Chapter 4

Chapter Four

D ante didn't know what to expect from the evening. He'd hung around Jacob and the group of his friends many times over the past few years. At first, he hadn't been the only single player but in the past few months, everyone had paired up. He supposed that was why Amy had been invited, along with being Joe's little sister.

While everyone sat around the firepit chatting and having fun, he watched Amy closely. She seemed nervous at first and then settled into conversation with a few others. While he tried not to eavesdrop, he couldn't help but overhear a little of the conversation.

"So, how's it been, settling back into town?" he overheard Jess asking Amy shortly after they had arrived.

"It's... it's been good," Amy answered. He noticed the pause and glanced her way and caught her eyes moving over towards him. "Quiet, mostly. I'm still getting used to being back in town."

Jess nodded. "It'll feel normal again soon. Trust me. You've rented the Meyers cabin, right?"

"Yes." Amy's sigh was that of pleasure. "I've always loved it up there. We used to go fishing and camping there every summer. Now that Carl Meyers has passed, Larry, his son, is renting the place out. Normally he rents the place out on Airbnb, but he's thrilled that I've signed a six-month lease."

"Didn't think you'd be here tonight." Michael slapped him on the shoulder, getting his attention.

"Joe insisted." He shrugged and glanced towards Amy's brother and sister-in-law.

"You two were best friends in school, right?" Michael sat next to him.

"Yup. We started off playing little league together."

He heard Amy laugh and glanced over in her direction.

As the evening continued, he didn't get a chance to chat with her directly until he went inside to grab another drink while she was getting one for herself.

"So, I guess you finally made the list to get into this exclusive party," he joked.

She leaned against the countertop and opened her beer before she responded.

"I guess. I didn't know this was the hot spot in town," she said with a smile.

"Oh, it's a real elite place. High class." He glanced at her worn boots. "But you fit in perfectly."

She laughed. "It must be high class if you're here."

Dante chuckled. "You make it sound like seeing me is a bad thing."

Amy bit her lip, and suddenly he was very aware of how close he was to her, of how his arm brushed hers when he moved. "I didn't say that."

He didn't reply right away, but his smile lingered, the silence between them thick with things unsaid. Before the tension could grow any thicker, Xtina came inside to get some more wine and interrupted them.

The rest of the night passed in a blur of laughter and stolen glances.

Shortly before midnight, the atmosphere suddenly changed when Mia stood up and announced, "Tonight. It's tonight. Is everyone ready?"

"What?" Amy asked after a moment of silence.

"Tonight is the night that you will finally fulfill your destiny," Mia said firmly with a grin.

Everyone turned to one another and began whispering, and then Jacob stood up and suggested they all go for a walk.

The group began to move, everyone somehow persuading Amy and Dante to follow them across the field. Dante's mind was still spinning as they walked towards the old Anderson farm—the place he'd spent the last few years chasing kids out of. He knew all too well that the underground silo loomed ahead of them. Its massive underground maze, stretched out like spider webs beneath their feet, had been a death trap for some.

The place had a reputation—a bad one. This was the very place where Xtina had been kidnapped by the cult leader. The same place where more than one person had lost their life.

They had just reached the middle of the field when Mia stopped and turned to him. "I'm sorry, really, about what's going to happen to you. Just know that, in the end, things will be set right."

Dante's mind raced as he tried to piece together what Mia was saying.

The entire group had been acting strange all night, their behavior growing more cryptic by the second. But when Mia spoke, the look in her eyes was different—serious, almost desperate.

Mia's gaze flickered between him and Amy before she spoke again, her voice soft but carrying an undeniable weight.

"What we're doing here, right now, is because the fate of all worlds depends on it. Everything. Every timeline, every reality—it hinges on what the two of you do next. Where you go from here."

Dante blinked, trying to comprehend the enormity of her words. "The fate of all worlds?" he echoed, disbelief lacing his voice. "This is a joke, right?"

It sounded like something out of a sci-fi movie, something far removed from the reality he'd always known. He wanted to laugh at the group's joke. Surely they were being punked.

However, Mia's expression was unwavering. "There are forces at play that you can't see, can't understand fully yet. But trust me, what's about to happen was fated long before any of us were born. Long before Hidden Creek even existed."

Amy stepped forward, her arms wrapped tightly around herself, her brow furrowed in confusion. "What are you talking about? How could we have anything to do with the fate of... worlds? This is crazy!"

Mia's expression softened slightly as she turned to Amy. "It might sound crazy, I know. But it's the truth. Everything that has happened in your lives, every strange event, every inexplicable moment—it's all led to this. You and Dante are at the center of something much bigger than just Hidden Creek, much bigger than anything you've ever imagined."

Dante could feel his pulse pounding in his ears. "What do you mean?" His mind was spinning. Fate? Worlds? What the hell had he gotten dragged into?

Mia exhaled slowly as if searching for the right words. "The two of you... You've been chosen. This has all been written in the threads of time. Everything we do, every decision, ripples across dimensions, across worlds. And right now, those threads are unraveling. The fabric of time itself is fraying. But you and Amy—you're the ones who can stop it. That's why we're here. That's why you're here."

"Okay, you've had your fun." He reached for Amy's hand to pull her back towards the house.

"I am a djinn," Mia said loudly. He and Amy glanced back and watched in shock as the small Asian woman shifted. Her size grew by a hundred percent and she glowed, growing, until the entire mass blocked out the moonlight.

"Is… that a dragon?" Amy gasped.

"I am Helios," Lucas said, and he shifted into a massive black dog, half the size of the dragon.

"I am Hecate," Jess said. She lifted off the ground surrounded by a circle of green and blue mist. Then she shot lightning between her fingertips.

"We are sisters Tara and Selene, daughters of goddess Rhea and god Typhon." The two sisters also lifted off the ground and hovered almost a hundred feet off the ground.

Dante and Amy stood in the field, gaping at the group of friends.

"How... what are we supposed to do?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

Just as quickly as everyone morphed or flew, they were all back on the ground as themselves again.

He'd known some of these people for years, some of them his entire life. How long had they had these powers?

"What about the rest of you?" he asked, locking eyes with Jacob and Joe.

"Some of us have hidden powers." Jacob shrugged.

"Some of us have less… showy powers," Joe said, his eyes locking with Amy's.

"Are you saying we have powers?" Amy asked.

Mia stepped closer to them, then hesitated for a moment. She shook her head. "I can't tell you that. All I know is what's going to happen has to happen naturally. You just need to trust us and trust yourselves."

Dante's stomach twisted with a mix of fear and frustration. "So you're saying everything depends on us? And you can't even tell us what we're supposed to do?"

Mia gave him a look filled with sympathy and something that looked suspiciously like guilt. "It's not that simple. If I tell you too much, it could change things. We can't risk that. All I can say is that we—" she gestured to the group standing around them—"we stand for the greater good. There is a threat coming that wants to destroy everything. For us to have a chance to fight, you must both take a journey. You'll understand in time."

Before Dante could press her further, Mia turned to the group and spoke the strangest words he had ever heard.

"Our presence here is not a coincidence," Mia said, her voice laced with a quiet certainty. "We are all more than we realize, more than anyone knows. Our bloodline... our very existence is tied to this moment, to everything that's about to happen." She turned towards him. "You are the key to unlocking Amy's past, her future, and her powers." Her eyes locked with his.

Amy's breath hitched audibly. "What are you talking about? My powers? I'm just... me."

Mia's gaze softened with what looked like compassion. "You're more than you know, Amy. Far more. The power that runs through your veins... it's ancient, tied to forces long forgotten. And now, it's time for you to realize that. It's time for you to awaken."

Amy took a step back, shaking her head. "No. No, this doesn't make any sense. I'm not... I'm not some chosen one or whatever you think I am."

Dante wanted to step in, to shield Amy from this overwhelming, bizarre reality, but he found himself frozen, trying to process it all.

They had just witnessed Mia turn into a dragon and Lucas into a giant dog. A few others had flown.

He had so many questions. What was Mia talking about? Powers? Bloodlines? And how the hell were they both connected to something this big? Every single person standing in the circle seemed to be insane. Even Jacob was in on it. Were they all crazy?

Maybe they'd been drugged? That was it. All sorts of things could cause them to hallucinate.

He knew about some of the past events that the group had gone through. How Jess had been dubbed a witch. The rumors of Xtina's powers. They had just been rumors. Right?

Before he could voice any of his concerns, Jacob stepped forward, his face grim. "It's time," he said, his voice low and resolute. "We need to head down now."

The group moved quickly through the opened door, down the main entrance of the silo. As they walked, Jess flicked her wrist, and overhead lights turned on as if by magic.

"What's going on?" Amy whispered to him.

He reached out for her hand in the dim light and held on as they made their way through the maze, finally stepping into the main silo room.

"Jess?" Mia asked.

Suddenly, there was a loud noise as the heavy metal door of the silo lifted and opened.

Amy wrapped her arms tighter around herself, clearly unnerved. "Is this really happening?" she asked, her voice shaking.

Dante wanted to comfort her, to tell her everything would be fine, but he didn't have those answers. He didn't even know what was happening himself. And then, as if on cue, the clouds overhead parted, revealing the full moon in all its silvery glory high overhead. The moonlight poured into the silo, flooding over them like a spotlight, casting long, eerie shadows over the group.

There was a sudden shift in the air, a change in tension around them. He felt a cold, unnerving certainty that whatever was coming next was inevitable. That fate, ancient and unstoppable, was finally closing in.

Dante barely had time to process what was going on before Brea stepped forward and touched his shoulder. Her fingers were cool and delicate, but the moment they made contact, a shock ran through him like lightning striking deep into his bones.

"She will have to go forward first," Brea told him, her voice laced with mystery. "You'll meet her in the past. This is how it has to be."

Dante opened his mouth to argue, to demand an explanation, but before a single word could escape his lips, everything shifted. A burning, electric sensation exploded in his chest, racing through every nerve in his body. It wasn't pain—not exactly—but it was overwhelming, like being hit with an unrelenting surge of energy. His skin tingled, his muscles clenched involuntarily, and his heart pounded as if it might burst from his chest with an unknown force.

He gasped, trying to ground himself, but it was like touching a live wire. The buzzing in his ears grew louder, vibrating in the very core of his skull until he could hear nothing else. It was as if the world itself was humming, tearing apart at the seams. Bright, searing light flooded his vision, forcing his eyes shut, but even then, the light seemed to burn through his eyelids.

The world beneath his feet began to spin violently, faster and faster. His stomach lurched, as though he were on the edge of a cliff, teetering in that brief, terrifying moment before the fall. But then the ground vanished completely, leaving him suspended in nothingness.

He was falling.

Free-falling.

Dante's arms flailed as he screamed, reaching for something—anything—to grab onto, to stop his plunge into the unknown void. The wind roared in his ears, or was it the buzzing still? He wasn't sure anymore. Everything was a chaotic blur, his senses overwhelmed by the sheer impossibility of what was happening. His chest tightened with panic as the sensation of falling deepened. His heart was hammering so fast that it felt like it might give out at any moment. There was neither up nor down—just a dizzying vortex of motion and light.

And then, as suddenly as it began, it stopped.

He landed, but not on jagged rocks or an unforgiving surface. The impact was soft and yielding. Warm. His breath came in ragged gasps as the world righted itself, the spinning sensation easing enough for him to dare open his eyes.

Sand.

Golden grains clung to his hands, to his skin, shifting through his fingers as he pushed himself up. He was still reeling from the sensation of being hurled through space when he took a deep breath. The sand was warm beneath him, heated by a sun far brighter and more intense than the one from the world he'd known just moments ago.

He sat there for a moment, catching his breath, his heart still pounding hard in his chest as he tried to make sense of where he was—or when he was. The air around him was salty and heavy, and the sound of waves crashed softly feet from him.

Wherever he was, the beach stretched out before him for miles. The clear water sparkled under the bright midday sun, stretching endlessly towards the horizon. The coastline was rugged and wild, with jagged cliffs rising in the distance, their peaks softened by the haze of heat shimmering off the ocean. Behind him, a dense forest of olive trees and tall, swaying grasses rustled in the warm breeze. The air was alive with the faint hum of insects.

Dante's fingers curled into the sand, grounding him. He could still feel the lingering hum of energy coursing through his veins, like static clinging to his skin, but it was fading, the remnants of Brea's power slowly dissipating.

He swallowed hard, his throat dry as he tried to process what had just happened. The soft roar of the ocean waves was calming, yet surreal. This wasn't a beach he recognized—he wasn't anywhere near Hidden Creek, or anywhere he had ever been. The sky above him was clear, the kind of deep, perfect blue that seemed to stretch on forever. He blinked, squinting against the brightness, still struggling to piece together how he had gone from the grip of Brea's magic to landing here.

The realization hit him like a punch to the gut, stealing the breath he'd only just regained. He was here. Really here. This wasn't a dream. He hadn't been drugged. Everything he'd just witnessed was real.

Dante pushed himself to his feet, his legs shaky, the sand shifting under his shoes. The weight of the moment settled on his shoulders like a heavy cloak, his mind racing with questions. What was he supposed to do now?

He turned in a slow circle, scanning the beach, the distant cliffs, and the endless sea. Everything felt impossibly different, untouched by time, like stepping into a long-forgotten myth. The air smelled of salt, the breeze carrying the distant cry of seabirds. He felt impossibly small, standing on the edge of a different world.

A deep breath of the warm, salty air filled his lungs as he began to walk along the shoreline, the sand shifting beneath his boots with each step. The distant cliffs loomed ahead and, beyond them, who knew what waited?

As he walked, his pulse finally began to slow, the panic receding. But there was no denying it—he was far from anything familiar. And he had a long road ahead of him in this strange world.