DIMENSION: RED ORIGIN DIMENSION (AKA HELL)
I hit the ground knowing I had entered the red dimension. I dusted myself off and felt a more than friendly presence running straight toward me. Jewelsy was crying, shaking, and as scared as a child. There was warm red rock and dirt all around us. She was running with bare feet against the jagged ground. I caught her in my arms, relieved to feel her near again.
"Mister Umbrella!" She cried out. "My Aunt Merissa is throwing me out tomorrow. She doesn't care about me anymore. I have nowhere to go, and I have no food. Please help me?"
Illusions. That was the danger of the red dimension. I looked behind her, seeing a large black mass.
"Get out," the black mass bellowed.
I heard him. His voice, thick and deep, almost cliche. "The Boogeyman, how are you?" I tipped my head politely. "I see you haven't changed any."
"Get out! She is mine."
"Yours? Oh, no." I held Jewelsy tightly against me. "You knew her importance, didn't you? You old devil, you. Ooh, I shouldn't say that. Associating you with the devil gives you way too much credit."
"She is mine!"
"Is that all you can say? No more vocabulary except a few lines in a booming voice? Hmph." I tried to act like my casual self, but inside I was more than a little shook up. There was no sky protecting me from the heat and darkness.
"You can't take her back, Mister Umbrella in the Sky."
"And you could use some manners. Speaking as an unembodied voice, your mother must be disappointed." That made him roar. I smiled at Jewelsy, trying to help her see reason. "Jewelsy, your Aunt is not here, it's an illusion. You are not at home. You are in hell."
"H-hell?" She asked. "I'm in hell?"
"Yes, but not the hell you are thinking of. It is the red dimension. You are not dead, but you're no longer human. You have been converted." I pressed my head towards hers. "Jewelsy, your grandfather was a selective seer. Each day, he'd see your grandmother and become more enamored. One day, he decided to give it all up, for her. He became human and eventually married her. Then your mother was born, and then you."
"Um?" Jewelsy moved her head to the side slightly. "What are you saying?"
"When you were pulled into this dimension, you were reborn as a selective seer because of your grandfather. Had you not been pulled into the red dimension, you may have still been sent here. The more miserable you were, the worse the dimension chosen. The Boogeyman stopped your happiness, so that you would end up here, in the red dimension." I met her, eye to eye. "I'm sorry, that was no accident your family had been in."
"He . . .killed . . ." Jewelsy's mouth hung open, unable to form words. Her eyes looked backwards, and I knew the illusion was gone. Her mind would be wrapping around the evil, like lava spreading through the crusts. The fires, and redness of it all. It would barely comprehend the black mass a hundred times bigger than us, or that we were both only on a small ledge that had acted like a bridge. She screamed and buried her face into my chest.
"They squealed like pigs being slaughtered," the black mass bellowed.
Jewelsy's body went limp in my embrace. Her mouth finally spoke, although it was hoarse. "He killed them?"
"And you," The Boogeyman added. "The red dimension has converted you, you're as good as dead if you try to return."
"And you," I agreed, "no one can see you. They will all assume you are dead. Beings of the red and blue dimensions can't be seen." I saw the horror appear in her eyes, and I wished I could have changed that fact. "However, I may add, The Boogeyman does not know everything." I smiled toward her. "You have another way out. You can take the sky."
"The sky?" She asked. "Do you mean go to heaven?"
"No, to the blue dimension. With me."
"You can't take her, and you know it. If you think I don't know you're unprotected, then you are the idiot. You are not going to get her to the skies. You'll be lucky if you make it back yourself!"
"What does he mean unprotected?" Jewelsy looked all around me. "Where's your umbrella? Where's your tie?"
"I . . .I left them behind." I gulped. "I am a seer of the red dimension, with you."
"What?" Her voice almost choked. "Y-you gave up the skies?"
"For you. Jewelsy, I was taken away from you at a young age because my Superiors knew something more than we had. We aren't just friends." I held her hand in mine. "We are destined to be together. Our child will stop an apocalypse on our dimensions in the future." I looked toward The Boogeyman. "We are soul mates, and I have casted myself into hell to keep him from ruining that."
I knew her mind already had enough on it, but no more secrets.
"Soul mate?" Jewelsy's closeness was quickly disappearing as she let go. "That's not possible. I mean you're, you. You're a weird guy with a suit and an umbrella and . . .and . . ."
There was something there. Not in her words, but in her eyes. She believed me. She wouldn't say it, couldn't say it. Not after forgetting me most of her life. Not after only a couple of days, but I knew she had believed me. That was a start to saving us all.
But The Boogeyman would not let it be that easy. I felt her being ripped away from my arms. I tried to grab her, but she had been pulled by a force on her feet, causing her to fall. She was dragged away faster than a mouse scampering across the room. I ran after her, but the bridge to the other side started to crumble. I watched her get swallowed into the dark mass.
He was using his power to move her, to send her illusions and lose faith in herself. I stood my ground. I had no fright inside of myself, only anger. He had no right to do any of this to her! She could have had happiness. That's all I wanted for her.
And somehow, I was going to get her back to it.