The Portal

by Charles Sterling

  “REGAL?!?!”

  We darted towards him.

  “What the hell?! You’re alive! Violet!!” we called out to her. She burst out of her room and flew straight at him into a huge tackle-hug.

  “We thought you were dead!” she squeezed the life out of him.

  “You’ll break my bones, Violet! Won’t be much jolly British Regal of me left if you jolly break all my bones.”

  “No way, you’re alive…” I shook my head.

  “I wasn’t sure when it was safe to come out,” he said. “I do apologize if I had you all worried. I followed Violet’s instructions of acting as though Wilmort were to stab us in the back and ruin everything. I assume the codes worked fine?”

  “Yeah,” said Nero. “Yeah… the codes worked fine.”

  Nero dropped to the floor, covering his face.

  “You can shed tears,” I told him, “no one will say anything.”

  “Shut up,” he mumbled through his hands.

  We took several minutes to settle down, it was a lot to take in at once.

  “The four items are still here,” said Violet.

  “With the fifth one god knows where,” said Regal.

  “I’ll bring it back soon,” she said.

  “No, don’t,” he replied. “I believe it might be safer not to have such perilous objects anywhere in the vicinity.”

  “So the machine?” I asked.

  “Allow me to show you…” Regal got up. “Follow me.” He went over to his computers at the other end of the room.

  “What could it be?” I said out loud.

  “Judging by Regal’s intense face, might not be that good,” said Nero.

  He sat down on his spinning chair, and we stood around him. He pulled out a file – it was a video file. He pressed play.

  “I cut this just for you,” said Regal.

  We watched the video on the big screen. There was a camera in the corner of this large lab with very clear audio. Regal was sitting on this exact spot, clicking and typing away. A portal opened in the center of the room as Wilmort walked out of it.

  “Ahh, Wilmort,” said Regal. “How are things?”

  Wilmort walked right up to Regal, and pointed a gun at his head. A few seconds of silence passed.

  “You don’t seem surprised,” said Wilmort.

  “They’ve already predicted it,” said Regal. He nudged his eyes towards the five cylinders containing the items. The stopwatch was gone.

  “Where is it?!” said Wilmort.

  “I don’t know, they didn’t tell me. And I’ve reset their portals, you won’t be able to access them.”

  Wilmort sighed. He lowered his gun.

  “Look,” he said. “I’m tired.” There was a long pause. “I’m very, very tired. I killed Douglas, he won’t be coming back to us.”

  Regal looked down and closed his eyes.

  “I…” Wilmort continued. “There will only be one winner at the end of this. And if it’s not me, I need you to be there for them, like you always were. Could you do that for me, Regal?”

  “Yes.” He answered quietly.

  “The red pulse is a fake, you may find a hidden file called eight two eight nine. Delete it, and the pulse and false information will stop.”

  “I did not think you to be so savvy with technology.”

  “I didn’t have to be. I had a programmer do it for me.”

  “Must be some programmer then…”

  “I’m going to tell them you ended your life to protect them. I hope this to be a fair duel between us. They’re smart, they’ll probably win, somehow.”

  “You trained them, after all,” said Regal. “And for some reason, you trained them to lie.”

  “Not Raymond,” he shook his head. “That man can’t lie for his life,” he chuckled. “If they come out of this alive, and you’ll meet them here, just… tell them I’m sorry.”

  “Okay,” Regal pressed his lips tightly. He stood up, walked closer to Wilmort, and hugged him tightly. The video ended there.

  I walked away from everyone, I needed another moment. So much was happening it was unbearable.

  “Raymond?” Violet followed me.

  “Even to Wilmort, Regal was like a father-figure, wasn’t he?”

  “Yes,” she said, sitting down next to me.

  “Now what I wonder?”

  “Now we return the items to where they belong,” she said.

  “I got dibs on the pendant, then,” I pushed my hand into my pocket, and pulled out the pendant.

  “I’ll give back the book then,” said Violet.

  Nero and Regal walked over to us. “Did you guys decide on your items without me? Come on.”

  “You can take the scepter back,” said Violet.

  “Great,” said Nero, “I’ll come back with ruby eyes,” he made a funny face.

  “I shall bring the stopwatch back then,” said Dr. Regal.

  “No! That’s dangerous,” said Violet.

  “It is not. I owe him a prompt apology. Worry not, I have interacted with him before.”

  “Did you now?” said Nero. “How come?”

  “Would you not want to talk to a god and ask him things like, how was the universe created, or is time truly real?”

  “I would,” I said.

  “I wouldn’t,” said Violet.

  “Well then…” I slowly leaned forward. “Let’s move out?”

  Several minutes later, I flew over to the castle from up above, making sure I was high enough for the people below me to not see anything. I neared the princess’s window and gave her a knock.

  No one opened.

  I knocked again. “Princess, it’s me, Raymond.”

  Now she opened, although reluctantly.

  “May I come in?” I politely inquired.

  “Will you run out of flying juice and drop down if I say no?”

  “Yes,” I said.

  “Okay, come in,” she laughed about it.

  “How’d your father take the news?” I asked her.

  “He didn’t care about the pendant as much as he did that I was alive and well,” she said, closing the window. I sat upon her couch as if I was at home.

  “I’m glad he’s so caring. He did order for me to get executed earlier.”

  “Naturally,” she sat upon a chair next to her vanity. “I hope it helped, in the end.”

  “Actually…” I pulled it out of my pocket. “We didn’t need it in the end.”

  She gasped and ran over to me, immediately grabbing it.

  “Thanks for it,” I smiled warmly.

  “I demand an explanation,” she said.

  “I’m not sure I should be breaking your story any further,” I said. “This scene alone might end up on TV, that would be a tragedy for me,” I stood up.

  “Wait, what?” she followed me. I was walking towards the window.

  “I’ll come see you again another time!” I flew out.

  Chapter 22

  “How do we know if Reed Faust won’t just make another Wilmort?” I asked them. We were all having coffee together at a café somewhere in some modern movie to feel at least a little bit normal.

  “Well you’re bloody well not going there to face-check, that’s for sure,” said Regal.

  “I guess we’re just going to have to watch his movie, see what’s going on,” said Nero.

  “I’ll be so sad if I hear his voice again,” said Violet.

  “Yeah,” I said. “Same.”

  “You may go as soon as you wish,” said Regal, “but Violet, you have not yet retrieved the ice core for me.”

  “I returned for the mission, you know that!”

  “And Nero,” he continued, “I believe I sent you out to get dragon DNA for me, my cylinders are still empty. And do not forget about that labyrinth.”

  Nero rolled his eyes.

  “And Raymond,” he looked at me this time.

  “Do I get some ridiculous task too?”

  “I wa
s just going to say… good job.” He smiled endearingly.

  “Oh! Thanks,” I grinned widely.

  “And, could you bring me DNA from that rhino spider scorpion bat shark creature?”

  “Seriously?”

  Violet and Nero laughed at me.

  “I mean, if you’re going to dilly dally around as you please, you might help me further my research here and there. I plan on compiling all my knowledge into a book and, well… quite frankly, I would just leave it in the base, and whoever would like, can read it.”

  “Would we ever get more people into our base?” I asked.

  “We could, but that would be kidnapping.”

  “Not like I wasn’t kidnapped by you guys anyways.”

  “We could get you a cat,” said Violet, “so you don’t feel lonely.”

  “That would be catnapping,” said Regal.

  “Here is your bill,” a waitress politely came over and set it on the table between Regal and I.

  Regal moved his hand to pay for it.

  “No no, please, allow me,” I said.

  “Feeling rich today, are we?”

  “Quite.” I placed my palm on the bill, and with a little glow a ten dollar bill appeared. “So if you guys come out now, would you appear back in New York?”

  “The place we went in, is the place we come out,” said Violet.

  “Oh boy! That’s great!”

  “Why?” Nero looked at me suspicious.

  “Well I need you both for something.”

  “What could that be?” Violet narrowed her eyebrows.

  I smirked a little and didn’t answer. “Let’s go back and see that movie then,” I got up.

  Regal got up after me. “Electric rod or gun?”

  “Oh shoot,” I said. “I actually forgot you had to physically die to get back, what a brutal system.

  “Electrical rod it is then!” he laughed maniacally.

  “No!” all three of us said.

  When we ended ourselves, all three of us slowly opened our eyes. We were on the floor of my carpet. Violet’s leg was heavily resting over my neck, my knee was uncomfortably under Nero’s side, and Nero’s arm was lying across Violet’s face. And none of us could move.

  “Owww…!” I mumbled, my jaw too stiff to move. “You guys get this too?”

  “Of course,” Nero said with a stiff mouth as if his tongue was cut off.

  “This is embarrassing,” said Violet with the same funny mumbling sound.

  A good hour later, they were already up on their feet and I was still the amateur that needed more time.

  They were kind enough to prop me up on the couch.

  “I can use your kitchen, right?” said Nero.

  “Get coffee for all of us,” I said.

  I saw Violet run upstairs.

  Ten minutes later, Violet freshened herself up, and Nero got us all some coffee.

  “Still can’t believe you guys are real,” I said. “I swear I thought Violet was from some nineteen nineties movie where she’s this hot chick that takes off her helmet on a motorcycle and after she was done speeding away from bad guys on big black jeeps.”

  “And me?” said Nero.

  “Uh…” I blinked a few times.

  “Okay, don’t say anything,” he said. Violet suppressed an amused smile.

  “What was the movie called?” she asked. They both sat beside me.

  “Two Names,” I said. We typed it in, and pressed play.

  The logos started, then the movie started. We saw Sam stalk his lover in the gardens before they officially met, and the movie progressed seemingly well and just like before.

  The King set out his new order and by force, all the villagers were cast out back into the small villages.

  “What a terrible king,” said Violet.

  The fairly young and successful Reed Faust whose work became famous throughout the kingdom was cast out as well. Several dozen minutes later we saw how he tragically mourned the death of his burned wife and eaten children. Violet was absolutely disgusted, and Nero felt melancholy.

  To seek out revenge, he went where armies dare not go – to the mountain cave of the witch. Except… there was no altar, there was a large burnt circle the same size as the gates of hell from before. The witch was already standing there, as if expecting him. Her veil was uncovered. The beautiful blond hair and red lips stood out in the dark cave.

  “Oh witch,” said Reed in a desperate tone of voice. “I have come to you for power…!”

  “Come here,” she told him. He came over to her. She pressed her palm against his forehead. He went from a pleading man to a composed…villain. “Do you have anything to say to them?” she asked him. There was a long pause.

  “Violet, Nero, Raymond,” said Reed, in the same singing tone of voice as Wilmort himself. “I know you’re watching.” The camera eerily zoomed closer to Reed’s face, almost uncomfortably close. Violet gripped my hand nervously. “Until we meet again,” he smiled.

  He went out of the cave without another word to the witch. The movie continued with him breaking the ultimate rule of the universe and shooting the two main protagonists dead, the movie ending much sooner than it should have.

  “Nero,” I said.

  “Yeah?”

  “Get me another coffee, will you?”

  “Sure,” he got up to get one.

  “Wine for me,” said Violet.

  “Okay,” said Nero.

  He brought all the drinks for us, including a beer for himself.

  “Thanks, sorry, I would have helped but my legs are still numb.”

  “No problem,” he nodded.

  “So what else do you guys want to watch?” I grabbed the remote.

  The next day was the fated day. It was the day of all days – the climax to the entire story, for today was the day, of Mrs. White’s famous potluck stew party.

  They both slept in my living room. In the morning I excitedly told them…

  “So, all my life I was the guy without any friends, right?” I explained to them in the kitchen while they were conjuring up some breakfast.

  “Right?” said Violet with a yawn.

  “But! Now that I have you guys here, I can kill off that rumor by having you participate with me in Mrs. White’s famous potluck stew party!”

  “What’s that?” said Nero.

  “At least act enthusiastic! It’s this front yard party that she’ll be having today.”

  “I mean, just for you, I guess I could bear with it,” said Nero.

  “And Violet?” I made a pair of puppy eyes.

  “Fine, fine,” looked incredibly groggy.

  “I can see you’re not a morning person,” I said.

  “When’s the party?” asked Nero.

  “At lunch. Oh, before I forget, what’s my new code?”

  “Seven…” said Nero, “what was it again?”

  “I forgot,” said Violet.

  “Come on guys, stop joking!”

  “Serve me wine for the rest of your life and maybe then I’ll remember,” she said. Her messy hair added to her groggy mean look.

  “Small price to pay for salvation,” I nodded.

  “Seven eight seven six,” she said. I pulled out my phone and wrote it down.

  “Do they mean anything? These numbers?”

  “Yeah, they spell out something, but I couldn’t care enough to figure it out,” said Nero.

  “Okay, I’m going to call someone real quick.”

  I went to the living room and called Emily. Minutes later, I returned.

  “Called your girlfriend?” Violet asked.

  “Yeah, she’s invited to Mrs. White’s famous potluck stew party.”

  “You enjoy saying that, don’t you?” said Nero.

  “Would be cool to invite Cyl and Proto to the party,” I leaned my elbows on the counter.

  “If we’re going there, I would invite your rhino friend,” said Violet.

  “Oh no,” my shoulders d
ropped.

  “Or the screaming little girl,” said Nero.

  “And the very loud dragon,” said Violet.

  “And Amun Ra,” said Nero.

  “And all forty Guardians,” said Violet.

  “And…” before Nero could finish, I cut him off.

  “And Dr. Regal,” I said.

  “Yes!” he said with a wide smile. “Yes! Absolutely, you’re absolutely right. He would be the first person on the list.”

  Hours later, I introduced my two close friends to Mrs. White, Nero and Violet. The party had started, the dishes were outside, the tables were ready, lots of older people were roaming about and having conversations among each other.

  When Emily came about, I dragged her over towards Violet and had them properly meet. Nero was actually feasting his heart out with the stew, it was quite fun to watch him enjoy himself so much.

  “I forgot what real food tasted like,” he said with his mouth full.

  “Make sure you remember, we can make it for Regal later,” I said.

  “So what’s your job now?” Emily pulled me away from everyone.

  “I’m still an author,” I said.

  “That’s not what I asked, though.”

  “Well,” I said. “That’s still my job though,” I laughed. She punched me on the shoulder. This was a conversation for another time. “Bob!” I saw him enter the yard. “You made it! Let me introduce you to my two awesome friends.”

  Bob corrected his thick frame glasses and dropped his jaw the moment he saw the most beautiful girl he’s ever seen in his entire imaginative life… Violet.

  “Come on Bob, act normal,” I nudged his shoulder.

  “I like him,” said Violet. “At least he sees a woman in me, unlike you,” she lifted the corner of her lips.

  I later separated from everyone with Violet for a moment. Bob was getting an earful of Mrs. White, and Emily and Nero were getting to know each other.

  “I just have one last teeny tiny thing to ask if you don’t mind,” I said.

  “What?” she placed a hand on her hip.

  “Would you have a glass of wine with me under the stars in Paris at the Château des Étoiles in eighteen forty one?”

  “I would always have a glass of wine with you. Let’s go right after this,” she smiled endearingly.

  Acknowledgements

  This book came out as a brainstormed idea by me one stormy night in Moscow back in 2017 during my bachelor studies. I had quite the vision for it – the vision was scattered, but vivid. I knew I wanted to create a man who could travel through his TV screen, but for the love of me could not think of a story to surround it for the years to come. So I wrote my first draft, a near completed book within a few months and had my closest friend Boian Venev read it. Upon reading it, he said it would be better written in first person perspective rather than third.