"I need some help," Katie said, looking toward Edward. "I'm not strong enough to turn this thing by myself."
Edward relinquished his position by the door to help Katie. As he moved, the door he had been keeping open slid silently shut. The dimness of the room allowed Amber to become visible again as soon as the door closed completely. She was blinking like a strobe light almost immediately. Edward stood next to Katie and placed his hands on the wheel next to hers.
Katie looked over to see if he was ready. "One. Two. Three!" Katie called out. When she got to three, the two of them wrenched on the wheel. Almost as if there was no resistance in it at all, the wheel spun rapidly through their hands.
A heavy clunk resounded in the room as the wheel came to an abrupt stop. Katie grabbed a hold of the wheel once more and pulled. The thick, metal door creaked slowly open. Blinding light shone on them immediately. It took a minute for their eyes to adjust, but once it had, they noticed that Amber was not visible anymore. Before them lay a seeming endless staircase leading down. Suddenly, Katie felt as if she were about to descend into the very pits of Hell.
Chapter 2
When they reached the bottom of the long, stone staircase, they were awed by what they saw. It was an expansive chamber with walls constructed of huge stone blocks, which rose in a curving arc to the ceiling high above and down the other side. Through the middle of the chamber, running for as far as they could see in both directions, was an enormous underground river. A fifty foot wide stone walkway flanked the river on both sides. None of them could even begin to imagine how long it had taken to create such an elaborate tunnel around the river. Unless it was merely an illusion of some sort.
"So, what now?" Melissa asked, crossing her arms across her chest.
"We follow the river," Edward said bluntly.
"Well, duh!" Melissa snapped sarcastically.
"Which way should we go?" Katie asked.
Edward studied the river for a moment, trying to make up his mind. If they followed the direction of the current they would head to the right, or what he believed to be south if he had his directions correct. Going against the current would lead them north.
They had been steadily making their way northward for most of their journey, so he assumed that they should keep doing so. Edward really wished that he could see Amber, she would know which way to go. However, since the tunnel was well lit by the same brightly glowing objects that were embedded in the walls throughout the long staircase they had just traversed, Amber wasn't visible right now. Edward had to make the decision based solely on what his gut told him.
He turned back toward the others. "My instincts are telling me that we should go that way," Edward said, pointing to what he thought was north. "It's the direction that Amber has been leading us for quite some time and I don't see any reason to change course now."
"I wish we could see her so we would know for sure," Katie replied dismally.
They began following the river to the north, leaving the staircase that led to the surface, and potential safety, behind. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as they traveled. It was weird not being able to see the sky. They had no way of telling how long they had been walking or how far they had gone. Everything looked the same down here, and the steady drone of the river's rushing current didn't help matters much.
"I don't suppose we have anything to eat, do we?" Katie asked when her stomach began to rumble.
"No," Edward stated sadly.
"This is a bad idea! We should head back!" Melissa's tone indicated that she thought their excursion through the tunnel was madness.
Jack's bark echoed off the walls of the tunnel. At first, the rest of them had dismissed it as him simply agreeing with the opinions being voiced, but shortly after the echo faded into the distance, the three of them heard another sound. A rapid clicking noise that they soon realized was the clacking of Jack's nails upon the stone pathway. It sounded as if he were running. The group turned toward the noise and saw that Jack was a good distance up the tunnel. If they had waited much longer to check on him, Jack would've been nothing more than a speck.
Wondering what had gotten him so excited, Edward shrugged his shoulders at Katie and Melissa and took off running down the path after Jack. Both Katie and Melissa let out heavy sighs before following suit and running to catch up.
Edward ran for a while, and was considering slowing to a walk to catch his breath, when he noticed that he was actually gaining on him. Jack must have stopped. Maybe he found something, Edward thought hopefully.
He slowed to a jog and then to a walk. Stopping for a moment, he bent over and put his hands on his knees, panting heavily. Melissa and Katie caught up to him moments later. They spent the next couple of minutes catching their breath. Katie was in better shape than the rest of the group and after a minute or so she was making her way over to where Jack was. Then she noticed something just beyond where he was sitting that caused her jaw to drop open in disbelief.
Embedded in the wall about fifty feet from where Jack sat was something she had never thought she would see again. Katie rubbed her eyes because she thought she was hallucinating; a mirage caused by hunger perhaps. When she finished rubbing her eyes, Katie looked again. Sure enough! It was still there!
"Hey guys!" Katie called to the others. "You have got to see this!"
Edward and Melissa began to make their way over to Katie. When Melissa saw the object Katie was referring to, she took off running toward it. "Oh my God! I can't believe it!" Melissa yelled excitedly. "I never thought I would see one of these again! Please tell me I'm not dreaming and making this up!"
Edward continued walking toward the two women, not sure what all the fuss was about. He had never seen anything like the object the women were fawning over.
Melissa, in her excited state, went rushing past Katie. She stopped just short of touching the object. There, before her, was what appeared to be an old-fashioned telephone booth. It gleamed in the harsh lighting of the tunnel, giving off a golden glow. Melissa looked at it as if she were a pirate that had just found buried treasure, a glint of greed sparkling in her eyes.
"Don't touch it!" Edward warned.
Melissa waved him off as if he were being silly, not even bothering to look at him. Then, before Edward or Katie could stop her, she stepped inside the phone booth.
"No!" Edward and Katie screamed in unison as they watched in horror. Melissa had disappeared, as if her very essence had blinked out of existence.
Chapter 3
"It must be another portal of some kind," Edward said thoughtfully, still trying to cope with the shock of Melissa's disappearance and not allow worry to creep into his voice.
His words soothed Katie somewhat, even if she didn't entirely believe them. It didn't look like any of the portals they had experienced in the past. There was no swirl of color, as was the case with all of the previous portals. There was nothing to distinguish it as anything other than a phone booth.
The sound of barking in the distance broke Katie's train of thought. She turned in the direction that it seemed to be coming from and noticed that Jack was gone. She squinted down the tunnel, trying to locate him. He must be pretty far away, she thought. Katie couldn't even make out a speck upon the path that could be him.
"When did Jack leave?" Edward turned toward Katie, his brows drawn down in concern.
"I don't know. I wish he would quit doing that though! He seems to pick the worst times to disappear."
Edward and Katie forgot about the mysterious phone booth temporarily. They stared for a few tense minutes, watching for any sign of Jack. The barking had ceased a couple of minutes ago.
Katie began to see something coming toward them, but it didn't look like a wolf. It looked more like a human, though at this distance she couldn't be sure. Maybe Jack had turned back into his human form. She hoped that was the case anyway. She didn't want to find out that it was Mr. M. instead, lurking in the tunnel waiting for an opportunity to kill them.
As the figure got closer, Katie relaxed slightly. Whoever it was, and she was beginning to think that it was Jack, had no clothing on. Her first thought was that Jack had indeed changed back to his human form, but as the figure continued to approach, Katie realized something was different.
She could now make out a wolf following behind the human figure. If the person wasn't Jack, then who was it? From what Katie could see, the individual had light-colored hair, considerably longer than Jack's had been. As the person's features became more defined, Katie realized that it was a female.
Closer now, Katie's jaw dropped open in surprise and disbelief. Katie began to walk toward the woman and after a moment she knew it wasn't a hallucination. Katie began running toward the woman. "Julie? Is that really you?" she called out excitedly.
"Katie?" the woman responded, stopping for a moment. She watched as Katie rapidly closed the distance between them.
Katie came to a stop in front of the woman and threw her arms around her friend. "I can't believe that it's you!" she said, with tears streaming down her cheeks. Katie hugged her for several minutes before pulling back. She jumped, startled to see that Edward was now beside them. She hadn't heard him approach.
Edward removed his cloak and handed it to the naked woman. "Am I correct in assuming that this woman is the friend you have been looking for?" he asked Katie.
"Yes," Katie managed, looking at Edward through a blur of happy tears. She turned back toward Julie, wiping her eyes with a finger. She nearly burst out laughing as the thought of ruining her make-up crossed her mind. "How did you manage to get away?" Katie asked her.
"I snuck out when the guards fell asleep," she said.
"Is the place where you were held close by?" Edward interjected.
"No. I'm not sure how long ago I left that awful place, but it feels like it has been at least a few days," Julie replied. "I've been wandering through this tunnel, for what seems like an eternity, trying to find a way out."
Katie was so ecstatic to have her friend back that she threw her arms around Julie, hugging her tightly again. "We really need to catch up," Katie whispered happily in Julie's ear.
Edward tapped Katie on the shoulder. "I hate to break the two of you up, but what are we going to do about Melissa?"
Katie hesitated for a moment before turning to face Edward. When they had found Julie she had temporarily forgotten all about Melissa and the possible danger she could now be exposed to. Katie glanced nervously toward the mysterious phone booth.
"Who is Melissa?" Julie asked.
"A woman we have been traveling with," Edward explained. "She stepped into the object over there." Frowning, he pointed. "I believe Katie called it a phone booth, though I have no idea what that is. She disappeared as soon as she stepped inside of it."
Julie raised an eyebrow curiously. "What would a phone booth be doing in a place like this?" Julie asked as she began walking toward the object. "I haven't seen a single phone since I came to this place. Who could you possibly call?"
"You don't understand," Edward said, hurrying to catch up with her. "It seems to be a portal of some sort, though we have no idea where it leads."
Julie maintained her swift pace, and seemed to ignore Edward's comments. Within moments, she stood beside the golden glimmer of the phone booth. Before Edward and Katie could stop her, Julie's curiosity got the better of her.
"No!" Katie screamed, but it was too late. Julie had stepped inside just as Melissa had done. Now she was gone, too!
Edward stood staring at the booth in disbelief. Why was everyone so eager to step into it? He turned to look at Katie. A steady stream of tears cascaded down her cheeks. "We have to go after her!" Katie sobbed, trying to push Edward out of her way.
He was barely able to restrain her. "We don't know what lurks on the other side!" Edward pleaded. "This isn't a normal portal. It feels like a trap."
"I don't care!" Katie shouted at him, struggling to break his grip. "I just found her! I'm not about to let anything happen to her again if I can help it!"
As if to punctuate Katie's feelings, Jack stepped into the booth and vanished. Edward looked down into her pleading eyes and released his hold on Katie. "You have a point," he said, admitting defeat.
As soon as Katie felt Edward's grasp on her loosen, she darted into the booth. Moments later, standing in the tunnel alone, Edward followed suit.
Chapter 4
Darkness enveloped Melissa, and for just a moment she felt as if she had gone blind. As her eyes adjusted, she began to notice hulking shapes nearby. Melissa stepped from the phone booth, which was no longer the shiny, beckoning object it had been moments ago. Now it looked old and dirty, as if it hadn't been used in a very long time.
A bitterly cold breeze struck her as she exited the booth. She wrapped her arms around her mid-section, shivering as dead leaves swirled around her feet. She could just barely make out the fact that there was a paved road in front of her. Had she somehow found her way back to Earth?
She looked around for a moment, taking in her surroundings. From what she could tell, there were several cars lining the edges of the road. Buildings lurked in the shadows beyond them, none of which had lights on. They appeared to be abandoned.
Melissa turned her gaze to the sky. A smile creased her face as she looked upon the familiar sight of a single moon in the clear, night sky. "I made it home!" she mumbled to herself. On legs that seemed to be made of rubber, Melissa made her way up the street, looking for signs of life. Where was everyone? Judging from the position of the moon, it shouldn't be late enough that the entire town would be in bed for the night. Something didn't feel right.
She tried to squeeze between two cars as she crossed the street, banging her leg on the bumper of one. It fell to the ground, clattering on the pavement. She jumped back into the street, startled by the noise. Melissa expected the lights of nearby houses to suddenly flash on, their occupants perhaps thinking that someone was trying to break into their homes.
Nothing changed. The street remained shrouded in shadows. A tentative voice suddenly broke the silence. "Hello?" a female voice called out.
Melissa spun around and squinted into the darkness, trying to locate the owner of the voice. It almost sounded as if it had emanated from somewhere near the magical phone booth. Melissa couldn't see anyone yet, but she could hear someone shuffling through the leaves in the vicinity. She began to walk toward the sound, thankful to find another person.
A blonde-haired woman stepped from the shadows onto the dimly lit street. "Are you Melissa?" she asked.
Melissa stopped in the middle of the road in shock. How did this woman know her name? She didn't look familiar at all to her. "Who are you?" Melissa asked defensively.
Before Julie was able to respond, a flurry of activity behind her drew her attention away from Melissa.
Melissa saw what looked to be a wolf, or maybe a large dog, rushing toward them. "Jack?" she asked, hopefully.
The animal barked excitedly and darted past Julie, heading straight for Melissa. Jack stopped in front of her and sat down, happily wagging his tail. Melissa, temporarily forgetting that Jack was a werewolf, bent down and stroked his coarse fur.
A familiar voice rang out moments later. "Julie?" Katie called out as she stepped away from the phone booth. Katie hadn't gone more than a few steps when Edward appeared.
Julie moved toward the sound of Katie's voice.
Melissa stood in the middle of the street, watching as her friends emerged from the shadows. Her mood faltered slightly as she saw Edward stride past the others, heading straight for her.
"What were you thinking?" he growled.
"I don't know," Melissa stammered. "I just wanted to check out the phone booth. How was I to know that it was another portal? It didn't look like one," she managed, trying her best to plead her case.
Edward's stern look softened a little. "Still. You have to be more careful. What if the portal had closed behind you?" he asked, tryi
ng to maintain a stern voice. Instead, he only succeeded in sounding like a parent scolding a child.
"I'm sorry, Edward," Melissa said, hanging her head in shame.
"Why do the two of you look so sad?" Katie asked as she and Julie stopped beside Edward. "Everyone should be happy. We're all together again!"
"True," Edward admitted, forcing a smile.
"I'm glad that we are all together again, even though I still don't know who she is," Melissa said, pointing at Julie.
"That's the friend I've been trying to find on Desolace," Katie told her. "Her name is Julie. Remember the scary guy with the strange looking horse?"
"Yeah," Melissa replied.
"Well, he abducted Julie from Earth and took her to Desolace. She was being held in an underground factory, forced to help build mechanical animals and such," Katie explained.
"How do you know all this?" Melissa inquired.
"We've been communicating, telepathically I think, with the aid of this." Katie removed the piece of parchment tucked away in her shirt. As she pulled it out to show Melissa, the paper crumbled to dust and fell to the ground. "What the hell?" Katie nearly shouted.
A cold gust of wind blew down the street just then, sweeping the dusty fragments of paper off into the darkness. "Well, I hope you don't need that anymore," Melissa said, using a tone suggesting that she thought Katie was making up the whole story.
"This is a bad omen," Edward stated grimly. "I've had that piece of parchment since I was a very young. My father gave it to me as a present for my sixth birthday."
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