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THE JUMP
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“NO MORE FIGHTING!” Savara yelled. There’d been enough violence for one day. She was angry, tired, and confused by how the day had turned out. Part of her hoped every grey cloud really did have a silver lining, but it was increasingly harder to determine what this one could be.
Savara wasn’t ready to make peace with this situation, hoping to be rid of it as soon as possible. She wished to drown her sorrows in something violently alcoholic, something strong enough to erase the day from her memory entirely, but for now she’d settle for jumping worlds. One day, she’d find the person who did this, and maybe even return the favour, but now it was time to say goodbye to the source of her troubles. Hopefully, there was something better waiting for her a world away from this one. “I’m going.”
“Sav, you can’t be serious,” said Jasper irritably.
“Time is of the essence,” chimed Griffin.
Jasper took her hand with pleading eyes. “Sav, I won’t let you put yourself in danger.”
“It’s not your choice, human.”
“And you think it’s yours, soldier boy?”
“You are not her keeper,” Griffin scoffed.
“And you are not her saviour,” Jasper hissed. “I’m the closest thing to family she has left.”
Their bickering further pushed her decision. “You’re right,” she replied. The words felt heavy as they left her mouth. With the wound of her parents’ death newly refreshed and the gale outside in full force, her desire to leave—to flee—only grew.
The two men looked at each other and then at her before replying in unison, “Who?”
The world she thought she knew turned out to be as fleeting as a shadow, and just as surreal, like waking up from a dream she hadn’t realised she was in. Hazy, groggy, and still adjusting. A part of her had always known there was something off about this world—or at least her presence in it. She was a puzzle piece from a different box and the only thing she knew for certain was that any answers as to what had happened and why lay elsewhere. Her mind was already made up, and it had been, long before she’d seen the marks, long before the gruesome murders, long before him.
“Both of you. Jasper, I don’t have family here anymore, but you’re not my keeper, and I won’t ask that of you either. And you...” She frowned at Griffin. “I’ll go, but not as a favour to you. I still don’t trust you. I need answers.” She softened as she returned to Jasper and added, “Answers I won’t find here.”
He glowered at Griffin before speaking again. “I’m coming with you.”
“Jasper, I can’t ask you to do that.”
“Respectfully, Sav, you’re not.”
She knew he didn’t trust Griffin either, but that didn’t mean it was a good idea for him to come. Savara forced her eyes to look again at her uncle’s corpse. He was a man of that world and still ended up skewered. Jasper wasn’t even that. He wanted to make sure she was safe; she didn’t want to put him in danger.
“Hey,” Jasper said softly, cupping her contemplative face in his hand. “I would never let you go alone. I know what it means to you. And... if I’m being honest, as much as it pains me to admit, I can’t say I’m not curious.”
“I might be putting you in danger,” she whispered.
“If I had to choose between danger and losing you, I’d choose danger any day. Besides, I don’t trust grouchy over there as far as I can throw him.”
“Which, judging by your stature, human, isn’t even a measurable distance,” Griffin growled.
“Oh good, you eavesdrop too. At least I won’t have to pretend to be civil with you,” Jasper barked back.
“Stop!” Savara warned the two of them. She knew she’d have to play referee through every interaction, but at least she wasn’t going alone. With a final wag of her finger in Jasper’s direction, she turned to Griffin and simply stated, “He’s coming.”
Griffin looked less than ecstatic about the decision, but he wasn’t in the position to argue. “If he must. But I repeat, time is of the essence.”
Savara cast glances between them hesitantly. Jasper, still holding the cane and with two pairs of glasses dangling from his collar, had picked up his bag and slung it over his shoulder, still weighted down by the strange book she’d found. Griffin had an unsettling look in his eyes that he tried to mask—that of an animal who sensed an earthquake.
Questions littered her mind, but at least they drowned out the reminders of loss and proddings of grief that had been all too ready to send her spiralling. Griffin, whose presence still gnawed at her, promised answers once he deemed them safe.
She took a last look around the room, trying to take it in its entirety in her memory. Would she ever be back? Could she? And how would she ever bury the corpses? All good questions that would keep her up at night, but the more she thought about them, the more she needed to leave. She could no longer bring herself to look back at her uncle’s body, still slumped gracefully in his chair.
She nodded to Griffin, pulling her coat tight against her; not because of the sudden draft that burst through the windows, but to make herself as small as possible, hoping that her feelings would shrink too.
“Are you going to tell us where we’re going?” Jasper pestered.
“No,” Griffin replied dryly as he pulled a satchel from his side, dipped his hand in, and retrieved a handful of black dust. With a hefty puff, he enveloped them in a cloud of this sparkling dark powder. The world around them disappeared as though they’d fallen into a dream.
***
THE VICIOUS STORM OUTSIDE subsided, giving way to an empty sky and a blinding moon. The remaining airborne specks of dust floated gently to the ground, glinting in the newly risen moonlight. There were no traces of the three people who stood there just moments before.
Heavy, leathery paws padded gently on the wooden floor, stepping over the bloody corpse at the base of the stairs without so much as a glance. Giant nostrils sniffed the air, following the scent of what anyone in this world could only describe as magic. The last of the night’s creatures trailed the scent up the stairs and into the study. It rested its head under the limp hand of the corpse in the armchair and purred. It sensed the slowly fading presence of the newly vanished souls.
It had just missed them.
It spread its wings, shedding a single glossy black feather, as it stretched its claws. With a great leap and a blink of its ruby-red eyes, it too vanished into nothingness.
The two corpses disappeared, the doors and windows all shut simultaneously with a loud clatter. All was quiet once more in the house; not a soul stirred.
