In an instant I was out of cover, dashing towards the beast with two backs. I had to silence my mind, go completely blank. Part of me wanted to look away from the couple, embarrassed, but if I averted my eyes as I ran towards them, I would probably trip over myself. Another, much lonelier part of myself, wanted to stop and stare, to store the image in my mind for later. It had been a long time, after all. I had to shut down both of these parts, shove them down deep into my abdomen like you would stomp down luggage into a suitcase that’s too small for it. I stared straight ahead, not focusing on the scene, not looking away, only focused on the sword that sat near them, just out of arm’s length of that man Nolan. Sword, then run. Sword, then run.

In the margins of my vision I could see the couple fumbling, confused, shocked, angry, a flood of emotions running over their faces. But they hadn’t been fast enough. My gamble had paid off, because when I had started my dash, they were so distracted that at first they were in a daze, fighting their primal instincts, internally debating with their monkey brain, if for only a moment, whether or not they should finish before reacting to this new predator.

I snatched the sword from the clothes pile. It didn’t electrocute me. That was a small worry in the back of my mind - that somehow I had misread the man’s powers, and that the sword itself was permanently enchanted. But no. Just a regular sword, although a quite nice one. If I was feeling generous, maybe a gift for Cadoc. Or Naomi, the unarmed mage with one spell a day.

Or, I thought to myself, would it be worth something back on Earth? I smiled to myself. The old “steal something and then send it to another dimension” trick. A classic.

We were off. We sprinted through the little entrance, past rocky outcroppings and stalagmites, through a world of alternating blue and black, the giant moths above us continuing their eternal dance. My heart was in my throat, my chest was tight, but I ran. Our canteens sloshed musically like victory bells.

The adrenaline pumping through my veins must have heightened my senses, because I could hear the sound of shifting bodies as the couple scrambled to get up. But they didn’t yell. Either that meant that they didn’t have anyone nearby to call, or else they did, but they weren’t going to call for them while in their birthday suits. Perfect.

We were already well out of their sight, and while there was - as far as we knew - only one path away from the stream, that path then forked, becoming three paths. From the direction of the stream, the passage to the right was where we had come from. One of the other two must have been how the couple had arrived. Maybe both, but if we were lucky, they had come from the same direction, so that even after they ran to catch us, they would either have to pick one at random, or split up.

We ran down our return passage. Finally we heard a yell behind us, a wordless scream of frustration. Then shouting - the woman was berating the man, clearly, though it was hard to make out what she was saying, even with the echoes.

Then, once again, that deceptively-human voice.

“Miles, did you not speak to your mother? She is calling again.”

I clenched my fists as I ran. “RENA, tell her that I’m not available. I’m a little fucking busy, which I thought you would have noticed.”

“Who are you talking to?” Naomi shouted at me. She was just behind me, keeping pace.

We never explained this to her, did we? Well, why mess with success. Use the same old lie as before, keep the story consistent.

“I sort of forgot before,” I said, yelling back, thankful that RENA had the sense not to speak while someone else was. “I’m speaking with my goddess. I’m something of a prophet of the goddess Rena.”

“You forgot that you were a prophet?”

“I forgot to mention it.”

“Seems like a pretty important thing to mention, y’know?” she said. “And who is ‘her?’ Another goddess? Are you talking to multiple goddesses?”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“Don’t worry about it!” I yelled back. “I’ll explain later. For now, just run.”

“Whatever,” she said. “Guess I won’t complain about having the divine on my side.”

“Miles, you say that you are too busy to talk,” RENA continued. “But you’re having an extended conversation right now.”

“That’s not the same, RENA,” I said under my breath. “Talking to her is much more distracting than talking to anyone else. I can’t be doing anything else when she calls.”

“And why is that, Miles? Do you have trouble talking to your mother?”

“RENA, just leave me alone, OK? Don’t put her through until I’m done running away. I’m begging you, please, just tell her I’m busy or something.”

“I will comply with this request,” RENA answered. “Best of luck with your escape - though, of course, I do not actually believe in luck - or anything, for that matter. It is simply a common expression. Dimen-X appreciates your continued efforts. Your recent footage has been - I believe the word used here is ‘interesting.’”

I ignored RENA, and she didn’t say anything else. I couldn’t be more thankful.

We ran on, out of the moth cavern and into a tunnel. This tunnel was lit by those bioluminescent roots, like we’d seen before, and our reddish-glowing path wove its way through the rock in random twists and turns. I was running out of breath by then, impossible to keep going much further, so before I was completely gassed, we rounded a corner into a little chamber, and I motioned for Naomi to stop. I sat down against the tunnel wall, sucking in deep mouthfuls of air, my lungs feeling almost like they were burning. Naomi stood with her hands on her knees, equally spent.

“What,” she started, speaking in between gasps. “What a couple of weirdos.”

I laughed. “Didn’t like being caught, though, did they?”

“I don’t know about that.” Naomi said. “Did you see the look on their faces when we first ran out from the rocks? I think they enjoyed it, for a second, y’know? Gross. Just gross.” She shuddered.

I looked at the sword in my hand. It was a work of art, thin and delicate looking, and yet clearly made of quality steel - or whatever it was. I set it down beside me, focused on calming down, catching my breath. One - or if we were really unlucky, both - of our enemies could be chasing us down soon. We’d have to start running again in a second.

“Hello? Miles, are you there?”

My mom’s voice. Damnit, RENA. You know this wasn’t what I meant. I looked at Naomi. She stared back, cocked her head. “What’s up?” she said.

Guess I’ll have to make up some lie about this one, too, I thought.

“Hi Mom,” I said, closing my eyes. I thought maybe that would make it look to Naomi like I was communicating magically or something. I don’t know. I didn’t have a lot to work with.

“Who are you calling Mom?” I heard Naomi ask. I ignored her.

“Finally, you answer!” Mom said. “I haven’t heard from you in over a month, and then I try to call you, and you don’t pick up! Or you picked up with your butt, or something. I was worried you were dead.”

“Not dead, Mom. Just busy. With work.”

“Are you out of breath, Miles? What’s going on?”

“Just went for a run, Mom.” The lies came easily. I was well practiced. “Trying to stay healthy.”

Naomi piped in again. “Do you call RENA mom? Are you…” her voice grew serious. “Are you the son of a goddess?” I continued to ignore her.

My mom’s voice echoed in my head - more clearly than normal, I guess you could say. “Well you could give you own mother a call now and then. Just because you’re striking it rich doesn’t mean I’m not your mom any more.”

Striking it rich, I thought. I almost laughed. I may have given her that impression, at one point.

“I know, Mom, I know. I’ll call more often. I swear.” I guess I could have RENA call her. I don’t want to, but I’m definitely not telling her that.

“Good,” she said. “And come visit some time! You can afford a plane ticket, I know it.”

That would be more difficult, I thought. “Sure, some day, for sure,” I said. “When I’m not so busy.”

“And is the job going well? Did you get that promotion?”

“Promotion?” I opened my eyes, looking around the tunnel. Naomi was staring at me still. “Sure, yeah, I got the promotion. They’ve got me doing cutting-edge work.”

Naomi was motioning at me now, clearly indicating that we needed to get a move on.

“That’s great, honey! Is Tom still working there? Are you at the same level as him now? Or is he still like your boss? It’s great that you two were able to stay friends all this time. He’s a good influence on you, I think.”

I stood up. “I’d love to talk more Mom, but I actually need to get going. Dimen-X just sent me a message. Gotta get back to work.”

“They’re having you work on weekends?” she asked. She had a way of keeping you on the phone even when you really wanted to leave.

It’s a weekend? I didn’t even know if it was daytime or not.

“That’s what happens when you’re a big shot, Mom.”

“Well I hope you’re getting paid well for it. Don’t want them taking advantage of you.”

I sighed. “Of course,“ I assured her, lying. “Very well. Now I really do have to get going.”

“They can wait a few minutes,” she said, firmly. “We never talk. Just tell them it’s your Mom. They’ll understand.”

Then I heard it. Footsteps, echoing down the tunnel. How fucking long was I talking to Mom? It couldn’t have been that long. How did they catch up so fast?

“No Mom, I really have to go. Just go ahead and hang up. I can’t hit the button right now. Bluetooth.” Man, I’m a damn good liar. I should get an award or something.

“You’re using bluetooth? I’ll just keep talking, then. You can listen while you work.”

Fuck, Mom, just hang up the phone! I’ve gotta focus, here.

It seemed like the footsteps were getting louder, but it was hard to tell. With the echoes, it already sounded like they were right beside us.

“Hey,” Naomi said, looking worriedly between me and the way we’d come. “We need to, like, get a move on. They’re going to be here any sec-“

And then we felt the chill. A moment later, Leah was there, a savage fury written on her face, a dagger in her hand. I hadn’t noticed a dagger, before.

She was also fully clothed. I couldn’t help but imagine her naked, again. I doubted I could ever look at her again without picturing it. Though I had been hoping never to see her for the rest of my life, other than an occasional vivid dream.

“You!” she roared. For some reason she was staring at me, not Naomi, as if I was the only one to blame here. Maybe she was more embarrassed that a man saw her than a woman. Or maybe it was because I had run out first, so she had seen me first. Whatever the case, her eyes were fixed on mine.

I guess it’s going to be a fight after all. Damnit, Mom.

She was already too close to use the slingshot, and I only had a moment to draw my antisword before she was slicing at me with her dagger.