Spoilers by Delilah Cross

“Don’t hold your breath.”
What happened next was a violent blur of bright light, high winds, clashing colors, and the sensation of being ripped out of space—dislocated—and suspended in a void, as if time had hiccupped. We fell through one last blinding flash that gave way to darkness, our bodies crashing hard on the cement.
The sensation during was not something that could ever be adequately described in words, but the landing could easily be summed up in just one: sickening.

“Easy. Take it easy. Breathe for me, Quinn, just breathe.”
It was such a sudden, blind switch. His kindness. The softened edge in the sound of his voice. The touch of his hand, sliding up my spine, was something solid and sure while everything else seemed to be spinning topsy-turvy. The man in my company, my kidnapper, steadied me. I didn’t expect that, but I welcomed the feeling so easily. And then I opened my eyes and my equilibrium was gone again.
It had been unmistakable daylight only a minute ago. Sunset had been hours off, and yet it was pitch black outside; the moon hanging in the night’s sky a little past that telltale position. No longer standing in a parking structure filled with cars, we were now inexplicably outside in a narrow back alley behind two streets lined with buildings. No police. No sirens. It was all gone.

“What? Wh-where…” I stumbled breathlessly over my own words, confounded, eyes darting all around us. My breaths became shallow and rapid. My heart beat faster. “I-I d-don’t understand. How?”

I could feel the man’s eyes set on my face as I tried to make sense of it all, desperate to rationalize everything I was seeing in some way. But no matter how many times I blinked, I was grounded, in every literal and horrifyingly sobered sense of the word.