I thought, once again surrounded by the white glow. She’d somehow pushed me back out of the world I was just in. This time however, there was a veritable swarm of motes around me, as though they were curious. As another bonus, I seemed to be solid again. I wiggled my fingers in front of my face, verifying, that yes, they were still attached. All twelve of them.

  Jokes aside, I was hoping that wherever I was going would be less eventful than where I had just been. Bird Charley was fun, but I still preferred being people shapes. Less pecking and peeping.

  As if the world was determined to deny my aspirations of normalcy, I found myself abruptly ejected, sideways. As in gravity told me down was to my side, and then I hit a hard surface like a bag of rocks.

  “Owww,” I said, pushing myself to a sitting position. I was fairly sure I was going to have some mean road-rash down my arm from that one.

  “Char?!” I heard an excited voice, from behind me. A pair of arms wrapped tightly around my neck and shoulders, “I was so worried!”

  “I was worried about you too, Alessa,” I wheezed out, still a bit winded and half-strangled from her concern. I then hugged the forearms back the best I could while facing the other way. I had been quite concerned when I went through the portal that she would be unable to escape her predicament, or one of the goons would wake up. Apparently neither was the case. Yet.

  Then something occurred to me. “How long were you waiting for me?” I asked, turning to face her. “Not long, I hope.”

  “Nope, I’d just gotten out of the tape when you came back out.” She stared at the rift, which still stood open. “What do we do about that anyway?”

  “I’m hoping it’ll close soon. It’d be cool if I could just snap my fingers and close it.” I said, snapping my fingers in the air in the general direction of the rift.

  A loud ripping noise rang out, and the rift vanished as if it’d never been there, although reality seemed a bit wobbly for a few seconds. We both looked at each other, eyes wide.

  “I didn’t do that.” I said, staring at my fingers with a dumbfounded look on my face. "At least I don't think I did."

  “Sure…” Alessa smiled, “I believe you, rift girl. Now what did you do with my sister?”

  I poked her in the side of the torso, in a very specific spot. “Alien experiments! You’re next!”

  She scooted out of the way so quick it was like teleportation. “Hey, no fair, I could never figure out where you are ticklish at!” she said, swatting at my finger like a cat. I was glad she wasn’t too freaked out about the whole thing. Or maybe she was and it just hadn’t hit yet. Probably the latter. She had just been kidnapped and then watched her sister go flying into ostensibly the same thing that killed their father. No way that wouldn’t have some mental health consequences.

  Thinking about consequences kicked another thought loose. “We should get out of here,” I said, looking at her with my serious face on, “Right now. They won’t be out for long.” I pointedly looked around at the motionless goon squad I was sure I hadn’t killed.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  “Yes,” Alessa said, “One thing first though.” She stood and walked a few steps over to where her boss lay. At first I was wondering how he, too, was unconscious, but I spotted the huge gash on the side of his head. He must have hit it on the jagged edge of the hole the rift made. It had curled back the road like a can opener when it formed.

  I was wondering what she was going to do when she hauled back and kicked him directly in the unmentionables, with as much force as her skinny frame could put forth. She took one last look, shuddered noticeably, then walked away.

  I took her hand and led her back the way we came.

  About halfway back home, she broke off to the side and emptied the contents of her stomach. I held her forehead and gently patted her back, in the way of our people. “You okay?” I asked.

  “Yeah,” she got out after a few heaves. Her whole body had started to shake. “It’s just the food poisoning.”

  I knew it was more than just that, but somehow managed to keep my mouth shut for a change. After a while, she collected herself.

  “Is everyone back at the house alright?” It was very much like her to worry more about the family than her own condition.

  “Yes, they’re all fine,” I said, before a quick chuckle that sounded more like a snort. “Well, everyone but the guy that ran into Gran. He had a bad day.”

  “Why am I not surprised.”

  “You should have seen Liam. His eyes were wider than the birthday where we actually managed to get our hands on a real cake.” I told her, making my face a caricature of the look.

  “I’ll bet,” she giggled at the impression, my familiar antics having a calming effect on her. She still had some small tremors, but it was much better than it had been even a few moments ago. We resumed our walk.

  “How did you manage to take out those other guys, anyway” she asked. “They weren’t exactly little dudes.”

  “Yeah, but they weren’t all that big either,” I said, flexing my arms, which admittedly didn’t make much of a difference. There was more muscle there than I remembered seeing, though. “Got that little sister spitfire in me, I guess.”

  “That’s for sure,” sure she said, putting an arm on my far should and pulling me into her in a half-hug. “And I’ve never been more glad that you do. Not sure what I would have done if you hadn’t have been there.”

  “Puked on him, probably,” I said, “Or worse. I’m sure you’d have managed either way. You’re a smart cookie, as Gran would say.”

  “Gran would say that,” She agreed. She went quiet for a few moments, then looked back at me. “Not sure why he came after me of all people. Wasn’t like he didn’t know I was sick.”

  “‘Cause you’re gorgeous, and he’s a creep.”

  “I knew he was trouble when he walked in,” she admitted, looking down at her toes.

  “Hey, no shaming yourself,” I told her off.

  “I knew it first day of work. When I started, all my coworkers were girls my age. Total red flag."

  “Don’t be down on yourself, it’s not like you could do anything about it. You’ve got all the fire and fury of a plushie. Well, a plushie with a nutcracker built in.”

  She cringed at my words. “I really shouldn’t have done that, should I?” she asked, looking at me, worry evident on her face.

  “Done what? I saw nothing. Nothing, I say!” I made an exaggerated attempt to look away from her and whistle, managing no more than to make a few odd noises through pursed lips. I never really could figure out how to actually make the ‘whistle’ part of that equation work out. She smiled at my obvious attempts to cheer her up. I squeezed her hand. “He deserved it. You probably weren’t the only one who wanted to do that.”

  “No kidding. I think everyone there hated him. I’d have left but I felt awful leaving just you to do all the work.”

  “Don’t,” I told her, “We all do what we can, this is just my contribution. It’s a good job.”

  “Really?” She asked, “I know it makes mom nervous with you working around rifts all the time.”

  “Yup!” I replied, “Besides, you know me, I’m not much of a sweet girl, I’m more of the spicy kind.” I looked back the way we had come from. “And apparently the rifts don’t like how I taste. It spat me right back out.”

  We rounded the corner and our home came back into view as she laughed at my joke, before squeezing my hand back.

  “Thanks, Char. For everything.”

  3000 places. 3000! Wowza. I'll have a question to them soon, as they are the last of the original 3 to not to get a specific influence after the initial brainstorm. (Mote storm?)