Selene smiled at him and nodded. “Yes, I’m fine. Mia just took me to her Void place. It’s quite hot and beautiful.”
Mia nodded as she sat down. “Why don’t you try to take Scott to your Beyond place?”
Selene swallowed as she turned to him and held out her hand. “Shall we give it a try?”
Scott took a deep breath and took her hand. As with each time she’d tried in the past, nothing happened.
Selene turned to Mia who smiled. “Told you.”
Then Selene surprised him by leaning up on her toes and kissing him. It wasn’t just a simple peck on the lips either. Her body pressed against his, her lips melted to him. Her taste surrounded him, and he lost all thoughts in his head except enjoying the feel and taste of her.
When she pulled back, he was so consumed with what the kiss had done to him, that it didn’t register at first. But then he realized he couldn’t see her face clearly. He blinked a couple of times.
Had it been this dark before?
Selene gasped and then her smile doubled. “I did it,” she said, clapping and bouncing up and down slightly.
“Did what?” He finally looked around. “What the hell?” he asked, tensing.
Instead of standing on the back deck, they were standing under a dark sky. Everywhere around them were dull colors instead of the vibrant greens and yellows of the fields that had surrounded the farmhouse. Even the air smelled different.
It wasn’t cold, but a shiver ran through him the moment he realized where he was.
“This is the Beyond,” he said under his breath.
“Yes.” Selene smiled up at him.
“How? I thought you’d tried.” He frowned.
“It was Mia’s idea. She suggested that the reason I’ve never been able to bring you here isn’t because of me.” She paused. “It’s because of you. Because you were resisting it.”
He took a deep breath and glanced around. Outside of the odd colors, strange smell, and the feeling of unease, he would have assumed he was on Earth on a winter evening walk. “It’s strange.”
“Yes. You should see the rivers of fire.” She took his hand and tried to tug him.
“I… maybe we can save that for our second trip?” he suggested, wanting to get back. “I don’t want to freak Mia out.”
“Time moves differently here,” she said easily. “Mia and I were in the Void for almost half an hour. But it was probably just a blink of an eye for you.”
“It was seconds,” he agreed. “So time moves faster here?”
She shrugged. “Something like that.” Her hand was in his and she tugged slightly. “The river is just up here.”
He frowned. “Do you always appear in the same place?” he asked as he followed her down a worn pathway.
“Yes,” she answered over her shoulder.
“How far have you explored?” he asked as he ducked under a branch.
“Very far.” She smiled at him. “Here.” She stopped and lifted a branch full of dull brown leaves.
Just beyond was a large river and, as she had explained, it was made of what looked like red glowing lava.
“It’s not hot,” she said, moving closer. “You’d think it was lava, but it’s not, it’s water. The best I can explain is that color is wrong here.” She motioned to the sky.
For the first time, he looked up. Really looked. He’d believed the sky was dark, like the night sky, but it was actually a dull gold color. There were no stars, no moon, nothing other than a shimmer of gold above them.
“It appears closer than it is.” She looked up. “Come on.” She took his hand again.