‘Behold my greatness! I am Stygian Glimmerloss, the Final. All that is left of the House of Glimmerloss. Mage of War to the former Queendom of Zanak. Advisor and confidant to Her Royal Highness Queen Xanxia, the long dead. And now … Ender of Worlds!’
More of the Darkness gathered around him, stray tendrils coiling around the frequency oscillators and the arms that held them. The metal rusted and crumbled.
But the doorway widened.
‘We begin with this world,’ said Stygian.
‘What’s happening,’ screamed Dr Bloom. ‘What are you doing?’
‘The Dark World is upon us,’ shouted Stygian.
Newt saw Brian wander into the portal chamber carrying a freshly made cup of coffee. He stopped and blinked.
Stygian stood in the centre of a maelstrom of Darkness, plumes sweeping off in all directions, eating away at the surrounding equipment, attacking the walls of the portal chamber. Cracks began to appear, chunks of plaster smashing down.
Newt lay on the floor and watched as the Darkness wound its way to Dr Bloom and her control dais. It wrapped itself around the protective bubble but couldn’t get in.
‘You can’t control the Darkness,’ gloated Stygian. ‘It listens only to me!’
Inside the energy bubble, panic overcame Dr Bloom. ‘Help!’ she screamed, cowering on the floor.
Brian started at the sound of her voice, spilling half the coffee, and slowly shuffled his way towards her.
Seeing Brian through the surrounding plumes, Dr Bloom waved at him. ‘The Darkness. Distract the Darkness so I can get out!’
Brian stared blankly at her and held out the coffee cup.
‘Forget the coffee, you moron,’ wailed Dr Bloom. ‘Do something useful, for once. Touch the Darkness. That might distract it from me.’
Brian shambled over to the workbench instead.
‘What are you doing, you idiot?’
He lifted the coffee cup and held it over the tablet that had been left there.
‘No!’ screeched Dr Bloom, gripped by the horror of what was about to happen. ‘You’ll short out my controls. It will cut out my energy field. Don’t!’
Brian titled his head to look at Dr Bloom, made eye contact with her, held her gaze for a few seconds and then poured out the remains of the coffee.
The tablet fizzled and sparked.
The energy field disappeared.
Dr Bloom threw herself from the dais as the Darkness rushed in on her. Her flesh dissolved as she passed through it, leaving her skeleton to clatter to the floor.
Brian glanced at Newt, who was gaping at what had just happened. He straightened up a little, gave her a thumbs up and walked to the Darkness with outstretched arms, as if greeting an old friend.
Newt covered her eyes as he was consumed.
‘Help me.’ The voice was tiny and faint and distant, but somewhere in the back of her mind, Newt heard Moppet’s plaintive cry. She looked up. It wasn’t over. There was still hope. If only she could get Moppet away from Stygian. But how?
The edge of the dais erupted in an explosion of white smoke.
Stygian screamed, raising a hand to cover his steaming eyes.
Even from her spot on the floor, Newt could feel the effects of the tear gas making her eyes water.
A figure dressed in grey armour ran across the room and up onto the dais. Drawing back his gloved fist, he punched Stygian in the nose, wrestled the spider from his grasp and leaped off.
‘It’s too late,’ Stygian screamed, staggering about and clutching his face. ‘The Dark World has come. The end is nigh!’
Without his familiar, Stygian’s magic was gone.
The Darkness that swirled around him, now consumed him.
Newt gasped. The feelings of hate and fear suddenly stopped. The malevolence that seemed intrinsic to the Darkness was gone. And yet the Darkness was still there. Empty. Desolate. Without purpose. And somehow, so much more frightening.
The armoured figure stopped beside a flabbergasted Newt and drew a knife. He sliced through the binding on the spider’s legs.
Moppet jumped onto Newt’s shoulder as the armoured figure removed his helmet and gloves. It was Rowan.
‘Wasn’t really thirsty,’ he said with a grin. ‘Thought I’d raid the warehouse instead of the kitchenette. Bloom was right. She does have a grenade for all occasions.’
‘Rowan?’ Relief flooded through her. He didn’t abandon me!
Moppet scuttled onto Newt’s back, the spider’s voice now strong inside her head.
‘We have a connection. And you have potential. You are the last hope of all worlds.’
‘What? Me? I don’t have any powers. What could I do?’
Darkness surged through the doorway.
‘Do something!’ Rowan’s voice was loud with desperation. ‘Anything!’
Newt staggered to her feet. The pain in her knee was gone.
Darkness roiled towards her and Rowan. Thinking it was all over, in utter desperation, she grabbed Rowan and hugged him. With their height difference, she found herself pressing her cheek to his hair.
The Darkness swirled around them, cutting a path of destruction across the room, out into the corridor and up into the world above.
‘We’re not dead?’ Rowan could hardly believe it. ‘Why aren’t we dead?’
‘Newt has power.’ Moppet’s voice was now in Rowan’s mind as well. ‘As do you. And with the aid of a familiar you can use it. But you need to believe.’
‘What do we do?’ asked Rowan.
What can we do? Newt racked her brains. Can we destroy it? Can we block it? Can we send it back? But her mind answered each question with another question – How? Can we …
‘Can we talk to it?’ asked Newt. Her parents always said that there was no problem that could not be solved with rational discussion. And Stygian had said that he communicated with the Darkness. Maybe they could too?
‘Can we talk to the Darkness?’ asked Newt again. Deep down inside, she sensed that this was their only hope.
‘I will help you,’ said Moppet.
‘Stop!’ Newt and Rowan yelled the word together, as Moppet’s voice echoed it within their minds.
‘We need to communicate,’ they said in unison. It was like they were linked by the familiar, their minds working together. ‘Talk to us.’
On the dais, Stygian’s bones rose up into the air. The Darkness gathered around them, connecting them, forming the ghostly semblance of a figure.
‘We are the end and the beginning.’ The voice was ethereal. Although the jawbones moved and the inky figure around them mouthed the words, the sound came from everywhere. From the Darkness that spewed from the doorway; that rushed through the portal chamber; that even now, was devastating the world above.
‘Why?’ asked Newt-Rowan-Moppet. ‘Why are you doing this?’
‘It is what has been asked. It is what has been done. It is what will be done.’
So much Darkness now surged from the doorway, that all else was obscured. It was as if Newt, Rowan and Moppet clung together in an inky deluge.
‘But why? What is the purpose? What is the reason?’
‘There is no reason.’
No reason? Newt knew that in science, nothing ever happened without a reason.
‘There must be reason,’ said Newt-Rowan-Moppet. ‘There must be logic. Action without purpose is … is …’
‘Dumb!’ said Rowan-Newt-Moppet. ‘Stupid. Nuts. Insane.’
The rush of the Darkness intensified.
It billowed and gushed and swelled.
And then it stopped.
It was still there. But it hung, frozen, like smoke encased in crystal.
‘What would you have us do?’
‘You’re asking us?’ said Newt-Rowan-Moppet.
‘Yes.’
‘Go away,’ said Newt-Rowan-Moppet, as if it were the simplest of things. Newt so desperately wanted an end to all the destruction and death. She wanted this wo
rld, and her own, to be safe. She could sense the same feelings within Rowan and Moppet, and their unity gave her strength. ‘Return to your Dark World. Seal the doorways. Do no more harm.’
Newt held her breath and waited – hoping!
The Darkness withdrew. In a swell of movement, it flowed back through the doorway. The rush of air as it returned to its own world buffeted the trio where they stood. Newt’s hair band snapped, and her black hair whipped around her face.
As the Darkness left, it revealed the devastation. Newt let go of Rowan and gazed about.
The portal chamber was gone.
The building above was gone.
The doorway hung in the centre of a massive crater, gouged out of the earth like a gaping wound.
It was over … and yet, so much had been destroyed. If only there was something more they could do.
‘Do you believe in happy endings?’ asked Rowan.
‘What?’
‘Do you believe in happily ever after?’
Tears welled up in Newt’s eyes. ‘I really want to.’
Rowan held out his hand to her, and Newt saw the tears in his eyes as well. ‘Then let’s try. Maybe together …’
‘ …we can get the Darkness to believe too,’ finished Newt.
She took his hand.
The final wisps of smoky blackness were almost gone, the doorway was shrinking.
‘Wait!’ cried Rowan-Newt-Moppet. ‘This isn’t enough.’
‘What would you have us do?’
‘Put it back,’ wailed Rowan-Newt-Moppet. Rowan sobbed. Newt squeezed his hand tighter. ‘Create, rather than destroy. Hope. Imagine. Create. Please.’ Though the words were spoken by all three of them, it was Rowan’s voice that was the loudest. Tears streamed down his cheeks. ‘Every story … should have a …’
‘… a happy ending,’ said Newt-Rowan-Moppet.
Newt felt a warmth emanating from within – as if their hope was radiating out to the Darkness.
For a brief moment, they saw the Darkness surge again, and then …
The doorway exploded!
It burst apart in a flash of bright, brilliant darkness.
Everything was an eruption of dazzling midnight black!
Something rubbed against her cheek, waking Newt. Where am I? What happened? What’s going on?
For a split second she thought she was at home on the couch, head on the nice, plush pillow her mum kept there.
But the pillow quivered.
Newt lifted her head. She had been resting on Moppet.
She sat bolt upright. Rowan was on the floor beside her, snoring. Dr Bloom was near her control dais, Brian and his feather duster beside her, both unconscious. And there were others. Men and women in lab coats, all lying on the floor as if asleep.
Newt got to her feet.
The portal chamber was pristine. The hole in the wall was gone, a door in its place. The equipment all looked intact. What’s happened?
A quiet hissing drew her attention back to the floor and the spider. Moppet was on her back, legs twitching.
Newt bent down and picked her up.
‘You did it.’ Moppet’s voice inside her head sounded weak. ‘You and Rowan. You achieved your potential. You exceeded it.’
‘But what actually happened?’ asked Newt.
‘Rowan’s hope and imagination is what happened. He wanted this world back so very much. He wanted there to be no more destruction. He wanted a happy ending. And you believed in it. You wanted it too. So the Darkness gave it to you. Together you made it happen.’
‘Everything’s back?’ Newt could hardly believe what she was saying. ‘The buildings? The people?’
‘Yes.’
‘Stygian?’
‘No.’ Moppet’s voice was sad. ‘He is not of this world. He is gone. And it is for the best.’
‘Are you okay?’
‘No. That’s why I woke you up. I am used to being a familiar for one mage, who is trained and knows how to use his power. Channelling all that power for you and Rowan was too much. It has taken most of my life force. I do not have much time left.’
‘Moppet … no.’ Newt felt herself choking up. Moppet must have known this would happen. But she had been willing to make the sacrifice to stop the Darkness. It seemed unfair that this creature, after struggling with Stygian for so long, had to die now.
‘It is also for the best. What is a familiar without a mage?’
‘Is there anything I can do?’
‘Yes. Take me up to the light. Let me see this world. I was so long in darkness.’
Newt rushed out of the chamber and to the now operative elevator. Minutes later, she was carrying Moppet out of the glass tower and into the park.
The city had been reconstructed. Buildings and roads were back to normal, cars and street signs devoid of rust and there were people lying unconscious all over the place. And the park was alive with plants, green and lush. The air smelled sweet.
Newt wondered how long before the people would start to wake.
The sun was bright as it began to dip below the horizon of buildings, its last golden rays shining over the creature’s brown and orange fur and making its blue eyes sparkle.
‘Thank you,’ said Moppet.
The glow left her eyes, and her body went limp.
Newt stifled a sob.
It might have seemed odd that she would feel so sad about the death of a spider … but this familiar had, for a short time, shared her mind, her thoughts and her feelings.
As the sun disappeared, Moppet disintegrated into dust and slipped through Newt’s fingers.
Someone groaned.
Newt gazed about. Everywhere, people were beginning to wake up – stretching, yawning and looking very puzzled.
And all of a sudden, Newt wanted to go home so very badly – back to her own world, her family and her friends. This was not some vague homesickness; this was a definite physical need – a tug, an urge, much stronger than the one that had led her to touch the book in the principal’s office or leap through the doorway.
She knew where to go … back down to the portal chamber.
When she walked in, Rowan was already sitting up.
‘What happened?’ he asked.
‘You did,’ said Newt. ‘We did. Somehow, we managed to get the Darkness to restore everything. I’ve just been upstairs and it’s all there. The city. The people. Everything. It’s as if none of this ever happened.’ Newt laughed. ‘You got your happily ever after.’
Rowan smiled and gave a little nod. ‘I need to go home.’
‘Yeah,’ agreed Newt, ‘me too.’
Without any prompting, the two of them turned to face the dais. In the centre was a shimmering circle of air, through which was …
Darkness.
‘Not again,’ said Rowan, alarmed.
‘No,’ said Newt. ‘It’s home.’ She could feel it. This was just an ordinary, lights-out kind of darkness – mundane and harmless and recognisable and safe. ‘Come on.’
Rowan jumped to his feet, eager to leave.
They approached the dais, but Rowan stopped.
‘Do you think we’re here?’ he asked.
‘What?’ Newt wasn’t sure what he was talking about.
‘Ms Bloom, Principal Hardnose, Mrs Farunkle. They were here in this world,’ said Rowan. ‘Well, versions of them anyway. But what about us and our families? Do you think there are other us-es here?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Newt. ‘And you know what … I don’t need to know. I just need to go home.’
She grasped his hand and led him to the shimmer.
A groan made them turn. Brian was sitting up, clutching his head and gazing around in confusion.
‘What? What happened?’
‘Magic,’ said Newt.
‘And science,’ added Rowan.
‘And coffee,’ they said in unison, before giggling.
‘Coffee?’ Brian said groggily. ‘I have an urge to go and make
some.’
Dr Bloom yawned and stretched.
‘Come on,’ said Rowan. ‘I don’t want to be around when she wakes up.’
Giving Brian a thumbs up, the two kids stepped through the shimmer – together.
‘Ow!’
‘What’s the matter?’
‘I’ve banged my shin against something.’
‘I’ve found a wall,’ said Newt.
‘Ahhhhhhh!’ shouted Rowan. ‘Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod. Help! Getitoffme. Getitoffme!’
‘What? What’s the matter?’ Newt began to panic. ‘Where are you?’
‘Spider web! Ahhhh! I’ve walked into a spider web. Ohmygod!’
‘Oh, for goodness sake.’ Newt continued feeling along the wall until she found a switch. She flicked it and a single naked bulb illuminated their dank surroundings.
They were in a small brick room full of junk and storage boxes, stairs leading up to a trapdoor in the wooden ceiling. Rowan was on the dusty floor, frantically wiping at his face.
‘Relax,’ said Newt. ‘It’s gone. You’ve got it off.’
Rowan whimpered as he got to his feet. ‘Sorry about that.’
‘You know what …’ started Newt. Then she stopped and reconsidered. ‘It’s okay. Now, where are we?’
‘No idea.’ Rowan pointed to the stairs. ‘But that’s the way out.’
They climbed up and emerged at the back of their school hall. Through the darkened windows, they could see flashing lights brightening the night outside.
They sprinted out and towards where people were gathered in the car park, behind police tape that was cordoning off the school grounds.
As they approached, people started pointing and shouting. Newt’s mum ducked under the tape and ran towards her, enveloping her in a hug.
‘Where have you been?’ she blubbered. ‘We’ve been so worried. We thought you’d been caught in the tornado.’
Tornado?
All of a sudden there were people all around her. Police. Paramedics. Teachers. Parents.
As she and Rowan were checked out in the back of an ambulance, they were able to glean what had been going on. Apparently, there had been some sort of freak weather incident, a mini-tornado, dark and menacing, that had destroyed the principal’s office and a small section of school grounds.
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