Albaer went down to the basement, unlike most apartments, his on the ground floor additionally had a lower level as well as an outside storage area. The stairs were simple wood, smooth but not polished or painted, and went down at a forty-five degree angle. He flicked the switch in the dark and flooded the room with light. The walls were smooth concrete and lined with shelves. Most of the shelves had small boxes and old trunks, there wasn’t a lot of space left. What was in them, even Albaer wasn’t entirely sure.
‘Dad’s things.’ He thought reflexively and went to one of the things he was sure of. He opened a box and found three large sleeping bags. They were the best on the market when they were made, and that was only a few years earlier. ‘I don’t know if angels or demons can even sleep on their backs or… well do they ‘want’ to hold their body heat in? Do they even ‘have’ body heat?’ Questions with no answers abounded in Albear’s mind as the sound of nylon on nylon rustled while he tugged them out of the box and put them under his arm.
After that, a pair of pillows meant for outdoor use, waterproof and rot resistant, Albaer couldn’t help but think of when his dad bought them. “Camping and comfort may not go hand in hand naturally, but that doesn’t mean they can’t!” The big teddy bear held up the pillows like they were a trophy and went to the counter to buy them while humming his favorite symphony.
Albaer still smiled at the memory in spite of everything, it was enough to make him linger, and then head back to the stairs to clomp his way up to where his unusual guests waited.
----------------------------------------
As soon as Albaer left them alone with the door closed, Raziel turned to her companion. “Do you think he’s telling the truth?”
“Why would he lie? It’s not like he knew we were coming… none of this,” Lialah swept her hand out to encompass the room, “looks like anything ‘I’ve’ ever seen before.”
“Alright… I’ll give you that, and he doesn’t look familiar either. He’s like a mutilated elf or something, or a really tall, thin dwarf.” Raziel muttered and crossed her arms in front of her breasts. “Assuming he’s lying probably isn’t the best thing, at least not without evidence.”
Lialah threw her shoulders back, squaring off against her sister and put her hands on Raziel’s arms, she made the demoness face her, “We’re going to be okay.”
“That’s my line.” Raziel said and, unwilling to meet the sapphire blue eyes any longer, let them follow the path of her curiosity where the little box and the rectangle continued to function, the character on the screen was inhaling and exhaling while the view of him panned around in a circle. “Kami…” She mumbled, part of her ready to accept at least that much was the truth. ‘You’re not real.’ She told herself, then reached down to the little black controller.
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
“You shouldn’t touch that, you don’t know what it is.” Lialah admonished after allowing her companion to break away from her touch.
“If it were lethal he probably wouldn’t have left it lying around.” Raziel pointed out.
Lialah turned up her nose and put her back to Raziel, her wings fluttering a little in agitation. “Don’t blame me if you end up in yet another world unable to escape, who knows where that actually is.” She inclined her head toward the screen. “Who ever heard of a window not on a wall, or door, or something…”
Raziel moved the little stick around, the feel of the dark thumb shaped instrument was strange, soft but not soft. Kami moved around with her and the view snapped back over his shoulder.
She moved it around again, and Kami ran in a circle.
She pushed a button, Kami jumped, and Raziel smiled.
Meanwhile, Lialah’s eye turned toward a closed door on the other side of the room. She approached it, standing there for several seconds as if she could see through it if she stared long enough. A little brass knob polished to a shine that reflected her face, somewhat warped, back at her, sat there inviting her to turn it.
“You shouldn’t go in there.” Raziel said while mashing buttons on the controller to see what else Kami would do.
“If it were dangerous, he would have told us not to open it.” Lialah replied, her tone full of smugness when she threw Raziel’s words back at her, the demon shrugged.
“What’s this button do…?” She asked out loud when she found the buttons underneath, and Kami raised his hand and began to spout flame from his palm as he ran forward.
Lialah grabbed the knob, turned it, and opened it up, inside, she saw the impossible.
“Is he rich?!” She eeped out. There was a pure white tub on the floor, and a wash basin to her left, and a chair… for some reason open and full of water down below it. A looking glass hung on the wall which was broad enough for her to stretch out her arms and wings and still not reach the end of it.
“Sister! Look at this!” Lialah exclaimed hoarsely while pointing out the state of the room.
Raziel held onto the controller, but followed the call of her closest companion and looked inside.
“He only mentioned a mother, right? He’s got to have servants to haul buckets in to fill that up… or… do you think that’s what the seat with the water in it is for?” Raziel asked.
“Maybe?” Lialah asked, “Is it to drink from… you could get a cup easily, or a bowl, but a bucket to fill that tub doesn’t seem like it would be a good fit… and where’s the bucket?”
Raziel pointed out the cabinet beneath white wash basin with the silver device hanging over it. “Maybe down there?” She asked rhetorically.
Lialah crouched down, opened the cabinet and saw the metal tubes beneath, “Sister, I think he might have been lying about there not being magic… there’s a wand here.”
“A wand?” Raziel asked, and Lialah stood back up.
It looked a lot like one, a long wooden stick, and a rounded end with a hole. It wasn’t ‘quite’ the same, but then, what was? Even the familiar was a little removed from the norm.
“Maybe you have to use wands here in order to do magic, do you think?” Lialah asked.
“It’s worth a try, if he is lying, then we want to get out of here now.” Raziel said, but looked with abundant regret at the tigerman on the screen. ‘So long, Kami.’ She thought as her sister, her companion, her friend, raised the wand overhead. Raziel dropped the little black controller onto the carpeted floor and put her hand on the wand just above her sister’s hand so that they were connected.
They rattled off the syllables of the spell and held the wand tight with their eyes shut, waiting for the magic to work.
The spell was almost over when Albaer entered the bedroom with his arms full, he dropped them to the floor in a heap just as they finished casting and exclaimed, “Why are you in my bedroom with my plunger?! Did you do something to my toilet?!”