In an Instant

"How are you here?" I demand, holding my stance and feeling ready to pounce if he even considers laying a finger on Travis.

"That's for me to know and for you not to." He says, putting the knife closer to Travis's neck which causes the fear in his eyes to grow.

"I know you want us dead, and that's not going to happen." I tell him stepping closer with a look in my eyes.

"Not right at this very moment, but I assure you; it will." He snickers with a psychotic glare inside his eyes.

'On the count of three, RUN and don't look back.' I hear Travis think to himself, and I look at him and wonder how the man hasn't caught up to his thoughts yet. 'ONE...TWO...'

'Travis I'm not leaving you!' I say in my mind, but Travis doesn't seem to care.

'THREE! Just go! I'll be okay!' And with that I take off running as fast as I can down the hospital highway, I hear a shriek and a gun going off and can hear Travis's footsteps following close behind me.

I race around a corner and find myself at a dead end, I feel trapped but before I give up; I look around and notice a small window leading out onto a balcony. Striding up to it I lift the window open with all my strength and crawl inside. The wind is strong at this point and I am struggling to keep myself balanced. I hold onto the icy railing for all that I have and make my way up onto the balcony.

"He's down for now, but we don't have much time!" I hear Travis's voice call out from below the balcony, he's climbing his way up and lands next to me. Looking fearful but with a bravery in his eyes.

"What happened?" I ask, trying to gather information. "How is he here?"

"It's a long story, let's get out of here for now." He ushers me to another window which leads onto a different area of the hospital.

"How is it a long story? I only left you for like less then five minutes!"

Travis sighs before answering me, "a lot can happen in five minutes."

"No kidding." I say walking out onto the hallway, "where's death?"

"I went looking for him, that's when I found that man he said something about 'being able to enter the brink through a portal.' That's why we were able to communicate via mind reading without him hearing. He's not actually apart of the brink, but merely a trespasser. And he won't leave until he kills us, but I shot him and he passed out so that hopefully gives us enough time to come up with some sort of plan." He explains to me, and I listen intently trying to make sense of everything.

"There you guys are, is everyone okay?" I see the witch standing there watching us, she looks concerned as she strides up to where we stand, panting from the climb we just took.

"Yeah, I'm okay." I tell her, but not knowing if that was the truth or not. "Just a little shaken up."

"What did he mean by 'if you die in the brink, you die in real life?" Travis asks and I remember the man saying that, and realized that's the reason why he entered here. If he can't get us on the other side, then going right to the source seems like the most suitable conclusion.

"Basically that, if something happens to you while you're here lets say you get shot or you fall and die instantly. Since your spirit body is still connected to your actual body it disconnects that line and that consciousness, therefore causing your demise in reality." She explains as we both listen in fear, and we both worry that either of our ends are near.

"How did he enter the brink with out being in a near death experience?" I ask with curiosity arising, "He mentioned something about a portal."

"If that is the case, it takes a power not even known to me to create a portal that strong leading from the other side to the brink. He would have had to have the help of someone with such power, there's no way he would have been able to open it himself." She concludes, looking lost on the proposition. "We need to close the portal, so he's trapped here and can't leave."

"But don't we want him to leave? Why would we want such a powerful entity here that can easily harm us, when we can't do anything about it from our end." Travis wonders.

"Because, we won't be able to do anything if he where on the other side...since my powers are weak, so trapping him here will allow for an easy attack." I say, a light bulb going off in my mind as I begin to make sense of it all.

The witch beams at my conclusion, "That is correct Delilah, if we trap him here it will be easy for us to get rid of him instead of allowing him to access the other side easily."

"But here's the real question," Travis asks "and how do we close the portal?"

"Well first we need to find out where it dwells and how it was made." She says and we all nod at each other, ready to get the plan into place.

***

**FLASHBACK**

"Yes!" I call out excitedly, staring at my painting with excitement. "It's finally finished, after 6 hours...it's finally finished!"

I started dancing around my room with excitement, I can't wait to hand it in to the college contest, I knew I was going to win that scholarship there was no doubt about that.

I glance down at my phone and see a bunch of texts from Stephan, he seems incredibly annoyed at my lack of response to him. Even though he knows I was keeping busy with my painting.

'Call me when you see this!'

'Are you home? I have to talk to you.'

'Seriously, it's been like an hour Delilah.'

'Where are you?'

'You better not be working on that dumb painting again.'

'Sorry, that was rude. But for real, answer your fucking phone.'

'I'm coming over if you don't answer in like 30 minutes.'

'You seriously need to start turning your ringer on when you paint.'

I sigh upon reading the texts, he was always like this if I didn't answer him for sometime and I absolutely hated it. I picked up my phone and finally answering him, hoping to calm him down slightly.

'Sorry, yeah I was painting and you know that. You don't need to be so insistent about me answering you, next time just come over if its that important. I'm going to bed, I have to hand in my painting before 8 Am. We can talk tomorrow.' I groan and throw my phone onto my desk, and fly onto my bed.

I guess this relationship isn't the fairy tale I always hoped it would be.