The Guardians - Between the Worlds (Book 2)

Lily: You were right.

Dean: Did you have any doubts?

Dean: Because when you see what’s out there feelings overwhelm you. Just like they overwhelm you now like they do to me too…

Dean: You showed this to me, and now I owe you.

Lily: I don’t think that you can show me something more beautiful than this.

Dean: No, but I will try.

Lily: You’re right. It’s way more beautiful than the simple view.

Dean: I’m happy that I’m finally right.

Dean: You told me that you will come and look for me, but I didn’t expect you to come in here.

Lily: If I disturbed you…

Dean: Not at all.

Lily: But they’ve forbidden you! Where did you get it? They will punish you, Dean!

Lily: There’s no way we can’t do anything!

Tamara: Everything for you…

Lily: I will do this! It’s my choice, and I refuse to live all my life with the thought that I could have done something!

Lily: Brook, I’m sorry…

Brook: You didn’t even ask! You put my life in danger for him! You could have asked! Do you think I would have said no? But you were ready to kill us both!

Lily: What have I done?

Tamara: You saved him.

Lily: Leave me alone! I have much more problems than I wanted, and you seem to be the center of them!

Lily: How did you know it was me?

Dean: I guessed.

Dean: I’m going to do what I needed to do long ago! What are you doing here?

Lily: It’s your lucky night because you’re not alone in this.

Lily: She has feelings for you, you know…

Dean: I know.

Dean: You can call me however you want, you can hate me, but later.

Lily: Why would I hate you?

Dean: They say that when you start a war, you need to be damn sure what you’re fighting for.

Lily: For feelings.

Dean: You have something special. I’ve seen you in training and I fought with you. You can’t get lost like this, do you understand? You’re a good soldier, a Guardian…

Dean: If surviving means living under your tyranny, then I prefer death!

Lily: Not today!

Lily: He can’t be dead. He must get out, he’s Dean. He’s a survivor.

Artemis: You had the courage to fight for what you wanted. That’s what my son told me. He talks nice about you.

Tamara: You can’t be in two places at the same time.

Lily: I will go with them.

Dean: Are you sure this is what you want? What do you need?

Lily: He needs me…

He needs me…

These last words scream in Lily’s mind before she opens her eyes. She can hear them loud and clear. The last words she told Dean.

Why am I thinking about you? she asks herself once again.

She sees the stars above her. They are far away, a lot more than she saw them the last time, and the moon seems smaller. Why did she hear Dean’s voice? Why all the images and sounds that flashed before her eyes were about him? She stands up. The air is different, and the smell is strong. A tree with spiky branches makes her wince when she touches it. She makes a step and she sees another one. And another. Grave silence was broken by a strange sound. Lights are sparkling in front of her, and one disturbs her sight. She yells and hits the sparkling light with her hand. But it continues to follow her, so Lily runs a couple of steps further.

She had read about the insects in the library back at the Base, but they were in the Human’s World. And so were the spiky trees. There were no trees, flowing waters, seas, oceans, insects or animals in the Guardian’s World. She had learned about them, she was remembering how some of them were called, but she never saw them, only in images from the books. The moon seemed smaller in the Human’s World, and so did the stars.

She steps slowly between the spiky green trees, followed by the lights, listening to the sharp sound coming from the grass. Crickets. But how could she know that she had arrived in the Human’s World?

The cricket’s sound disappears slowly, and now it’s music coming from nearby. Basses and shouting. Lily wonders what’s going on, so she walks faster. When she arrives at the edge of the forest, the colored lights and the music turned on loudly make her question where she is. She remembers all of it perfectly. A bunch of young folks, about a number of thirty, are dancing like crazy. She can feel the alcohol in the air.

Lily is thirsty, so she infiltrates easily among the young people, who think she is one of them. Some of them touch her on the shoulders, and others are offering her a colorless drink. Lily drinks it fast, and she doesn’t refuse the second one because of the thirst. Neither the third one. It tastes weird, for they didn’t have vodka back in the Guardian’s World.

“Who is the girl?” Amelia asks Stephanie.

“I have no clue, but she really likes vodka from what I can see”, Stephanie laughs.

“If we leave her there with Josh and Albert… we don’t know what it will become of her.”

“Like we care! Let’s drink!”

“Stephanie, I think you’ve had enough to drink!”

Amelia pulls her aside, thinking about the mysterious girl who had appeared at their neighborhood party. She didn’t see her before but, even so, she felt like it was her duty to protect her from the profiteering guys from there.

Lily lets herself flow with the music, and she starts dancing under the alcohol’s influence. It doesn’t influence her like it influences people though. She barely feels the adrenaline in her veins, but she forgets about everything, her world, and she continues to flow with the music’s rhythm. A girl goes close to her, and they soon start dancing together.

“Look at this” Stephanie laughs. “Laura went to her. It will be so funny if she’s not her type.”

“Oh, damn it! She doesn’t seem like her type at all!”

“Why are you so agitated for this girl who you don’t even know?”

“Do you believe me when I tell you that I don’t know?”

Amelia notices a weird and shiny sign on Lily’s arm. She goggles her eyes because she had seen it somewhere before.

“Steph, what kind of tattoo has the girl on her arm?”

“And you’re telling me that I’ve had too much to drink? She has no tattoo on her arm!”

Amelia remains still for a second. She remembers where she had seen the sign. It was in one of the books she studied for her final exam. “Mythology and myths from other worlds”.

“I’ve read about that sign! You really don’t see it?”

“No, Amelia. I don’t see it! You’re seeing things!”

Laura goes closer and closer to Lily, touching her neck with her palms. She puts her face too close to Lily’s, and she suddenly opens her eyes. She sees her, but she’s not sure about what she wants to do.

“Oh, Laura, she’s with me!” says Amelia rushing to get between them.

She grabs Lily’s arm and pulls her along.

“What are you doing? Why are you pulling me? Who are you?” asks Lily.

“Believe me, she’s not your type”, she tells her. “Come with me.”

Lily follows her staring at the surroundings and the people until they get to the table where Steph is sitting. The music is not that loud there.

“Oh, really? You couldn’t help yourself!” says Steph.

Amelia doesn’t answer, and she keeps staring at Lily’s arm.

“I’m Amelia, and she is Stephanie.”

“Lily.”

“Can I look at it?” Amelia asks Lily, staring at her arm.

“At what?”

“At the dragon from your arm.”

Lily jumps away, with starry eyes, and with a shocked expression on her face.

“You can see it?”

“Of course I can.”

“I think that you’re both drunk because I can’t see any dragon there!” says Steph.

Lily stretches her arm, and Amelia looks at it fascinated. She inspects every inch of it, touching her arm and following the sparkle under her fingers.

“It’s fascinating. I can’t believe it…”

“What? I can’t believe that you can see it.”

Amelia wants to ask her so much, but so does Lily. They are caught in an embarrassing situation, and the questions are too many and they invade their minds too soon for them to keep up with what’s going on.

“Where are we?” asks Lily.

“Aaa… New York?” asks Steph ironically.

“What’s…” asks Lily, but she blocks out.

“Where are you from?” asks Amelia.

“I… need to get back!” says Lily getting up in a heartbeat.

She rushes to walk away from them, while Amelia’s shouting for her. She runs from the crowded place, and at one point she stops running on the grass. She feels the asphalt under her feet, and everything seems so different. She remembers the Guardians, Dean, Isaac, Brook, their world, and she realizes that she is in the Human’s World.

Two shiny lights blind her, and she makes a huge jump, managing to avoid them. But she lands in a ravine, she rolls over, and she hits her head on a rock. She faints.

When Dean is announced that there are Guardians approaching from the horizon, he opens the doors in a rush. He knows there are his friends who had left for the Unity. Tamara and Artemis join him and, soon, Irene, Claire, and Earl Hunt. They are all waiting impatiently, trying to seek their loved ones between the group of new Guardians. What they don’t know yet is that even if there were a lot of new Guardians there, some of the best ones had died during the failed mission.

Dean searches for Lily with his eyes, but he can’t see her. He feels something moving around inside his stomach, and he gulps. When his eyes meet Brook’s, she can’t hold back her tears anymore. Isaac looks at her parents and he has no idea what to answer when Claire asks with her faded voice:

“Lily? Where’s my daughter?”

“I can’t do this”, says Brook leaning on the doorstep.

“Brook? Tell me, what happened to my daughter?”

“And with the others? Why are Guardians missing? What happened out there?” asks Tamara even though she’s terrified by the answer she’s going to get.

When Dean looks at Isaac’s face, he realizes that something really bad had happened. He sees it in his eyes, on his pale face, and in the gestures, he can’t control anymore. The trembling of his hands gives him away in front of the people who knew Lily.

“Maxine, Richard, Abby… They all died. There was an explosion at the Unity and they died… They’re all gone. They are the only survivors left”, says Alice pointing at the new faces.

“They took Leonor. They were there, they caught us. They want to start a war. They will destroy the ones who will not obey to them”, continues Sam.

“God, no…” says Tamara.

“And what about Lily?” asks Dean for the first time.

“Lily’s… gone”, whispers Isaac.

“What do you mean she’s gone?” asks Claire revolted.

“It was like a part of the Portal… When she touched it, it grabbed her and pulled her inside. That was the last moment when I felt her. I thought that she has fainted because it happened before not to feel her during our mission, but now it passed seven days… I haven’t felt her at all since that moment, even though we waited, we looked for her, we called her name… It was all in vain”, Brook speaks.

“But if you don’t feel her anymore, that means…” says Earl disappointed.

“Our daughter is dead?!” exclaims Claire crying.

“I…“, says Brook, but she stops because the news of the dead Guardians had brought everyone down.

Dean is not used to the feeling he had during these moments when he feels his tears blocking his throat, and he rushes to go behind the corner, where he strongly hits the ornaments left on a metallic table. Then, he hits the wall with his fists, and he doesn’t stop until Artemis appears behind him.

“Dean…”

“I don’t want to hear any of it!” he shouts.

“But Dean, if they said something about a piece of the Portal’s Wall, maybe Lily isn’t dead… I will look in the books from the library. I haven’t heard about something like this before.”

Dean slams the door in her face, from the room he had entered from despair, and he pours himself a glass of wine from the cane which was on the table for at least a couple of days. After the first sip, he throws away the glass, leaving it to smash on the wall.

“Why didn’t she stay?” he asks himself.

A bang in the door makes him wince, but he doesn’t answer.

“It’s me, Brook”, says the voice.

“Come on in”, Dean clears his voice.

Brook steps inside the room, with her small and reddish eyes because of the crying. She had waited for so long to feel Lily but, when she had seen her parents and Dean, she had exploded in a mix of feelings she was holding in on their way back. She rushes to hug him, and they both let the masks they have been wearing for too long to fall. They’re crying for Lily because she had been a piece of their souls.

“I can’t feel her, Dean. But I refuse to believe that she’s…”

“What does your heart tell you? How the hell did it happen?”

“We pulled her back, we hit and shot at the portal, but it was in vain. It swallowed our guns and electrocuted all of us. But it wasn’t doing any harm to her. And she saw in it something that we couldn’t.”

“What was that?”

“Peace.”

This word hits Dean’s chest like an arrow because he thinks of it as death.

“Come with me”, he tells her.

Brook follows him to the edge of the stairs, in the hallway, where Zoltan used to sit and dictate his orders. There, Dean clears his voice and he starts speaking to the present Guardians.

“I never asked you guys for anything”, he starts the speech. “I know I’ve been put in charge for this Base, but I’d rather say that I am a leader, not a commander as Zoltan used to be. I want democracy, and your opinions matter to me. But now I have something to ask you, and it is a wish that I want you to help me bring to life. Lily Hunt was the one who brought the freedom to us. She was the one who started the initiative to free people from the control of the chips, and I’m sure that the news of her disappearance has made a lot of you sad too.”

“But I heard that she died”, Irene speaks from the crowd.

“She is not dead. She disappeared in a piece of the portal from the Wall. Who wants to help me bring her back or to find out what happened to her can start looking for information in all the libraries from the Base. You know that we have of a lot of those, so I need Guardians to cover all of them. We owe her at least this much. To find out what happened to her…”

“He is right. We can’t give up”, Tamara speaks from the back of the hallway.

“My daughter deserved more than a quick death or a strange disappearance!” says Claire.

“You’re right! We owe her this much!” other voices start rising from the crowd.

The voices of the Guardians who are supporting his idea bring to life a strong emotion and Dean starts feeling goosebumps. They start walking away to the libraries, on their way to find an answer for Lily’s strange disappearance. Dean wasn’t going to let her go that easily.

Before she opens her eyes, Lily feels an extreme headache. A light disturbs her, feeling that her eyes are swelling inside her head, and she puts her palm on her face. Between the fingers, she sees a silhouette moving over her. Stephanie was touching her body, searching every inch of her skin.

“Ah, what are you doing here?” Lily asks dizzily.

“You are fascinating. I didn’t believe Amelia for a second. Are you even human?”

“What?” asks Lily waking up for good.

“Steph, that’s enough!” shouts Amelia from the doorstep.

Amelia comes near her, offering Lily a glass of water.

“I need to go back”, whispers Lily still dizzy.

“Oh, believe me, I know this. But you have a long way to the Guardian’s World. How the hell did you end up in here?”

Lily stops for a second. How did Amelia know all of these?

“What did you just say?”

“You heard me. I’ve read of beings like you. The difference between the rest of the world and me is that I believe in myths and mythology. The sign from your arm gave you away. The problem is I’m the only one who can see it. Well, problem or luck. Because if others will learn what you are, they will either lock me away in a crazy asylum or they will take you away and make an experiment out of you. Either way, I know what you are.”

“I’m in the Human’s World, that’s right?”

“Yes.”

“I got here by accident. I have to go back.”

Lily suddenly stands up, but Amelia stops her.

“Where are you going? Do you have any idea where you need to go?”

“No…”

“Then we will help you. This is all I have about the Guardian’s mythology. I brought all my books. We will read them and I hope that we will find a way to get you back where you belong. Until then, this is the only safe place for you.”

“Where am I?”

“It’s our house. We live here during the studies. We don’t live on a campus like other children. We want our own privacy.”

Stephanie’s still studying her like she was some kind of alien, a thing that Lily probably was for them.

“I didn’t believe Amelia until last night when I saw you jumping over that truck… That jump…”

“We brought you in here. We had big trouble in convincing the driver to leave and not to call the police or the ambulance. If the doctors would have found you, they would have seen that something is wrong with you.”

“Doctors? Police? Do you have any healers around here?” asks Lily with her hand on the forehead.

“Are you asking how we can treat your wound from the head?”

“I don’t know how your world works, but I need a healer.”

The two girls throw each other weird looks.

“I think that we’re not following you. Or the other way around. We patched your wound. You have to wait for it to heal on its own now. We normally would have taken you to the hospital, but we can’t take a risk.”

“If I had a healer, all I needed to do was to put it on me and I would have been brand new. Your technology is old…”

“Oh, you will have to be pleased with what we have!” says Steph insulted by Lily’s statements.

The girls start reading from the beginning the Guardian’s mythology, while Lily’s completing or correcting the information when needed. The internet completes the stories as well, and the two human girls find out new things about the world they’re living in.