"You know what I want, Rowin," Cassius said in a low voice. "He knows what I want, too."

    "I gave you what you wanted!" Eden screamed furiously, the words tearing at his throat. "You took everything from me!"

    Eden's words seared into my mind and I frantically began to wonder what provoked them. 

    "Get away from me!" I yelled, yanking on his grip. "You're a liar!"

    "Oh, but foolish girl, I speak the truth," he countered. He let go of my wrist and I was sprawled out on my back. He loomed over me, whipping out his gun.

    "Don't hurt her!" Eden shouted. I heard someone slap him. "Don't hurt me like you hurt--"

    Cassius struck me across the forehead with the butt of the weapon, sending me into a haze.

    In an instant, the world felt a million miles away. Eden's shouts reached me in echoes, and the feeling of the barrel to my forehead was hardly registering. I closed my eyes, only hearing my beating heart.

    What would Seth do?

    The thought came in pieces. Cassius' words rumbled in the back of my confused mind. Panic took over my ability to think. Words came to me as if they were being spoken aloud.  

    He'd pray.

    I had never prayed before.

    You're protected, Rowin. Know that. I'm protecting you.

    My hands moved as if they had a mind of their own. I tugged the compass out from beneath my shirt as I opened my eyes to a blurred picture of Cassius' shocked expression.

    Before he could react, I turned North to South.

» « » «

    My chest compressed as the air snapped into a thin, bland state. Silence rung in my ears for a moment while my mind slowly sharpened.

    I heard footsteps running toward me, catching me off guard. I had turned the compass, and I had to deal with its consequences. Alone.

    I slowly opened my eyes, squinting. Eden's face came into focus as he gave me a truly terrified expression. I pushed myself up, ignoring how the world spun.

    "Eden... I'm sorry..," I mumbled.

    "You have the compass?!" he exclaimed with wide eyes.

    "You know about it?!"

    We stared at each other in disbelief. He stood and helped me up. I noticed his lip was bleeding and his cheek was marked red from where he had been hit.

    "What do you know?" I asked, coming to a fully attentive state.

    "The compass stops time," he answered. "People's memories are recalled as they're progressively sent to another reality. The key is protection from that. The compass' effects don't work on whoever has the key."

    "So you're here..," I started, beginning to see the whole picture.

    He pulled a copper key out from under his shirt that hung around his neck from a thin, leather string. I stared at it, mesmerized and overwhelmed.

    "Do you know about the ring?" he asked. I shook my head. "The ring is the connection between the realms. Whoever has the ring can travel between them."

    "Do you have it?"

    If we had the ring, I could find my family, not to mention Seth. The very thought of seeing them again filled me with hope.

    "No. But I bet Cassius does," he spat, glaring at the man. "When I met him, he did. He wanted the key, but I wouldn't give it to him. And he... He got his hands on it once, then stole your compass and--" Eden stopped himself before elaborating any further. He sighed heavily, turning away.

    He didn't usually bring up his past. I didn't even know what had happened to his family. I watched him clench his fists, then slowly release them.

    "And what?" I prompted, now curious about Eden's story.

    "And... Nothing. I'm fine, it's over now." He dismissed the subject, but his expression told me otherwise. "The ring?"

    I turned to Cassius and crouched before him. I looked at his hands to see two rings, both on his ring finger. Carefully, I pulled both of them off.

    "Is he married?" I asked, studying both of them.

    Eden literally snorted. "Whoever married him was either forced to or is just as nasty," he said cooly.

    I cracked a smile, but said nothing more as I examined the rings. In the light of street lamps, I caught an inscription on one of them.

    The Ring of Realms.

    I held it up, watching it glint in the light, dropping the other one to the ground.

    "How do you use it?" I asked.

    "Here." He offered his palm to me.

    I stood beside Eden as he studied it for a moment. He held it between his thumb and forefinger, then extended his arm to me.

    "Pull on it," he instructed.

    I held it just like he did, not questioning anything. He clearly knew more than I did about this whole situation.

    "We'll do it at the same time. Ready?"

    I nodded and we both yanked. I nearly fell backwards, but not from letting go.

    The ring expanded before my eyes, growing to the height of an average person. My hands fell to my sides as I stepped back in awe. A huge, black hole appeared in its center, seeming limitless.

    "Wow," Eden stated.

    "Wow is right," I said. "When did you get so smart?"

    "No, wow as in I-didn't-know-black-holes-actually-existed wow," he corrected me.

    I smacked him lightly over his faded hair, which for some reason he insisted on dying every couple weeks. He forced a grin, but it wasn't real. Not for him.

    "If you want to run away, now's the time," I joked, trying to figure out his weird mood.

    "It's not everyday that portals appear out of nowhere," he replied tightly, trying to move on from the subject of Cassius and the ring.

    I peered into the void, curiosity beginning to rise. The same feeling I felt whenever I took the compass.

    "Well, I'm totally doing this," he declared.

    Before I could say anything, Eden's hand was gripping mine as we descended into a black horizon.

» « » «

    We were falling scarily fast.

    My hair was flying behind me; Eden was gripping my hand. I could practically feel the dark closing in from behind.

    Eden whooped in excitement and I wanted to smack him again.

    "Why'd you push me?!" I shouted over the rush in our ears.

    "Why didn't you go sooner?" he replied. "You were gonna jump anyway!"

    Noise came to my ears. A scream went off somewhere in the darkness, causing my heart to jump. A chill came over me as horrific cries that sounded familiar rung out.

    "Rowin, help me!"

    The hair on the back of my neck stood up as I cringed.

    "This is all your fault!"

    "If you hadn't touched the compass, I wouldn't be here."

    The yells became deafening.

    I twisted to look in the direction the screams were coming from, but saw nothing. Eden's face was as pale as mine felt.

    The air pulled at my clothing and my eyes hardly had time to adjust to the darkness. I slammed into the ground and the air was knocked from my lungs.

    In one fluent motion, the darkness and the sound was all swept away like a curtain. Instead, there was the frozen scene set before me.

    We had landed beside a river. Water was in mid-lapse on the bank, and the air still had a brittle feeling. The compass was in affect in both realities. I looked around, noticing it was night, noting the artificial light that allowed me to see.

    Eden grunted as he got to his feet, slipping the ring over his own finger. I scrambled up and began walking to the light, trying to shake the feeling of the screams we had left behind. I climbed up the slippery bank to a hillside overlooking an endless city.

    Houses led up to apartments and skyscrapers  rose to touch the moon.

    "Where are we?" Eden asked, in complete admiration of what he was witnessing.

    "Wonderland," I replied.

<<<<<<<<<<<

(a/n)

*takes a deep breath* *lays down because Eden's character exhausts me*

Rob James Collier is the dude I got showing Cassius & is also in the picture. 

Okay but Eden. *smiles happily* I cannot express how long I spent on his character and how insane his backstory, motives, and general actions drove me. But I honestly loved it & now he's one of my favorites. <3

So... QUESTION: Seth or Eden? (;

As always, thanks for reading! Please vote and comment if your feel inclined. God bless all of you lovely people!

-Abigail Rayne

(P.S. I very much so appreciate your comments and messages, they make me smile and I try to respond to all of them, but if I don't, know I appreciate it!)

{7.7.16}

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