The rain spattered against the windshield with the same ceaseless regularity that it had been using since the accident. What use did the rest of the world have for a fender bender on a dark highway after all? This was just one life out of millions it was overseeing.

I took a deep breath in, held it, then let it out slowly in a sigh while I replayed the last several hours in my mind.

I’d been driving home from work when I got a call from a friend that he’d blown a tire while up in the mountains near town. Apparently, I’d been the only one to answer his calls. That hadn’t been surprising, Jason had this habit of asking for favors, but not repaying them.

Getting out to him took another two hours, and then about an hour to get the spare tire I had on his Jeep so he could get it home. He’d hurried off, stating that he had a date to get to and that he’d get the spare back to me as soon as he could. That was when the rain had picked up even more.

I’m not a reckless driver, I check both ways and drive within the speed limit. My old truck struggles at higher speeds after all, so it’s not like I have much choice. But when the rain was coming down in buckets like it had been, things happen. Like an animal jumping out into traffic.

I hadn’t been the one to play chicken with the deer, thankfully. But I had tagged the guy who tried to dodge it by jumping into my lane.

His fender had been clipped by my front bumper. The nose of my old pickup hadn’t cared that he was driving a Tesla though and the steel bumper on my truck had creased his expensive electric car with as much regard as I would crumple a paper cup. I’d tried to avoid him, but since I was in the far right there wasn’t anywhere else to go but the ditch when he came into my lane and slammed on the brakes. Thankfully, no one had been hurt and Bambi made it off into the forest after his little bit of revenge on humans.

“Be thankful for that, focus on that fact and that your truck isn’t trashed, Liam.” I sighed, leaning forward to bump my head onto the steering wheel. The words were meant to help, but the post-accident shakes were still there. They’d probably be there for a while yet. I just wanted to get home and sleep. Work had been killer, I was tired and wet from the rain.

Movement in the darkness ahead of me shook me out of my thoughts as red tail-lights kicked on, followed by a turn signal a moment later. The State Patrol officer that had come out to document the accident pulled away from the scene and into the road. We’d already spent another two hours out here, between dealing with the insurance paperwork and the cops. Despite the fact that the other guy had merged into my lane, I was going to be considered ‘at fault’ because I hit him from behind. ‘Driving too fast for conditions’ was the ticket the officer had written that sat next to me on the seat.

The familiar anger rose up in the pit of my gut. I wouldn’t have been out here if not for that stupid phone call after all.

“Easy, Liam. Don’t blame Jason. He had no way of knowing…take it easy.” I urged myself, throttling the anger and stuffing it back down under the exhaustion that still rode high after the bullshit work week. At least it was Thursday night, I just had to get through work tomorrow and things would be fine. I could catch up on sleep this weekend and maybe get some cooking done so I wouldn’t have to eat frozen meals and fast food next week.

The rain continued to drum on the roof of the truck in a steady beat. It’d been raining most of the day; that sort of persistent and relentless rain that I remembered from Seattle, where I grew up. The sort of rain that felt so very out of place here in Denver. Colorado was not a place known for heavy rain after all, being an alpine desert. Normally the area was covered in dry, brown grass or the scrubby pine trees that were clinging to the rocky terrain out of pure ornery determination.

A grumble of thunder nearby made the truck vibrate and shook me out of my exhausted musings. Sitting here wasn’t going to get me home. I needed to start driving before I fell asleep against the wheel.

“No one is going to look out for you but yourself, Liam.” I muttered, repeating one of the many bits of sage advice my mother and father had spoken over me. It was true, everyone was working so hard just to get by nowadays that people didn’t really reach out to others, least of all strangers.

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Reaching down to twist the key for the truck, I waited while the engine lugged a few times. My truck was older than I was. I’d inherited it from my father when he passed. Lung cancer was what the doctors said, but I honestly think it was a broken heart. He lasted less than a year after Mom passed after all. It’d been bad luck that had taken her. Black ice is not something anyone can expect. She’d gone quickly at least, that was what the doctors had said. She’d been declared dead on arrival by the paramedics.

My parents estate had been enough to settle their outstanding debts. The truck and a small savings was all I had left afterwards, and a few odds and ends like Dad’s hunting rifle and revolver. The truck was actually the part that I got the most out of in a day, since it got me to work and back. The solid truck handled black ice or snow during the winter like a champ, it was basically bullet proof. The accident that had crumpled the other guy's fender had barely done more than dimple the front corner of the bumper. Good old Detroit steel just didn’t stop rolling.

So when the engine lugged again and died, I had to bite back the urge to swear.

“You gotta be kidding me.” I growled and began yanking my soaking hoodie back on so I could get out to check the engine. The fabric got caught around my head and tangled while I tried to get the hoodie on.

Of course that was the time that my phone started to ring, right as the thunder rumbled overhead once more. Snarling, I yanked the hoodie back around and pulled it down before snatching my cell phone where it sat on the cracked leather of the bench seat next to me. But the device was dark.

The ringing chime came again and I felt something, like a finger running down my spine, that made my whole body shiver as I realized something.

That chime wasn’t my ring tone. I remembered now that I’d changed it from the standard ‘deedle deedle’ that the phone came with to the opening bars of my favorite song by Hulkoff about a week ago.

Another flash of lighting came and a third ringing tone echoed around the truck. I searched around me but I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. My old beast had a full sized cab with two bench seats. I glanced behind the main seat, wondering if someone had left their phone behind or something. It’d been a few weeks since I’d given Tony a ride to work while his car was broken down, but it was the only answer I could think of.

Nothing, just the darkness lit by the flash of lightning outside.

A fourth ringing noise sounded out and something else happened that nearly made me crap my pants.

Nothing jumped out of the shadows of the truck, or tapped my window, or even rustled in the bushes near my truck. That would have been easier to accept than what happened.

Letters of blazing purple light, glowing like the core of a black-light, formed in front of my face. They shimmered for a moment like a mirage, making it hard to focus on them enough to read what was written, but they flickered and resolved after a second and I skimmed over them.

Irregular planar travel detected.

Calculating…

No history of dimensional travel detected.

Compensating…

Entry Level System package allocated to Traveler.

Standby, Traveler. DSR has been notified of your situation.

Remain where you appear, if possible. Assistance is en-route.

Do not panic.

I read the last line of the notice two more times to make sure that I wasn’t seeing things.

“Oh great…hallucinations. Maybe the car accident was worse than I thought and I’m concussed and in a ditc—,” My complaints were cut off a moment later when it felt like someone grabbed my belt buckle and physically yanked me up and out of the truck. They then crammed me into a cannon and fired me into a swirling maelstrom of color and light.

I saw motion and felt colors whirl around me. Something broke across my face like walking through a spider’s web, and then it did it again, and again.

The sensation of motion increased rapidly until I felt like I was skimming along like a fighter jet. I felt movement, but no air resistance. It was just like how you would feel a lurch when a large vehicle moved and then you’d feel yourself ‘catch up’. But I wasn’t catching up. The world was moving too fast for me to really focus or see what was happening until it came screaming to a stop and I was slammed into reality once more.

The sounds of my boots on stone and the murmuring of voices were the first things heard. The sight of burning torches and light sparkling off polished metal was the first thing I saw.

The second thing I saw was the collection of well dressed young men and women staring at me with mixed looks of horror, curiosity, fear, and surprise in their eyes. Eyes that were slitted, eyes that were glowing, and eyes that looked normal.

“What…the hell?” I muttered as I fought to not trip and fall from my spinning mind.