by N. P. Martin
"Before you go," Peter said. He went to the shelves and looked for a second before taking a spool of silver thread, unraveling a short length, breaking it off and handing it to me. "Take this. Wrap it around your little finger before you enter the portal. As you move through the Outer Reaches the thread will extend behind you so that you will be able to get back to the portal if you get in any trouble."
I took the piece of shiny thread and held it in my hand. "Thanks."
Stepping forward, Peter took hold of my arm for a second. "Thank me when you get back with Leona and your other friend."
Saying nothing more, I teleported back to the Sanctum.
24
Portal Of Doom
I didn't need much else to open the Underworld portal. The spell I memorized as I saw it in the barn owl's mind. The Red Mercury had been procured now as well. The only other thing I needed was a plan for when I made it into the Underworld. The problem with that last component, however, was that I had very little idea of what to expect if I managed to make into the place, never having been there before. But I had been to plenty of places around the world where I had never been before then, and one thing I learned to do when I went somewhere for the first time was to try and blend in straight away by staying in the background. Often that meant finding a quiet place to sit and watch, and to see what went, to see how the people in the new place behaved, and also the types of people in the area. More specifically, the dangerous ones. The criminals. The unscrupulous magickal adepts. Con men looking for an easy mark. I would give myself time to assimilate. Then I would move around as inconspicuously as possible.
The only problem with that strategy was that it might not work in a place like the Underworld, where unless you were a monster or a damned soul, you would stand out.
"Fuck it," I said after swallowing a large glass of whiskey. "I have no idea what the hell I'm doing. I'm fucked."
Blaez stood up in the living room and made a barking sound as if he disagreed.
"Thanks for the vote of confidence, buddy. But this time...this time I really don't know."
After another moment of intense anxiety, I slammed my empty glass down on the mantle and refused to give in to my fears and insecurities.
This isn't about me, I thought.
I tried to remember that.
"Alright guys," I said to Blaez and Barney. "You two are coming with me. I need you to guard the portal after I go through. If it gets closed, I'll be kinda screwed. So just to be clear, Blaez, if anyone or anything tries to close that portal while I'm gone, burn those fuckers away." I looked at the barn owl. "Barney, you just grow big and...eat them I suppose."
Blaez walked to the side of me and Barney hopped onto my shoulder, after which I disintegrated us all and sent us through the ether to Liberty Hill Cemetery.
Liberty Hill Cemetery was a massive place that was filled with graves as far as the eye could see. In the center of the cemetery was a grassy hill, on top of which sat the tomb of John Winchester, a sheriff who apparently freed Blackham from the tyranny of criminals back in the bad old days when the city itself was just being built. Winchester cleaned up the festering streets of the fledgling Blackham City and brought liberty for all, except the criminals, whom Winchester brutally murdered, hanging their bodies in the streets for all to see.
That was the story anyhow. Someone more in the know might have said that Winchester was the first vampire to move into Blackham and that he merely rid himself of anyone who might oppose his covert rise to power. Winchester faked his own death. His adoring public believed he was callously murdered by a criminal in an act of revenge. The body was so mutilated no one could tell if it was Winchester or not anyway, but a few whispers in the right ears made sure the body was officially decreed as his. Meanwhile, Winchester changed his appearance and steadily took over the city under the guise of a wealthy industrialist named Marcus Briggs. He stayed in power until the Crimson Crow came along and killed him. It was still Angela Crow who ran the show now, made easier by the fact that she was also the world's only day-walking vampire. Thanks to yours truly.
And that's your history lesson over for today. Now onto business.
The cemetery was steeped in so much bloody history it was little wonder to me that it had become the perfect place to open a portal to the Underworld.
With Barney on my shoulder and Blaez by my side, I trekked through the cemetery as the sky above turned black, and a host of stars started to shine through. If I wasn't so tensely focused on what I had to do, I might have said it was a beautiful night, despite the chill in the air. As it was, I hardly noticed as I focused on locating the Celtic cross I had seen in Barney's memory of Margot.
The cemetery was so big it took me over twenty minutes to finally locate the Druid's grave. From there, I used my memory to pinpoint the spot at which Margot had previously opened the portal, which turned out to be about twenty feet from the Celtic cross, in a spot where there was no grave, and no grass grew. It was a patch of dirt in between two tombstones.
As I crouched down and placed my hand on the slightly damp earth, I immediately felt the energy in the ground. Dark energy. It didn't surprise me that there were was no grave site there. There probably was in the past, until the bodies buried there crawled out of their graves again most likely, fueled by the dark energy that seemed to converge there. No doubt the grave diggers had learned to avoid that particular spot, and indeed probably talked about how they got the creeps every time they stood anywhere near there, or about how strange things would happen.
There are spots on the earth all over the world that most people instinctively avoided walking on or even going near. Black Spots you might call them. Places where dark energies had come to converge over eons. The real problems came when people unknowingly built things on top of these Black Spots, like houses. Once that happened, bad things would soon start happening (Poltergeist anyone?).
Barney took off from my shoulder and flew into the night sky like a silent ghost, probably off to scout the rest of the cemetery to make sure we were alone. Blaez began to patrol the immediate area, walking around in a circle, his ears pricked, his yellow eyes alert.
I wasted no time as I took out the bottle of Red Mercury that Peter Franklyn had given me, holding it up so the moonlight shone through the bottle, further illuminating the substance inside. Then I took the cork out of the bottle and carefully began to pour the Red Mercury in a circle on the ground. It took almost the full bottle to make a small, unbroken circle. The Red Mercury lay on top of the earth like normal mercury on a hard surface. As it glistened in the moonlight, it gave off a sharp scent that reminded me of sulfur.
After standing back from the circle, I had another quick look around just as Barney flew down and landed on a nearby tombstone, his black eyes on me as if to confirm that there was no one else around. Satisfied that we were alone, I stood over the circle of Red Mercury and held my hands out in front of me, palms down over the circle below.
As I began to say the words to the spell that would open the portal, I felt the electric presence of dark energy in the air around me, felt it reach up from the ground below and encircle me as if excited by what I was doing.
Halfway through the spell, a bright red light began to beam up from out of the circle on the ground.
The portal was beginning to open, and I paused in reciting the spell for a moment, and then swallowed nervously before continuing.
Arcs of red energy soon began to swirl within the circle of light. Then the ground itself within the circle suddenly gave way, falling into blackness.
A strong wind had picked up and was swirling around me like a banshee, screaming past my ears. So much so that I had to raise my voice while I recited the last few words of the spell.
On the last word of the spell, the red light within the circle intensified to such a degree that I had to shut my eyes against it. The light soon died down, however, and then a high-pitched whine could be heard as the portal seemed to wid
en by a few feet.
I stood back and stared tensely at the now fully opened portal. All I had to do next was jump into it, and I would be taken immediately to the Underworld, or at least the Outer Reaches, which I was looking forward to even less than the Underworld itself. When I went through the portal, I would still have to navigate my way through the darkness of the Outer Reaches and all the horrors that it contained to find a way into the Underworld itself.
Reaching into my coat pocket, I found the piece of silver string that Peter Franklyn had given me and tied it around the little finger on my left hand. If things went wrong, at least I would be able to navigate my way back to the portal. I hoped anyway.
"Alright, Blaez," I said, looking over at the Garra Wolf who was standing just to the side of the portal. "Stay frosty."
Blaez made a small barking sound and raised his head at me. Barney screeched as well from his position on a nearby tombstone.
Then I walked forward into the portal and let it suck me into the darkness on the other side.
25
The Outer Reaches
It felt like I'd stepped into someone's nightmarish dreamscape when I came out the other side of the portal. Before me was nothing but darkness as far as I could see, and the ground beneath my feet felt hard and unforgiving. After a moment of standing there and being almost afraid to move, my eyes began to adjust to the darkness around me. My jaw dropped in part wonder, part terror as the landscape around me slowly faded into view.
Everything I could see was in shades of black or gray. There was no light to speak off. The sky was near black and filled with a thick blanket of swirling, dark gray clouds. Somewhere behind the clouds, there may have been a sun of some sort, for a trickle of muted gray light seemed to push through the clouds, coating the landscape in a grim twilight and providing a breeding ground for dense shadows.
The Outer Reaches reminded me somewhat of one of Earth's more barren and desolate regions. Across the cracked black earth, I could see mammoth mountains in the distance with lightning arcing around the peaks, the clouds wrapped around the great mountains seeming darker than everywhere else.
It was a black desert as far as the eye could see. Nothing seemed to grow anywhere. It was a desolate world with a barely beating heart, beating just enough to sustain the grim surroundings that seemed to close in around me, despite the vastness of it all.
An icy wind blew everywhere, and I wrapped my coat tighter around myself, which didn't do much to stop the chill from seeping into my bones.
Where the hell am I supposed to go? I wondered as the enormity of what I had to do began to sink in. How was I meant to navigate such a vast, barren wasteland? It could have been the size of Earth, or bigger. How far would I have to go to make it to the Underworld?
I turned around and faced the still open portal. This is madness, I thought to myself. What the hell am I doing? I can't do this.
Then I remembered why I was there. To save Leona. And Margot.
I turned around again. Save them? I'd be lucky even to find them, never mind save them.
Magick, Creed! You're a fucking sorcerer! Use your magick!
It felt like I was crumbling apart inside. The pressure was mounting in me, and the next thing I knew, I was on the verge of taking a panic attack. And I probably would have if a deafening screeching sound nearby didn't force me to focus on my surroundings.
My head snapped to the left where the sound had come from, and I almost jumped back in fear when I saw in the distance something that was like a huge eel slithering through the sky and pushing its way through the clouds. What was even more astounding was the luminescent colors on the eel creature's massively long body. Hues of red, orange, green and blue flashed and pulsed along the surface of the creature's body, reminding me of something you would see in the very depths of the ocean on Earth. The creature was too far away to see me (I hoped), and it soon disappeared into the distance until all I could see was occasional pulses of luminescent light in the clouds.
Great, I thought. The place is full of gigantic creatures that would probably like nothing better than to swallow me whole, soul and all.
As my eyes took in more flashes of light in different places around the sky, and also on the ground, I did my best to push down my mounting fear so I could focus on thinking of a spell that would help me find an entrance to the Underworld. It was a struggle maintaining focus when the terrifying sounds of the Outer Reaches' inhabitants became more numerous, coming together in a symphony of horror.
Across the whole barren wasteland around me, creatures of all sizes began to light up, illuminating their terrifying shapes. Most of them were too far away to make out properly, but it was clear they were all heading towards me, having been alerted to my presence somehow. I was sure the glowing portal behind me wasn't helping any. I might as well have had a target on my chest or a neon sign above my head saying EAT HERE.
Then, out of nowhere, a humungous creature appeared in the sky before me. It was so utterly terrifying and like nothing I had ever seen before--not even in my worst nightmares--that I can barely describe it. I just remember being transfixed by two glowing white orbs on either side of the creatures face, if you could even say it had a face. The only thing I can be sure of is the bundles of thick tentacles that hung from its head almost down to the ground. Luminescent lights pulsed and flickered down the length of each tentacle. In one way, it was very beautiful to look at. Awe inspiring even. Which could have been the point, for a while I remained transfixed by the all the lights, the creature was reaching out a tentacle to grab me, something I hardly realized until the tip of the tentacle hovered in front of my face like it was supposed to hypnotize me even further. I was vaguely aware of other creatures drawing closer, a mass of flashing lights surrounding me, making me feel like some heavenly dimension was opening up around me.
I didn't even move as the tip of the tentacle opened up like a stunning bio-luminescent flower, showering me with light and feelings of contentedness. Even when a huge mouth opened up within the pretty tentacle--a mouth filled with row upon row of pointed teeth--I still didn't move.
The lights became more intense.
The mouth got closer.
Still, I didn't move.
Not until something tugged on my left hand, pulling me backward and away from the hypnotizing lights.
A sound like a demonic pig drowned out everything else, and I merely watched as the sharp-toothed mouth got closer and closer...
Until I was pulled backward again, with more force this time. A moment of blackness ensued, during which all the bright lights suddenly disappeared, and I found myself staggering into something.
I screamed in fear as something grabbed hold of me, started to shake me.
"August! It's me! It's your Uncle Ray!"
My vision returned as the blackness disappeared and Ray's face came into view before me. "Ray?" I said, dazed and confused.
"Yes. Snap out of it, August!"
I shook my head as if to clear it and soon realized, with utter relief it has to be said, that I was no longer in the Outer Reaches, but back on Earth.
I looked behind me to see that the portal had now gone. I turned back to my uncle. "Ray, how did you..."
Ray let go of me and took a step back, satisfied that I appeared to be okay. "I was for leaving the city tonight. Lucky for you I wanted to say goodbye before I left. I tracked you here. What the bloody hell are you playing at? Going to that place alone. Are you bloody mad, son?"
I looked to see Blaez standing over behind Ray. The barn owl was perched above Blaez on one of the headstones. Suddenly I felt very stupid standing there with all eyes on me. "I didn't have a choice, Ray," I said. "Baal has Leona with him in the Underworld."
Ray sighed and shook his head. "So you thought you would just ride on in there like Clint bloody Eastwood and get her back did you?"
"Something like that. Not that I got very far. The things in the Outer Reaches..." I stopped and shu
ddered at the realization that I was a second away from being consumed by one of those things before Ray managed to pull me up. "Your timing couldn't have been better."
"I beg to differ," Ray said. "I should have found you before you even tried setting foot in that Godforsaken place. Do you even know how to get into the Underworld from the Outer Reaches?"
I shrugged and shook my head slightly. "Not really," I said quietly.
Ray shook his head again as he stood staring at me. "I know you love the girl, August, but that was bloody stupid. If you'd have asked--"
"I didn't want to drag you or Sanaka into this. This whole thing is my fault. It's my fault that Leona is trapped in that place right now." I looked down to see the piece of silver string still tied around my finger. I reminded myself to thank Peter Franklyn next time I saw him. He may have just saved my life.
Ray stepped forward and put a hand on my shoulder. "Alright, son," he said, his tone softened somewhat. "I get why you didn't say anything. But you should know, I'm always here if you need me. You wouldn't be dragging me into anything. You're the only family I have, and that means it's my duty to help you, no matter the cost."
"Great, so we're a family of idiots then." I laughed slightly, and Ray smiled back at me as he shook his head.
"Let's get out of this bloody bone yard. Then we can figure out how to get your girl back."
It was the best idea I'd heard all day.
26
Tea For Three
Ray and I, along with Blaez and Barney, teleported to Sanaka's Sanctum, as much so Ray could get his hands on Sanaka's sake as to get us somewhere safe and sound.
"What is going on?" Sanaka said as we stood in the large front hallway. Sanaka was dressed all in black, his hands clasped behind his back as he waited for an explanation.
