Rylan was the first to react.

  "Did this happen to anyone the first time you came?" he asked in alarm.

  Raven lay on the ground with his hands on his head. His body was trembling frantically, his eyes rolled back in his head. Rylan was kneeling beside him, not really knowing what to do to stop the violent spasms racking Raven's elongated body.

  "No. No one got sick," Rick answered beside him. The surprise on his face was greater than that of the small scientist. He was the only one who had been to that place before, and he hadn't expected anyone to feel ill. "In fact, the exact opposite happened. We felt great when we got here, maybe too great, just like we felt at first. No one complained of any ailments, and there were a hundred of us."

  "We have to help him," said Rylan.

  He placed his hands on Raven's shoulders to try to hold him down. It didn't work. The scientist began to tremble at the same rhythm, as if Raven were transmitting whatever was affecting him to Rylan. His head began to jerk violently and his glasses flew off, shattering against a small rock. Rick tackled him hard and managed to pull him away from Raven. The two of them rolled across the ground for a few yards. Weapons and accessories detached from Rick's body during the tumble. Handguns, magazines, knives, and many other objects spilled from his soldier's uniform.

  "Are you okay?" Rick shook his head, dazed, and helped Rylan sit up.

  "Better... Thanks." The scientist's voice sounded weak and frightened. He was breathing heavily, his forehead drenched in sweat. "I don't understand what happened... I felt a really painful cramp... and then some strange visions... I just wanted to help him..."

  "It's best if you don't touch him again until we figure out what's happening to him." Rick stood up and went back over to Raven. His condition hadn't changed at all. "Susan, you're a doctor. Can't you help him?"

  "Raven isn't like everyone else," she said in a calm tone. She was looking at him with an expressionless face. Rick was surprised by her coldness. "I can't help him."

  "We have to help him somehow," Rylan said, approaching them again. "It doesn't matter if he's different. Our lives depend on him."

  "What do you mean?" Rick asked, intrigued.

  "He's the only one who can take us back," the scientist explained. "Have you forgotten how we got here? Without his light, we won't be able to cross the Fog again."

  Rick didn't need to think twice to admit Rylan was right. He was surprised he hadn't noticed that detail himself, and at the same time, that Rylan had picked up on something so simple and obvious. The soldier looked at Raven with different eyes, while Susan remained entrenched in her silence.

  Rick sat down next to Raven, trying to decide what to do next. He didn't dare touch him for fear of suffering the same fate as Rylan, and it was obvious they couldn't just leave and abandon him there. He stared at the immense wall of Fog they had left behind. It rose as high as the eye could see, and stretched out just as far on both sides. Looking at that thickness, Rick got the feeling he was facing the edge of that world, an impenetrable barrier that perfectly marked the limit of how far one could go.

  Raven was a complete mystery, but as Rylan had just pointed out, it could be that they all depended on him to return home. So they needed to find an explanation for that sort of epilepsy.

  The spasms suddenly left Raven in peace. His body stopped moving, and he lay on the ground in an unnatural position that simply had to be uncomfortable. Rick didn't dare touch him; he stood up and gathered the weapons he had dropped while rolling on the ground with Rylan, taking special care to check if the sword had suffered any damage. Susan walked a few yards away and stood watch.

  "We can't abandon him here," Rylan reasoned. "Let's wait and see if..."

  At that moment, Raven brought his hand to his head, like someone suffering from a migraine. He slowly sat up and opened his eyes. His gaze was no longer lost; his eyes focused on what was in front of him, although they seemed disoriented.

  "Are you feeling better?" Rick asked, leaning over him. He still had his reservations about touching him again. "You suffered some kind of epileptic fit, or a seizure. Your body was convulsing. We didn't know what to do."

  Raven finished standing up, looked around for a few moments, then turned, his eyes showing surprise when they met Rylan and Rick.

  "I think I'm starting to understand," Raven said in a monotonous voice. He spoke with a lack of intonation that suggested an absence of emotions. It reminded Rylan of the voices robots used in those eighties movies he loved so much. "I've been to this place before."

  "What? You said you'd never been here," Rick was growing increasingly curious about the enigmatic individual.

  "I wasn't sure. I had confusing visions." Raven continued to speak listlessly. "Now I know I've been here before."

  "I thought this was the first time you'd crossed the Fog."

  "I don't remember crossing it before. But I know I've been here." Despite the indifference in his voice, there was a great deal of certainty in Raven's words. It was uncharacteristic of him; he usually spoke in a frightened tone.

  "When were you here? Do you know anything about this world?"

  "It was during the Wave," said Raven. Rylan opened his mouth, determined to fire off a barrage of questions at will, but Rick squeezed his arm, forcing him to stay quiet. He wanted Raven to keep talking. "It isn't exactly another world," Raven continued. "We're in another dimension. That's what the journey through the Fog entails—a passage between two planes. Now I know."

  "Do you know what you did when you were here the first time?"

  Raven blinked, looking directly at Rick as if seeing him for the first time.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  "I don't remember." His voice had recovered its usual cadence, but it continued to ooze confidence and determination. "But I wasn't alone."

  "Were you with the people from here?" asked Rylan, shaking off Rick's grip. The scientist was dying of curiosity to interrogate him. "Can they fly?"

  "Probably." Raven considered once again revealing to them that they were angels and that they were actually in Heaven, but he preferred to give them a clue to see if they would reach that conclusion on their own. He still feared they wouldn't believe him, which was to be expected, all things considered. "What I do know for a fact is that they have wings." He hadn't lied. According to everything he had heard in his life, it was a widespread belief that angels flew, but this trait didn't seem to align with reality. He remembered when Nilia had rescued him from Diago and his group. They had fallen from the twentieth floor of a building, and although she brought out her wings and slowed their descent, they had ultimately crashed into the ground. It didn't seem to him like she could fly, only glide.

  "Wings! I knew it," Rylan exclaimed.

  "You say you had company. Were you able to talk to them?" Rick asked.

  "No. I didn't even see them. I felt them very clearly behind me, one on each side. I was standing before two bodies lying on the ground; I couldn't take my eyes off them."

  "And none of the four of them said anything?" Rick found that hard to believe.

  "There weren't four. There were two," Raven corrected him, annoyed.

  "You just said there were two lying on the ground and two behind you, one on each side."

  "I know. But the two lying on the ground were dead."

  "Did you kill them?" asked Rylan without an ounce of enthusiasm in his voice. "Maybe that's why they're after you."

  "No. It wasn't me. I'm sure they were like that when I got there. But I think I know how to get more answers."

  Raven pulled off the wool sweater he was wearing and let it drop to the ground. He revealed a sweaty cotton t-shirt with several holes in it.

  "Are you hot?" Rylan asked. "I feel great."

  "It's not that. I need you guys to help me with something." Raven pulled his t-shirt over his head and dropped it onto the sweater, exposing a thin, elongated torso where each and every one of his ribs showed through the skin. Then he turned around, showing them his back. "Tell me what you see."

  Rylan let out a groan. Rick stared at his skeletal back for a moment without daring to utter a word.

  "You have a mark," he finally said, overcoming his surprise. "A symbol. It's very strange."

  "Touch it," Raven ordered him.

  Rick reached out and touched Raven's skin. It was parched and felt somewhat rough to the touch. Then he slid his fingers over some lines that crisscrossed his back, forming a complicated design. There was no tactile difference between the normal skin and the skin discolored by the strokes of the symbol.

  "It's a rune," Raven explained. "Trace it from beginning to end. I want to see if it tells me anything."

  Not knowing which was the beginning and which was the end, Rick started at a random point next to his left shoulder and slid his finger across his back, tracing the path of the rune. At some points, he had to lift his finger from the skin and start again somewhere else, since the symbol wasn't formed by a single continuous stroke.

  "Done," said Rick, pulling his hand back. "Did that clear anything up for you?"

  "Not much. But I know where I'll be able to decipher its meaning."

  "You didn't know you had that mark all these years?"

  Raven didn't answer. He put his sweater back on and left the t-shirt on the ground.

  "Where will you find those answers?" Rylan asked, intrigued. "We can go with you."

  "I'm not sure that's a good idea. Remember that they're looking for me and people have already died getting in their way. Besides, I don't know exactly where I need to go. I have to find the exact place I was the first time."

  "But this world or... dimension could be enormous. How will you find it?" Rick asked him.

  "Something is pulling me in its direction. I know it's here; you can't mistake a place where there are no shadows and things float in the air."

  "There might be shadows after all," Rylan ventured. "At least one, and a really big one at that."

  "Show it to me," Raven requested.

  Rylan and Rick guided Raven to the ledge they had used as a viewpoint and showed him the strange shadow stretching across the ground. It was no longer pressed up against the Fog. It had separated from the immense wall of mist and was advancing into a plain, moving faster than they had estimated.

  "It looks to be heading toward the city," Rick observed, interested.

  "It's not a shadow," Raven corrected them. "It's them. Thousands of them. They're marching closely together and they're dressed in black; that's why it looks like a shadow from this distance."

  "You can make them out from here?" asked Rylan, astonished.

  "Well enough. They're very far away," Raven added. "I think you're right, Rick. They're heading for the city. I have to go," he added suddenly. "I must find the place where I was."

  "Wait!" Rick shouted at him. Raven had turned around and was heading back toward the mountain. "We're going with you. Besides, we can't cross back through the Fog without your help."

  Rylan and Rick followed Raven, catching up to him as they climbed down from the elongated rock. Raven was examining their surroundings, looking carefully in every direction. Rick didn't really know what he was doing, but he was determined to accompany him. It was obvious that this eccentric character was intimately connected to everything that was happening. He had no reason to doubt what he had told them, but no matter how hard he tried, it took a tremendous effort to trust his story. He had been here ten years ago, when the Wave struck. Anyway, Rick hardly even knew what they had come here to do anymore. Jack's words flashed briefly in his mind, reminding him that they had to unravel the secrets of those weapons before the Northerners did, but he quickly pushed them out of his head. He was consumed by a feeling that went far beyond mere curiosity. Nor was it something like Rylan's scientific drive to understand things and make discoveries; in his case, it was an inescapable need to know the truth. A need that had been steadily goading him ever since he began investigating the Tech Underground Corporation, and that had been gaining intensity with every unexplained event he encountered along the way, until it had become an insatiable hunger for answers. So now he was setting foot in another dimension—another plane, as Raven had called it. This time, he wouldn't leave without knowing all the details, and Raven, along with that place he was looking for, was the key to solving the mystery.

  "I'll help you get to that place, Raven," Rick announced. "We'll figure out what's going on. Starting with the Wave and ending with this plane and its inhabitants. I promise you."

  "You might not like the answers," Raven warned him. "Or maybe you aren't ready to accept them. Don't forget that they are hunting me and your safety is in dan..."

  "Where were you, Susan?" Rylan ran toward her. Susan appeared from behind some rocks, walking calmly. "Raven says we're in another dimension, and we've seen thousands of men in black marching toward a city with flying buildings. It's awesome! We're going to a secret place where there are two people who will tell Raven everything he needs to know, and we'll find out what the Wave is, and..."

  Rylan continued recounting his own version of what had happened in his peculiar style, brimming with enthusiasm, as he approached Susan.

  "What were you saying about my safety?" Rick asked Raven. "Well, the truth is I don't care. I'm willing to risk whatever it takes. Come on, let's go."

  Raven said nothing and remained standing exactly where he was without moving a muscle. Rick noticed and turned to him.

  "Don't worry," he told him, misinterpreting his reluctance to move. "I'll protect you from them. You can count on my help, I already told you."

  Raven remained motionless. Only his eyes seemed to have any life in them, and they were fixed on a single spot. Rick took a step back and placed a hand on his shoulder.

  "Come on, we can't stay here. Let's look for that place that's pulling you," he tugged at him gently, intending to make him move forward. The sweater slipped through his fingers. Raven didn't even flinch. He stayed planted on the spot.

  At that moment, Rick noticed his gaze. His eyes gleamed with a hint of fear, and Rick unsheathed his sword in a reflex action, deducing that some danger was stalking them that only Raven could sense. He spun around quickly and discovered exactly where Raven's gaze was fixed.

  His eyes were aimed directly at Susan.