rob stares at me. As the view in front of us enlarges I become transfixed by the twisting and turning of the stone.

            Laughing fills the void between us. “I see you have Nina’s attitude.” When I glare at him he holds his hands up in surrender. “Ok, I was wrong, what do you think of demons then?”

            I wait a long time before answering, try as I might I couldn’t bring myself to look at him. This world, if it isn’t a dream, is much too real for me to feel that it is a lie. “I think that they are just like humans only from a different planet. They have good people and bad people but in general you are neither good nor bad. Am I wrong?” I glare at him now like I had no difficulty in a few moments.

            Staring at me he smiles then shrugs. “That’s true enough.”

            The closer we get the more twisted everything becomes.