The slumber brought no relief to her, waking up in a panic.
A monochromatic, gray room surrounded her, in the dream. Everything melded together.
That… again. Why..?
I should get ready.
Despite her disappearance, she wanted to go back to school already. Amity did want to see everyone again, and make sure her grades hadn’t slipped too much.
Hopefully she would be excused - a month of assignments would be hard to make up. Plus, she was legally missing.
That should count for something.
Amity slid down to the kitchen.
***
The clatter of a metal spoon dinging around in a ceramic bowl rang through the room as she placed it in the sink. Her dirty, bloodstained and torn-up clothes hit the floor, more-than-likely to hit the trash later, as she changed into a more casual outfit.
Flared-leg jeans, with a graphic crop-top over a red T-shirt, and a pair of sneakers. She reached for her necklace from the drawer it was always in-
Right. It’s… shattered.
The remains of it still in her old clothes’ pockets, she pulled it out along with the other mediums. Amity tried to grab the small purse she kept her syringes in, intended for use with the ballistic-gel training dummy she had been provided by the school, but she remembered it was stained too.
Oh well, they can probably fit in my backpack.
It being the one thing that wasn’t ruined that she would’ve taken to school with her, the pin-adorned backpack she had carefully modified with design after design, nerdy TV-show pin after pin representing one of her hobbies after pride pin. Amity dropped the rocks into the outer pocket.
(RING! RING!)
Right, my phone!
Darting upstairs, the little brick of what once connected her to the world was near-exploding with notifications.
Text messages from friends-of-friends, and friends of them. Games, reminding her to grab the daily log-in rewards. Phone calls from her parents, and a few from Himiko, which was the ringing now.
“Hey, Himiko!”
“Hi, Amity.” The partly-solemn, partly-panicked voice made Amity worried.
“Are you good?”
“I’m… fine. You need to come to my house, now.”
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Immediately agreeing, she abandoned her plans to reunite at school. Amity grabbed the rocks from her bag again, and darted across the neighborhood, meeting up directly with Himiko in her room. Greeted by everyone, all in their school outfits (besides Kaiya, who technically wasn’t even enrolled anymore,) she took a position leaning on a wall.
“Listen. Something’s… fishy. Amity, did your parents freak out when you got home?”
That was… specific.
“I… no, they didn’t. I thought it was weird, but I chalked it up to them being relieved I was back.”
“None of our parents were either.”
“Huh..?”
Amity stared in confusion. Why the hell was everyone so calm about this?
“My parents brushed it off, and didn’t care that Kaiya was staying here. Raleigh said the same,” he nodded, “and so did Katie’s.”
“Why are they all so… nonchalant about this? I saw the date on my phone too, we’ve been gone for a full calendar month.” She pulled it out, presenting the info.
“Yeah, I know! Anyway, I had to have you come over because we were speculating with Kaiya, and she had something to say that she refused to mention until we were all together.”
Standing up, Kaiya looked over to Amity, then glanced around the room.
“Shut that window.”
Done, immediately. She sat on the foot of Himiko’s bed, while the rest of them either leaned on a wall or sat on the floor.
“So, about my story.”
“On the planet, the sand planet… ah, to hell with it. Its name is Samdaz.”
They all glanced at each-other, wondering how she would know that.
“On Samdaz, when I got swept up there and the Princess saved me, she introduced me to some of the highest ranking people there. One of which, was Cornet.”
Gears turned in their heads, trying to predict where it was going.
“Cornet… is the leader of The Broken Divine.”
Collectively, everyone blinked.
“What do you mean? He’s the one who saved us from that Broken Divine base, the very first one! Why would he throw away his chance at capturing a human to… ‘release’?”
“Really, I don’t know, but also… I don’t think he did. Back in those few months I was with the Princess, before I really understood his motivation, we worked together on harnessing magic to travel more effectively.”
She took a small slip of paper out of her pocket, with sharp, precise text on it, around a glyph symbol, and a sketch of the rock.
“This is the prototype to what we made. I suspect he handed it off to you - let me see it.”
As instructed, Amity passed it along to Kaiya, and she confirmed the suspicions. That rock was a prototype.
“Read the paper.”
This time, the paper went to Katie, who grabbed it and spoke aloud the clear words.
“Prototype, Transport Medium. This is the first prototype of the Transport medium, the very first manufactured magical medium. Our found flaw, is that it does not transport you to the true version of your destination, but rather, a sort of simulation of it.”
Katie took a breath, flipping the paper.
“These simulations are found to have weaker emotion and slower movement in all observed species. If used on Earth, there is a very high chance of instability.”
The paper was handed right back to Kaiya.
“So, does that make it clear? This isn’t Earth. And if the instability is true, we could end up dying here at any moment.” Even though she had had the longest to think about it, Kaiya was still shaking with fear.
“Does anyone have anything they may want to bring with them? I suggest you retrieve it now. We’ll leave ASAP, when everyone returns.”
Knowing that they were on an illegitimate Earth, Himiko simply sat on her bed, while Katie and Kaiya scattered down the window. Amity remained in the room, sitting next to Himiko.
When Amity offered a hug to the girl, she accepted, removing the witch hat before leaning over her shoulder, sobbing.
“Amity, I *hic* I’m scared. I don’t want to do that all again.”
“We know exactly what we’re doing now. It will be okay. I promise.”
“But… what if Cornet finds out we’re b- *hic* back?”
“Then we’ll fight him, and we’ll win.”
They embraced each-other for a few more minutes, before Himiko pulled back, put on her hat, and leaned back over to Amity.
She put her arms behind the other girl’s neck, and avoiding bonking her with the hat upon her head, managed to give Amity a kiss. “Thanks.”
***
“So, are we ready?” Kaiya stood at the closet door-frame.
“I have everything.” Amity called.
“Me too,” said everyone else.
“Alright, so…”
Holding a small container filled with crushed rocks and water mixed into a paste, Kaiya poured it around the bottom of the door frame, getting up some of the corners. A small glow formed around the material, rising up the edges before creating a solid square once it hit the top of the frame. Slowly, as if it were spilled water, the glow spread inwards. A small square remained open in the middle as everything else closed, before it finally fell victim to the creeping nature of the portal.
Once the full portal became visible, although they couldn’t see to the other side, it was somehow clear where it led. With 100% certainty, this was a portal to Samdaz.
Who would take the brave first step in?