An excited noise from my right made me jump halfway out of my skin.

  “GRAN HUGGED HIM TO DEATH!” shouted someone I recognized the voice of. It was Liam. His eyes were bugging halfway out of his head.

  “Hush child, I most certainly did not,” replied Gran, her reply with an air of dignity. “He’s merely unconscious.” I couldn’t help but notice she did not deny hugging him into this state.

  Mom was in a heap on the floor. She seemed physically fine, but was making the noises of someone who was distraught beyond words.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  “They… took… Alessa…” Mom said between sucking sobs. A tight lump formed in my stomach, and it wasn’t made of not-ice-cream this time.

  “Who?” I asked, looking at her, “Where?” My fists were clenched.

  “I don’t know,” Gran said, since Mom didn’t seem to be in any state to answer. “They just left. You should have seen them as you walked up.”

  “I’ll get her back.” I growled, anger burning in the pit of my stomach and flooding out into my body. I ran back out the door. I could hear Gran calling out behind me to be safe.

  I realized after I ran off that maybe “general direction” wasn’t the best way to chase someone down in the twilight hours. I couldn’t see for shit, and kept chasing random shadows before realizing the were just bushes or other things of that nature. There were lights around the walkways, but they hadn’t worked in years.

  The anger in my stomach had reduced to a dull throb, replaced by a rising sense of panic that I wouldn’t find her in time. “Calm down,” I said out loud to myself. I forced myself to take longer, deeper breaths, continuing to walk. “Where would you take her if you were them.” I stopped for a second. “Better question, me. Who are ‘them’?”

  Then it hit me. Literally. A crow or something smacked directly into my face as I rounded a corner, then flew off into the night making annoyed bird noises. I must of startled it out of a hidey-hole. I panicked, thinking I’d been caught.

  Once I finished flapping my arms around in a poor imitation of my erstwhile assailant, I had a sudden stroke of inspiration.

  It was her boss. Who else would dare to take some random woman right out of their own home but some creepy dude with an inflated sense of self-worth on a power trip. He probably even roped in some coworkers, which would explain the dude on the floor.

  Thanks random bird, you knocked some sense loose.

  I spun on my heel, running in the direction of the store I knew she worked at. I was willing to bet money he’d drag her back there. He had keys, and that building should be totally vacant right now. No way he planned ahead farther than the point where he grabbed her.

  I swore I could even feel a pull now that I was heading in what I assumed was the right direction. Almost like one of my feelings when I was examining artifacts. It was a curious occurrence, but I filed it into the back of my mind for now. I didn’t know how many of them would be waiting for me when I got there, but I knew how many faces I was going to punch in the face.

  Rounding the corner, I pulled up short. There was two guys standing outside the doors. They stood, one on either side, with their hands crossed in front of them. They looked like the people I’d sometimes see outside of bars on my walks home.

  “Way to go, morons, try to look a little less obvious,” I said, probably a little too loud. I darted back around the corner, before they could spot me.

  I thought to myself,

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  I circled around behind the buildings. This area wasn’t that far from our house, part of why Alessa had decided to work there. Everything was still packed pretty closely here, to take advantage of every square inch of land. It made for good cover, as I was able to get within a few meters of where they stood without ever having to break out into their line of sight. I took a few moments to calm my heart, which was beating like mad. Pulling feeling I’d felt before was more diffuse here, but present. Instead of being in a particular direction, it seemed to be more in the general area. I still had no idea what it was trying to tell me.

  The guys standing by the door were chatting with each other at this point.

  “You think he’s going to be back soon?” One asked the other.

  I thought, If I could take these two out and hide them first, I’d be able to get the drop on Mr. Creepyboss and his precious cargo.

  Coiling like spring, I dashed out of the shadows, moving faster than I think I’d ever gone in my life. The pair were still yammering between themselves, and the first thought that passed through their head regarding my presence was in the form of my fist.

  Well, okay, it didn’t pass through. It definitely stayed outside. But he went flying, far beyond what I was expecting when I threw the punch. He straight up piled into the other guy and they both toppled over in the direction opposite my approach. I stood stock still for a solid too-many seconds in shock at how effective it had been before I realized I should probably press my advantage.

  I switched to my foot, as my fist hurt like crazy. Who knew heads were hard? Well, I should have because I had a first hand example of cranial density on top of my shoulders. I thought, shaking it out. It didn’t seem to be broken, which was a relief. I’d tucked my thumb properly and everything.

  It wasn’t much of a head start, but bottom guy was starting to get out from under the dude I’d hit. The latter had went over like a board, which probably didn’t bode well for his future brain functionality. Not that he had much to begin with.

  My heel kick - more of a stomp, really - connected with his head, and second dude joined the first. I was about to try to drag them away when I heard a voice behind me.

  “What did you do to them?” It said, and I spun around. Sure enough, it was creepy boss. He had an Alessa-shaped bundle over his shoulder, which explained the weird silhouette I’d seen. No one else was with him.

  “They were very sleepy, so I helped them take a nap.” I said. I needed to figure out a way to get him away from her, even if only for a few moments. The bundle on his shoulder started wiggling around like earthworms did when you dig them up out of the ground and poke them in their squishy bits.

  Which I suppose is the whole worm, just all squishy bits.

  He was still looking at me like I had a screw loose, which was not an unfair assessment given I had just been thinking about worms in the middle of this. He hadn’t said anything, or put her down. She didn’t appear to be bound with anything I could see, but also didn’t have freedom of movement. Tape, maybe? That was in the cliché kidnapper starter kit, right?

  The pull had increased again, and the air felt charged. He seemed uncomfortable, and my skin was crawling. The feeling felt familiar somehow.

  “What is that!?” I shouted, pointing over his shoulder. Of course, he looked, and I was about to inwardly cheer my successful diversion when - as if on queue - a horrific ripping noise echoed out and reality tore in two exactly where I pointed. A rift had formed out of thin air.

  Somehow managing not to look at my finger in wonder, I rushed at them, desperate to get my sister away from the rift. I’d never seen one appear before. So far as I knew, most were tiny slivers that were forcibly expanded using specialized equipment by rift hunters like Viktor, before being stabilized for use.

  If this was a “sliver”, I didn’t want to see the giant that would be getting it. It loomed over us as I approached, and by now I didn’t have to guess what the pull I'd been feeling was, as there was a veritable vacuum near it. Wind rushed in, filling a void we couldn't see. The edges looked different from any I had seen, silver with sparks of blue and green, and much thicker than they should be. It had to be at least three stories tall and as wide as a car. It even penetrated into the ground, eating up chunks of concrete.

  The dumbass that had abducted my sister was still staring wide-eyed at it, rooted to the spot. He seemed to finally remember I was there, and turned back to look at me, just in time to catch a shoulder to the face.

  After that, a few things happened in very short order. As my shoulder connected, I rotated to grab the bundle of sibling joy and used the rotational inertia of my body glancing off of his to pry her off of him like a bottle opener. I put strength into my arms and tossed her away from the rift, hoping it’d both be far enough, and that she wouldn’t land on her head. Didn’t want her to wind up like me.

  The third thing that happened, was that my momentum took me past both of them. He was flying out to the left, blood trailing from what was at the very least a well-deserved broken nose.

  I had ricocheted off of his face directly into the rift, feeling more than hearing the sizzling as it closed over my head.

  Everything went white.

  who is - decided. I'd actually presented only two different choices, but they just had to be special and pick one I didn't offer.