Layers of the World

“WhaaaaAAAAA!” Before I could finish my question, gravity had left my body.

You know that feeling you get when you ride a rollercoaster? That was exactly how I felt. My stomach churned with tingling sensations as my feet dangled in the air. For support, I grabbed the collar of the man holding me in bridal style.

When I had my eyes on his figure, my jaw dropped.

Behind him, a huge pair of majestic white wings spread like a glorious white flag in the night sky. Yes, white flag. Just go along with it, would you? By now, you should have known that my brain is messed up and sometimes I say weird things.

The white color glistened in the darkness as if each feathery strands held glitter. The feathers even outshone the stars and the moon altogether.

“You’re a…” My mouth got dry at the moment.

His light blue eyes glistened with amusement. “A what?” he challenged.

I gulped hard. My saliva suddenly made a knot in my throat. “A… a dove?”

The amused look faded, quickly changed by a blank look. His mouth turned downward, he was frowning at me. “A what?”

I blinked.

But before I could correct my answer, a wolf just jumped in our direction from the roof. Its jaws were tautly opened, revealing sharp teeth while its eyes shone with intent. A murderous intention.

My eyes went wide at the sight of the wolf. I gripped the man’s collar harder. I was not standing but I could feel my feet went weak. As the last attempt, I shut my eyes and buried my face on the man’s hard chest. I was ready for the impact that would hit us.

The impact never came. I opened my eyes again just in time to catch the brown big wolf, Renald’s wolf, snapped its jaws on the first wolf mid-air then crashed the body to the street. The fall created a crack on the asphalt street, ruining the symmetrical white lines in the middle of the street. I could hear the sound echoing, the thud was amazingly loud. I could even see the buildings and street lamps shook from the enormous impact.

Nonetheless, no one came out of their houses to check the massive sound or the sudden earthquake. Not the guitar boy who gave the rude middle finger, not the old man who asked me if I was okay, not anyone.

“No one came out…” I did not realize that I said my mind out loud.

“Glamor,” the angelic man whispered in my ear. The hot breaths that came out of his mouth felt ticklish.

“Huh?”

“It’s called glamor. Supernatural beings use glamor to avoid humans’ eyes.”

I frowned. His explanation did not make any sense whatsoever. “What do you mean by glamor? As in you make humans see a different version of the Earth? Did you put chips on their heads to filter what they see?”

The man tilted his head to the side. The amusement look came back to his eyes. This time with a slight smile on his thick lips. “You’re a science person, aren’t you?”

“I’m proud to be.”

He chuckled and Beelzebub, his deep laughter was… sexy.

“This will be hard to grasp then,” he said, “See, the world is not the three-dimensional globe that you scientists know. There are parallel worlds. Like layers of different realities. Putting on glamor means putting on a layer on top of the reality that humans are in.”

My frown did not subside and my eyebrows knotted even further. Unexpectedly, I forgot that I was being fearful just a moment ago. My whole body was filled with curiosity and hunger for answers. “You’re saying that the theory of the mathematical universe from Max Tegmark is true? And what? Supernatural beings have the ability to control these so-called layers?”

This time, the angel frowned at me. “A what universe by who?”

I wanted to rephrase my question but suddenly a vampire appeared next to us and extended his claws at the angel. In one sudden movement, the angel shifted his body, bringing me along with him, and kicked the vampire in the stomach. The vampire coughed at the impact and his body was thrown off a bit but he did not fall to the ground. Instead, he was hovering in the air just like the angel and me. And behind him, more vampires started to ascend to the dark sky.

“Since when vampires can fly… that’s totally not fair…”

“I agree,” the angel said, “Hold on tight!”

Renald suddenly appeared and lurched to a she-vampire, bringing the flying creature down in an instant. But the other vampires set their eyes at me and the angel. And they began to fly towards us at a high speed.

Remember, vampires could teleport. So, they appeared suddenly next to us in a blink of an eye. The angel flapped his wings to get rid of two vampires and I circled my arm on his neck as we flew to get out of range from the vampires. Luckily, some of the wolves would jump from the street and brought down a few vampires. But the remaining vampires who were still in the air kept on appearing and disappearing near us.

At that moment, I just had to ask. I’m sorry. Once I’m curious I cannot put it aside.

“Are they really teleporting?”

The angel chuckled while diving down from a vampire who just appeared in front of us. Renald appeared suddenly to bring down that vampire. I could see that while the wolves were reluctant to approach Renald, they still tried to jump on the angel and me when we were flying close to the street. Their teeth and claws were always extended. But the angel was always able to avoid their aims.

“It’s called winnowing.”

“…Like in Sarah J Maas’ books?”

“Who?” The angel just shifted to the left with his wings to avoid the appearance of a vampire who was then bit by a wolf and was brought to the street. Six vampires remained in the air still pursuing us. While dozens of wolves with Renald in the front running on the street below us.

“Sarah J Maas. She writes books about faes with great erotic sceeeeEEENNS!” The angel just took another sharp turn to the right. But a wolf jumped from the building on the right. Luckily, Renald had appeared –or as the angel said, winnowed, to the wolf and snapped its neck right then.

“You have weird references, huh?” the angel continued, “Hold on tight.”

“I’m already holding on tight!”

“Then hold on tighter.”

I did as he told me to do. And as soon as I hugged him, maybe a little bit strangling him, he dove down sharply. I was pretty sure that my back was almost touching the street. The vampires dove down to, following pursuit still. While the wolves kept on running at full speed.

A gate with lots of vines intertwined on it suddenly opened up. But when the angel tried to flow past it, our bodies hit a hard invisible wall. He quickly shifted his body so that he received the impact alone with his right shoulder.

“Shit!” he cursed.

He finally landed and lowered me to the ground. Renald winnowed to near us. In front of us, the vampires and wolves kept on approaching.

“You need to enter the premise if you want to be safe. But you need to enter at your own will,” the angel said in a rush. He took a step inside the gate and extended his hand to me. Renald nudged me with his muzzle to step beyond the gate. The brown wolf’s eyes were filled with panic.

“Arianna, come on!” the angel cried out.

I blinked.

All of it was real. The vampires and the wolves were very real and they were hell-bent to get me. Renald being a hybrid was real. The angel was real.

*Was the man calling himself a demon real too?*

“Arianna!” he called my name again. His voice showed distress. Renald stepped inside the gate as well. The brown wolf looked at me pleadingly.

I could feel claws and teeth were reaching me. They were just an inch from my back when I finally stepped inside the gate. A strand of my hair was cut by the sharp claws but as soon as I was inside the gate, the vampires and wolves seemed to have hit a hard wall. Just like what the angel hit before.

I turned my body to see the flock of supernatural creatures looking at me angrily. The vampires hissed while the wolves growled. A moment ago they were fighting with each other. And yet now they had banded together to throw menacing gazes to me.

Renald pulled my shirt gently with his wolf mouth. And I found myself following the angel and the wolf to a huge old mansion I have never seen in Manhattan. The first thought that came to my mind was: *flying is not as fun as I thought it would be.*