CALEB POV
The mountain creature’s claw cut inches from my face.
I rolled sideways and grabbed Lily’s hand, pulling her behind a rock as the starlight beast roared. We’d been running for three hours through this nightmare world, and I was starting to think we’d never escape.
"This way!" I shouted, finding a gap between two rocks.
We squeezed through just as the creature’s huge head smashed into the stone where we’d been hiding. Its angry howls echoed through the canyon, but the gap was too small for it to follow.
"I can’t keep doing this," Lily gasped, leaning against the rock wall. Her face was pale and tired. "Every world we jump to has sothing trying to kill us."
I wanted to comfort her, but she was right. Ever since I’d followed her through that first portal, we’d been hunted in every world we entered. Sotis by animals, sotis by the world itself, sotis by those dinsional hunters who seed to track us everywhere.
"We’ll find sowhere safe," I promised, though I wasn’t sure I believed it anymore.
Lily tried to open another link, but only weak sparks ca from her fingers. "My powers are almost gone," she whispered. "I don’t think I can make another jump."
My heart sank. Without her dinsional powers, we were trapped in this world of hungry monsters and endless night.
That’s when we heard voices coming from deeper in the canyon.
"Soone’s coming," I said, pulling Lily further into the darkness.
But the voices didn’t sound dangerous. They sounded... young? And one of them was crying.
"I want to go ho," a small voice sobbed. "I don’t like it here."
"I know, sweetie," another voice answered softly. "But we can’t go ho yet. The bad people are still looking for us."
Lily and I exchanged looks. Other people were hiding in this world too?
We crept forward carefully until we could see around a bend in the creek. What we found made my jaw drop.
A group of about twelve people sat around a small fire, but none of them looked normal. One girl had skin that sparkled like diamonds. A boy kept flashing in and out of sight like he couldn’t decide if he was real. An older woman had flowers coming from her hair.
And they were all soothing a little girl who looked maybe eight years old and had tiny wings folded against her back.
"Dinsional refugees," Lily breathed beside .
One of them - a youngster with bright purple eyes - looked up suddenly. "There’s soone else here," he stated.
Before I could stop her, Lily stepped into the light. "Please don’t be afraid," she said. "We’re not here to hurt anyone."
The group tensed, but the older woman with flower hair stood up slowly. "Show us your hands," she said.
Lily held out her hands, and I did the sa. The woman studied our wrists carefully, then relaxed.
"No hunter marks," she told the others. "They’re like us."
"What’s a hunter mark?" I asked.
"Scars that dinsional hunters leave when they try to drain your powers," the purple-eyed boy explained. "Anyone who’s been caught and escaped has them."
The flower-haired woman gestured for us to sit. "I’m Vera," she said. "Welco to the Exile Network."
"The what now?" Lily asked.
"A group of people who’ve been forced to live between dinsions," Vera stated. "We help each other survive and stay ahead of the hunters."
As we joined their group, the others introduced themselves. The sparkling girl was nad Crystal and could turn invisible in certain types of light. The flickering boy was Ghost, and he could phase through solid things but couldn’t control it very well. The little girl with wings was Pip, and she could feel danger before it happened.
"How long have you all been jumping between worlds?" I asked.
"Three years for ," Ghost said sadly. "The hunts ca to my world when I was fourteen. They killed my whole family because they thought dinsional powers were spreading."
"Five years," Crystal added. "They said I was dangerous because I could watch on people. But I never hurt anyone."
Each person had a similar story. They’d all been driven from their ho worlds by hunters who feared their powers. So had lost their families. Others had watched their entire realities get destroyed.
"The hunters don’t just chase us," Vera stated. "They systematically destroy any world that creates people with dinsional abilities. They call it ’preventing infection.’"
I felt sick. "They’re committing genocide."
"Exactly," Vera said sadly. "And we’re the survivors."
Little Pip tugged on Lily’s sleeve. "You sll like oga," she said in her tiny voice. "Are you the one the whispers talk about?"
"What whispers?" Lily asked, kneeling down to Pip’s level.
"The dinsions talk to sotis," Pip said seriously. "They’ve been saying soone special is coming. Soone who can heal the broken places."
Vera’s eyes widened. "You’re an oga dinsional traveler? But those are myths!"
"Not myths," Lily said quietly. "But apparently very rare."
"The whispers say you can fix what the bad people broke," Pip continued. "But you have to learn how first."
Ghost leaned forward excitedly. "Maybe that’s why we found each other! Maybe we’re supposed to help you!"
"Help do what?" Lily asked.
"Learn to heal dinsions instead of just traveling through them," Vera said slowly. "It’s sothing we’ve theorized about but never seen done."
Crystal bounced up and down. "I could show you how different places feel! My powers let sense their energy patterns."
"And I could phase you into the space between dinsions," Ghost added. "Maybe you could practice there safely."
For the first ti since this nightmare started, I saw hope on Lily’s face. "You’d really help us?"
"We help each other," Vera said simply. "That’s how we survive."
But our mont of hope was broken by Pip’s sudden scream.
"They found us!" she cried, her little wings fluttering in fear. "The killers are coming! Lots of them!"
In the distance, I could see lights coming through the canyon - too many to count and moving too fast to be anything good.
"Everyone grab hands!" Vera shouted. "Ergency jump!"
The group linked together quickly, but as Lily tried to join the circle, her powers flickered and died totally. She couldn’t make a link.
"I can’t!" she said desperately. "My abilities are gone!"
"Then we all stay and fight," Ghost said strongly.
"No," Vera said, her face grim. "So of us take her and run. The others buy ti."
"I’m not leaving anyone behind," Lily argued.
"You have to," Crystal said, already starting to fade from view. "If you’re really the one who can heal dinsions, you’re too important to lose."
The hunting lights were getting closer. I could hear cars now, and sothing that sounded like energy weapons charging up.
"Caleb," Vera said hurriedly, "there’s an old ergency portal hidden in this canyon. It only works once, but it might get you two away from here."
"What about the rest of you?"
"We’ll scatter and regroup later," she said, but I could see in her eyes that she didn’t believe it.
Pip ran up and grabbed Lily’s hand. "The whispers say to tell you sothing," she said quickly. "The man who’s hunting you isn’t really bad. He’s going to help. But first, you have to save him."
"Save who?" Lily asked.
But before Pip could answer, the first hunter truck burst into the canyon, its searchlights flooding the area with blinding white light.
"Go!" Vera scread. "Now!"
I grabbed Lily and ran toward where Vera had pointed, leaving our new friends to face the hunts alone. Behind us, I heard energy weapons firing and people yelling.
We found the ergency opening - a small, shimring crack in the canyon wall that barely looked big enough for one person.
"Together," I said, taking Lily’s hand.
We jumped through just as sothing burst behind us. As reality twisted around us, I caught one last view of the canyon.
Little Pip was floating in the air, her wings spread wide, holding back three hunter vehicles with so kind of force field while the others fled.
Then everything went black.
When we tumbled out the other side, we were falling through empty space toward a world that looked like it was made completely of mirrors.
And reflected in every surface, I could see the sa terrifying picture repeated a thousand tis: Dinsional hunters weren’t chasing us anymore.
They were waiting for us.
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