MirrorWorld

I duck as the machete, which still exists in both worlds, is caught in the beast’s skull and wrenched from my hand. The side of the blade slips past my head while the bull crushes his face against a mirror-world tree I can no longer see.

Black fog covers my vision as the bull slumps down dead. While my body is free from the bull, my vision is stuck in the lightless insides of the bull’s body. I try to step out of it, to the side, but am held in place. It’s my belt and the scabbard strap. The Dread is still interacting with them, pinning them against a tree that’s no longer there.

Wrenching the machete back and forth, I tug it free. Then I slip the blade beneath the strap over my chest but stop before cutting it free. Oscillium can be here, there, or everywhere. And I can bring it with me. Change its frequency. Bioelectromagnetism. Rage moves it into the mirror world, calm pulls it back. I turn my attention to the strap, will it to leave the Dread world while thinking pleasant thoughts, which is hard to do while trapped, naked, and covered in mud inside the body of a monster. Rage would be easy, but calm? My free hand comes up and clutches the plastic pendant. This is my calm. My center. I focus on it. My chest burns with such intensity that I expect to see smoke and smell roasted me. I breathe through it, like a woman in labor, maintaining mental calm despite the body’s signals that something is wrong. And then the pain fades and the pressure on my chest disappears. The oscillium strap has shifted back into my reality, or rather left the mirror world behind.

I shake my head. Bioelectromagnetism. Who would have guessed? Granted, it’s mild pseudoscience compared to the discovery of varying frequencies of reality, but learning about weird shit and actually doing weird shit are very different experiences.

I try to move again, but there’s a tug around my neck. The pendant. It’s not made of oscillium and shouldn’t be able to move freely between worlds. I consider leaving it behind, but a deep sense of loss, like a nail pounded into my chest, forbids it. It’s a part of me. I have no idea why, but I think I’d stay here and rot before leaving it behind.

So I decide to take it with me. I did it once before, when I fell through the tree. Allenby mentioned that such a thing, in theory, could happen, probably with some kind of concerted effort, but I somehow achieved it instinctually. But can I duplicate the effect on purpose?

This is different from the oscillium. The pendant’s metal and plastic weren’t designed to switch frequencies in response to a change in bioelectromagnetism. But that doesn’t mean it’s stuck in one frequency. Allenby said it was theoretically possible, and I proved it by somehow bringing the pendant with me. But how?

Force of will, I think. The object around my neck feels like part of me, so when I fell through the tree, whatever part of me has changed took the pendant along for the ride, letting it piggyback through the frequency shift. Just like the food in my stomach, I think. It’s not technically part of me, but it comes along for the ride. I’m no scientist, but it’s the layman’s explanation that makes the most sense. Maybe Lyons will be able to explain it? What’s important is that it is possible.

I close my eyes, will with all my heart and soul that the plastic charm will stay with me, and lean forward. For a moment, I feel nothing but the pull of the chain on my neck. The tug becomes a strangle, the chain taut, stuck inside the bull. C’mon! I think, hoping the chain won’t snap. C’mon!

A sharp sting, like a razor’s cut, or how I imagine a tight garrote must feel, slides across my throat. Am I killing myself? Am I sliding my body through the chain? These possibilities cause me no fear, but I’d prefer not to have a metal chain embedded in my neck. A sharp tingling sensation seeps out of my neck, and for a moment I can feel it reaching out, stretching along the notches of the pendant.

I pitch forward, freed from resistance. My first thought is that the chain broke, but when I open my eyes again, I’m free of the bull and the pendant hangs around my still-tingling neck. I clasp my hands around the rainbow-colored mystery, more thankful for its presence than surprised I’ve just moved a nonoscillium object between worlds. My hands travel to my neck next. There is no wound. The pain was caused by the shift. Back in the world between, closer to my original sensory self, the discomfort is once again a dull ache.

With all of my accoutrements freed from the Dread world and the bull’s body, I’m able to step away and look at my fallen foe. It’s dead, that’s for damn sure.