Young Writers Society

Megara frowned, somewhat disappointed she wasn't going to get to see Skull jump off first.

"Yeah, just step off and fall. Gravity's just a bit stronger for us than it would usually be underwater, so you should be fine."

She then turned to Skull, "Coward," she gave a final taunt. Sure, it was mean spirited and unnecessary, but she was both of those things, so one couldn't reprimand her for doing it. After all, it was just the way she was. Gods, she loved those stupid nonsensical sayings.

I glowered at her, but I didn't succumb to temptation - I let Asmira go first. I made sure to keep a careful eye on her the entire time she fell, watching as she stepped off with seemingly no fear at all. The descent down was gentler than I had expected, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be.

Still, I didn't make a move to go down.

Neither did Nathaniel.

Megara looked down after Asmira to make sure she was out of the way before she turned to the others, "Afraid of heights or something boys? Or do you just not trust me?" She cocked her head to the side, her eyes, though they seemed to be flitting between the boys, were really watching the surrounding waters. Those rocks over there? Did she see something? She watched them a moment more. No movement. That didn't mean much. she'd have to hurry this along.

Something told me Nathaniel's reluctance had more to do with the heights than the trust, but I could definitely see the lack of trust in his eyes when he looked back at her. We all had our fair share of trust issues. I didn't know why, but sometimes I thought Nathaniel had it even worse than I did. I hid my secrets because of insecurities - I could admit that much about myself. Asmira was a born fighter; some secrets here and there made sense for her.

But I just hadn't been able to figure out Nathaniel.

Knowing that Nathaniel wasn't going to volunteer and Megara was just going to keep taunting us - and taunting me especially - I made an impulsive decision and grabbed onto Nathaniel's arm.

He seemed to get my plan pretty quickly.

"Let go," he hissed, trying to jerk his arm out of mine. I stubbornly held onto it. I had been steadily get stronger since I had come back to life; Nathaniel was just as scrawny as he had been when I first found him. He wasn't getting free any time soon.

"Not happening," I declared. I started to lead him towards the edge of the cliff. We'd do this together - and if I ended up dying somewhere along the way, I'd be bring him literally and metaphorically down with me. "Ready to go, Natty boy?"

"Skull," he demanded, his voice low, "let me go."

"Come on!" I said. "We're not going to die. I was just being polite and letting someone else go first, but you're not going to come down unless someone makes you."

He glared at me. "I know you're just as-"

I hopped off the edge of the cliff, bringing Nathaniel with me.

Megara chuckled at the display and watched them descend. Once they were out of the way, she hopped down after them, landing smoothly on her feet.

The street they had landed on was less a street than an alleyway. The entire ground level of the city could be considered a sort of alleyway. Most of the buildings had entrances higher up, as dictated by law. Megara loathed to discover that she remembered some baron or other complaining about the regulation. Something about kicking up silt too low down.

The place was really dirty. The glowing runes that had shown the class divide from above were now high above their heads in all their enormous glory.

Megara couldn't interpret them. It was a language she was getting to. Later.

"Are you all unhurt?" she asked the amassed group.

"I'm fine," I said, finally letting go of Nathaniel. Asmira gave a nod from beside me as Nathaniel jerked his arm away. I tore my gaze away from Megara; Nathaniel had that look on his face again. It was his absolutely disgusted look. I had seen him do it before when we were entering similarly dirty areas, but he was usually a little better about hiding it.

He grimaced.

"I'm unhurt," he said, the look stubbornly remaining.

"Worried about getting a little dirt on you, Natty boy?" I asked. He didn't even give me an answer - he just angrily brushed off his sleeves and pants, the disgust turning to an offended expression at my comment.

Megara rolled her eyes, "You two wanna get a room?" she joked, then abruptly dropped any cheer she'd harbored, "We're headed to the university. Keep your heads down and don't talk to anyone. Actually, don't talk at all."

That wasn't necessary. Talking wouldn't really jeopardize anything at this point, but Megara wanted to mess with them. To get Skull back, especially, for daring to show up again in her life. In the middle of a job too. And she'd....she shuddered as she walked away, glancing back once to make sure they were following. That was the last time she was honest with anyone like that. Ever. She didn't know what she'd been thinking.

I opened my mouth to protest her jab - regardless of what way I swung, I'd never do something like that with a guy who was still a kid in my eyes - but then I shut it. I was understandably wary of Megara's order, but she was the only one who knew her way around here. I couldn't risk actually causing a problem if my life was at stake.

I followed after Megara, Nathaniel and Asmira lingering a little farther behind as we walked.

As they walked, the waters above them opened up into the gravity devoid equivalent of busy streets and shops. The buildings, some domes closer to the ground, others enormous spires reaching for the surface, and yet more artful combinations of both.

Merpeople swam from building to building, some darting in and out of perfectly round doors or peeking into long thin windows at such a hurried pace one might assume the world was ending, and others swam leisurely, all the time in the world evident in their lazy strokes. All of them were dressed strangely, the trend seeming to be interlocked fabrics like elaborate braids with the person theirself in the center of the weave.

Megara glanced up only briefly, taking note of a tattoo on the fluke of the merman swimming lower than most of the crowd before turning her attention to Skull. "What's your world like?" she asked. It was only fair, she reasoned in her head. He was seeing her world - some of it, anyway - so why shouldn't she learn something about his? At the very least she wanted some context for his rather annoying personality.

"I thought you said we weren't supposed to talk," I shot back, a smug expression flickering across my face. I knew there was something fishy about her telling us we couldn't talk at all.

But I wasn't going to push too much - I understood that there was a certain level of respect I had to give her right now. "It depends on which world you're talking about," I said. "Natty boy, Asmira and I are all on the same world right now, but we're from two different ones and two different times."

She glared at his comment about her telling him not to talk, but still listened more intently than she would admit when he spoke again.

"Which world would you describe as 'home' then?" she asked, cursing herself for the genuine curiosity she hadn't meant to let slip into her voice.

I thought over her question.

Despite my slips earlier, the world that I was on with Nathaniel and Asmira would never truly be my home. Home - cheesy as it was - was a person and not a place, and the last thing I wanted was for that person to end up with me in a situation like this.

"My first world," I admitted. "It's different than here - more advanced, but just as dark as your world is. We have something called the Problem - or maybe had something."

A little bit of smugness slipped into my voice.

"I helped to stop that, by the way," I added. "There's ghosts everywhere, and no one ever could figure out why. It turns out an old...let's call her a friend was still kicking around, and she had been tearing apart the barrier between the living and the dead. Might sound a little crazy, but kids are the only ones who could interact with ghosts, so I spent the last few years of my life with a bunch of horny adolescents who were all thirsting after each other."

He didn't seem to be lying. That would be a rather odd lie anyway.

"More advanced?" it was a minor point, but it stuck out to her. A beat later she realized how the question sounded. The ignorant little girl from the 'less advanced' world asking, starry-eyed, about the progress of the worlds far away from hers. Shut up, that overpowering voice of logic said, Just shut up. Shut him up and get him out of your world for good. The voice sounded like Briar.

In retrospect, that probably came off as a bit offensive, but this world was definitely nothing like my Earth had been. "Your world is more like when I died," I said. "Imagine it in more than a century, and you'd have an idea of what my world is like."

Nathaniel nodded in agreement behind me.

"My world was Skull's," he said. "It had its...differences, but it was roughly the same in terms of technology. We-the magicians ran our government, and used spirits to do some of the work that his technology is able to do."

Asmira was silent for a moment.

"...I'm from Nathaniel's world," she finally said, "but I came from centuries before him."

Megara looked them over, frowning. She couldn't detect a lie out of any of them.

"How does that work?" she asked, adopting her signature standoffish nature to combat her curiosity. There was nothing worse than being one of those who were looked down on, and the curious fit in the group.

She set her eyes ahead of them, guiding the group down an alley into what appeared to be the heart of the city from the increased traffic above them. It wasn't much further to the university.