Reality Bites by Nicola Rhodes

words, the answer came to him.  ‘Bingo!  Why didn’t I think of that before?  All I had to do was ask. I am so stupid.’  For the first time, he wondered what was happening to him.  It was as if he did not care. Normally, he thought, he would have asked the question a lot sooner.  He shook his head. ‘ I’m just tired,’ he thought.  ‘So, here I go.’ He raised the Athame.
    What Denny had realised, of course, was that Tamar was on another plane of existence, not a spiritual plane, but another physical plane. A veil had been dropped between the layers of the universe, separating it into two distinct planes that encompassed the entire world and the people who had been living in the areas where it had started from.  This had happened several hundred years ago, in an age when people tended not to travel or have relatives in other parts of the world, so they probably never noticed a thing.  How Tamar, and probably Stiles, had ended up there, was still a mystery, but one thing was certain, she would never be able to find her way out. 
    But if there’s a way in …  ‘There’s a way out,’ he said to himself.  And now he knew how to find it.  He “cut” the air in front of him, in a mystic symbol, the meaning of which he did not know, but he could look it up later – probably.  Still, it looked impressive, sort of – it shimmered in the air, like letters of fire.  Cool! – What now? Then, suddenly the veil came down; he actually saw it drop, although he sensed that the two planes were very much intact.  But now Tamar and a man, whom Denny assumed to be Stiles, were back on their own plane.  Had he reversed the symbol, he would have ended up on the other plane with them.  This knowledge came suddenly and unbidden into his mind, but there was no time to wonder why.
    Tamar shivered. ‘Did you feel that?’ she said.
    ‘No,’ said the man. ‘What?’
    ‘Oh, it was probably nothing.’
    ‘So,’ said the man, who was probably Stiles. ‘We’re going back to Scotland then?’
    ‘Why would you do that?’ asked Denny, from behind them, ‘you just got here.’
    Tamar spun, and Denny hastily concealed the Athame in his pocket.
    ‘Denny!’  She flung her arms around him.  Then she drew back, frowning.  ‘How? What? How did we get back?’
    Denny assumed a blank expression.  ‘ I don’t know,’ he said. ‘I was in the other room and I heard you talking – although,’ he dropped his voice to a whisper.  ‘I didn’t hear you come in – did you teleport?’
    ‘No, yes, that’s not what I meant,’ she glanced at Stiles.  ‘Oh, it’s okay, he knows.’
    Denny now tried to look as if he were more confused than ever, it was an expression that settled easily on his face from long practice.  ‘So, if you teleported, and he knows about it, why are you asking how you got here? What’s the game?’
    Denny’s acting skills had really come on. In the last few days he had gone from Keanu Reeves to Anthony Hopkins.
    ‘No game – I – I …’
    ‘You know what?’  Denny stopped her, why don’t you have a drink or something and calm down, you’re all shaky.  And aren’t you going to introduce us?’  He indicated Stiles, who was standing behind her, looking awkward.
    ‘Oh, yes, Jack – this is Denny.  Denny – this is Jack Stiles.’
    ‘No kidding,’ said Stiles, dourly.
    ‘I guessed as much,’ said Denny, smiling, he held out a hand. ‘Nice to meet you.’  They shook hands.
    ‘Is it hot in here?’ said Tamar, pulling off layers. 
    ‘I’m afraid I haven’t been able to find out very much,’ said Denny.  ‘I was too busy looking for you.’  He turned to Tamar.  ‘Where have you been?’
    ‘You were looking for her here ?’ said Stiles sceptically.
    ‘I just got back,’ said Denny easily.
    If Stiles thought that Denny seemed suspiciously calm for a man whose girlfriend had been missing for a week, he did not say so.
    ‘It’s okay,’ said Tamar.  ‘I