The Portal

by Brock Deskins

  Lucien, looking confused, studied the ground before him, trying to comprehend his master’s brilliance. “If we cannot hold the cities, then why do we expend the forces to conquer them? Simple plundering for wealth seems considerably beneath you, Milord.”

  Lord Darkrell gave raspy chuckle. “Very astute, Lucien; I would have been greatly insulted had you thought otherwise. This town, as well as several other locations within the realm, contains ancient ritual sites long forgotten by most men. These sites not only enhance a spell caster’s power, but more importantly, I believe they are the nexus for gateways to other worlds. It is my belief that in one of these other worlds, I will find weapons, magic, or warriors that have the necessary strength to accomplish my domination of this world.”

  Lucien paused to think before he spoke once more. “So with Faluna’s populace and garrison removed, you are now free to exploit this site’s nexus and travel to one of these worlds? When shall I order the troops ready to depart, Master?”

  “Your bravery impresses me, Lucien. It is a rare man who would jump to do battle in another world. Unfortunately, we will not be traveling so far anytime soon. I have nearly all of the possible nexus points under observation, but I do not hold the key to use them myself. I search diligently for such a key, but it has eluded me thus far. For the time being, we will continue to harass and bleed the humans until either I locate the key or someone, possibly from one of the other worlds, comes through with the knowledge I require. When they do, my watchers will be ready,” Lord Darkrell assured his commander.

  CHAPTER 3

  Dour Drew finally escaped the rigid and oppressive confines of his school when the last bell of the day rang through the halls. Instead of getting on the school bus as he normally would for his trek back home, Drew walked several blocks and waited for the city bus. The bus pulled up with a hiss from its airbrakes, and Drew climbed on board and dropped his money into the fare box.

  Twenty minutes later, he was downtown and walked the few remaining blocks to the old bookstore. Bells suspended above the door chimed as he pushed it open and strode into the air-conditioned building.

  Shelves of books lined the walls and stood in the center of the relatively small store. Bins of incense and racks with crystals and scented candles of all different sizes, shape, and colors—over half of them black—were arranged throughout the store.

  He was intimately familiar with the books on magic and the occult and knew that none of the ones on the shelves contained what he wanted. He shoved his hands in his pockets and approached the counter where a darkly dressed young woman sat on a stool flipping through a Gothic magazine and chomping loudly on a piece of gum.

  Her skin was pale, her eyes accented in black eyeliner, her lips painted with black glossy lipstick, and her black hair sported a thin red stripe running from the corner of her long bangs past the back of her head. A metal stud protruded from her left eyebrow and lower lip, a thin metal ring dangled from her right nostril, and a glimmer of metal could be seen on her tongue when she spoke.

  Minus all the ornamentation and the paint job, she would have been a very attractive girl. To Drew, she looked fantastic just as she was, and his teenage hormones revved into overdrive.

  The young woman glanced up briefly before looking back down at the magazine spread open on the counter.

  “Looking for something?” she asked in a very disinterested voice and popped her gum loudly.

  “Um, yeah. I was looking for a book on magic incantations and summoning,” Drew stammered out hesitantly.

  “Back corner to the right. We have a couple new ones on the second shelf at eye level,” she replied not even bothering to look up from her magazine.

  Drew paused before gathering his courage and speaking to her again.

  “No, I’m not looking for the usual stuff. I’m looking for something old, something real that was used back when the elders were really able to tap the energy of the earth and ether,” he insisted, not wanting her to blow him off as some typical, modern Wiccan who just wanted to belong, socialize, and pretend to re-enact the ancient pagan traditions.

  The young woman looked up and gazed into his eyes while pursing her lips in thought for several long moments before closing her magazine.

  “All right, wait here,” she instructed and disappeared through a narrow open doorway in the wall behind the counter, oblivious to the teen’s eyes that enjoyed the view of her tight-fitting black jeans as she walked away.

  She reappeared a few minutes later with a tome that looked as old as Stonehenge. She set it down on the counter with a thump, dislodging some of the dust that had gathered on the cover.

  “My grandfather kept this and a few other old books in the back because he didn’t want to part with them. Just between you and me, if he doesn’t start making some money he’s going to lose this store. This is my inheritance. I’d like it to be here when it comes time to collect. Take a look and see if it’s what you want,” she told Drew whose heart raced even faster at the sight of the old leather bound book.

  He gently opened the cover and found the contents to be in surprisingly good condition given the probable age. The paper was yellowed and very dry, but not crumbling, and the ink was quite legible. It showed only a bit of fading over what were likely centuries of aging. He was able to read the words written in Elder Futhark, but he would need help from Ted with the Latin. What he was able to read left no doubt in his mind that this is what he had been searching for.

  “How much?” he asked.

  “That book is probably worth at least a thousand bucks, but I’ll let it go for five hundred.”

  Five hundred! He had emptied his bank account and only had three hundred and fifty dollars.

  “I only have three-fifty, can you please let me have it for that?” he pleaded, desperate to possess the book.

  The young woman started to object but looked outside through the window and saw an old man walking across the street toward the store.

  “All right, let me have it, quick,” she demanded, snatching the money from his hand and quickly shoving the book into a paper bag. “Here, take it and go now.”

  “Thanks, thanks a lot!” Drew exclaimed enthusiastically.

  “Yeah, no problem, now go!”

  The teen ran out the door just before the old man walked into the store.

  “How was business while I was gone?” the old man asked as he walked behind the counter and hugged his granddaughter.

  “Good. I sold some books, made more than we have all week, Granddad.”

  “There, you see? I told you it would pick up. You worry too much.”

  “You’re right, Granddad.”

  Drew rode the city bus home and went straight to his room to study his new acquisition. He had some homework to do, but this was far more important. Besides, his schoolbooks were filled with nothing but lies and reality twisted by history’s victors.

  He set his cheat sheet of Elder Futhark runes next to the open book so he would not make any translation errors. Several unfamiliar runes he had to look up on the internet, as well as most of the Latin. Drew found one summoning incantation he was sure he could manage on his own. He would study that one for this weekend’s meeting and get Ted’s help with the rest of it later.

  His mom and dad were both home for a change, but he ate dinner quickly and went back to his room. Drew had learned that he preferred to be by himself rather than with his family, and no one seemed to mind his preference for solitude. Time with them was no longer that important to him, and it hadn’t been for a couple of years now. They wouldn’t understand him anyway.

  Drew poured over the tome, knowing that he had to do everything perfectly. After several hours of reading, his eyelids were getting heavy and the runes were starting to all run together, so he decided to put it up for the night.

  The rest of the week quickly fell into its usual pattern. Drew would catch the bus to school, Chase would almost start a fight, they would all talk about
the coming weekend, and Drew would put up with a bunch of crap from other kids and teachers. Chase would ditch the last couple of classes to steal something from some store, and Ted would either blow something up or start a fire in chemistry class in his attempt to create a better fuel.

  Drew spent every free minute reading what he could in his new book. He read it in the library during lunch, in class, and every day as soon as he got home until he went to bed. He was sitting under a tree studying the ancient text while waiting for the bus to take him home when the book was suddenly snatched out of his fingers.

  “What’s this, freak, your spell book or something?” a freckle-faced kid with unruly sandy-brown hair snidely asked, flipping through the pages.

  “C’mon Kevin, that was expensive so give it back,” Drew said, patiently hoping to reason with the bully.

  “You want it? Come get it, dork.”

  Drew stood up and walked over to Kevin and his two friends, who were finding his distress extremely amusing.

  “Just give it back,” Drew urged, even knowing that his pleadings would just fuel the bully’s tormenting.

  “I don’t know, you might cast a spell on me and turn me into a frog,” Kevin accused him acerbically.

  “No, I won’t. That would be a higher life form than you are now. It would be easier to turn lead into gold than a turd into a frog.”

  As much as Drew criticized Chase for his uncontrollable mouth, he knew he was not much better. He immediately regretted his insult as soon as it escaped his lips.

  “Did you just call me a turd, you little freak?” Kevin demanded, throwing the book to one of his friends and lunging at Drew.

  Kevin’s hands gripped Drew’s shirtfront and pushed him back several steps until Drew lost his footing and fell hard onto his back. Kevin fell forward with him, landing heavily on top of him before lifting himself up enough to start punching at Drew’s face.

  Drew lifted his forearms in front of his face and managed to ward off most of the blows. Kevin quickly realized most of his punches were ineffective, so he stood up and started kicking at the smaller boy’s sides and back as he tried to roll away from the beating.

  Drew thought Kevin was never going to stop until a blur slammed into the side of his attacker and knocked him to the ground with a cry of surprise and pain.

  “Ha, sneak attack!” Chase cried out. “That’s bonus damage!”

  Kevin wiped blood from his nose and lip, and his right ear rang furiously.

  “Kill him!” Kevin shouted in rage as his two friends dropped Drew’s book and tackled Chase, who kept shouting insults even as they pummeled him.

  Drew rolled to his feet to try to help his friend, but Kevin was also on his feet and quickly put him back on the defensive. Phil and Felicia appeared and pulled the two boys off Chase. Phil grabbed one of them by the shoulder, pulled him up to his feet, and delivered a hard jab to his stomach. The swift blow knocked the wind out of Chase’s attacker.

  Felicia tugged at the other boy, who stood up and spun toward her with his fists raised.

  “Hey, you’re a girl, I can’t hit a girl!” he cried.

  “Too bad for you the same rules don’t apply to me,” she countered, and struck him in the face with spinning roundhouse kick.

  “You’re lucky your nerd friends are here, freak!” Kevin shouted when he saw that he was outnumbered. “C’mon you guys, let’s go.”

  The bullies walked off, probably feeling they won on points. Drew didn’t care; all he wanted was his book and staggered over retrieve it.

  “Thanks, guys. Nice backstab, Chase,” Drew groaned as he picked up his book. “Are you ok?”

  “No, I think I broke something,” Chase said, holding his side.

  “Crap, do you think you broke a rib?” Phil asked, worried that he may have to go to the hospital.

  Chase pulled something out of an inside pocket of his jacket. “No, one of the Xbox box games I stole from the mall during lunch today,” he said mournfully.

  His friends just shook their heads and laughed at having fallen for his terrible joke.

  “Is that what you were looking for at the bookstore?” Chase asked, indicating the book that Drew picked up off the ground.

  “Yeah, I think it will be pretty cool tonight. Ask your parents if you can sleep over, it may be a long night.”

  “I know I can, my mom doesn’t care what I do,” Chase replied with a shrug.

  “I’m sure we can too. Have you called Gabe yet to see if he can stay over?” asked Phil.

  “No, I’ll call him now. You guys go find Ted and see if he can stay over too. My parents are going to the coast or something all weekend, so there’s plenty of room and no one to bug us.”

  “Except Josh,” Chase reminded him.

  “Yeah, there is that, but he and Chuck are watching ten years of Stanley Cup highlights on DVD this weekend, so he’ll probably be too absorbed in the TV to bother us much.”

  Drew and Chase caught the bus home while the twins looked for Ted. While the bus rumbled toward home, Drew pulled out his cell phone and called Gabe.

  “Hey Gabe, it’s Drew. See if you can spend a night or two over at my house starting tonight. Ok, call me back as soon as you find out.”

  Gabe hurried up the steps to his house and stepped through the door. “Mom, I’m home!”

  His mother stepped out of the kitchen to greet her son. She looked like a modern day Joan Cleaver in her modest dress and apron, her well kempt hair tightly rolled into a bun, and overall wholesome demeanor.

  “Did you have a good day at school today, dear?” came the usual question.

  Everything came in the usual fashion at his house; from dinnertime, to church, to what was for dinner on what day, and what television shows were going to be watched during the allowed two hours of TV time. His life was safe, predictable, and most of all, boring. As much as he tried to get Chase to change his sinful ways, he envied the other boy’s free spirit. These thoughts were lost as soon as his mother offered him a cookie from the latest batch.

  “Mom, can I spend the weekend over at Drew’s house, please?” he begged between bites.

  “Oh, I don’t know. He seems like a nice boy but he dresses so odd. Is that Chase boy going to be there?”

  This is the point where every other teenager in America would simply lie and say no, but Gabe did not lie, ever. “Probably, but we won’t get into any trouble, I swear.”

  “You know I don’t care for that boy. I do not know why you even want to play with him. He’s nothing but trouble.”

  “But mom, doesn’t Jesus tell us to care for our brothers and steer them onto the path of righteousness? What would have happened to Mary Magdalene if Jesus had not bothered to change her sinful ways?” Gabe reasoned, using the only argument he knew could sway his mother.

  “All right, but you have to be home for church on Sunday,” she insisted.

  “Thanks, Mom, I’m going to go pack a bag.”

  Gabe ran up stairs and packed a few pairs of clothes; more than was needed for just two nights, but he liked to have a back up. He also stuffed his D&D gear into the suitcase, which included his dice, a pewter figurine, several D&D books, a chainmail shirt, and a mace he bought at a renaissance fair.

  Gabe was the last to arrive by the time his dad dropped him off at Drew’s house. He lugged his suitcase into Drew’s room that was already crowded with five other teens and their stuff.

  “Hi guys! Man, I thought I over-packed,” he commented as he looked at the duffle bags stuffed with gear in the room.

  “We’re going to have a little camp out,” Felicia replied.

  “Where?” Gabe asked hesitantly, as he was not fond of the ruggedness of the outdoors.

  The group looked from one to the other before answering, not sure who was going to tell him.

  “At the house at the end of Heritage Street,” Drew answered, preparing for the expected outburst.

  “You want to camp out in a haunted house?
” Gabe asked incredulously.

  “It’s not haunted, and I’m sure you know how to perform a cleansing or an exorcism if you want to,” Chase answered dismissively.

  “Why do you want to go in there? Why can’t we just play D&D here like we usually do?”

  “Do you know what today is?” Drew asked the chubby, frightened boy.

  “Thursday,” he replied.

  “It’s the 31st. It is also the night of the black moon, which is only in alignment once every five years. The house on Heritage sits on top of an ancient Indian ritual site. I bought a book with ancient druidic and Celtic rituals in it. There is one I thought would be fun to try tonight of all nights,” Drew explained, talking quickly in his excitement.

  “You want me to spend the night on top of an old burial ground and practice some pagan ritual and spell craft? Are you crazy?” Gabe asked shrilly.

  “Gabe, doesn’t the Bible teach us that everything we do is in the name of God, and that everything is of God and for God?”

  “Yeah, but…”

  “God is in everything around us, the air, the earth, the stars, and in the energy and magic of the world. Didn’t God create the world using some type of magic?” Drew asked doggedly.

  “Well, I guess so,” Gabe agreed hesitantly.

  “So let’s do it. It will be fun and set the mood for an awesome D&D game,” Drew declared.

  “I guess, but I’m making some holy water first,” Gabe reluctantly agreed and started pouring water into several small jars before praying over them fervently.

  “Can you even make holy water?” Chase asked dubiously. “Don’t you have to be the pope, or at least a priest?”

  “No, you only have to have the proper conviction and have accepted Jesus Christ as your savior and the son of God. At least I hope so. Either way, I’m not going into that house without it,” Gabe insisted.

  Chase looked doubtful. “I wonder if you can even make holy water from tap water. Hm, fluoride-fortified holy water; no wonder angels always have such nice teeth!”