4.
Jin landed on his feet, immediately ducking as a bus flew overhead. He watched it rise before it crashed and exploded in the distance.
Jin threw his hands in the air, literally flailing and pointing at the explosion as if tattling on the god of death to its mother, or whoever was in charge.
He turned and saw a two headed horse the size of a stegosaurus, one white, the other black. The white head made a weird neighing sound and, on her back, lay Iwashiro Naya.
"Of all people…"
Stuck, he didn't know whether to leave or greet. There was no reason to act civil. Then again, they were literally the only people in the world. Was it rude, anti-social or anti-human survival?
Naya turned and waved.
He sighed and waved back.
He walked calmly to her and the 'horse', though after seeing the dragon, the horse wasn't that big.
"Jin" Naya said, her words chilly.
He breathed a sigh of relief. For people who never wanted to see each other, they saw each other, a lot…
"Naya" He said, deadpan.
"What are you doing here?" Naya asked.
Both parties sighed.
"I thought I'd get a suntan. What about you?"
"Funny. I'm going to hazard a guess and say that that explosion did this. Any ideas?"
Curiosity took over disdain. She was guessing. But explosions didn't just happen, what were the chances it'd be a coincidence?
"One idea. I think there are two Earths. This one and ours. I think we come here at night"
Naya cursed herself for agreeing.
"And now? It's pretty early in the day"
"Fighting is also an idea; did you get into one last night?" Jin asked taking Naya's criticism in stride.
"I guess."
"No, I mean a proper battle fighting with other people and their charges."
"Battle? You been battling?"
Her arms crossed, chest puffing up.
How dare she be so haughty. She had no right to be disappointed. But somehow, he found himself defending like a junkie explaining the insulin needle in his arm.
"Me and Paige were attacked by a dragon, but I'm beginning to think I was in the wrong place at wrong time and Paige was the target."
"No way! I can't see her being the target of any assassination or grudge match!" Naya laughed.
"Trust me. You'd be surprised. Can you ride that?"
"Not if I can help it and I can help it. We walk." She said looking back at the beast.
They were lucky they didn't have to live in such a wreck. So much of it was some reminder of home.
It was insane that he'd not noticed before. Even in the dark such wreckage should've easily been seen and yet…
Jin found Paige's apartment, or the haze of rubble that'd been her home.
It'd been way too long a walk, almost seven blocks.
He hadn't walked that far, had he? Had he even gone anywhere at all?
Amid rubble and raised concrete, he saw Paige.
"There she is!" Jin said excited beyond his own understanding.
It changed to fear when a giant came up behind her.
Jin broke into a yelling run as Aramas attacked only to disappear in a cloud of dust. The giant grabbed Paige's head. She was nothing against him.
"Paige!"
It came as a scream. He sprinted when sudden weightlessness hit him. The white head of the horse, now tiny at the size of an elephant, picked him up and put him behind a grumpy faced Naya who was riding where mist strings formed into a harness and saddle. Jin nodded and she smirked.
The horse sped up and the streets passed in a blur as the mammoth beast raced fast and hard towards Paige.
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Paige Stevens
Blood, silence, and the sudden weight of powerlessness. Paige finds herself cornered by strangers who know far too much about her—and worse, how to strip her of everything that makes her dangerous.
But when monsters ride and doors between worlds threaten to open, survival may depend on more than magic.
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