Clipped World

Ethan lowered his arm and hand back onto Hazel's shoulder, he then closed his eyes and looked up again. They relaxed like that for several minutes before he could feel his heart rate increasing fast and the burning in his throat progress further.

The pain began to spread across his chest and he moved his arm to grab it. Hazel could sense danger once he did that and quickly scooted away from him, then looked at him seeing that he was leaning forwards and, from what she could see, his face was distorted in pain.

After a few minutes, she could see that he was catching his breath and that the pain seemed to disappear. She had a slight smile seeing that he was okay, however, her expression took a complete 180 when he opened his eyes and turned his gaze towards her.

Ethan's eyes were blood-red and his pupils were constricted until they were almost completely slit. The way his eyes looked at her made her feel like he was a predator looking at his prey. However, Ethan sensed her fear and turned his eyes away from her.

"You probably already guessed this from how much fear you have, that I'll need to consume blood soon. Though I'm not starving enough to attack you, so you can calm down some." Ethan's tone was cold and seemed threatening even though he was talking normally.

"I'm planning to leave for a few days so that I can get a grip on my powers and control my thirst better, along with reading more of the book I stole so I can learn more about myself. I-"

"I'm coming with you." Hazel still felt a little scared but she had already promised to stay by his side and a couple of other reasons too.

"Why…?"

"Because if you get hurt I can patch you up and I also wanna learn more about you if you're going to live with me…. Besides, if you leave I'm going to be lonely and bored."

Ethan looked back over her and could see the conviction in her eyes, also hearing that her heartbeat slowed down a lot. He sighed then scratched the back of his head and after a few minutes of thinking it over he gave in.

"Fine, go pack your shit."

'You won't need to patch me up because you have no idea how good my healing has become, but if I didn't agree you would have argued with me till I said yes.'

"Thanks." He watched Hazel jump up and start heading towards her room. However, after a few steps, she turned around to ask him something but he and the pressure he was giving off was gone. "Ethan?"

After a few minutes of not getting a response or seeing him appear anywhere, she began walking to her room again to pack her stuff.

~~~~

While Hazel was waiting for Ethan to appear somewhere, he had emerged from the shadow on the floor of his room and then began placing his clothing, a few light novels, an extra pair of shoes, and his phone onto his bed.

Then he moved his hand over each of the items and they began sinking into the shadows. Once they were all gone he figured he'd also transport his pillow and blankets as well.

After ten minutes since he started moving his belongings through the shadows he was finally done and began to sink into the shadow on the floor of his room again.

~~~~

Hazel was putting all the snacks she could find in her room into a duffle bag and started zipping it up until she noticed the shadow on her wall beginning to distort and a familiar pressure began to come through it.

She watched Ethan walk out of the shadow and into her room, then he looked at what she was bringing. There were five duffle bags on her bed and Ethan could see what was in three of them because she hadn't zipped them up.

They were a bunch of gadgets she had built and he could see a couple that she'd likely use right when they got there.

Ethan started zipping up the bags and then put two of them on one shoulder and the third one on his other shoulder. He then handed Hazel the bag that was already zipped and he assumed had her clothes in it if she needed to change.

"You can carry those two."

She nodded and put one on each of her shoulders, then was about to ask how they were going to get to the location when Ethan embraced her. She jumped at first but then she could feel her feet sinking into what felt like a swamp, when she looked down she could see that she was sinking into the shadow of her bed.

"We're going to move through the shadows to get to the location. I'll move slower so it'll be easier on your body, however, you'll need to take a deep breath of air once we sink to your shoulders. Do you understand?"

"Yes?"

Slowly over the next half a minute they sank and finally reached Hazel's shoulders where she took a deep breath of air. Moments later she was completely in the shadows, it felt like the pressure of the swamp was crushing her lungs and the air began to escape her mouth.

"Stay as close to me as you can, I'll relieve the pressure being put on you." Ethan's voice sounded like it was underwater, yet she could also clearly make out his words. She placed her head on his chest and hugged him.

Once she did that she could feel almost all the pressure come off of her, but continued to hold her breath. She looked up at Ethan and could see that his entire body was in monochrome colors except for his blood-red eyes.

Then she looked up at where they sank into the shadows from and she could see her room, though the floor was gone and she was looking at the bottom of all her stuff.

It reminded her of when someone would find a bug in a video game and they'd clip through the ground and see the world above. However, for her right now there were no colors, just grey-scale.

In a split second, she could feel a horrible pressure on her body and more air escaped from her mouth. When she opened her eyes she could see that the location above them had changed. This happened several more times and each time the more air escaped her lungs.

Finally, she could see, what she assumed to be, a cave above them. Then she could feel them rising through the shadows. The pressure from this was worse than when she was sinking, eventually, it drained all the air from her lungs and she inhaled the swamp made out of shadows.

Immediately their speed rapidly increased, then within seconds they were above the swamp and Ethan let go of her, however, Hazel felt like she was being suffocated and was on her hands and knees trying to breathe.

She then felt a hand on her back and could feel like she was being forced to vomit, there all the shadows she had entailed were being purged from her body. It took roughly a minute for all the shadows to exit her body and another three for her to catch her breath.

Once she caught her breath, she could feel the hand being taken off her back and she looked over at Ethan who was crouching next to her.

"T- thanks…."