White Shadows

Chapter 2 - Holy Weather

***ALEX***

As soon as Annie leads us through the door, I'm struck by how cold it is in the Second Universe. Part of that could be explained by the fact that it's always dark, with the only light being the moon. Annie also adds an explanation of her own - we're at a pretty high altitude here, higher than Bearville, and so the temperature in this area is always cooler.

Still, I should have thought of that. I didn't even bring any of my belongings with me - Russell had said there wasn't time. But looking back, I realize I should have at least brought a hoodie or something. The hairs on my arms are trying to freeze themselves off.

"Did Russell really tell you there was no time to pack your stuff?" Annie asks, shaking her head in exasperation as she listens to my thoughts. "Tsk, tsk. Someone was in a rush. Well, unlike me, he's not an artist. And you know what they say - you can't rush art." She clicks a button on a key fob, unlocking a big nineties-era Dodge Ram van parked nearby. Now that I see it, I look around, as does Juliet, and we realize that the door we've just come out of is attached to what looks like an abandoned gas station on the side of a highway.

"Don't worry," says Kyle, looking at me and Juliet and seeing how grossed out we both are. "That door doesn't go to the bathroom or anything. It's just the loading dock."

"If you say so," Juliet says, shuddering in disgust.

"Do all the Terminal doors appear in random places like that?" I ask. "And why do so many of them show up near bathrooms?"

"The less likely they are to be discovered, the better," says Freddie.

"Come on," Annie says, opening the van's clamshell side doors. "Time's a-wastin', kids. We gotta get to Tahoe right away."

"Tahoe?" Gabe asks, his eyes going wide.

"You mean, like, Paradisian ski resort and A-frame cabins and casinos on the Nevada side?" I ask. "That Tahoe?"

"It's where Russell and Harlan and I grew up," Annie says, getting into the driver's seat.

"Who's Harlan?" asks Juliet.

"My other little brother," Annie says. "You'll meet him when we get there - he's still young enough to live at home. Basically, Tahoe's a free zone, a place where Holly's little policy of fencing off mortals in city-sized ghettos never happened. Mortals and scrivs coexist there pretty peacefully." She fires up the engine as Fionna and I climb through the side door. "Of course, Tahoe's fenced off itself. But that's more for security purposes than anything else. We can't let Holly get in, can we?"

I pile into the backseat with Fionna on one side and Juliet on the other. Gabe gets into the driver's side second-row seat. He watches as Kyle gets into the front passenger seat, a look of disappointment on his face. I can only imagine how hard it must be for him, being with this guy who, for all intents and purposes, is his boyfriend in guardian-spirit form. But this Kyle isn't the angel he dated for six months or more before he died. He's not the fire-elemental angel with whom he's made one of the strongest connections he's ever had, or will ever have.

And meanwhile, here I am, once again reunited with my dead girlfriend. I almost want to say God had something to do with this, but teenage love isn't really in His wheelhouse - He's got much more important stuff to deal with. So if any deity is involved with what happens to me and Fionna, I imagine they'd be Roman or Greek or something. Aphrodite really must not want to see us apart. So if that's the case, what did Gabe do to get on her bad side, then? At least she didn't curse him with a gnarly skunk stench or anything. I think she did that to someone in at least one of the myths.