Fear’s playing tricks on my mind.
I was just about to tell Owen to shove it – that I wasn’t going to do this without Fanny and Jake – when I looked over and saw Greta grinning at me like the Cheshire cat. Why is she smiling at me like that? I quickly probed her mind. Right at the tip of her thoughts was this: “Look at her – stalling. She can’t do it. Another dimension, my ass. She made it all up just so she’d get attention. She’s going to embarrass herself, as usual, and right in front of him. Like Owen would be interested in her! He’ll dump her as soon as she fails.”
What a bitch! That’s it.
“Okay, make them stand back and shut the hell up. I need quiet for this. And remember, not one of them comes in, got it?”
“Whatever you say, Miss Magic.” Owen made them move back and quiet down.
I sat in a perfect lotus posture, my hands held in prayer position at my chest, my eyes closed. I tuned them out and tried to ignore the cold moving into me from the ground, freezing my buns. I concentrated on my breath, relaxed every muscle, just like Madame Wong had taught me.
Time to return to my yellow brick road.
4
I sat in quiet meditation and counted my breaths in and out. I blocked the sound of the crowd talking and giggling. I tried to tune them out, but my mind wondered and picked up phrases like, “What is she doing? Praying or something?” And “Yeah, like she’s the Buddha!”
I felt all those eyes on me, and the pressure to perform was breaking me down. My focus was shot.
At that moment, the thing that I wanted more than anything was to please Owen. I was failing at it. He’ll dump me for sure, just like Greta said. Man, I hated for her to be right.
Suddenly I heard a familiar voice yell out, “Stop! Emily stop!”
It was Fanny.
I opened my eyes. Any semblance of a trance I’d achieved was broken. It took a minute for my eyes to see in the dark, but when they did adjust, I saw Fanny running up the small hill. And Jake trailed behind her.
Fanny fought her way through the crowd and stood in front of me, panting. Jake was gripping his side and bent over like he was going to puke from the exertion.
“So glad you guys decided to join me.” I said it with as much snark as I could muster.
“Don’t be a piss head at us. We’re late ‘cause Jake was researching something.”
“Like that’s an excuse? Jake’s always researching something.”
“I don’t need this.” Jake turned to go back down the hill.
“Stop it,” Fanny said. She grabbed the hood of his sweatshirt and pulled him back. “She needs to hear this, Jake.”
“What do I need to hear? How quarks are like gluons, but unlike bosons?” I said.
“Damn, you can be such a bitch sometimes,” Jake replied. If Fanny didn't have hold of him, he would've left.
“For goodness sake, tell her!”
“Fine. I’ll tell her. You can’t create a portal here.”
“I don’t need the well, Jake. I needed it the first time ‘cause without it, I wouldn’t have had the power on my own. But I didn’t need it after that to get to the Netherworld.”
“I’m not talking about needing the well,” he said, still panting. “I mean you shouldn’t open a portal here, at the cemetery. It’s dangerous.”
Owen, who had been silent during the whole exchange, started to laugh.
“Aw, is the little man here afraid of ghosts?”
“Cram it, Breen. I’m not talking to you.”
“Ooooo, little man is mad.”
“Stop teasing him,” I said. “Go ahead, Jake. What does being in the cemetery have to do with anything?”
“Look, one of the reasons that the portal at the Sacred Well opened so easily for you was because of all the stored energy in the place. Saorla’s prayers and those that came before her. It’s like that whole place was one giant vortex of positive energy, all of it geared to directing those in the Order of Brighid to end up in the right place when they went through the portal.”
What he said was true. Madame Wong had taught me that.
“Yeah. Well?”
“Well, this place isn't like that. There haven't been prayers and incantations spoken here for centuries around a sacred portal. And it's full of negative energy. Death. Sorrow. Mourning.”
“And?”
“And, if you manage to open a portal, there’s no guarantee that you’ll go where you think you’re going. All the negative energy here - dark energy - may lead to a bad place.”
Owen shuffled his feet and sighed with impatience. I ignored it as best I could. Jake had my full attention.
“How do you know all this?”
“Because while you've been performing circus tricks for your lunchtime entourage, I've been studying texts about magic and spells and stuff. So when I heard you were going to do this, I remembered something I'd read about the danger of doing magic at graveyards and other places with negative energy.”
The nagging feeling of guilt crept up in me. It wasn't like Madame Wong, or even the Goddess, had told me to study the ways of my ancient masters when I got back to my own place and time. But I knew it was implied. I should have been studying. Instead, it was more important for me to fit in - to be one of them, instead of one of us.
“Why did you do that? You haven’t even talked to me for over a week. It’s like you’re pissed at me and I don’t even know what I did, except for try to be a normal teenager and like, you know, go to a party and have a date or two.”
“I know, I know. I’m sorry, okay. I’ve been a dick. But you can beat me up over it later. Right now, promise me you’re not going to do this.”
Jake looked from me to Owen and had a look on his face of … what? Contempt? No, it was something else. Jealousy. Look who has an agenda.
“Why did you research portals anyway? You don’t think I can do it, do you?”
“Yeah, of course you can do it. That’s why I’m worried. I’m telling you Em, there’s lots of accounts going way back of this kind of thing going seriously wrong.”
“You know what I think?”
“What?”
“I think that you’re jealous of me being with Owen, and you’ve come up with this to try to talk me out of it. Then, I’ll look like an idiot in front of him - and everyone else here.”
Jake just hung his head slightly and shook it no, his spiky blond hair catching the moonlight.
“Emily, you have to listen to him. He’s not making this chiz up. There’s something – not right. I’m telling you, I had a terrible feeling about this even before seeing Jake’s research.”
“Whatever. If you look hard enough, you can find stuff on the internet to support any lame theory.”
“So you’re going to go ahead, despite what I’ve told you?” asked Jake.
“Yes, I am.”
In the bright moonlight, I saw Jake's crestfallen look.
“I thought you trusted me.”
“And I thought you trusted in me.”
We stood, staring at each other. I felt like things would never be the same again between Jake and I, like we’d gone over some invisible line created by our words and there was no coming back. Why did you have to go and crush on me? We were friends. You were my best friend.
My eyes burned from holding back the tears. I felt so tired and sad. I wanted to go home, go to bed and pretend that I’d never been in that blasted cemetery.
“It’s getting late, Miss Magic. We going to do this or not?”
I looked at Owen. The way the silver moonlight caught his jaw and highlighted that cute dimple in his cheek, and the light dancing in his dark eyes. Even in the dark of the night, I felt the hypnotic power of those eyes bore into me, drawing me to him. The pout of his lower lip made me want so badly to kiss him …
I nodded yes to him and went back to my lotus position. I looked up to Jake and Fanny and said, “Well, are you in or out?”
They looked at each
other with concern written all over their faces.
Fanny was the first to speak. “I’m in.”
“What? You can’t be serious Fanny!”
“I’m not letting her go there by herself. If she ends up some place dangerous, she’s going to need all the help she can get to get her ass back here.”
“Thanks Fanny.” I reached my hand up for hers. She took it, but she didn’t smile at me.
“What about you little man? You seem to think she needs rescuing. You going in to rescue her? That is, if you're man enough?” Owen asked.
I didn’t need to probe Jake’s mind to see how Owen’s words affected him. I’m pretty sure Owen didn’t want Jake to come, but his goading had that effect. Jake would be risking aspersions to his manhood for at least the rest of the school year if he didn’t go with us.
“Manhood isn’t measured by the size of the ego,” Jake said.
“Whatever. Is that a yes or no?” said Owen.
Jake didn’t say a word, but he reached for my hand. I took it and immediately felt a tingling sensation flow from my fingertips up my arm and throughout my body. I hadn’t felt that since … since the time I rescued Jake and Fanny from Super Size in the Netherworld. What did it mean? I wanted to ask Jake if he felt it too, but my thoughts were interrupted by Owen saying, “Then open the blasted portal already.”
I wasn’t worried about Jake’s warning. I probably should have been. But at that moment, I was more worried about saving face in front of the entire population of what could be remotely considered the popular kids from our school. What could be worse than shunning and ridicule by your high school peers?
I was about to find out.
5
Fanny sat on one side of me, Jake on the other. With their legs brushing up against mine, it was easier to focus, easier to tune out the mental noise of all the peeps standing around watching. This time, I was in the zone. My body, mind and spirit connected together, linked up like Legos.
Once all of the parts of me were in sync, I felt myself connecting to everything around me. I became aware of the molecules in the soft, dewy air. I could sense the earthworms wriggling through the ground beneath us. Then, as my mind ventured further, the sounds of our world became like a buzz around me, then a faint whisper, then near silence.
But after a while, the silence was replaced with what sounded like a low-frequency hum. The sound of the cosmic background of space itself. But in that moment, it was more a feeling than a sound, a resonating hum that throbbed through my whole being.
I concentrated on what I wanted – a portal to the Netherworld. I imagined what it had looked like in Ireland at the Sacred Well. I pictured the silvery mist flowing out of a portal and the thrumming of the electric current.
I felt the Earth shake beneath me. It broke my concentration a bit and brought a part of me back to our reality. Then I heard the sound of thunder and opened my eyes. Lightning flashed in the inky sky, followed quickly by thunderclaps. The once bright, near full moon was shrouded in clouds. I don’t remember it being like this last time.
As my senses returned to our world, I heard someone say, “She did it!”
I looked behind me, and there, rolling out of the entrance to the stony tomb, was a mist that looked like flowing mercury. In the dark, I couldn’t tell the color nor could I tell if it looked the same as the portal at the Sacred Well. All I could make out was that there was a tremendous amount of mist and fog billowing out of the opening.
“That’s it, Em,” Fanny whispered into my ear.
“Are you guys ready? I don’t know how long I can hold it open, so we better go.”
All three nodded, their tongues apparently caught in the same viselike contraption I’d experienced every time I was around Owen.
“I didn’t go with others last time, so I’m not sure how this works, but I think you should take my hand or hold onto me so we stay together.”
“Okay,” all three said together.
“Any other advice?” Jake asked.
“Try to remain calm. The journey doesn’t hurt – it’s like walking through a door. But when you get to the other side, it will be disorienting because there’s no horizon to help you get your bearings. Try not to freak out. I’m talking to you, Jake, okay?”
“Okay,” he said. “I’ll do my best.”
“Let’s go, then.” I started to walk slowly toward the portal. Owen grabbed one hand while Jake grabbed the other, leaving Fanny to grab the back of my jacket. The three held on like their lives depended on it.
As I entered the threshold, I swear I felt someone yanking me by the hair. But as soon as I stepped over the threshold, everything began to swirl around me. It felt like the ground had disappeared from beneath me, and I had the sensation of falling. I no longer felt Jake or Owen holding my hands, and that sent a wave of panic through me.
I screamed, I know I did. But I didn’t hear my own scream. It was as if all the sound had been sucked out of the world, and I was thrust into absolute silence.
My heart raced, pounding madly in my chest. Bile rose in my gullet, and I felt certain I’d throw up from the terror. I was tumbling with no up, no down, just the heart-stopping terror of falling as if from a skyscraper.
I opened my eyes when I realized I’d shut them tight. I tried to see Jake, Fanny and Owen, but I couldn’t see anyone or anything around me. Panic set in as it started to dawn on me that I may be ensnared in one of those interdimensional traps like Jake was talking about. Maybe I was caught in a free-fall to nowhere for eternity.
If my heart pounds any harder, it’ll explode out of my chest.
Just about the time I thought I was doomed for eternity, I heard a loud POP and then felt like I was being compressed. Instead of freefalling, it was as if I was in a trash compactor. All of the air, what was left of it, was forced from my lungs. The pressure was so intense, I was certain I’d soon implode from it. It felt like I was being pushed through a tiny hole, like my whole body was being squished to fit into something smaller.
I cried and screamed and wailed in pain, but there was no one to hear my cries. I couldn’t even hear my own voice. My only evidence that I was screaming was the soreness of my throat.
As suddenly as the compressing had started, it stopped. It was as if I’d been spat out and landed with a thud. As soon as I fell to the ground, I heard the most god-awful screeching and wailing. Then I realized that I was the one making the sound, and I stopped.
I had shut my eyes tight, afraid that if I had kept them open, the disorienting spinning and falling would make me throw up. I opened them gingerly, expecting to see nothing more than the silvery mist of the Netherworld around me.
When I opened my eyes, I saw a mist, but it was more of a brackish red than grey or silver. There were swirls of rusty mist billowing around me, but the haze would part occasionally, and I could see that I was on solid ground, pure red clay and dust. The immediate impression was that I’d somehow landed on Mars, the red planet.
The trip left me winded. I sucked in a large breath, and my lungs were assaulted with acrid air. Whatever I was breathing, it stung my lungs and burned my nostrils. It was an altogether unpleasant place with a foul odor like rotting eggs. And I felt like my whole body was being pressed and squished by an invisible force. Fear was overtaking me.
I heard a voice call.
“Emily?”
It was Jake. I called back, “Jake? Keep talking, I’ll find you.”
“Over here,” he said. “Have you found the others yet?”
I followed the sound of his voice. “No, I haven’t.”
Jake went silent, and when he did, I lost my way. Like the Netherworld, with so much mist and haze, with no horizon and no way to orient yourself in any direction, you never knew where you were.
“You’ve gotta keep talking, Jake; otherwise, I won’t be able to find you.”
“I’m right … here,” he said as we bumped into each other.
I grabbed him
and hugged him tightly to me. In those few brief minutes coming through the portal from hell, I thought I’d never see Jake or anybody else ever again.
With his chest pressed up against mine, I could feel his heart pounding madly. We’d both survived the cruel ride. It was unclear if the others had. Jake was warmth and safety, and I didn’t want to let him go.
“I’m sorry, Jake. I’m so sorry,” I said as I hugged him tightly. Tears streamed from my eyes.
“Me too, Em.” He hugged back just as tightly as I held him, not letting go. After a few seconds though, he loosened his grip. We just stood looking at each other. Jake’s face was so white, it glowed in the murky, red dark of the world where we’d landed.
“We’re not in the Netherworld, are we?”
“No, we’re not.”
“Where are we?”
“I’m not sure, but every instinct I have is telling me that it’s not a good thing that we’re here.”
“I don’t have Priestess instincts like you, but I’ve got an awful feeling too. It’s like this place is just …”
“Bad.”
“Yeah.”
There wasn’t ice or snow. No whipping wind or cold air that left goose bumps on your skin. But somehow the place made me cold anyway. A chill deep inside, like somehow all the warmth was sucked out of you. It had been a long time now since I’d been depressed. But after just a few seconds in that place, I felt that familiar, dark feeling returning. It was as if a blanket of darkness was dropping down over me.
Fight this. You can’t let it take you.
“Jake, you’ve got a halo of light all around your body. It’s like you’re surrounded by a bubble of bluish-white light.”
“You are, too, but yours is purply-white. It’s glowing. What is it?”
I thought about his question as I examined Jake’s beautiful glow.
“It must be our auras.”
“I thought that was a bunch of new age crap.”
“Me too, but they’re visible here. A good thing, too. Otherwise, it’d be so dark, I’m not sure I’d be able to see you. Come on, we’ve got to find Owen and Fanny and get the hell out of here.”
The Akasha Chronicles Trilogy Boxed Set: The Complete Emily Adams Series Page 31