Our Infinite Fates

IT WAS AROUND TWO in the morning when clouds began to swaddle the silver-coin moon. By normal standards, today was our birthday. We were legal adults. But the Mother clearly had a taste for pedantry – we wouldn’t come into our powers for another five hours.

‘What if the police send out a search before morning?’ I shifted uncomfortably on the picnic blanket. The drugs were wearing off, and I was becoming acutely aware of the pain in my hip, at once dull and sharp. Running into town had been a mistake. ‘If my mum notices me missing before dawn, there are going to be helicopters over these hills in no time.’

Arden sighed and lay back on the blanket, resting his forearms above his head. ‘I suppose it doesn’t matter, really. If we’re caught and arrested – well, if I ’ m arrested – we’ll be called back to the Underrealm from wherever we are. The plan doesn’t change.’

Try as I might to process what might happen in the next few hours, my brain couldn’t scale the enormity of it; of what the Underrealm would look like, feel like, what it would do to us. Instead I fixated on logistical details.