The other world, p.1
The Other World, page 1
The Other World
Copyright © 2022 by C. A. Varian
Cover: Artscandare Book Covers
Formatting, map, and interior design: Blurbs and Baubles
Editing: Willow Oak Author Services
All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in any form, in whole or in part, without written permission from the author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, Characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, actual events, or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Trigger Warning
There are mature themes throughout the book, and it is not intended for readers under 17 years of age.
The following themes are explored in The Other World: Graphic (consensual) sexual content, terminal illness/contemplating death, captivity, slavery, abduction, talks of rape and abortion, torture, sex trafficking, talks of suicide, vulgar language, and murder.
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Epilogue
The Story Continues…
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Chapter One
Elianna
Some say the worst thing about having cancer is knowing you have cancer, but I’d say the worst thing about having cancer is throwing up my perfectly good pizza because of the meds.”
A few people in the group circle nodded, voicing their agreement before Elianna continued. “My name is Elianna Foster. I’m nineteen years old and I have stage IV thyroid cancer that’s invaded my lungs like Battlestar Galactica.”
The entire group, twenty people sitting in a circle, called out, “Hi, Elianna” in unison, some giggling at her nerdy comment.
She bowed from the waist and sat back down, stifling a cough and securing the oxygen cannula in her nose. The one thing she didn’t say out loud was that she would not get out of the disease alive. She didn’t have to say it. Everyone at that meeting had some form of cancer. All their lives were on borrowed time.
“Are you going to use the key?” asked one of the younger men in the circle.
She believed his name was Liam, but she couldn’t have been sure. From hearing his conversations with the others, all she knew was that he had leukemia and was sixteen years old. It wasn’t often she got close to anyone from the circle of the sick. She didn’t want to go through the heartbreak of losing them. Elianna’s swaggering, nonchalant facade almost fractured when asked about the controversial key, but she fixed her face quickly, securing her walls back into place.
The Keys of Ecromos were the only way to open the portal in the Shrine of Solstice and cross into the realm of the fae, but keys weren’t given to just anyone. For a human to cross, they had to be female, had to be dying, had to be left with little hope for their lives in the human realm. If it was a matter of survival, women who crossed over into the realm of the fae would be relieved to be there, glad even, and wouldn’t fight what was expected of them. They wouldn’t fight to return home. The hopelessness that was necessary to make that choice, at least for Elianna, made it an impossible decision.
According to the stories, it was rare for fae females to bear offspring, a genetic mutation that was causing the race to die out. Fae healers could cure human diseases, but the infertility among their females was something they couldn’t fix. On top of this already devastating issue, most of the children born to fae couples, if the child even survived, were male.
Elianna knew little about Ecromos, aside from the rumors, but it certainly sounded like the fae needed to breed with humans before their people, and the magic they held, died out for good. She was empathetic to their plight, but she was also only nineteen years old, and had no interest in settling down and having children, even if she wouldn’t have to leave her world to do it.
Aside from the rumors and legends, the portal was a mystery to the humans, as was the world beyond it. Since no one came back out, there was only speculation about what met those who entered. The door into Ecromos only allowed humans to travel in one direction. Some said the human women were used like cattle, breeding half-fae children for the wealthy, but others speculated the key given to each human woman was matched to a single fae male, their fated mate, and that he would be there for her when she crossed over.
The idea of a soulmate was a much easier idea to swallow than the worst-case scenarios that plagued Elianna’s mind, but it was still a reality she wasn’t yet ready for. She wasn’t sure if she’d ever be ready to be a wife or a mother. The question was not whether she was ready, but whether being forced to have children with a male she didn’t know was better than death.
Either way, Elianna hadn’t yet decided what she would do if the time came where she would be forced to decide to leave her home or die. With the cancer in her lungs making it so hard to breathe, she knew she would have to make a choice soon. Ready or not.
The fae could cure her cancer and give her a near immortal lifespan, but only if she wasn’t too far gone. When she reached the point where only machines could keep her alive, it would be too late. She had to decide- soon.
Forcing her face back into something less melancholy, Elianna cleared her throat. “I haven’t decided if I’ll use the key. I know it’s unlikely I’ll beat this thing, but we also don’t really know what’s through that door. And once you cross, you can’t come back.” She smirked, faking a confidence she didn’t feel. “I don’t know if I’m ready for that level of commitment. Never been much on commitment, anyway.”
A few people laughed, but there were some who didn’t, making her regret the joke.
She didn’t know the middle-aged woman who stood, but the grimace she wore made the woman’s lack of amusement clear. Elianna shriveled back inwardly, even if her face didn’t give away her discomfort. “At least you have that option. Women my age have no option but to die. There are no keys being offered to us. No chance at hope. If there were, I’d gladly take it. Maybe you should think about that before scoffing at your one chance to live.”
Elianna left the cancer support group feeling less than stellar. Using the key was a very personal decision. She realized that. But the woman’s comments still stung, still made her feel like she was being a spoiled child. Maybe that’s what she was, but she was only nineteen years old, so was she really expected to see the decision as anything more than an overwhelming burden?
Even with all the unknowns, the possibility of surviving her fate, to be healed, was alluring. Maybe the woman from her group was right, but Elianna wasn’t there yet. The current treatments would not cure her, but they were holding the Grim Reaper at bay.
Tapping her hands on the steering wheel of her red sedan, she listened to the radio, willing the stranger’s words out of her mind.
Elianna’s mother, Elizabeth, was already setting dinner on the table by the time she arrived back home in the city of Brookwood. Her family hadn’t always sat at the table to eat dinner together, but her mother insisted on it ever since Elianna’s cancer had spread to her lungs. From that point on, she was made to sit at the kitchen table every night, listening to her father talk about his clients, and her mother talk about only the gods knew what. She loved her parents, but it was as boring as watching the television on static. She suffered through it anyway. Her parents would miss her when she was gone, so sitting through family dinners every night was a small price to pay. They were great parents. They loved and took care of her through it all, so she would have given them anything she could while she was still there to do so.
Her mother smiled when she walked in, her blue eyes always bright, even with the shadow of grief behind them.
“How was group?”
Shrugging, Elianna grabbed a buttered roll before plopping into a chair at the table. The woman’s comments hadn’t helped the nausea that always plagued her, but she was determined to eat, anyway. “Same as always. Aside from Jerry dying, the conversations don’t really change.”
Her mother stopped laying out food and looked up as her father, Peter, walked in and sat at the table before responding. “Is anyone planning to use a key?”
“Mom.” Elianna mustered as much annoyance in her tone as she could.
It seemed the repeated conversations would continue at home as well. The way she would constantly bring up the subject of the key, it was almost as though her mother had given up hope for her. Once she used the key, her chance of staying with her family was g
Her mother put her hands up in supplication. “Alright. I’m sorry. I just want you to think about it. Okay?”
Leaving her task, her mother sat in the chair next to her and took her by the hands. “Sweetie. You know I love you more than anything. I’m not giving up. But using that key would end your suffering and give you the chance at the full life you could never get here.”
Just in case it was possible for Elianna to feel any worse, her mother made it happen. She never did it on purpose, but it didn’t change the pressure her mother’s words put on her already slouching shoulders.
“Elizabeth,” her father cut in, frustration clear in his voice. “Let it drop. She has enough on her mind.”
“Alright. Alright.” Her mother squeezed her hands one more time before returning to the kitchen counter to grab the plates.
“It’s okay, Dad. I know I need to make a decision. It’s just difficult when I don’t have all the facts.”
Pulling his glasses off and rubbing his eyes with his hands, her father looked exhausted. “You don’t have to make one right now, Firefly. The key will still be there for you later. Let’s focus on getting you better for now.”
She nodded, but she knew her father was only trying to pacify her. The key may have still been there for the moment, but she didn’t have much longer, and she knew it. The coughing and shortness of breath were getting worse, as was the feeling of hopelessness. If she had many more years ahead of her, she didn’t know if she could handle spending them as sick as she was.
Forcing down her dinner, knowing the medication would make it come up later, Elianna settled back into her role as the sick daughter, rolling with the punches so she wouldn’t make her parents worry more than they already did. She may have been the one living with cancer, but they were all helpless.
The key taunted Elianna as she laid in her bed that night. The intricate skeleton key was an antique gold, enchanted with the magic of the fae and issued to her on the day her doctor confirmed the spread of her cancer into her lungs. She had laid the key there that night, right next to her television, and hadn’t touched it since.
The more the air seemed to thin, and the more the pain in her chest grew, the more the key beckoned her like the call of a siren. All she would have to do was grab the key, go to the Shrine of Solstice, and place it in the lock. Then, if the stories were true, she would be brought into Ecromos and healed. She would never see her family again, never know if survival in the human realm had been possible, but the cancer would be gone.
Maybe, if the best of the rumors were true, she’d have a soulmate there, someone to share the rest of her much longer life with. Even with a new family, the thought of living through losing her parents was too much for her to bear. It was an impossible call.
Each key was said to link one fae male and one human female, making them destined for each other. Elianna wondered if that was why it seemed to light from within sometimes, as though he were touching his key and trying to get her attention. But what if she didn’t like him? Wasn’t attracted to him? Worst yet, what if he was cruel to her and treated her like a prisoner, like no more than a breeding mare? Those were all questions she didn’t have the answers to, but they were all answers she needed if she was going to decide, if she would have to decide that leaving her world was better than staying. She laid in bed for hours thinking about it, the building pressure making the tightness in her chest even worse. Even if she died in the human realm, some fates were worse than death.
A hacking cough hit Elianna as she rested. She doubled over on the bed, her breathing becoming more ragged with the force of it. She watched the key with watering eyes, and it flickered, emanating the sudden flash of light she’d only ever seen a few times. It only lasted for a moment, but she knew it had been real and not just a trick her oxygen-starved mind was playing on her. Climbing from her bed, she grabbed the magical object, feeling the unmistakable power that surged through it and into her, the compulsion for her to use it palpable.
“You’ve been MIA for like three days, Elli. Where have you been?” Kiera Harris placed the back of her hand on Elianna’s head, pretending to check her for fever as they sat in the university’s coffee shop. Elianna took classes from home, although she realized it was a waste of time. But Kiera got to live on campus and experience all the things she would never get to experience. It would have been a lie to say it didn’t affect her to miss out on the experiences so many other young people took for granted but dwelling on it wouldn’t change anything except her mental health.
Elianna shrugged. “My cough got worse, so my mom insisted I stay in bed and eat awful canned soup while watching reruns. You know she’d prefer it if I never left the house. It wasn’t my finest few days, but I got through two filthy novels while pretending to be studying.”
Kiera laughed, taking a sip of her nonfat latte. “Elizabeth’s going to find your smutty book stash one of these days and set them ablaze. Just you wait.”
Rolling her eyes, Elianna tossed a straw wrapper at her friend. “Like you’ve got room to talk. I borrowed all those books from you.”
“You’re so full of it.” Kiera laughed again, but her face turned serious only a moment later. “When do you guys head to Kinderside to see the new specialist?”
She’d been trying to avoid thinking about it. The new specialist would say the same thing as the last eight had. It wouldn’t change anything, only remind her of the pincushion she’d become. “Tomorrow, I think. I don’t even keep track anymore.”
The night before any doctor’s visit was stressful, even if she’d lost any hope for remission. Elianna settled into bed, pulling out one of the naughty books she kept in her side table drawer and opening it to where she’d left off. She didn’t know why she bothered hiding them from her mother. Nineteen years old was technically an adult, but her parents still treated her like she was twelve, not that she minded being taken care of.
After reading for hours and fantasizing about the sexy fictional character in her current book who was totally going on her growing list of book boyfriends, she fell asleep with the paperback across her stomach.
Tightness in her chest, followed by the struggle of her lungs to take in enough air, pulled Elianna from sleep. Gasping, she reached for the buzzer her parents had installed next to her bed a few months before, pressing it repeatedly to wake them. Her heart hammered against her ribcage, every attack feeling like it would be her last battle. Thankfully, it only took seconds for her mother to dart into her bedroom, followed by her father.
“I’ll call the ambulance,” her father said as he ran out the room to grab his phone.
Her mother leaned over the bed, securing the oxygen cannula to her nose and reaching for her inhaler on the side table. Elianna sucked in the medicine, but the inhaler brought no relief. She continued to struggle, the air in the room inadequate, even with her oxygen tube. Spots colored her vision as the decision came to her with little thought. Looking at her mother with desperation in her eyes, Elianna reached her hand toward the metal object flickering next to the television. “Get the key.”
Chapter Two
Elianna
The golden key in Elizabeth’s hand was the only sign the first responders needed to know where to take her daughter. It was a scenario they knew well enough. With the sound of the siren piercing the late-night silence, the ambulance raced toward the Shrine nestled within the Haunted Mountains, the exit leading to the hospital fading in the distance. Grief was replaced by numbness, filling Elianna’s ailing body with every mile they drove down the darkened roadway.
Elianna’s parents hovered over her, holding her hands and whispering words of encouragement, but all she felt was nothing. Nothing, aside from the pain in her chest and the lack of oxygen in the air. She would never see them again. It wasn’t a reality she could come to terms with, so she pushed it in the back of her mind and tried to pretend she was simply going to yet another hospital visit. That way, the fallout of her decision wouldn’t hit her until it was too late for her to change her mind or take it back. By the time she would let those feelings flood back in, she would be stuck inside the realm of Ecromos, where she’d be forced to either deal with it, or she would be too preoccupied to even think about it. Either scenario would be better than letting doubt fracture her shaky resolve now that she’d finally decided.
