Kayleb

CHAPTER ONE-2

HE REMEMBERED THE SHIP. The Kella. He and Krayter had booked passage to take them far away from home in the dim hopes of finding mates and lives for themselves. But the ship was made of pain. Broken rails and piercing metal, falling debris. Nothing a person could relax around. Though Kayleb recognized the place, he knew something was wrong.

Lights flickered overhead, casting strange shadows, and the gray walls undulated as if something passed under them, a great beast in the walls of the ship, breathing in space and hunting the passengers until none were left.

But he couldn’t stop himself from placing his hand against the hard surface, still for the moment, despite whatever lurked. As his fingers brushed against what should have been cold and lifeless, he jerked back as it gave way, soft and bouncy like her...

He turned around and the thought faded.

A jagged stripe of red colored the opposite wall, the color of human blood. Cutting through the heart of it was a river of dark green, the color of his own blood which had once pooled in these halls, painting the floor and almost killing him in one fell swoop.

They were supposed to be safe here. He’d never quite said it to Krayter, but the thought had swirled and swirled as he spent far too many hours in the infirmary with—

“Kayleb.”

His head jerked up and he turned again, but where there’d only been a wall behind him before, now it opened up into the black of night, stars visible for as far as he could see, shining in the cold, mocking him with their radiance.

“No!” The word tore out of him and Kayleb ran, his feet pounding on the grated floor under him, a metallic clang echoing down the hall and fading into nothingness in the vacuum behind him. No, he wasn’t ready. Not now, not yet, not until—

He slammed into a wall, and the pressure of it flattened him even though he felt no pain.

“Kayleb.”

A feminine voice called his name, coming from nowhere and achingly familiar. He knew her, deep in his heart. “Who are you?” he asked, even though he saw no one else, even as he knew he had to run before eternity swallowed him whole. Before it snatched him away from her. Whoever she was.

But the voice went silent.

Kayleb turned and saw the stars had retreated, though they still sat threateningly close, no wall blocking them away from him. Two paths set out before him, one bright and wide, the footing sure and the railing sturdy. Beside it, branching in a different direction, was the path from the ship, grated floor, harsh metal, and the threat of certain danger if he stepped incautiously.

“Kayleb.”

She was there, just down the path of the ship, and Kayleb stepped toward her, choosing his way before he realized what the choice could mean. As his feet touched the metal grating, reality snapped around him, slingshotting him back to the invisible wall and slamming him down hard. Something buzzed in his ears, the sound growing too loud to ignore until it was the totality of his being.

White bloomed between his eyes and exploded, taking him with it and thrusting him out of the dream and into the hard, cold morning.

Kayleb woke up.

***