The entire time Sagle was taking us back to the tent, I got a deep uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. I had left Levin and Rolwen alone together with Mr. Adderson. That seemed like a prime recipe for the exact exchange of information I did not want to have happen.

We had talked before, back in Nymph’s tree. From the best I could tell, they both died in that same car wreck that injured Katelyn. I knew Levin did for sure, said he’d died in the back of a car his brother’s friend was driving. Rolwen responded to that with comments that indicated he was likely involved in that wreck as well. Although, in typical Rolwen fashion, it was not entirely conclusive.

Mr. Adderson, however, had made a comment about an apocalypse-like event. Everyone had heard it said, but we had more urgent things to think about at the time. I could sense there was a powder keg behind that statement, and I was certain it was related to that so-called angel’s plans.

I already had my suspicions for what it was Mr. Adderson was likely talking about. If I’m right, he’s just an ignorant messenger who doesn’t even know the significance of what he has to say, and likely thinks we also died in the same way he did. However, it was exactly the difference in the way we died that hid the bomb I was desperate not to see go off.

I caught Tia throwing a worried expression in my direction. She had said it before. She can sense my emotions. Meanwhile, I can sense the emotions of everyone except for her. That simple difference was something I was starting to find more and more unnerving the closer we came to the tent.

When we go there, Mr. Adderson and the boys were milling about in front of the area. Yeah, that’s right. Adult men were not allowed into the tents uninvited. Rimir had mentioned something about that. So, that meant the boys would naturally be out there with him.

All of them turned to us with happy expressions as Sagle placed us on the ground.

“Hi, Asa. Are you feeling better now?” Levin asked.

“Uhh… yeah. Much better.” I answered. At the same time, I felt the knot in my stomach loosen just a little. With a response like that, it would mean there’s no way they had talked about it. We’re safe for now.

I felt a hand on my shoulder suddenly. I looked over, and it was Tia. Her expression was very concerned. And then, I saw her directing a very hard look over toward Mr. Adderson.

No!!!

My hand flew to Tia’s shoulder and I grabbed on tight to the cloth of her crude dress. “Tia…” I said quietly under my breath.

“Asa.” She said back with a tone that sounded almost like a parent who was let-down over their child’s misbehavior. “The reason you said all that just now is because you don’t want this to be the end of our good relationship as family, right? I have seen enough to know that secrets are a faster way to kill a relationship than anything else. I am sure that whatever this is will be bad if you are this afraid of it, but it will be worse if we don’t find out what it is.”

“Yes, but…” I stammered. Not now. Those are the words that I wanted to say, but I knew it was already too late for that.

“Uhh… what are you talking about?” Levin asked.

“Sounds petty damn serious whatever it is.” Mr. Adderson commented.

“Asa, you’re not about to come out as a giant closet racist, are you?” Rolwen, ever the clown, said in an off-color attempt to lighten the mood.

[It looks like they’re back. Is the kid Ok?] Rimir returned and questioned Sagle. This also drew my attention to the area around us. Once again, it seemed like half the tribe were keeping a curious half-eye on our little group at all times, gawking with happy and curious faces like we were some kind of animals in a zoo.

I sighed. “Alright, fine!” I said. “Everyone, let’s go inside and get away from… all of this!” I violently gestured at the noisiest patch of the nearby crowd, and then marched on over to Mr. Adderson and took him roughly by the hand before dragging him into the tent.

Suddenly, the surrounding area erupted into laughter, and I got the very distinct sense it was directed toward me.

[Hey, hey! I think you might be way too young for that right now!] Rimir chided in an only half-serious sounding tone. I decided to ignore him. I didn’t care what any of them thought at this point. If they seriously thought a 2 year old was up to that sort of thing, that’s the fault of their own dirty minds.

‘Seriously, though. I know you have memories from the previous life you lived, but doing that would really not be appropriate. Maybe waiting until you are 80 like most elves would be excessive, but definitely not this young.’ Rimir’s chiding continued is a far less joking tone via telepathy.

‘I don’t think that is what is going on.’ Sagle answered back at him.

‘We just need to talk about something!’ I said.

‘Wow! Why are you so angry?’ Rimir asked. ‘If it is about what we just said, you really shouldn’t have grabbed the outworlder guy so aggressively like that.’

‘I do not have the patience for this right now!’ I growled.

“Alright, forget it!” I pouted and stepped back out of the tent. “We’re going into the plains away from them. It seems like the people here regard tents as being meant for something else. So, probably best to avoid the woods as well in that case.”

“Yeah man, I am definitely NOT into THAT!” Mr. Adderson said, looking visibly relieved that I had relented on this.

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With some sniggering from Rolwen and embarrassed looks so painful from Levin that it looked like he wanted to crawl inside of his shirt, we all went off away from the camp that was still being set up while trailing behind a now rather agitated and haunted looking Mr. Adderson.

“Damn it! Now I’m even more agitated.” I pouted.

“You’re agitated?!” Mr. Adderson barked. “How about how you made ME look just now? What is this that’s so important that you gotta go dragging me around for, anyway.”

“Ahhh... jeez! The culture clash here has gotten me all off balance now! I don’t even know if this is the right time anymore!” I said, nearly ready to pull my hair out.

“Holy crap! I never thought I’d see Asa ready for a mental breakdown!” Rolwen quipped.

“Well, after dragging me around, you’d BETTER tell me something for all this! I don’t wanna hear it was nothing after what just happened back there!” Mr. Adderson said.

“Asa, we can’t put this off.” Tia said.

“Ahhh… fine!” I said, and then took a deep breath. “Well, this is extra awkward now, but… Mr. Adderson, I wanted to talk about something you said when we first met. We didn’t have time to talk about it back then, but… it’s been bothering me.”

“Yeah, what’s that?” He asked.

“Well, starting off, I think we have gotten it established that all of us died on Earth and were reincarnated here. But, from what I heard you say, it sounded like the way you died might have been very different from what happened with us.” I told him.

“Yeah? How’s that?” He asked.

“Well… Levin, Rolwen, how about you two start off?” I asked them.

“I was driving down I-17 through central city in Phoenix, when all of a sudden some ass-hole probably asleep at the wheel drifted off and slammed into a tanker. Caused the thing to flip and it landed right square on top of my car.” Rolwen said, finally giving specifics on his death story.

“Yeah! I was riding with my brother and his friend was driving, we saw that happen right in front of us and then he slammed into the car in front of him, and… I don’t really remember anything after that. I must have died pretty quickly afterward.” Levin said.

“I was a little further back from them. I was involved in the same crash.” I said, deciding to hold back on the details and not dump more likely unbelievable stuff onto the plate. It would only be a distraction at this point.

“Shit, all of you the same crash?” Mr. Adderson asked. “Man, that’s quite a coincidence. Was the crash caused by one of the demons, do you think?” He asked. I felt my stomach lurch at those words as they seemed to confirm my worst fears.

“Huh? Demons? What are you talking about? Demons on Earth?” Rolwen asked with obvious confusion and genuine disbelief in his tone.

“Right. Mr. Adderson. How about you tell us exactly how you died now.” I told him.

“Heh, so seriously, none of you all saw a demon at all, huh?” He asked, his voice showing every single bit as much disbelief as Rolwen’s. “Well, in my case, I’m also from Phoenix. The city turned into ground-zero for some kind of demon invasion or some shit. Like, a portal from hell opened up and started spewing out apocalypse monsters. I was freaking booking it down the street and one of those bastards took me from behind.”

“Alright, seriously, demons?” Rolwen asks.

“Yeah. Demons. Freaking festering bat-winged bastards from hell waving around swords of fire demons! I wasn’t the only one who saw them either. I told you, right? There was eleven of us, including me, all got reincarnated here as fairies. Every last one of us has a similar story, all of us were killed by these demons.” Mr. Adderson said.

“Ok, are we sure the two of us even died on the same Earth? That doesn’t sound like our Earth.” Rolwen said.

“So, what? You saying we both somehow died on two different versions of Earth, came to the same world, got reincarnated at around the same time, and we both are from Phoenix, and my Phoenix is alike enough to your Phoenix I knew exactly what you was saying when you said about I-17?” Mr. Adderson asked. “Yeah, don’t think so. I get why you is skeptical though. I definitely wouldn’t have believed it myself if I hadn’t seen it. Hell, I STILL wouldn’t have believed it and thought I’d just dreamt the whole thing up if it weren’t for 10 other people with me confirming the same story.”

“So, you’re saying we got invaded by demons then?” Levin asked. “Maybe they actually did cause the car crash too and we just didn’t see it.”

“No.” Tia said. She and I had both been quiet this entire time, both of us realizing the same thing. I knew she was aware of the same thing that I was too, because she looked like she was about to be sick as she spoke up.

“What’s up? Tia? You feeling Ok?” He asked, suddenly very concerned.

Tia looked up and glared at him, looking like she was about ready to rip someone’s head off. “The demons did not cause the crash. I would have seen them if they had. Up until the moment Asa opened the way through the world barrier for me, there was not a single demon in sight.”

Tia turned on her heel and stomped her foot into the ground so hard that it sent the surrounding soil flying as it created a small crater. After this, she stormed off, walking parallel to the developing camp and further off into the fields away from us.

“Wh… what? What just happened?” Levin asked, looking rapidly between me and Tia. He definitely looked shaken. The darkness in my own mind must have been showing pretty clearly on my face at this point too, because he looked like he was incredibly torn on whether or not to ask me about this.

“Asa…” Levin hesitated, bordering on asking me about it. I, however, was very much not in the mood to answer questions from people who couldn’t grasp the implications about what just happened. Even though I’m fully aware of all the implications of what was just said, I still haven’t fully come to grips with it myself.

It doesn’t matter. The ones this matters most to right now are me and Tia.

Before he could complete his question, I turned and walked back toward the camp. I was sent off by the sounds of Rolwen discouraging Levin from trying to go after me.

I really hate being right. This is exactly what I thought it was. Almost down to the freaking letter. My ability to predict things has gotten scary accurate since coming to this world for some reason, and of all the times I wanted one of my predictions to be wrong, this was it.

Damn it, Katelin! So, this is what that bastard meant by a reason why I would want to return to Earth. As if I needed more reason to verify this guy was a demon rather than the angel he claimed to be. The only way this works is if Katelyn is still alive. In other words, the demons are literally holding her hostage.

The only thing I don’t understand is… why? What in the name of the feted and festering bowels of the hell those bastards crawled from would possess them to go through all this convoluted bullshit for me? What the hell do they even want?!

I lost track of time at some point after I took a seat on a small patch of grass nestled between two tents. At this point, I just wanted to be left alone.

The worst part is… I knew a part of this was meant to drive a wedge between me and Tia. I knew it. I stubbornly wanted to refuse to allow it. I didn’t want it to work, but… I could not deny it. It really was working. She may have been tricked, but she had played a willing part in all of this. She knew she was working with horrible people, but she still worked with them. All to fill her own selfish desire to leave Earth.

Knowing it was all a trick. Knowing she didn’t mean for this to be the result. Knowing she was just as much a victim in this as me and Katelyn. None of it mattered. I was stubborn. I did not want to let that demon’s plans work, but simple stubbornness was not enough to avoid what I knew to be true.

This is why I didn’t want this to be said. If only Tia had not forced this issue, we could have just kept pretending everything was alright.