Chapter 10

Ten

The cave was slightly luminous, like the monster's skin, a result Theo soon realised of some sort of coating on the walls. Theo reached out to touch it, but it didn't feel like he imagined it would. But then, nothing in this dimension was shaping up to be how Theo had imagined it. Which of course he had. They all did back on the real Earth.

It was absolutely against the law to cross over into the other world, a law that had been quickly established more than two years ago and had been ratified by all the governments across Europe. Theo didn't think he had broken that law given that he hadn't crossed willingly, but there were plenty of people who had. The internet was full of theories about what the other dimension was like, and there were dozens of anonymous posters who insisted they had slipped through rips and came back with fantastic tales.

None had ever mentioned a purple monster.

A purple monster who looked like a human.

"What is this place?" Theo eventually asked as he looked around.

"A shelter," the monster said. "We have dozens of them spread across this island and dozens more on the continent."

"This island…you mean Britain and then Europe, don't you?"

"That is what you call them."

The monster gestured to a door on one side. Theo opened it. It was a bathroom. He didn't even pause. He went inside, shutting the door behind him, and quickly took care of his business. That the toilet was pretty close in design to an earthen one did not surprise him. How many variations could there be? There was also something like a sink, and Theo took the opportunity to pause there for a little while, considering his situation, the abruptness, the strangeness of it. He soon found himself wondering what the hell was going to happen next.

Eventually, with no answer to that, he splashed some water on his face and straightened up. Was he worried that it might make him unwell? No. The rips had been open for three years now, some of them were large enough that rain storms there came into their Earth side, and whilst it was true that some new viruses and bacteria had been found across some parts of the world, the general consensus was that the monster dimension was closely related to the biology of Earth, or closely enough that the species could mix without risk of death…in the main…and unless it involved being eaten. Theo knew that to be true beyond a doubt now. He'd been abducted by a human-like monster after all.

"Thank you," he said once he emerged from the bathroom because abduction or not there was no good reason to not be polite.

"You are welcome," the monster said very formally.

Theo wondered where he had learned his English. He had an accent which, if pressed, Theo would have said was vaguely French, though the rumbling noises he sometimes made were almost a bit Greek. Dimitri had sounded similar at least. It was all oddly intriguing, and Theo did not know what to think of it. He didn't know what to think about the monster full stop.

He was leaning against one of the luminous walls. Here with a light on him he looked very purple indeed and his eyes like pools of moonlight. Abruptly, Theo realised that though the monster had a slight silver glow to him, he wasn't shimmering. Theo looked down at his own hands quickly.

"Am I shimmering?" he asked.

The monster nodded. "You do not belong in this world."

"Why can't I see the shimmer?"

"Because you are looking with eyes that do not belong either."

"But you're not shimmering," Theo said slowly.

"In your world I would. The frequencies…they do not quite align."

Theo was struck then by the differences rather than the similarities between them. This…man…was from another world. He was an alien really. Theo was having a civilised conversation with an alien!

Abruptly, he imagined what his parents and sister would think about the whole thing. They had been oddly proud when he'd told them about his conscription despite also telling them that he did not want to go. Caroline had done a tour herself in Wales and despite the fact she had lost two of her fingers to a munching monster bite, she insisted the whole thing had been good fun. She had met and married her husband there though and there was now talk of some children, so perhaps she felt the loss of the fingers was worth the gain of a partner.

Theo shivered as he wondered what he might lose and gain on this forced inter-dimensional jaunt. He shook his head at that and looked around the sparse room, trying without even realising it, to find a touch of normality. There was a table and chairs, something that resembled a bed, and a huge data screen surrounded by equipment, and that was pretty much it.

"It's safe here?" he asked after a moment.

"Yes," the monster said. "It is protected from the inhabitants of these lands."

"The monsters," Theo said.

"That is what you call them."

"All the monsters that come into our world come from here?"

The monster nodded. "Yes, the spots are mirrors of one another."

"And your people…"

"We do not live here. We left a long time ago when the rages came." He shrugged one massive shoulder. "We had little choice. The rages do not…share."

The rages…Theo did not like the sound of them at all. "What are these rages?" he asked.

"They deserve the name monsters by your definition. That is all I will say. They are not your concern for now."

"They are if they're close by."

"They cannot get to you in here," the monster said. He gestured to a bowl of what looked like pasta on the table. Pasta. "Eat that."

Theo was starving so did not refuse. It might actually have been pasta. The taste was close enough. There was an empty bowl nearby. The monster had clearly eaten whilst Theo had been having his mini crisis in the bathroom, though that was surely a positive thing now that Theo thought about it. If the monster ate wheat-based produce, then clearly Theo was safe from a munching after all.

"For now, we will rest," the monster said when Theo finished his meal and was given water to wash it down. "In the morning, we will set out to deal with nightmares."

"Rest? You mean sleep?" Theo asked and suddenly the idea of that was very tempting indeed. Now that he'd eaten, he realised he was tired. All the running, all the action, Theo suspected he could sleep for hours. Besides, he really needed to give some thought to his situation, to his abduction, and what better way to do that than whilst resting.

"Sleep there," the monster said, and he gestured to the platform that was clearly a bed. "When we awake, we will refuel again and answer one another's questions."

Theo nodded gratefully and made his way over to the bed. It was little more than a shelf really, carved into the wall, but there was padding on it and a blanket draped over it also. Feeling like it was only polite, Theo removed his muddy running shoes and goo-splattered army jumper before crawling onto it. The bizarreness of the situation hit him all over again.

He was in an alien dimension, though it was clearly a copy of his one or thereabouts—the spots mirroring each other suggested as much.

He was in the company of an alien monster, who was up to something, and Theo didn't really know what apart from the fact it involved the munching monsters.

He may or may not make it back to his own dimension, and if he did, who knew when that would be or what he might go through before it happened!

It was all quite...overwhelming and Theo reflected on the moment six weeks ago when he'd received his conscription papers and how insistent he had been that nothing and no one would force him to battle. And now here he was, surely not the first person to slip into this dimension, but certainly the first he knew of!

Theo sighed as the monster disappeared into the bathroom, his thoughts racing back and forth, over and over until the monster emerged maybe ten minutes later.

He was topless.

Theo suddenly did not feel as sleepy anymore.

He looked up, wide eyed, as the overly muscled monster also made his way over to the bed. And he really was huge, Theo had never seen a human who could come close in sheer muscle mass. Though the muscles were just like a human's, at least their locations—biceps and triceps and abs and all the rest. They were almost the very same. How was that possible?

"What are you doing?" Theo asked and he meant that to be a demand, but it did not come out like that at all.

"We are sleeping," the monster said.

"Together?" Theo asked and the monster frowned.

"There is only one place to sleep."

"Yes, but…

"But what?" the monster asked, and he seemed confused by Theo's words. Perhaps that was how it was over here, in this dimension, they slept in the same bed, the same small bed.

The monster slipped in beside him before Theo could say anything else. Theo shifted quickly, intending to push himself as far back against the wall as possible, but he wasn't quite quick enough. The monster's hand brushed against his. It was the first time their skin had touched, Theo knew this to be true because the moment it did, a shiver of something ran through Theo. He did not recognize the feeling at all.

He'd never felt it before.

What was it?

A familiarity and yet…not…

Theo swallowed against a sudden lump in his throat. He felt a bit shaky again and when he realised why he almost died of shame. He had never felt so embarrassed in his life. The feeling was twisting and changing now, turning into something that was almost…excitement.

Theo shifted even further back to the point where he was pressed up against the luminous cave wall. He was beyond mortified, and he couldn't help but wonder what the hell was wrong with him. He had been chased by monsters, had saved his friends from an imminent eating, had travelled to another dimension, and seen things that no human had ever seen, and now he was finishing that day excited to be sleeping in the same bed as an alien monster!

Ridiculous.

Absurd.

Undeniable.

"Sleep," the monster commanded and his hand brushed Theo's again and that same weird feeling ran through Theo quickly followed by another pulse of excitement.

Theo closed his eyes. Mortified again to realise that his body was reacting to that weird, excited feeling in a painfully predictable way. An inappropriate way. He scrunched his eyes as tightly shut as he could as the monster shifted into a sleeping position. He took up quite a lot of the bed. Theo was pressed close to the wall and there was still barely an inch between them.

He smelled of something Theo could not identify but it was in no way off-putting. And he was hot. Theo could feel the heat of his body and given they were in the depths of winter that meant Theo was warm in no time.

Perhaps it was nothing more than forced proximity, Theo thought a little desperately. Nothing more than a completely inappropriate response to a completely inappropriate situation. Surely, in the morning Theo would shake his head and be disgusted with himself. Realise that he had just been out of sorts and needed to sleep, needed to reset himself.

Yes, Theo told himself, it was nothing more than that.

He just needed to sleep.

And eventually, and despite not really believing that he would, Theo relaxed enough that he did sleep, either that or he was simply overcome with exhaustion, but his dreams were filled with munching monsters one moment and even stranger monsters the next. The squad were suddenly in the other dimension with him, Joel grinning and flexing his muscles and Gill throwing an uppercut. Julia was there, and she wiggled her eyebrows as she pointed between him and the monster who Theo was sleeping next to, who had suddenly joined him in the dream.

The monster reached out, pulling Theo into his arms, and he wasn't just topless this time, and sleep was not the only thing they did in that bed. Perhaps that was why, as Theo awoke, that it took him a moment to realise exactly what was happening in this reality and what was happening in his dream…