Dangerous Dementions - Virginia Lang (read e book .TXT) 📗

Dangerous Dementions

The Birthing Hour

By N.S.Tanner


This book is dedicated to:
My grandmother Ginny for being my soul and heart these past few long years of my life.
To my Gramsie, for her push in the right direction, her novelist hands have worked wonders into this world.
To my father, for which I would never be able to succeed without his independent radiance in my life.
To my other family and of course my friends who inspired this;
Torinda: My best friend and supporter through the years with my silly dreams.
Angie and Maria, Aileen, Jess, Stephen and Jon, Brit and Breann, Matt, Evan, Ethan, Keith, Jake and especially Emily, for whom taught me that it is alright to write from not only the heart and the mind, but the feet as well. Dancing and walking can help one inspire the brain. ;)
To Kylee and Livia, whom even, younger than I, do more understand than most.
To My mother and Mark and Katie, amazing people right there.
To Joe, who has kept me inspired through and through even with our ups and downs. I don’t know what I’d do without you.
You’re one of my best friends.
To my kitten Muffin for keeping my lap warm during the winter nights I stayed up writing away my imagination and dreams. And to my other beautiful cats Winston, Buhba, Treebug, Delilah, and Elphie.
Last but not least too Coffee.
For which I believe if I had neither Coffee nor tea I would not be coherent during my many nights.

Prologue

The wind was blowing through the trees; nothing seemed so much calmer, and so perfect than it did at this moment. Everything was exactly as it should be. My eyes turned toward the sunny rays of light radiating off of the solar systems center ball of fire, the orange globe in the sky that sent off the warming, homey sensation of a babies blanket wrapping around them to seal in safety. The trees swayed back and forth, back and forth, their green leaves never once missing a beat in the natures sound, thundering across the never ending ocean of blue sky...it was something I should have rendered with my father long ago, however as the wings beyond the skies fluttered in graceful duties I myself embraced the peace the scenery brought before me.

Dad was right.

It takes a true soul and a born artist to accept the details of any world. Till now I didn’t know what that meant. But my father was like no other I believe I’ll ever know. He believed in embracing the unknown and accepting faults of any kind. He really believed our world would get better in time. Though I am not sure he thought it so bad even now. Wherever he is, I hope he can see what I see now.

I took a chance and glanced down at the valley below, looking for him. The angel who’d saved me. But the colors were all intertwined and the more blue I saw the more worry surrounded my heart. I felt my chest clench painfully and I knew I needed to take my place. The war was only beginning. I had no chance of survival, I was almost certain of that fact; but I knew I had a chance to protect the others. I took a step forward, looking down through the drop into the devastating valley bellow and there seemed to me less of that beautiful purple glow I had been growing to love and more of the fainted blues and whites. White was oncoming death, the faded cast of blue was fallen, the violet purple that caressed the tanned skin…

“Tanner! We must move, the gate has been opened!” Now was the chance, now was my duty. I must lead the others into the battle; we must stop this before chaos reins any further than this world. Save our worlds…protect our circle.

I stepped forward, looking back at the form of the twins standing at either side of me. Glowing with such a radiant blue it was almost blinding to my eyes. Not far behind one of the twins was the odd assortment of colors. And then there was myself, shining a brilliant green. I was a hunter. I was a warrior. I was a fighter. I was the protector between worlds and I was the chosen leader. All of them at my command, waiting for my word, waiting for their orders…and I was standing there. Frozen by fear.

Their lives were in my hands.

And I wasn’t ready to play God.

I.

Months earlier

There’s a reason for everything. That’s what my father always told me. So there must be a reason for every happen stance that follows you throughout your life, right? It lands you a trip through the impossible. That’s all I believe. You can’t fight fate, apparently. Which is how I’m stuck in an airport heading for my uncle Marks. This is how I break down life. It’s a time you have to figure out what you’re doing, and what is going to happen. This usually includes the awkward stages called growing up. Being eighteen never meant much to me. I was perfectly content staying seventeen forever. What’s the point in growing up? Voting, smoking, being of age to do things that are meaningless since you have to be twenty-one to do everything else in the world besides be put into office for a government job. That just didn’t sound interesting to me. No, I want to do something else with my time on this planet everyone calls earth. Even if I don’t know what that is yet.

I can see the faces around me as I push my way through the now crowded terminal, clinging to my oversized raincoat that my mother convinced me to wear, predicting a storm when I would arrive in Oregon. The elderly lady from ahead of me said something under her breath as I pushed my way passed her to get closer to the door to my plane, and the young man, maybe in his early twenties, from the front of the group saying something unintelligible as he moved out of my way.

The plane feels like an endless pit of odd colored seats as I try to push my way through the small pathway towards the back. The sound of unhappy passengers filled my ears as I finally settled into my seat two rows to the back. I was sitting in the isle seat, which meant I needed to be extra careful. Those flight attendants could never steer those beverage carts correctly and I usually walked off planes with bruised elbows.

It was a long flight. Thankfully I had fallen asleep in the first twenty minutes, however I wish I had been tired earlier. I really dislike take-off. The feeling of your insides being pushed to the back of your body really was unnerving. Like that feeling you get when you’re at a theme park, on those roller coasters that look like something from a video game; the design resembling that of something a reckless teenager would create.

I didn’t realize how lost in my own thoughts I was, because as soon as the buzzing around me began to speed up I was already in front of the small airport. It was drizzling, just like my mother had predicted, though I’d hardly call this a storm. Oregon was known for its constant lack of dry weather but that didn’t mean I was going to walk right into a storm. Or so I thought.

The time passing felt like hours, when it was maybe a few minutes. My sneakers soaked through. Making sloshing sounds as I shifted my weight with anxiety. The cold, soaking wetness I felt around my shoes didn’t make better for my shivering as I held my coat closer to me.

“Charlene?” My eyes turned to slits, gazing through the haze to see who called my name.

That’s when I noticed him.

Who could forget the awkward, and mysterious look to Mark? It wasn’t possible. Even at the age of twenty-six my uncle looked like he could pull off as my brother. Brown hair that was slightly curly to his cream-colored skin and thin figure. Mark could pull off as a high school student. I forced a smile as best I could. "Hi, Mark."

Mark pulled me into an awkward, one-armed hug, which I could have lived without. He was never one for small talk; it surprised me when he stood back and tucked his hands into his pockets and spoke.

“So, how was the flight? Was it okay? Bumpy? Did you want to grab your luggage from baggage claim, or maybe coffee? Do you even drink coffee?” He began to throw together. This made me chuckle. Something from his rambled questions made me think after a moment. Baggage claim. I had forgotten about that. "I forgot to get my suitcase." I admitted sheepishly. I thought I would leave out my trip on the plane, since I had fallen asleep anyway till landing. It’s not like there would be much to tell. Planes were large, crowded and sweaty. Like riding a large bus that flies, apart from the beverage carts. I don’t think I’d ever ride a bus again if that were the case. It was experience enough just flying on a plane. "Mary doesn't let me drink caffeine." I added after a moment, hoping he didn’t notice my distantness.

"Oh, right, no caffeine then, got it." Mark nodded; shifting on his heals a bit. "So uh...this is sufficiently awkward.”

"Just a bit." I smiled, even though it didn't reach my eyes. "I should probably go grab my suitcase before it lands itself in lost and found."

"Oh, right, that would probably be good.”

I followed Mark and small groups of people back into the airport, pushing our way to baggage claim seven. We stood there in almost awkward silence as I watched the other passengers, which were now fewer than there would have been if I had come here first thing. All of us were grouped around the baggage carousel, waiting for the marked bags to come around. I spotted my plain black suitcase with a sticker over the front pocket with Scooby-doo on it and quickly stepped forward pulling it off before it could go around again.
I really never understood the purpose of the luggage carousel. Some people had to stand there a good few rounds just to find or grab their luggage. Setting my suitcase on the slick, wet tile floor of the airport, I turned to Mark. "Got it."

"Good, wow, that's all you brought? Ok, well I guess that's good; want to get out of here? Airports aren't really that great; lots of…people. God you're tall." He said as he stared at me with a look of mild shock.

“I haven’t grown that much over the past two years...” I shifted my weight as Mark and I pushed through the crowded airport towards the front entrance. My bag was bumping lightly against my side as a small rush of air from the automatic sliding doors whooshed around me, swirling my hair around my face as I hugged my blazer closer to my body with my free arm. The weather had picked up, and was now coming down in large dumps of rain. I couldn’t tell