"Rein, we have to get out of here!" Lee yelled. Rein came sprinting after him; they could hear the footsteps closing in on them.

"We're almost there; all we need to do is get through this forest." Rein had known the way, but his frail body always hindered them as he lagged behind. Lee always helped him in these situations, either slowing down or helping him catch up. He was there for him.

The branches were tightly woven together; this forest was just down the road from his house, so Rein knew it pretty well, but he didn't think they would be caught this quickly.

"Get back here, you kids!; you're going to be in a lot of trouble for trespassing the second I get my hands on you!" The large man yelled in between, while catching his breath. He was clearly not used to running, especially through such dense forests that didn't favor his stature.

After they eventually broke through the tree line, all they needed to do was cross one stream, and they would be safe—one stream that was just large enough to terrify Rein. His body was quite thin and prone to hypothermia, unlike Lee's, who was taller and more muscular. Rein knew he was the factor slowing them down here. But when was he not?

"Lee, we're gonna have to jump the river ahead."

Rein's palms began to sweat; he knew this crossing was wide, which is why he knew this was going to get them out. He began to speed, but felt his knees buckle; he was already at his limit, sweat pouring down his face. He looked over to Lee, who made this look like a jog; he could not blame him for his weakness. He clenched his jaw; this was his own weakness for him to deal with. His shadow grew larger and larger with the setting of the sun, but not nearly as large as Lee's. With one hard push off the ground, Lee jumped, and he could feel Lee's hand on his back, giving him a slight push.

*Splash*

He was just shy of the crossing, and he quickly began to sink. His ability to float was always compromised. Slowly going down, he could hear the thumps of the officer who had been chasing after them.

"That'll teach you damn children for sneaking onto this land."

He could vividly remember why they came; he always had a reason for dragging Lee into trouble. He heard rumors of a quack doctor who had some research papers on the supernatural stashed in his home. Everyone had dismissed him and 'debunked' him, but he knew better. Or so he thought he did; they had broken into his house, tripping an alarm without their knowledge. They dug through some papers, none seeming useful. The only one he could find slightly odd was titled *Dreams and Shadows." He took as many pictures of it as he could, trying to get a copy of every page, before they saw the lights and bolted.

While he was slowly sinking, reminiscing, and hoping Lee had gotten away, he felt a tug. Shit, it's the cop; “he should have just let me sink” Rein thought to himself. But the strong grip didn't let go and continued to pull him out of the water with little resistance. With one fell swoop, he was flung out of the water and onto his feet. Looking behind himself, he could see the officer still on the other side of the river on the phone. His jaw was clenched, and his fists balled; he didn't want to get wet. Lee quickly gave him a push; he almost forgot they were on the run, and they continued, less worried about getting caught; they weren't amateurs at this. His biggest worry now was his body freezing up on him. With the cold wind blowing against them, he knew he wasn't going to last very long in this.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

After crossing a few more sections of the forest, they came up to a clearing where Rein had parked his car. He internally cursed Lee for not getting his license, forgetting the fact that Lee had just saved him. He fumbled for his keys; he knew there wasn't going to be a big cop chase; chances are, without concrete proof of them, it was going to blow over in a couple weeks, as antiques always did.

They finally got on the road, making sure to drive normally so as not to attract attention. Their hearts were racing. Lee was flipping through the images they got on Rein's phone. "Rein I don't know if this is anything special this time; it just seems like more conspiracy theory bullshit. That same tower, and just these eerie images of this dark, decrepit land," Lee said in between his breaths. He was always quick to dismiss whatever 'proof' Rein found, but always quick to join him when he said he found some.

"Well, see, when we get home, this dark tower has to mean something; there's been so many of these weird symbols that continue to pop up in different books."

Rein could see Lee's skepticism growing; 'a tower was a universal object similar to a pyramid', a fact he always seemed to mention.

As they arrived at Reins house, they quickly fled into the basement, not wanting to get asked about why they were dirty or wet.

Both Rein and Lee had taken gap years from high school, deciding they both needed time to decide where they wanted to go in life. But, for Rein, this was just his excuse; he exclaimed until he uncovered something and made it big.

They turned on the TV for background noise and blew up the images on a computer. Rein was instantly mesmerized; these images were clear connections in his mind to other texts he had read.

"A world laid in shadows, a tower so vivid you see it from any distance in this world, run away as far as you like; it never shrinks." He read aloud.

"Tsk" Lee clicked his tongue, "we both know that's just some weird idea conspiracy theorists have been hanging onto for decades". Rein could see Lee pacing back and forth, obviously nervous. He got that way sometimes after they pulled off these stunts, but only sometimes, as if he knew something Rein hadn't. He dismissed that thought and looked back over the images; they depicted the silhouette of monsters he never even dreamt of; one of them looked like a vortex; he could make out eyes on the end edge along with mouths all swirling around it. There were dozens of these creatures throughout the book. But the most interesting part was the color of the monsters. One such was labeled Kraken; on a red label, it was titled Found. As he was about to show his discovery to Lee, he saw him staring at the TV, his mouth slightly agape. He looked over; the news had been talking about a grand theft; cops everywhere; apparently they hadn't had concrete visuals of them; apparently, the cop tried to jump into the water, ruining his old and cracked body camera, losing all evidence.

"Phew, that was lucky; they don't have any images of us." Rein sighed, glad they decided to jump the river.

"Lucky? They are blowing this crime out of proportion; the alarm had only been triggered when we broke in; the front door was already open; they didn't even know we broke in. They are making up crimes!" Lee yelled. "They were blowing all of this out of proportion for what?"

Rein looked back behind him, and he gave Lee a slightly cheeky grin. "Maybe it's no coincidence after all; maybe we just found our first piece."

Lee glared back at Rein. He disliked that Rein was enjoying this; even though he always accompanied him, he always seemed to want Rein to be wrong and always stuck with him.

"Well, if you're right, hopefully we can enter this spooky, dark dimension and get out of it before it blows up in our faces," Lee said in a joking tone.

"I'm glad you said that, friend, because right here it talks about how scientists, for the last few hundred years, have been forcing themselves and others into that place."

Rein could see Lee gulp.

“I'll get us setup, you just sit tight”.