by P. G. Thomas
“No, it’s with the triplets,” but her voice sounded hollow.
As they were driving to his office, the storm unleashed its rage, pelting the car and road with large drops of rain. Time seemed to slow down, and as the wipers removed the water obscuring John’s vision, he attempted to remove the confusion in his own head. The triplets are in Calicon? How? He had a thousand questions, but asking Lauren right now, meant she would have to repeat her story later when Ryan was present, so he thought it best if she only had to answer the questions once. Thirty minutes later, seeing the large sign for the university in the night, he pulled into the faculty parking garage, watching the gate block the unmarked car as he headed inside. Being uncertain of which way Logan would go, John hoped he would get there fast, and pulling into his designated spot, he let out a sigh of relief.
As the car stopped, Lauren tried to gain her composure, “I’m sorry, but I had to call you, as there was no one else I could turn to. Nobody would believe me.”
“At the police station, you tapped my ring. Are the triplets in Calicon?”
Lauren nodded, wiping away her tears.
Going to the other side of the car, after John let Lauren out, he guided her upstairs. They had only been sitting in the lobby for a few minutes when they heard a knock at the front door, and he saw Ryan, Logan, with Eric standing outside, each soaking wet. After he had let them in, Ryan ran over to Lauren.
“They’re gone, somebody took them,” and then she started to cry uncontrollably.
Embracing her, he cradled her in his arms, like she was a fragile newborn child, following the rest to the elevators.
When they were in his office, John put on a pot of coffee, and as it slowly filled, he watched the drops fall, giving Lauren and Ryan a chance to talk in private.
Eric wandered in, “What happened?” Looking at John, he remembered the short, skinny teenager from four years ago, and how he paid other team members to steal his glasses, so John would have to wear the ones with the round frames. How he tortured him, calling him Harry, kidded him about taking his broom to school, and so much more, plus all of the others. Even though that distant world had rejected John, gifting the other five with strange powers or benefactors, he had begun to understand it, and reaching out into the night sky, he had captured the magic. As a result, it allowed Eric to deliver a lesson to the Darkpaye invading army that they would never forget. Eric called him John Ironhouse, as he was his adopted dwarf brother. Lauren had called him her Chief Council, Supreme Ruler of Magic, and Tester of Gravity. His elfin Earth Guard had proclaimed him Earth Mother, which was their tradition. Nonetheless, if John had been absent from the bus that day, Eric knew he would never have returned. Before John could answer, Eric picked up the odd sculpture sitting on the counter of the kitchenette. “Isn’t this the spring drinking trophy from Delta Kelta whatever?”
Grabbing it, after John opened a cupboard door, he pushed it inside with a dozen more. “They thought they could drink me under the table, being so young, but they didn’t spend four years with dwarves. Left them puking on the front yard, again.”
“Are you still going to have a liver when you are, oh, I don’t know, twenty-five?”
John smiled, “It was a challenge that brought out the dwarf in me.”
“Anything else come out? Like your lunch, small intestine?”
“No, most of those kids have only been drinking a year and only domestic beer. You have no idea what I would pay for some of that dwarven beer with the honey in it.”
Opening up the cupboard, Eric began to count the drinking trophies stuffed inside, “So, Lauren, what happened?”
“I don’t know. I received the call about an hour ago, and there is an Amber Alert out for her triplets. When I went to the police station, Lauren just tapped my Ironhouse ring.”
As John went to take the coffee to the others, Eric stood in silence. What? Ironhouse?
Setting the tray of coffee and mugs on the table, John looked at his three friends. Lauren, her dark hair now cut short, the purple streak forever vanquished. Having grown a few inches over the years, putting on a few more pounds, she was no longer the little school girl from the bus on that fateful day. She was now a young lady standing five feet eight inches, weighing around 120 pounds. He remembered how she fought so hard against accepting the role of an Earth Daughter. An unassuming schoolgirl one day, and the next, the weight of an unknown land filled with a fleeing population, and the mysterious problems thrust onto her shoulders. Even though it had failed to kill her, it came close several times. Once she accepted the Earth Mother mantel of responsibility, of how she fought so hard for the children of Mother, her divine benefactor. Even killing over 200,000 soldiers of the invading armies, but in the end, she saved the lands of Calicon. Recently, three little daughters had kept her busy; Samantha, Hope, and Brooke, but that was before this day had begun. In high school, she was called the Purple Princess, but in Calicon, she had several names; Earth Mother, Moth Flame, and Thorn, but when they arrived back home, she accepted a new title; loving wife of Ryan, and last year, it was upgraded to include her new role: mother.
Ryan had a different nickname for her: my love. A year after they returned from their strange adventure, he had married Lauren. Their parents, thinking they were too young, were unable to stop the true love that had grown, so in the end, they embraced it. Lauren, having just finished her college diploma, discovered she was pregnant, and Ryan was in the last year of university. To make ends meet, they worked part time at the company owned by Lauren’s parents, and both families helped them through their young struggles.
The scars from Ryan’s accident had faded away long ago, but his love for Lauren had grown more intense. Before the strange accident, he was unable to even talk to her, as a rift that exceeded the distance between the Sun and the Earth separated them. A year before the bus accident, he had been on a date with Samantha, Lauren’s sister, that ended with a brutal car crash, resulting in her death. Even though the police cleared him of any wrongs, it never made it right with Lauren, and she had continued to blame him for the injustice of that night. When they were in the lands of Calicon, an exceptional change happened, as the mystical place recognized a rarity in Ryan: titanium, a unique metal that attracted magic. As a result, the world healed and rebuilt him, but the rage at seeing Lauren in trouble fueled the machine, which he now contained. With the new abilities, he could reconfigure his body as needed, allowing him to help save the people, shattering the curse that had haunted him, and to win his true love. After the car accident, the kids at school had called him ‘Frankenstein’ because of all of his scars, but he was looking forward to when children would call him a different name, ‘Daddy,’ spoken by his three young daughters. In Calicon, they called him the Unnamed, but Lauren called him ‘pushover,’ as all she had to do was ask, and he would do whatever was necessary to see her smile.
Logan was the same size as Ryan, five feet nine inches, 180 pounds or so. At twenty-one, he was the same age as the rest, excluding Ryan, who was one year older. There was one other; his fraternal twin Lauren, who was several minutes senior and would never let him forget it. His hair was now cut short, no longer the tangled mess that everybody had joked about birds nesting in, and his appearance presentable. His interactions with the Bastards in Calicon had led him into the world of social work so he could help care for the less fortunate. With some help from John, he was graduating at the top of his class. Before the bus accident, he took great satisfaction in pushing Lauren’s buttons, but after having the divine entity known as Sister pull his strings for four years, he realized what he had done. Even though he expressed no regret, he now understood. Words and numbers still continued to challenge Logan, but in Calicon, he could control fire and water, like a blacksmith who had mastered hot iron. It was the sky elves who had named him Sister’s Voice, but it was the divine entity herself who had given him the title of Bastard.
Then there was Eric, ‘Mount Eric,’ the on
e that towered heads over the rest. Six foot eight now, 240 pounds. A sports prodigy who, during his first game of university football, sustained a concussion so massive, he was never able to play again. John had encouraged him to get a full scholarship, instead of an athletic sponsorship, which Eric was thankful. When released from the hospital, he switched his major to sports medicine, and with the help of John, he was one of the better students in the class. In Calicon, he was the Champion of the People, but it was the elfin Earth Mother who had called him carnage and genocide: a storm of death. Lauren, as the Earth Daughter, had issued an Earth Bond to make the six-foot long sword, forged by the four foot tall Ironhouse dwarves, serve Eric, but it was not a relationship of raptures. The sword she named Tranquil Fury was much more than that, and its intent went beyond restoring peace to the troubled lands. Its purpose; to learn the meaning of life through death. At the final battle, it was Eric that rode out alone, greeting the black-clad army of Darkpaye, teaching them a lesson they would never forget. In those strange lands, he found his place in this world, realizing his height had little value, as he now measured his worth by the size of his heart—because he was now a dwarf.
“What happened?” asked Eric.
Pushing back the tears, Lauren took a few deep breaths. “I was sitting in the park, rocking the stroller back and forth. The triplets had just fallen asleep, so I pulled out a book, and when I reached out to the stroller, it was gone. I looked down the path, and I saw a portal with the stroller rolling into it, but the ground was flat. Before I could stand, the portal winked out, and I screamed. Everybody was looking at me, but nobody could see the triplets. As I was running out of the park, somebody must have called the police. I was trying to get home, but they stopped me. The police started to question everybody, wanting to know where the triplets were, but I didn’t know what to say to them. My cell phone was in my purse, which was in the stroller. What could I say?”
Before anybody else could speak, John quickly interjected. “Did you say anything to the police?”
She struggled to maintain her composure, “Just that I wanted to talk to my lawyer, and they finally took me to a phone. That’s all there is. When a portal opened up, my children disappeared into it. John, what’s happening?”
On the drive to his office, even though John had prepared himself for her explanation, the simplicity of it caught him off guard. He struggled to make the connection between the kidnapping of the triplets and Calicon. Because, in-between those two worlds, there was a portal similar to the one he had generated, which shocked him into silence. Is my machine responsible for this? Am I?
“Did you see anybody in the portal,” asked Ryan, “like Mirtza or Gayne?”
“No, there was just a room.”
As Lauren had been talking, Eric pulled a small bottle out of his coat pocket, which he had brought to toast their friend Zack. Even though six had traveled to Calicon, only five had returned because of their families. Zack, born into a world of adoption and foster homes, had found what he wanted the most in this world—on a different one. Cracking the seal on the gin bottle, Zack’s favorite breakfast beverage, Eric half-filled his cup and took a drink. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Just stop for a second,” Logan interrupted, “My nieces are—they’re in Calicon? A portal?”
Nodding her head, Lauren fought back the tears. “It looked just like that night when we stepped back into our world outside of the diner. The same, a portal to Calicon.”
Logan reached for the bottle of gin, “They’re not on Earth? In Calicon?”
Lauren started to cry as Ryan pulled her to his chest, “John, how do we get there? I want my daughters back.”
“I checked the star charts when we came home, and I don’t know where Calicon is. Even if I could build another machine, we don’t have the magic to power it. Somebody must have—only Mirtza knows how to operate it, and he wouldn’t.”
“What do we do?” asked Eric.
John began pacing around the office, hoping to avoid both the questions and intense looks from his friends, but when he heard a knock at the door, without thinking, he opened it, “Steve?”
It was the detective, “I took your advice, counselor. There’s an arrest warrant waiting for your client at the police station. Let’s go.” Steve pulled the pen from John’s pocket, “It might not be admissible in court, but I know you’re all crazy. Portal, what next, alien abductions?” As one hand pulled out an earplug, “Yeah, it’s a transmitter,” the other reached for his firearm, “Are we going to do this the easy way, or the hard way?”
John clenched his teeth, “Sons of a bit—”
The lights flickered when a bolt of lightning exploded in the stormy night.
Steve pulled out his two-way radio, “Dispatch, send up the support units. I have five to take into custody.” Putting it back, he pulled out his handcuffs. “Lauren, walk over here, and place your hands behind your back because I’m taking you in.”
She cast a glance to John, wiping away her tears, “Do I have to?”
He nodded, “Right now, yes. Do what the detective asks, as we don’t want to make this worse.”
As Lauren stood, so did Ryan and Eric.
Seeing the look in Ryan’s eyes, Steve withdrew his firearm.
“Ryan, don’t do something stupid,” began Eric. “Listen to John, and once we get her out on bail, we’ll figure this out. Just stay calm.”
Trying to hold back her sobs, Lauren gave Ryan a kiss on his cheek, pushed him back into his chair, and then let the detective restrain her.
As the handcuffs snapped closed, a great crack of thunder erupted overhead, and an even louder bang sounded from outside. The lights flickered but came back on.
Taking a few steps back into the hall, Steve pulled out his radio, moving towards the stairs. “Dispatch, dispatch, do you hear me? What’s the ETA on my back up? Dispatch? Dispatch? Are you there? Do you read me?” He put the radio back into his pocket, “Its dead, so I guess we’ll have to go to them.”
Another clap of thunder erupted, immediately followed by another massive detonation from outside. The fluorescent lights flickered again, exploded, causing the emergency lights to engage. While it startled everybody, Steve, standing beside the stairs, lost his balance. Leaning the wrong way, unable to recover, they all heard his horrific screams of pain when he tumbled down the flight of stairs, followed by the sounds of his gun, as it continued its journey down to the next level.
Pulling out his smart phone, John turned on the flashlight app before racing down the stairs. “I think the building was hit by lightning, twice. The first one may have broken the grounding cable so don’t touch anything metal.” He looked down at Steve, “Are you hurt?”
As he tried to push himself up, Steve’s head arched back, his teeth clenched, groaning in pain, “I think I broke my hip.”
John scanned his lower torso, “I think you may have also broken your left knee.”
“Damn cheap implants. Crap, this hurts!”
“Eric, Logan. Help me straighten out our broken dick!” He heard them chuckle in the dark. “Let’s see if we can make him more comfortable. Ryan, help Lauren down the stairs.”
After easing Steve’s pain, John turned off his flashlight app and then dialed 911, but once again, lightning struck the building, being so loud, that it was almost deafening. Another explosion caused the emergency lights to short, casting them into complete darkness.
“Sons of a bitch,” began Steve, “this is one Mother of a storm!”
In the dark, nobody saw Lauren smile, or heard the words she whispered, “Please let it be you.”
John looked up at the dark ceiling, “It must have hit a rooftop transformer or an air conditioning unit.” Trying to get his cell phone to work, it was unresponsive. “There must have been a static discharge that knocked the cell towers out.”
Then they heard, “Can’t we just leave?”
John shook his head, “No, Logan. We’l
l wait until help arrives and then go down to the police station to get this cleared up. Everybody just remain calm and get comfortable. Does anybody have a light?”
From behind John, a small light appeared, like a candle, but its location was outside of the building. As the rest watched in amazement, it started to move, growing brighter.
Then all heard Lauren exclaim, “Mother, thank you!”
Chapter 2
John focused on the individual holding the candle, “Gayne? Is that you?”
Resting against the wall, a tall man in his mid-sixties who was dressed in an official-looking robe, his beard short and white. When they first met in the settlement of Newtown, John had asked Gayne to teach him magic. However, the teacher thought it was doubtful if the youth had any talent for the craft that he had struggled so long to master, yet watching in amazement, the young one held up a small object that could produce light, capture images, and voices. Even though he never heard any sounds suggesting the casting of a spell, the potential that the lad demonstrated was impressive, to say the least. In the small settlement, taxes were plentiful, but unless you knew where to purchase lead, gold was not, so while Gayne brought the awkward child into his academic world, he was more interested in his teaching fees. He had never expected to find himself in that backwater town, but at the same time, he had never anticipated finding the strange guards blocking his passage back or the threat of a plague. As for the young lad, he felt confident the words and concepts in the few books, which he had brought with him, would keep his new student mystified long into the nights—if not for months to come. Much to his surprise, the gawky child finished the first in one night, and when he started to point out the discrepancies between the different volumes, Gayne was uncertain what was happening. Then one day, in frustration, the youth explained to him what he failed to completely understand, and within months, the young one, who seemed to contain knowledge beyond his years, would not only show him magic in the night skies, he would reach out to capture it.