by P. R. Mason
With the confusion—the chaos of gunfire, the screaming and the explosions—around us, Juliette, Billy, Rom and I huddled at the door. Blood from the prince’s bite coated the hand I’d used to stem the flow. I smeared it on the door then grasped my great grandmother’s necklace and tore at it. The metal chain cut into the skin of my neck before breaking. I pressed the swirling circle disc to the blood smear praying this would work.
Nothing happened.
I glanced at my watch. Zero hours, four minutes, thirty-two seconds.
“Open it,” Billy screeched. “Hurry up!”
“Shush it,” Rom yelled at Billy. “Can you not see she tries?”
A bullet ripped into the door just above Rom’s head, the wood splintering. Behind us, resistance soldiers poured onto the walkway from the north tower door. Hand-to-hand fighting began.
“She’s not trying hard enough,” Billy jeered. “You’re a loser, Taylor. Loser. You hear me. You—”
“Quit being a douchebag,” Juliette yelled—The first time I’d ever heard her raise her voice. “Shut up and let her work.”
Thinking for a moment back to when I’d opened the vortex before, I remembered the whirl was counter-clockwise. My great grandmother’s disc was counter clockwise. Perhaps since we were on the opposite side of the portal…
In the bottom of the messenger bag I found the spade, its edge sharp.
“Cut my hand,” I said, pushing it at Billy. “Just don’t cut it off.”
Billy didn’t hesitate, he scraped the edge on my palm and a line of blood welled. Pressing my newly bloodied hand to the wood, I swirled a clockwise circle design with the blood.
Almost immediately, a boom sounded. A glow emerged and pulsed. The wood finally began to move. At first the movement creaked and jerked but soon turned smoothly. The velocity of the turning increased and broadened in area from a quarter size to a dinner plate.
“It’s happening,” Billy said, his eyes wide.
Yes, but would it be fast enough for us to get through?
The fighting came closer and closer to us. Glancing back, I saw the resistance had surrounded the vampire elite and were systematically staking them. Eugene, with a furious expression on his face, stomped toward Gethin at the edge of the walkway. The wizard seemed incapable of resisting as Eugene hoisted him onto the top of the barrier.
Feeling the vortex sucking at me, I turned my attention back and saw the circling area had further expanded and now was at least the size of a washer drum.
Juliette turned to me with an excited smile and a light in her eyes. She opened her mouth to speak but, before any words came out, she was sucked into the quickening vortex and disappeared from sight.
Billy jumped in after her. Almost immediately Namia, still wrapped in her blanket bundle, came flying through and almost knocked Rom and me over. We were forced back several feet to avoid being struck. When she’d rolled to a stop, I pushed Rom forward. He resisted me.
“Go.” I pushed at him again.
“Not without you.”
I couldn’t help myself; my gaze was drawn back to Eugene and Gethin. I saw Eugene pushing at Gethin. The wizard tumbled over the side where he hung with one arm hooked through the rail. Eugene jabbed at the wizard’s arm, trying to make him to let go.
My gaze went to the vortex. I should go. I should jump through now before it was too late. I owed no debt to the wizard. Gethin had done me no favors. His actions were for himself. Besides, hadn't Prince Leopold said the wizard was immortal?
“I’m coming too,” I screamed at Rom. “Go.” This time when I pushed him, the combination of my efforts and the sucking power of the vortex swept him in. But somehow I couldn’t follow him. The prince had also said there were ways to extinguish the life force of immortals. Perhaps Gethin could be “extinguished” by water.
For some reason, I just couldn’t let Gethin hang there only to possibly die in the river beneath this bridge. It's the damn bridge, I thought. Letting someone —anyone—fall reminded me too much of Adam.
Turning away from the vortex, I picked up a fallen sword and dashed toward the edge of the walkway.
“Get away from him,” I yelled.
Eugene glanced at me but continued to pound away at the wizard’s hold on the rail. Just before the tip of the sword in my hand struck Eugene, he looked at me. The blade nicked his side and he screamed like a baby. When I waved the sword threateningly again, Eugene ran off, scurrying over to where Prince Leopold lay. He grasped the prince’s inert body under the arms and began dragging his monarch along the walkway toward the north tower. He disappeared behind a group of ghoul soldiers.
I grabbed at Gethin’s arm, gripping it with both hands. My fingers were slick with blood and the weight of the wizard pulled me forward. I soon found myself with my belly pressed to the barrier and the top half of me hanging over. I clung to Gethin as he dangled above the Thames' water.
“Please.” The wizard's eyes were wide and pleading as he stared up at me. “Let me go.” His arm slipped away from me but I managed to hang onto his hand.
“No,” I cried. “Hold onto me and I can pull you up.”
“I want to be encased by the water for all eternity.” He opened his hand and tugged it. “You would do me a kindness to let me go. I will be at peace.”
“No,” I screamed, but it was too late and his hand slipped out of mine.
As he fell, Gethin continued to stare up at me, smiling...until he disappeared into the darkness.
The vortex had already decreased in size. It was closing, I thought with panic. No time to lose. I ran, preparing to jump through. As my lead foot hit the swirling middle, hands came from nowhere and grabbed me from behind, stopping me with a jerk. Swinging me by the arm, they brought me around to face Sergeant Amy.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Soot covered almost every inch of her face, but I knew her nevertheless.
“Amy,” I screamed tugging hard against her grip. “Let me go. I have to get back through the portal right now. It's about to seal.”
“I know.” She smirked. “I only wanted to thank you for setting up the prince and his minions.” She inclined her head back toward the fighting. “It’s a slaughter.” She grinned and released my arm.
Only Amy would get me killed to thank me.
“The general wants to thank you, too.” Amy saluted me.
“Yeah, whatever.” I backed toward the dwindling vortex. “Good luck.”
The vortex had lost much of its sucking power and was now the size of a basketball hoop. Stretching out my arms, I inserted them into the center of the whirl and then dove in. The power of the vortex had diminished to such an extent that my movement inside felt like running up a mountain through sludge. The electric sparks that had been a familiar sight in my previous experiences weren’t so vivid. Just a few random flashes here and there. As a result, the inside of the portal tunnel was significantly darker.
Would I be able to get through this thing before it sealed me inside? Would I be trapped in a cosmic esophagus forever? My heart leaped into my throat so hard, I could have easily coughed it up.
The end was nowhere in sight. I hadn’t even spotted the ghoul who’d crossed in my place. Had something happened to her? If so…
Thankfully, at the moment I contemplated my own demise and the possibility of purgatory in a throat muscle, I spotted her. Above and ahead of me, the female ghoul floated along with the young man who’d crossed in Rom’s place.
Why was that guy still in the vortex? Hadn’t Rom passed through? He’d entered the vortex well ahead of me.
Realization struck when I saw the young man and the ghoul had sandwiched Rom between them. The long trailing end of the rope the prince had ordered to bind Rom’s hands was now being wrapped around his body by the ghoul with the help of the human.
With some veering and wiggling and what amounted to swimming, I managed to reach the ghoul. But with the “sludge” or Jell-O or whatever it was around me
, the punch I threw at her head moved in extreme slow motion. Fortunately, so did she and the punch connected with the side of her head. Grabbing her by the hair, I dragged her away from Rom and tried to thrust her toward the Dorcha end of the vortex. Her mouth opened in a silent screech and she floated away.
I plucked at the young man’s arm, attempting to get a hold on his garment. He didn’t even put up a fight but merely gave me a sad smile and swam off down the tunnel. Grabbing the rope, I tried to get Rom moving in the right direction. His head turned toward me. He pinned me with furious eyes until he recognized me. His gaze turned tender and he stopped resisting.
Using the rope as if Rom were a boat I had to bring to shore, I towed him upward. The sludge of the vortex had thickened significantly and now it felt like I was moving through setting concrete. I kept swimming and pulling. Just when I doubted we would ever make it, I saw a pinpoint of light above.
Rom’s movement slowed and then stopped. By pulling myself around his weight, I wedged my body behind him and pushed. I pushed again and again. Finally, I felt Rom’s weight lift from me and saw him pass through the end of the vortex. As my head emerged, I saw Zen pulling Rom out of the moving floor and to safety.
Petra reached her hand to me. I extracted my arm from the muck that was trapping it and grasped her fingers. Petra tugged on my arm until I had emerged to the waist, then the thighs. Finally, my feet were out. Beneath me, the floor solidified.
Bringing myself into a sitting position, I glanced at the watch. 5:04:50 a.m. Ten seconds left. Just then a long hiss echoed around us accompanied by the sound of a pop like a giant Rubbermaid container closing.
The portal had sealed.
I’d been dreading this moment for so long, my initial reaction was a zing of fear zipping through me, zapping my heart like a defibrillator. Seconds later, however, relief spread through me. We’d made it. The portal had sealed but we were all out and on the home side.
Petra kneeled down behind me and wrapped me in a hug. She rocked me while babbling in excited incoherence. I only understood about every third word and each seemed to be something about happiness or a synonym thereof.
Juliette and Billy clutched at each other a few feet away with Billy sobbing into my stepsister's shoulder. Chase and Senji stood awkwardly in the corner glancing at one another. They gave each other a partial embrace with a shoulder pound that seemed to constitute a bro hug.
To my right side, Zen was unwrapping the ropes knotted around Rom. The bandage had torn away from Rom's arm somewhere in the vortex and I saw the skin around the bite was no longer red and the wound itself had knit shut. The plants were doing their job.
As he worked, Zen spoke. “The one who came through the vortex in your place was human.”
“His name was Cameron,” Petra said with a wisp of sadness in her voice.
“What a wimp.” Chase huffed.
“He wasn’t a wimp. He was a resistance fighter,” Petra shouted back.
“Well, he certainly complained a lot,” Senji stated.
“He didn’t complain. He just didn’t want to go back to Dorcha,” Petra said. “And I don’t blame him. Who would want to live in such a horrible place?”
“Gratitude that you traded him for me.” Rom's lips quirked into a sardonic smile.
“How about Namia and that other ghoul?” I asked.
“Handling the monsters wasn’t hard,” Zen replied. “What was hard was dealing with the busload of tourists who came down here to see what was going on.”
They must have been the people entangled with the monsters and resistance fighters who’d converged on the entrance to the portal.
“No tourist died?” Rom asked obviously thinking the same thing.
“Of course not,” Zen answered. “Tourists are annoying but I wouldn’t kill one.”
Apparently, death only occurred when each of the entangled pair was in another dimension. Good to know. I didn’t want to think my life or death depended on the fate of that ghoul.
“Senji told the tourists we were shooting a film and they were interrupting.” Zen shook his head and returned to his rope rescue.
“They finally left.” Senji laughed. “None of them even asked why we didn’t have a video camera or sound equipment.”
Once Zen had cut and untied the last of the ropes, Rom rose and strode toward me. Seizing my hands, he pulled me up and into his arms in one motion.
“Kizzy, you anger me.” He shook me, but all the while he grinned.
“What?” I asked. “What can you possibly be angry about?”
“Terrible chances taken. You gave your blood, your very life to that vampire.”
“It was the only way to get him to ingest the Downy Woundwort.”
“I cannot believe how you did it.” He shook his head, before dropping a quick kiss on my lips. He hugged me to him. “But you have saved us all.”
“Not all of us,” a voice screamed inside my head. A little boy’s voice. Adam’s voice.
A thought occurred.
“My messenger bag.” Pulling away from him I scoured the floor, frantic that it might not have made it through the vortex, until I saw it lying near the base of one of the construction lights. Scrambling over to it, I grabbed it up, opened the flap and saw the plants safely nestled inside.
“You brought some back,” Zen said.
“Yes.” I handed the bag to Zen before I stood again. “Rom needs two more treatments. You should use the rest to try to grow a supply for us in this dimension. Just in case.”
“There are plenty here for that.” Zen rummaged in the bag counting. “More than enough, I think.”
More than enough.
“In that case, I’m going to need three of the plants,” I said to Zen “And a ride in your car immediately.”
“No,” Rom roared. “You cannot be thinking to take more chances.”
“Don’t you see I have to?” I crossed to Rom and placed my hand on his cheek. “You were wrong. I didn’t save all of us.”
“I’m not following any of this.” Zen scratched his head. “Where do you want me to drive you?”
“To the wormhole.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“This is insanity.” Zen stood with Rom and I at the head of the stairs peering down the wormhole hall. “The passage has deteriorated so much, I doubt the wormhole still works. You shouldn’t go.”
“Yeah,” Petra said from a step below us. “This place looks like my bedroom and you know what a dump that is.”
“I’m with Petra.” Chase put an arm over her shoulder. “Petra's bedroom is a dump.”
“I’ve been doing some research on wormholes,” Senji said from the step below Petra and Chase. “No one knows much for sure, but there is a theory that the greater the quantity of positive energy that passes through a wormhole, the more quickly it is degraded.”
“So the more times and people we pass through this one, the faster it collapses?” I wiped at the dirt, grime and blood on me with wet wipes from Zen’s van. Apparently, the entire package wasn't going to be enough to keep me from resembling a mugging victim.
“Maybe, it collapses,” Senji replied. “I'm not sure. The information I'm finding is about wormholes in space.”
“Let us abandon this.” Rom's navy blue eyes implored me. They squeezed at my heart with their intensity. How had he become so important to me in such a short time?
“Not us.” I threw down the last used wipe. “Me. I’m the only one going this time.”
“Kizzy. You could be trapped in a void if you go in there,” Zen said.
“Come on. You took a chance on the wormhole just for a stock portfolio. I have a much better reason.”
“I think you know I lied about that. I went looking for Devon.”
“Then you know exactly why I have to do this.”
“Yes but, Kizzy, let me go instead,” Zen suggested and I knew how much that cost him due to his PTSD.
Placing my hand on his
arm, I shook my head. “No. I have to do this alone. But thank you.”
“And me? You order that I not go. Do you not trust me to help you?” Rom asked.
“Of course I trust you.” I went on tiptoes to press a kiss on his cheek. “It’s because I trust you that I need you here waiting for me. I’m just going to nip through and then I'll come right back. I’ll be fast, I promise. But you know I have to do this. I have to try.” I kissed him quickly. “You heard what Senji said. The more people who go through the wormhole the worse it deteriorates.”
“Theory only,” he said.
“Please be here with Zen and the others to make sure I come out.” I clutched his arm.
He stared at his feet. I knew that was all the agreement I would get.
Turning to the hall I adjusted the messenger bag over my shoulder and squared myself.
“Keep to the center of the hall, if possible,” Zen directed as he fastened a climbing rope around my waist with two carabiner clips.
“Okay. But don’t let Rom follow me, please,” I whispered.
Zen nodded. “Secure this rope on the other end.” He tugged the rope to make certain the tie would hold, “It may help you get back.”
Glancing back over my shoulder, I took in Zen, Petra and Rom, meeting each of their eyes for a few seconds. Then I adjusted my messenger bag and walked into the hall.
After only two steps it was just as before. The passage whined and groaned around me with the walls rising and falling as the floor pitched and rolled. This time, rather than a funhouse mirror, the hall was more like a roller coaster ride. I crawled over the rubble pile that had tripped us up the last time through. Another pile lay just beyond that required a climb to surmount.
When the hall began to shake as if an earthquake was happening, I just kept moving. There was no way of knowing what was going on around me until I reached the bedroom.
At one point I gave up trying to walk and, instead, adopted a crawl through the hall. Finally, I reached the door to the bedroom and the end of the wormhole. On hands and knees I crossed over.