by Fletcher, MJ
“She is here.” it whispered as if fearing I would notice it. “It’s too early. She should not have come yet.”
I stepped up to the door and placed my hand on the knob. It glowed brightly but would not turn. I grabbed with both hands and twisted the knob with all my might. I could feel the knob resisting me as if locking me out. “No, she is too early, don’t let her see.”
The door angered me and I could feel the pull in my stomach grow stronger as I concentrated on turning the knob. It began to turn slowly until it finally clicked and I pulled the door open. Shadows danced across the floor from a distant light and I could see down a long corridor. The ring of metal clanging against metal echoed throughout. The faraway light flicked as if someone where stoking a fire. Then I heard footsteps and when I looked directly into the light a shadowy form fell across it. I could make out the outline of a man. He was tall and dressed all in black and I recognized him instantly... he was the man who had chased Dad and me in Paris.
He looked directly at me and pointed. “She’s here.”
Chapter 5
Status: I go shopping for Doorknobs.
I jumped, waking myself. I was in my bed, morning light peeking in the window. The book lay on the nightstand beside me and my clock told me it was only 7 AM. I pulled the covers around me, hugging them close. I could sleep a few more hours. One hour later I was bouncing out of bed, emptying some of the boxes into my drawers and then taking a shower and getting dressed.
After a quick piece of toast I told Dad that I was going to the Washington Street Mall and headed off for some shopping. I was barely three steps off the porch when a screech pierced my ears.
“Chloe!”
The clawing voice of Valerie Hobson shook me. I swear the girl must have built in radar. Every time I step foot outside my house, she’s there.
Val ran up to me, her curly brown hair bobbing. She was wearing the latest fashionable sunglasses and a sunflower print sundress that startled the eyes. The two of us couldn’t have been more different. Even though it was summer I wore combat boots and stretch pants, over that a skirt and a hoodie with a t-shirt beneath. My ever present ear buds connected me to my smart phone where I was just about to hit my playlist.
“Watcha doing?” she asked.
“I’m going over to Washington Street to look at some stuff for my room.” I thought it might dissuade her from joining me since beach-goers would be swarming all over the mall. Cape May gets packed with day trippers and vacationers every year looking to soak in the sun and enjoy its pristine beaches and admire the Victorian style homes. The Washington Street Mall was the epicenter of it all.
“Great, I’ll walk with you.”
“Fine,” I said grudgingly and we started off.
I figured arguing with her would just make the situation worse so I decided to bear it as best I could. We walked down Mission Street and turned onto Perry Street stepping aside as a family made their way past us, beach chairs in hand.
“So does that Edgar boy really go to Paladin Academy?” Val asked.
“Yup,” I said hearing the interest in her voice and trying to hide my smile.
“He’s one of the rudest guys I’ve ever met. My mom and I go to Manhattan all the time and I know what I’m talking about when it comes to rude guys. I don’t know who he thinks he is?”
“You don’t say.” I didn’t bother to mention I’d been around the world several times and met plenty of guys that were a million times worse than Edgar could ever possibly be. Maybe that’s why I was finding Slade such a conundrum. Most guys I’d known were always such players, thinking they could take advantage of the lonely American girl. Slade seemed genuinely nice, almost to a fault. I’d made up my mind that the best course of action with him was to save us both the trouble and not even think about getting involved.
We turned onto Washington Street and I rolled my eyes. The walking mall was packed with vacationers. They strolled around in sandals that didn’t fit properly and partially opened Hawaiian shirts smelling of suntan lotion and sweat. Not a pleasant odor. Trust me on that, after the beach take a shower, otherwise you smell like an overcooked goose basted with suntan lotion. I’d wanted to pick up some fun stuff to decorate my room but with this crowd I might just be better off going to one of the regular stores.
“Hi, Chloe.”
I turned to find Edgar right behind us, a big smile on his face and his ever present goggles resting comfortably at the top of his brow. “Hi, Edgar.” I was happy to see him, my mind loaded with questions for him.
“What are you doing here?” Val’s voice dripped with aggravation and I couldn’t help but smile.
For a moment, I’d forgotten she was there and I silently cursed myself for letting her tag along. Now I wouldn’t be able to interrogate Edgar about the Doorknob Society.
Edgar ignored Val’s caustic tone. “Same as you guys, looking for something to do.”
“We’re here to shop for Chloe,” Val said sharply.
“Cool. I’ll tag along.”
And he did, right behind us. We made our way through the mass of people to the Whales Tale shop. I walked through the store and found several things that would work well in my room. Val and Edgar kept pace behind me. Val made several suggestions, but our tastes are different and after giving a shrug or two and shaking my head often, she gave up. Edgar, on the other hand observed quietly and with a happy grin.
Finally with an arm full of stuff we stood in line at the register.
“You got a ton of stuff for your room. What about school?” Edgar asked.
“I hadn’t thought about it.” But he would know what I’d need for the Paladin Academy.
“I know the best place to get school supplies,” Val interjected. “We can go there today. Maybe my mom can drive us, although I don’t think her car will fit three.” She looked at Edgar as if he should make himself scarce.
He ignored her as usual. “I thought you might like to try a shop more suited for the Paladin Academy.”
“Of course I would,” I said excited by the idea of learning more about the Academy.
“I suppose that does sound interesting even though I won’t be going there,” Val said her annoyance still evident.
I paid for my items, dropped them into a canvas tote I had brought along and we exited the store. Val practically stuck to my side and I wasn’t sure what I would do with her or if it even mattered that she tagged along. Edgar knew better than me to what she could or couldn’t be privy to, so I didn’t intend to sweat it. It was his call.
“It’s right over here.” Edgar said and walked a little further down the street. He stopped at an entrance to a narrow alley and slipped between the buildings. I followed right behind him but Val stopped short of turning into the alley.
“Chloe, we should go to a regular store,” she urged. Her eyes darted nervously around and she fidgeted with the sunglasses in her hand.
“You don’t have to come, Val.”
She looked stricken as if I had just slapped her and for the first time I felt bad. “You can wait on one of the benches if you want.”
“ Okay,” she said her voice a bit shaky. “I’ll hold your tote for you.” She reached out and took it from me.
“Thanks. Be back soon,” I assured her and with a nod she hurried to park herself on a nearby wooden bench.
Maybe she wasn’t all that bad, even though she seemed scared she wasn’t running away... she wasn’t deserting me.
I turned and disappeared down the alley in search of Edgar.
Chapter 6
Status: I fight monsters, no seriously.
Edgar stood beneath an old, weather-beaten sign, the name carved into the wooden plank... The Portico Est. 1010.
The old wooden door and ornate doorknob caught my attention. The tug started in my stomach, familiar yet foreign. I still didn’t understand it but I wanted to. I don’t know how I did it but I sensed that the knob was old and well used. It seemed to have an
innate power, independent of my abilities, as if it could work on its own.
“Try it,” Edgar encouraged gesturing toward the knob.
I reached for it and the air around me crackled with life while the door radiated a yellow hue. A low humming sound pulsed from the door washing over me, calling to me. This passage way offered me entrance, to what I didn’t know but I knew I wanted to find out. I couldn’t resist, I grasped it and swung the door open effortlessly.
The smell of grease and hot steel drifted around us and I heard the distinct sound of metal grinding against metal. The ground rumbled and I grabbed Edgar’s arm to steady myself. The wall and door shuddered and dropped into the ground. I dug my fingers into Edgar’s arm and when I glanced at him he was smiling. From the yawning darkness where the door had been massive brass gears rose in its place. They turned clicking into place each attached to a series of smaller cogs all turning and working in unison. A brick walkway appeared alongside the gears that led toward my new reality and Edgar and I followed it. The mechanism that was churning opened up a different world all around us. Gears twisted and turned and a whole new street came into focus, buildings rolled up out of nowhere and the road itself seemed to appear brick by brick.
“What’s happening?” I asked amazed and bewildered.
“The Portico is a portal between the normal world and the dimensions we travel through. It’s shifting the realities so that you can access our world.”
Before my eyes the street transformed from the mundane to the extraordinary. The men and women strolling along were nothing like the sweaty, suntanned vacationers. They more resembled Edgar, with gadgets and small, odd flourishes added to their clothing. Goggles, and top hats with strange monocles hanging down seemed to have more gears and gadgets then were possible. Most wore vintage clothing from the 1800-1950’s, though added to the period suits and dresses were odd bits of technology that I itched to get a closer look at.
I turned around and around, shocked at what I saw. The street itself resembled something out of an 1800’s postcard. Too one side a store called the Impossible Palace rose above the street, its massive windows jammed with products that were as odd as they were interesting. A man stood in the window demonstrating his numerous gadgets including X-ray goggles, keys guaranteed to unlock any door, and keyholes that kept changing shapes. The store next to that was called Atlas, the doorway into the store was beneath a giant statue of a man holding a globe on his back, while on either side of him stood statues of a man and a woman one held up the sun and the other the moon.
“I’ve heard of Atlas but never them. Who are they?” I pointed the figures out to Edgar.
“That’s North and South the first two mapmakers. According to our legends they taught Atlas about the universe.”
I shook my head wondering if I would ever be able to learn everything there was to know about this crazy yet fascinating world. I continued to gaze with awe. Huge maps hung in the windows suspended in mid-air with three dimensional images projecting off their surface. The maps seemed alive as if they changed in real time, lines shifting and titles changing, numbers constantly being erased and rewritten as if by an invisible hand.
I glanced to the far end of the street and stopped, craning my neck back. I stared at one of the most beautiful structures I had ever seen. Its gothic towers pierced the clouds, and windows the size of my house dotted its surface. Even from this distance numerous doors were visible. People were busy entering and exiting through doors that where there one minute and gone the next or had hopped to another location.
“Is that—?”
“Yup, that’s the Paladin Academy,” Edgar said as I stared slack-jawed at my new school.
“Regular folks can’t see it. The Impossible Engineers say it has something to do with the way they built it. That it exists in this and another reality simultaneously just like the Portico. People around here only see a small private school when they walk passed.”
“That’s cool,” I whispered in awe.
“Come on,” Edgar said as he trudged off through the crowd.
I followed him, my eyes wandering from one strange sight to the next. I watched a man wearing a stove-pipe hat adjust an old-fashioned looking jetpack on his back while he played with the knobs on the bronze chest plate that appeared to control the device. Then in a burst of smoke he flew up to the sky. A group of young men all wearing black leather jackets their hair slicked back and lost in talk sure did resemble a street gang from the fifties. People walked up the sides of buildings turning at odd angles to enter and exit doorways half way up the structure.
We came to a stop or I should say Edgar did. I was too busy taking in everything to pay attention and slammed right into him.
“Sorry,” I mumbled.
Edgar pointed at a building. “The Arrowhead.”
The structure seemed to spring from the earth; all around its edge was an ancient wood trunk covered in moss and flowers. It was hard to tell where the tree trunk ended and the store began. Its stained glass windows and hand carved wooden double doors were the work of superior craftsmen that must had taken endless hours to craft. Carved into a large display above the door was the store’s name punctuated with an arrowhead symbol at the end.
“Arrowhead is the best place for supplies. You could grab stuff from the Antique Doorknob across town but this place has all the latest gear,” Edgar said.
“Um, okay,” I said unsure of what kind of supplies I would need. After what I just witnessed I would think that they weren’t your normal school supplies. I was trying to wrap my head around this new reality, granted I had never been the most normal kid. I was more used to hanging out in the shops in Cairo than going to a normal school. But I felt so insignificant compared to what I’d been seeing and curious... damned curious. I wanted to know more about this reality. I knew it held answers to my questions but I was nervous as well... what if I didn’t like the answers I found. Who was that man in black and why wouldn’t Dad tell me more. And then there was the question that nagged at me, did this reality have anything to do with my mom leaving us?
We were just about to enter the building when another customer in a dark overcoat cut in front of us pushing us aside. Edgar rolled his eyes and shook his head as he caught the door before it closed and we stepped inside.
What happened next I couldn’t tell you? One minute Edgar and I were walking into this cool store and the next I was flat on my back surrounded by compasses and pencils with quills sticking out of my hair.
I recall hearing a screech and thought that perhaps someone had realized there had been a mistake and I wasn’t actually allowed here and they were about to kick me out, when a strong gust of wind propelled Edgar and me into one of the adjoining aisles.
“What was that?” I asked as I picked quills out of my hair, Edgar sat up brushing papers and compasses off.
“No idea.” He grabbed his goggles and pulled them down over his eyes.
I was about to tell him it was a little late for eye protection when he yanked a gear from the side strap of the goggles and pushed it into the lens over his right eye. A new set of gears popped up and quickly reformed themselves into a complex yet beautiful piece of machinery around his goggles turning them red and providing one eye with telescopic ability.
“From these readings I would say it’s a gremlin.”
“Like a little green monster?” I chuckled, okay so now I’m supposed to believe in little green things running around causing havoc.
“You only know the mythical legends of gremlins. Gremlins are real. They come from the space between portals. Every once in a while one slips through into our world. They’re very fast and dangerous; we need to get out of here now.”
But it was already too late. I heard the sound before I felt the gust of wind and grabbed Edgar hitting the floor once again. The sharp whoosh of air above us told me all I needed to know. That thing had been meaning to take our heads off. I rolled away from Edgar and he sat up
with an uneasy gulp.
“Thanks,” he said breathlessly.
“How do they usually get rid of these things?” I asked peering around the corner to see if I could spot the gremlin. All I saw were other patrons tucked in hiding spots. At least these people were smart enough to stay out of trouble.
“They usually send some Detective Inspector down to take care of it.”
“How long does that take?” I was crossing my fingers hoping he would say right away.
“As soon as they detect it, which is almost immediately, one should be here any minute.”
“So we sit tight?” I sighed in relief. I wasn’t the type to turn away from a fight. But I didn’t think that I was prepared to engage in this type of fight.
“Yes.”
The word had barely left his mouth when I heard the scream. I spun around and gave a peek around the corner of the next aisle. I saw him... the gremlin. He hovered menacingly over a young girl who cowered in horror on the floor. I can’t say I blamed her. This was no little green monster. He was big, muscled and had thick arms. His face was so ugly I’d rather not describe it and drool, way too much of it, dripped from his mouth. Seriously, I hate drool.
As usual, I didn’t take time to think. Instead I did what I do best... I reacted.
“Hey ugly!”
The monster turned on me, as if I had no business bothering him.
“Uh, Chloe, what are you doing?” Edgar said barely above a whisper.
I had no time for Edgar; I had a gremlin to deal with. “Yeah, you heard me. I’m talking to you. Did your mom hit you with the ugly stick one to many times or something?”
The monster glanced at the cowering girl beneath him and then back at me. What can only be called its mouth curled into a drooly smile. That sealed it, I was glad I was taking this thing on. If he thought this was going to be easy he was in for a shock. I returned his grin, without the drool of course, and then took off running. I heard Edgar yelling after me.
