UnEarthly

“I’m on the wrong side of a parallel universe.”

~ A Cinderella Story

Elsa

“You’re my forever.”

That had been the last thing Spencer said to me. I’d barely been able to say “You’re my always” before a wave of heat ripped us apart, and I fell down, down, down into black oblivion. I reached out desperately, futilely into the void, but my hands brushed only rushing air. I tried screaming for Spencer, Anna, Dom – anyone – but I heard only the deafening roar of the wind and nothing of my own voice.

What was happening? Where was my pack? Where was I? Would this ever end? Or was my punishment to fall in this seemingly endless pit forever?

Panic began setting in, threatening to overwhelm and render me wholly ineffective. I couldn’t let that happen. If I could survive the torture by the Shadows, I could survive this. Figure this out.

I willed myself to calm down, although it took more effort than I cared to admit. If I couldn’t see, couldn’t speak, couldn’t hear, how else could I reach my pack?

Shift, dumbass. Shift! My conscience snapped. Well, at least some part of my body worked as it should. I switched into wolf form and sent out a plea to Spencer, Anna, Dom, and even my parents, begging someone to say something, anything. I just needed to know I wasn’t alone in this bottomless hellhole.

Nothing.

I tried again.

Nothing.

Again and again and again, I reached out to anyone I could think of, even becoming so desperate as to reach out to Callie, but no one answered. I closed my eyes, finally allowing my panic and terror to wash over me as I broke down into silent sobs, wishing the Controllers had killed me instead of this hellish nightmare they’d entrapped me in. Maybe they had killed me. Maybe that heat wave I’d felt vaporized myself, my pack, and anyone else who dared to go against the Controllers. I’d understood they were powerful, understood their magic could devastate lives with a simple snap of their fingers, but to do this… I couldn’t begin to fathom the depth of their power, what it could-

SNAP!

My back crashed through a wall of sticks and stones. I clawed frantically to grab hold of something, but I only injured and scraped up my hands in the process. At least I slowed down my descent, a blessing considering I crashed onto the snow-packed ground hardly a second later. The impact still brutally knocked the wind out of me, causing me to wheeze and cough for a few minutes until I regained my breath.

Once it abated, I slowly opened my eyes. A canopy of black branches towered over me, a jagged hole in the middle of them where I’d plummeted unceremoniously through. I could see the night sky, dotted with thousands upon thousands of twinkling stars, but I hardly recognized them. The constellations that should’ve been in the sky weren’t there. Was I in the southern hemisphere, maybe?

Groaning, I pushed myself into a sitting position, ignoring my protesting muscles. I had to assess the damage done to my body because only by a miracle would I have escaped that plunge unscathed. I inspected my hands first, unsurprised to find them scratched and bleeding. Shockingly, I only had one splinter, and it was large enough that I easily plucked it out. I then grabbed a handful of snow and rubbed it between my hands to loosen the blood and dirt before wiping them on my jeans. The friction on the cuts stung, but I ignored it. They’d heal quickly. At least my hands were mostly clean now.

I proceeded to evaluate my torso and back, finding nothing but some soreness and more scratches on the latter. My shirt and jacket must’ve prevented any significant injuries. The same went for my legs and feet, although an odd heaviness had settled in my left ankle.

Probably badly bruised, and my adrenaline and shock are keeping the pain at bay. I thought, taking a deep breath. I rolled onto my hands and knees and tried to stand, only to hear a second ”snap," but this time much smaller and much more painful.

I collapsed to the ground, an involuntary yelp escaping my lips. When I looked down, nausea swept over me like a tidal wave. My left ankle bent at an unnatural, near ninety-degree angle. That was definitely broken.

“It’ll heal," I whispered to myself, semi-relieved to hear my voice working after the fall in oblivion. My nerves calmed slightly at the sound, so to battle the panic once again rising in my chest, I began talking myself through what I needed to do. “Okay, it’ll heal, but it’ll take longer if I don’t get it back into its natural angle. Oh God, this is going to hurt. This is going to hurt so bad. But if you can survive torture by the Shadows, you can endure this. Come on, Elsa Stark. Come on!"

Before I could let myself chicken out, I grabbed my leg and foot and wrenched my ankle back into its regular position. The sharp, nauseating pain elicited a strangled scream, and I barely managed to twist to the side in time to hurl the contents of my stomach onto the ground. My vision tunneled, my body threatening to shut down in its agony, but I forced myself to stay awake, terrified that if I fell asleep, I wouldn’t wake back up again.

“Shift, Elsa," I whispered, slurring my words. “You can walk better as a wolf than a human right now.”

My physical voice, the voice of reason, cleared my head and sight enough that I could actually listen to the logic. I shifted into a white wolf, whimpering at the new wave of pain in my ankle stemming from the transition, but at least I was up and standing. Gingerly lifting my back left leg, I began hobbling into the densely wooded forest.

Nothing looked familiar.

Nothing smelled familiar.

Nothing sounded familiar.

I had no idea where I was, where my pack was, what direction I was headed in, where the closest town was…

Lost. I was utterly, hopelessly lost with no way of discovering anything except trudging diligently, stubbornly forward. I refrained from howling in case of the slim chance another wolf pack lived nearby or a predator lurked close by looking for wolf kibble for dinner. Still, I tried reaching out to everyone I knew again, praying to God and any other deities I could think of in hopes it’d help me get an answer from someone.

Elsa? Dom? Spencer? Caleb? Hunter? Josie? Lily? Someone?! A voice identical to my own but not mine shouted hopefully in my head, and I recognized it. I knew them. Some god must’ve heard my prayer or taken pity on me; either way, I didn’t care because it meant Anna was nearby.

Anna! I exclaimed, my relief and excitement evident. I’ve never been happier to hear your voice.

God, it’s good to hear yours, too. Do you know where we are?

Not in the slightest. Are you hurt?

I think I have a concussion. Hit my head pretty good when I landed. You?

Broken ankle.

Can you walk?

Yeah, but not fast. What do you see around you? I don’t know how close we are to each other, and I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to howl when I don’t know where we are.

I had the same idea. The hairs on the back of my neck are constantly standing up. Let’s see… Anna trailed off, and I stopped my trek not only in case I happened to be moving away from her but also to give my throbbing ankle a break. I see a lot of trees, which I’m sure isn’t helpful.

I couldn’t help but snort in amusement. Not at all. Do you smell anything? I smell pine, aspen, cologne, snow-

Cologne? Where was cologne coming from? Anna had the same thought because she jumped on my remark nearly as quickly as I did. I told her it was faint but fresh, for it would strengthen whenever the wind blew. Whoever it was, they were upwind of me. Whoever it was, they could hopefully lead me to civilization.

As fast as my broken ankle and three legs would allow, I started moving in that direction, keeping Anna updated on what I saw, smelled, and heard in the event she recognized something I said to help her navigate to me or me to her. I passed rocks and boulders, ducked under logs, jumped over fallen trees, leaped over nearly-frozen streams, and noted the jagged peak to my right. Anna had sights on it, too, but she informed me that she was miles from it, whereas I only seemed to be about one or two.

I’m coming up on a clearing. I told her, keeping low to the ground and staying behind objects to hide my position from whomever I blindly sought.

Ooh, I’m on a big hill right now, and I can see a clearing way in the distance! I’ll make my way there as fast as I can!

Perfect! See you soon, but be careful! We don’t need both of us injured. I warned. My twin promised she would, and I sat in the shadow of a tall pine tree, using its branches as a shield from prying eyes. I scanned the empty field, waiting for the cologne-wearing culprit to show his face. I assumed it to be a man, at least. The scent smelled too masculine to be female.

My vigil lasted only a few minutes before the universe answered my question. A giant, brown wolf – at least as big as Spencer – emerged from the opposite side of the clearing, trotting briskly across. I tensed, wondering if it’d notice me. If it stayed on its current trajectory, it’d miss me by about a hundred feet. But if it altered its path just slightly to the right, the wolf would go right past me, and then I’d be the one upwind, and I had no doubt that wolf would come investigating.

I blinked, and in that short timeframe, the wolf shifted into a person. Although I only caught a glimpse of his face before he turned his back to me, there was no mistake who the person was. He was a person I loved. A person I’d been frantically calling out for.

Caution thrown to the wind, I scrambled out of the safety of the pine tree and loped as swiftly as my injured body would carry me while I ecstatically shared the news with Anna. My vision tunneled; whether from excitement or the pain lancing up my leg and through my back, I had no way of knowing. I didn’t care. All I cared about was the man standing in front of me, staring with cautious eyes and a tense posture.

As I neared him, I shifted into human form. Once within ten feet, I launched myself into his arms, crying out, “Spencer!"

"What the-?" My husband lurched backward and out of my reach, causing me to faceplant the snow instead of enveloping him in my arms. I coughed and sputtered in disbelief and no small amount of anger.

Staggering up, I glowered at him and growled, “What the fuck, Spencer? What’s wrong with-”

I never finished my sentence. One moment, I was facing down my husband for his appalling behavior, and the next, I was once more on my back, being pinned down by Spencer.

He held no recognition of me in his emerald eyes.

“What the fuck are you doing here, Laroche?" He demanded, fingers digging into my sore shoulders.

The use of my last name knocked the breath out of me. We hadn’t used each other’s last names since high school, and even then, only briefly. Had I gone back in time? I glanced at his ring finger.

Nothing.

The nausea returned. What was happening?

“Laroche!" Spencer’s snapping recaptured my attention. “Are you going to answer me or what?"

"I-I don’t-" The words fumbled out of my mouth, no coherent sentence willing to form. This was too much. “Spencer, I-”

His brow furrowed in annoyance. “It’s Spence. Since when has my name ever been Spencer?”

Oh no. No, no, no, no-

“Elsie, what’s the matter with you? Did you hit your head?" he queried, once more throwing me completely off kilter. Elsie? Really?

“Who the hell is Elsie?”

He cocked his head. “Aren’t you Elsie? I could’ve sworn… are you Annie?"

"What? No! Neither!" I burst in horror, finally struggling against his vice-like grip. “Let me up! Get off me!"

"No, not until you tell me what’s going on with you and why you’re skulking around the base."

"Skulking around the- I don’t even know where the hell I am!" I spat furiously, continuing to struggle against him. With the minimal mobility in my arms, I engaged my claws and gouged them into Spencer’s sides. His grip slackened slightly, and I took advantage of it, using my knee to nail him in the groin before shoving him off of me. I dragged my body away from him but never turned my back to ’Spence.′ I didn’t trust him.

“Oh, I’m going to kill you for that," he groaned, bracing himself on his arms and panting. “I’m going to kill you.”

A terrifying, soul-crushing idea started formulating in my head. I didn’t know how I could prove it to be wholly true, but my next question would likely give me the closest answer. “Tell me something: do you know who Anna Laroche is?”

Spence rocked back onto heels, eyeing me with no small amount of fury. “No, I haven’t. I know of an Annie Laroche, though.”

My heart skipped a beat. “What about a- a Caleb Laroche? A Hunter Laroche? Or- or Ember Laroche? Dom Stark? Josilyn McKay? Noah McKay?”

Genuine confusion replaced his ire, and I swear concern flashed in his eyes. “No. Calen, Hunt, and Embry Laroche. My brother’s name is Dominic, but he goes by Nic. And Jacqueline and Norman McKay.”

Calen. Hunt. Embry. Nic. Jacqueline. Norman. Similar but different. Not the same brothers and sisters I knew. How could that be? How was this possible? How could-

“Elsa! Spencer!" Anna’s holler from across the field momentarily stopped my downward spiral. I may not have known where I was or who the man was before me, but I had my twin. My twin. Watching her sprint full-speed ahead toward us, it dawned on me she had no idea about our bizarre predicament.

“What is it with you two calling me Spencer?" My husband’s doppelganger grumbled, twisting his head to look at me.

I swallowed my fear and voiced my absurd epiphany. “Because where we come from, that is your name. Just like our names are Elsa and Anna, not Elsie and Annie.”

Spence shook his head. “I don’t understand. You’re from here. Estes Park."

"We are, but not this Estes Park. I know this is going to sound absolutely batshit insane, but I don’t-" I took a deep breath to calm my fraying nerves as the direness of our situation dawned on me- “I don’t think I’m from this universe.”