The Guardian of Threshold

by A. A. Volts

“I’m not done with you!” said Phasma loudly from above us.

  “Phasma, it is over! I’m not going to let you create any more havoc,” my mother said.

  “You can’t stop me. One way or another, I’ll have my way,” Phasma said as he charged toward us. I tried to move again, but it was useless. Even though Phasma was still threatening me, I felt content. I had finally been able to see my mother again, and there was nothing more that I wished for.

  “You leave my friends alone!” Nyx yelled as she conjured up a deadly fire bolt from her bare hands and launched it toward Phasma. The fire ignited his cloak and spread quickly. Within a few seconds, he was engulfed in bright red and blue flames.

  His rather large body hit the ground with a loud, vibrating thud.

  I thought he might be dead, but much to my surprise, Phasma got up slowly and limped toward me while my mother stood between us.

  “Phasma, my son, you need to let your rage go, your brother has,” my mother said.

  “I just want what’s rightfully mine,” said Phasma as he struggled to breathe.

  “What you want is revenge, and that I cannot let you have,” my mother said, still standing between us.

  “Then you’ll pay as well,” said Phasma as he accelerated toward my mother and me.

  “Enough!” Nyx said as her body burst into flames. Taking the shape of a massive fireball, she flew toward Phasma.

  As they collided, a huge thunderclap could be heard. A shockwave of heat rushed past us, along with a deafening scream and a boom.

  Jonas had tried to stop Nyx, but she wouldn’t listen. He even attempted to hold her back, but Carla held him.

  I could see Jonas’s desperation as he watched from afar while the girl he loved disappeared in a fierce explosion. I felt responsible.

  “It’s not your fault, Mark. You need to stop blaming yourself. You don’t know how many times I wanted to tell you that. I’ve been there your whole life, but you couldn’t see me. When you did manage to hear me, you would disregard it as being your intuition or your own inner voice. I saw you cry, and I did the only thing I could do, which was cry with you. Son, trust me when I say this. I missed you so much,” my mother said as tears filled her eyes.

  “I… missed you too,” I struggled to say, crying like I had never cried before. Her hug only made me sob louder. I held her tight, tighter than I had ever held anyone before. I didn’t want to let go because I was afraid I wouldn’t have another opportunity.

  “Are you all right?” Carla asked when she saw that Phasma was gone and it was safe for them to approach us.

  “I’m fine, but I don’t know about Nyx. Have you seen her?” I asked. I still couldn’t move around to look at the area.

  I heard Nyx’s sisters crying and hugging each other in the background, so I figured the news wasn’t good.

  “I’m so sorry—” I was saying when Carla interrupted.

  “Don’t you dare apologize. You were right the whole time. You found your mother,” Carla said, wiping my tears away.

  “Oh, Carla and Jonas, I wanted to thank you for being there for Mark, especially just after my death. It was a very hard time for all of us, and I appreciated your help. I have visited and looked after you as much as I could. You both have a very special place in my heart,” my mother said as we all hugged and cried together.

  “Jonas, have faith, darling,” my mother said.

  “Hey! Save some for me, will you?” said Nyx from the other side of the clearing.

  “Nyx?” Jonas said, breaking up our group hug.

  “Sis! You’re well,” said Twil as they both ran toward each other.

  “I’m a bit sore, but otherwise I’m fine,” said Nyx as she hugged her sisters first and then gave Jonas a big hug. None of us could have guessed that she was going to give him a kiss. But she did.

  “Eeew, that’s disgusting,” Carla said.

  “Oh no, what about Spark?” I said as I tried yet again to get up, somewhat more successfully.

  I saw Spark lying in a large pool of water. I made my way over as fast as I could, which wasn’t very fast.

  When I got close to Spark, I dropped to my knees.

  “How are you doing, big boy?” I asked. I didn’t see any reaction on his part, although I could see his chest move up and down slowly.

  “What happened? How did he get so big?” I asked Dr. Rainer as he placed some herbs on top of Spark’s wounds.

  “When we got down to the Everwell, we waited for you. When you didn’t show up, we figured that Phasma must have gotten to you while you were still up there. That left us no choice but to let Spark drink some of the Everwell water. The water contains a certain combination of metals and minerals that allows him to grow extremely fast, which worked a bit too well. Thankfully, he was able to help save you from Phasma. However, now his system is going into shock. Unfortunately, there isn’t anything else I can do for him,” Dr. Rainer said while his eyes filled with tears.

  “There is one thing we can try, but we’ll need Nyx’s help,” my mother said.

  “Dr. Rainer, may I remove those herbs?” my mother asked.

  “Sure, but I don’t know how that would help though,” replied Dr. Rainer.

  My mother proceeded to remove all the herbs from Spark’s wound, leaving the basketball-sized hole exposed. She then started to fill the wound with water from the Everwell.

  “Nyx, as soon as the wound is completely filled, I need you to heat it up. You need to make it as hot as you can,” my mother ordered, waving for us to move back.

  After the wound was filled with clear water from the Everwell, Nyx’s hands started to glow hot and soon the water started to boil.

  “Hotter. Don’t worry about me, you can’t hurt me,” my mother said as Nyx’s body started to glow red-hot. The heat got so intense that I had no choice but move back even further. Even standing far away, we started to sweat.

  After a few seconds, black steam started to come out of the wound site. Nyx returned to her normal body temperature and color, which allowed us to once again approach Spark. Much to our surprise, the wound was completely healed. In place of the huge hole, there was only a scar.

  Spark’s breathing normalized, and he got up slowly.

  “Welcome back, Spark, and thanks for saving my life, buddy. I owe you one,” I said, giving him a hug. Well, I meant to hug him, but all that I could do was hug one of his legs.

  “That’s a remarkable recovery,” said Dr. Rainer.

  ***

  “What happened to Phasma?” Jonas asked.

  “I… don’t know. Once we collided, he just seemed to disintegrate into nothingness. I don’t remember anything after that, I just remember waking up a few moments later on the grass,” Nyx replied.

  “I can’t sense him anymore,” I said.

  “That’s because the hate and rage that used to unite you and Phasma is gone. It was broken when you decided to let go of your anger,” my mother said.

  “Wow, what a ride,” Carla said as she hugged Jonas, and then gave me an extra long hug. She seemed relieved.

  “Son, I’ll need you to be strong, even stronger than before, because the time has come for you to return to Earth. The connection with your physical bodies is growing increasingly weaker. But rest assured that I’ll always be watching over you and that you have plenty of people who love and care about you on both sides of life,” she said as my eyes filled with tears. I broke down crying on her shoulder. I had known the time for us to part ways would eventually come, but I had no idea it was so soon.

  “I don’t want to leave you. I just found you,” I said. “I wanted to stay in Threshold and live the rest of my life in this amazing world.”

  “I know, but trust me, it’s for the best. One day you will join me here or somewhere else, but for now you have a destiny to fulfill. You still have a lot to learn and a lot more to teach. If you just follow your heart, you’ll be fine. Always remember that, my son,” my mother said as tears rolled d
own her face. I could tell she was trying very hard to be strong.

  “Mark, my dear. Do you think you can deliver a message to your dad from me?” she asked, smiling as she placed both palms on my face and looked me closely in the eye.

  “Anything you need, Mom,” I replied.

  “Good, then please tell him that it’s okay for him to live life and even find someone to keep him company. Tell him that, somehow, I knew that my time with you guys was going to be short, and that I left him a letter hidden safely behind our wedding picture. Please tell him that besides the day you were born, our wedding day was the best day of my life. Oh, and tell him that I’ll be here waiting for him. Hopefully, he will have fixed the porch before that time comes,” my mother said, smiling as her eyes grew watery and red.

  “I’ll tell him. I’ll miss you, Mom,” I said. I looked at my mother first and then around at all the new friends I had made in Threshold. Every one of them would live forever in my memory: Dr. Rainer, Nyx, Teil, and Twil and Spark.

  “What about Spark, is he going to be okay?” I asked.

  “I’ll take good care of him while you’re away. Fortunately he didn’t drink too much Everwell water so he should be back to his normal size in a bit. But if he isn’t, I’ll send him over to Earth so you can take care of him,” Dr. Rainer said, trying to lighten up the mood.

  “So how do we get back?” Jonas asked.

  “All you have to do is think about your physical bodies lying in bed,” my mother said.

  As soon as she said that, Jonas vanished from sight.

  “He wasted no time,” said Carla, laughing.

  “Shall we go together?” I asked, afraid that if I was the last to leave, I wouldn’t go.

  “Sure,” Carla replied, offering me her hand.

  I couldn’t help but to feel very sad as I prepared to leave Threshold.

  I waved at everyone, and they waved back at us. As soon as I felt Carla’s hand, a surge of electricity flowed through my body. The last thing I saw of Threshold was my teary mother waving good-bye at me, and then everything went dark.

  ***

  I opened my eyes and took a deep breath of fresh air. The first thing I saw was Carla lying on the mattress beside my bed. Even though everything was blurry and it was morning, she still looked gorgeous.

  The sun invaded parts of my room, the sky was deep blue and clear.

  I got up slowly and sat at my desk, still trying to process everything that had happened to us. I was forgetting details of the experience at an alarming rate, so I started writing about it. I wasn’t sure if everything had really happened or if it all had been just a weird dream, but my heart told me it was true.

  I had only one way of knowing for sure, but I would have to wait for Jonas and Carla to wake up before we could confirm that we’d had an out-of-body experience and traveled the whole night.

  I was typing at the computer for a while when I heard Carla’s sweet voice.

  “Good morning,” Carla said, stretching her arms and twisting her hands in the air.

  “Good morning, how did you sleep?” I asked, not wanting to ask her about Threshold directly.

  “Like a rock,” Carla replied, sending chills down my spine.

  What did she mean, like a rock? I wondered. Yet I couldn’t bring myself to ask her about it. I wished Jonas was awake because he would definitely ask us what happened during the night. I could always count on Jonas to ask the questions that nobody else seemed to have the courage or will to ask.

  “What time is it?” asked Carla, searching for a clock.

  “It’s 6:46 a.m.,” I replied, looking at the computer task-bar clock.

  “What are you doing on the computer so early?” Carla asked as she got up to go to the restroom.

  “Writing a book,” I replied, joking.

  “What’s it about?” Carla said from the restroom.

  Before I could even reply, she continued, “Let me guess, a group of friends proceed to discover an out-of-body experience, and together they fight and defeat an nefarious creature named Phasma. Am I right?” Carla smiled as she opened the restroom door.

  “Don’t look so surprised. I was there, remember?” she said.

  “That can only mean one thing. It was real,” I said, awestruck and very happy.

  “I wonder if Jonas will remember,” said Carla.

  “I was starting to forget, so I figured it was best to write down what I could remember,” I replied, still typing.

  “Should I wake Jonas up? My mom and dad should be home soon, the roads are probably clean,” Carla said as she looked outside the window and then headed for the couch to shake Jonas up.

  “Wake up, mom and dad will be home soon,” Carla said as Jonas mumbled something, turned over to his side and continued to sleep.

  “Jonas come on, it’s almost 7 a.m.,” Carla said.

  “Dad isn’t going to drive home this early on a Sunday morning,” Jonas mumbled before he closed his eyes again.

  “Still, we need to get home. Get up!” yelled Carla, losing her patience.

  “Fine, but I’m having breakfast first,” said Jonas as he sat up on the couch in his hideous pajamas. “Wow, I haven’t slept so good in years, which is surprising, considering that I slept on the couch. You, my friend, have the most comfortable couch in the world. So, what do we have for breakfast?” Jonas yawned.

  “Not much, some cereal and toast. We haven’t been to the store in a while,” I said.

  “Cereal and toast sounds great, actually,” Carla replied as she made the bed she had slept on.

  We didn’t say anything about Threshold until we were all sitting at the kitchen table.

  “That was insane. Do you guys remember what happened?” Jonas asked.

  “Of course, how could I forget?” I said, beaming.

  “I’m so happy you got to see her again,” Carla said, squeezing my hand discreetly.

  “Well, we don’t know for sure if it really happened, or if it’s just a shared dream,” I said cautiously.

  “Nope, but we can find out. What did you guys see in each room?” said Carla as she looked for a pen. “I’ll write it down just to make sure we have the correct info.”

  “Okay, shall we start with the basement?” I asked.

  “Sure, sounds good to me,” replied Jonas.

  “Okay, so what do you guys remember about the note in the basement?” asked Carla with pen and paper at hand.

  “That one is easy. It was Jonas’s locker combination,” I replied quickly.

  “More specifically, it was 9-24-2, and it was on top of the pool table,” added Carla.

  “Yep, that’s right on the money,” replied Jonas.

  “Should we go and check?” Carla asked.

  “We can, after we write them all down,” I replied with my heart about to jump out of my throat.

  “The next experiment is mine. What do you guys remember of the guest room?” Carla asked, ready to write down our answers.

  “There was a yellow flower,” offered Jonas proudly.

  “It was a yellow rose carefully placed in an intricate vase, but instead of the drawing we saw the real flower as you had envisioned at the time of the drawing,” I replied.

  “Also correct, two down, one more to go,” said Carla.

  “Well, let’s see if you guys remember this next one. Personally, I have no doubt in my mind that it really happened,” I said, probably beaming.

  “I recall that in your dad’s office, we found a piece of paper with the word ‘Mom’ written on it,” replied Carla.

  “I recall a boring room with the same note,” added Jonas, joking.

  “Well, that does it, at least for me. I have personal confirmation that we were all in Threshold last night,” I said proudly. “I did it. I saw my mother again, after all those years of rage, fear, and disbelief. I can’t believe it. I feel so much better. I mean, I still miss her, but I know she’s fine, and most important, I know it wasn’t anyone’s fau
lt that she passed away.”

  “Oh my God, that’s amazing, can you imagine the possibilities?” asked Carla.

  We quickly finished our breakfast and proceeded to each of the rooms to verify our notes, and sure enough they were exactly as we had seen them the night before, with the only exception being Carla’s drawing of a yellow rose, which we had seen as the real rose.

  “So, are you going to tell your dad?” Jonas asked.

  “I will. I think that it’s about time I have a good talk with him.”

  I shook Jonas hand and said, “See you later, my friend.”

  After Jonas left the room, I held Carla’s hand and caressed it gently for a second as I tried to decide if I should tell her how much she meant to me. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the courage, and instead I just said, “Thank you very much for everything. I couldn’t have done it without you. I don’t even know if I would be here if it wasn’t for you.”

  That was the closest I’d gotten to telling her that I loved her.

  “I’m glad everything worked out great and that you got to see your mother again. See you later?”

  “Without a doubt,” I replied.

  Carla picked up her backpack and left, still in her pajamas. She rushed across the street—just in time too, because not five minutes passed before I heard a car pull into the driveway.

  I looked outside the window and saw that my dad was home. It was the first time in years that I saw my dad up early on a Sunday morning, a day he usually reserved to sleep late.

  “Good morning,” said my dad, looking surprised to see me up and about that early.

  “Morning, Dad, how did you sleep?” I asked, wondering how I was going to tell him everything that had happened.

  Since I couldn’t decide the best way to tell him, I pulled a Jonas on him.

  “Dad, we need to have a serious talk,” I said bluntly.

  “What’s wrong, Son? Is it drugs?” he asked.

  “No, Dad, as matter of fact, nothing is really wrong, but I have to tell you something important,” I replied.

  “What happened?” my dad asked again, still looking worried.

  “Dad, I know that you’re an atheist and all, and I respect that, but I need you to know that as much as you’re my role model, I can’t share your disinterest for religions, because I believe… Dad, I guess what I’m trying to say is that I can’t be an atheist like you because I believe in life after death. Not only that, I have irrefutable proof that life exists beyond death.” I was afraid I would hurt his feelings, and that was the last thing that I wanted to do. But he needed to know the truth.