“Did you see which way your sister went?” asked Kelviana. She flew towards the garage door and slowed as she approached the opening, peering cautiously in all directions before turning back to Johnathan and Tyler.
“That way,” Jonathan said, pointing to the right.
Kelviana nodded. “Good. Is there any particular reason she would choose to go that way?”
Jonathan shrugged. “I don’t know. Probably because there weren’t any Stormclouds in that direction?”
Kelviana glared at him, “Any useful reason you can think of? I want to get an idea of where she might be hiding.”
“What about the bike park?” Tyler said. “It’s not that far from here.”
“You mean that place with all the fake hills?” Kelviana asked.
“That’s the one,” said Johnathan. He wasn’t happy that Tyler had been the one to think of it, but he agreed with him. If Zoe wasn’t able to get back home because of the Stormclouds, there was a very good chance she would take refuge there.
“Alright,” said Kelviana. “I guess that’s as good a place as any to start looking. Let’s go.” She turned in the air and flew out of the garage. Johnathan stopped and grabbed his bike, which was lying near the entrance where he had left it earlier that evening, and swung a leg over the seat. Kelviana was right, it did seem like everything they did on Earth was mirrored there in the Fey realm. So far everything had been just like he left it, so much so that he had a hard time believing he was actually in another world.
“Hey!” Tyler cried. “What gives?” Johnathan twisted around and saw Tyler staring at his own bike, just outside the garage door and a little to the left of the opening. Only half of it was there, though, the back half was completely gone as if it had been cleanly cut away and carried off. Kelviana turned and looked as well.
“What you do is reflected here, remember?” she said with a sigh.
“Yeah,” said Johnathan, still staring at Tyler’s bike.
“So,” she said, sounding like she was talking to kindergartners again. “If the mirror can’t see the object, it can’t exactly reflect it, now can it? Only half your bike was in the mirror’s line of sight, so only half of it was reflected.”
In an odd sort of way that made sense to Johnathan, except for one thing: “What about all the houses?” he asked, looking up and down the street. “The mirror can’t see them.” It was eerily quiet, with no sign of life except for themselves, but otherwise looked just like his neighborhood.
“Notice anything missing?” asked Kelviana. Johnathan looked again. She was right, something was off, but he couldn’t quite place it.
“Where’s all the cars?” asked Tyler. Again he was quicker on the uptake, a habit that was starting to irritate Johnathan.
“An active portal fully reflects any object it can see, except for living creatures,” explained Kelviana. “Those are reflected as whisps like you saw earlier. Seeing a whisp or some new items that don’t usually show up here is one of the easiest ways for us to tell if there’s a portal nearby. Other things from your world eventually make their way here whether there’s a mirror involved or not, but it takes a long time, and things that get moved a lot, like cars, never show up unless they’re abandoned. Once they get moved, they disappear again.”
“Doesn’t that make things kind of tough on you?” asked Johnathan.
“We pretty much avoid cities and such because of that,” she said, glaring at him like he had done something wrong, then turned and flew off down the street. “Let’s get moving!” she shouted over her shoulder.
Tyler looked dejectedly at his half-bike then turned and followed the Fey, trotting to catch up with her. Johnathan sighed and got off his bike, he wouldn’t feel right riding while Tyler had to walk; and besides, Zoe wouldn’t have a bike to ride either when they found her. He dropped his bike and caught up with Tyler and Kelviana a few houses down. Despite her small size, the Fey moved along at a fast clip, blue dust trailing behind her as she flew along on her colorful wings, and he had to walk at a brisk pace to keep up. It was nearly eleven o’clock at night, but between the magical dust and her glowing sword Kelviana provided plenty of light for them to see by. In fact, it was almost too much light, Johnathan thought. “Shouldn’t we be a little more careful?” he asked. “What if there’s more Stormclouds?”
“This is my world, kid,” said Kelviana, not looking back as she flew on ahead. “The Stormclouds are the ones who should be hiding from me. Besides, I don’t really do stealth. It’s kinda hard to hide effectively when I’m always glowing, wouldn’t you say?”
“Can’t you like, turn it off?” asked Tyler.
Kelviana did turn this time and gave him an icy stare. “Can you take off your skin? It's as much a part of me as your skin is to you, so no, I’d rather not try, thank you very much.”
They continued on in silence towards the bike park about a mile down the road. It was a very strange walk for Johnathan. He had made that same trip countless times before and always there had been some signs of life about, be it cars passing by, other pedestrians, or any of the thousands of noises he would normally hear when living in the city, but this night there was nothing besides him and Tyler and Kelviana with her strange glow as their only source of light. None of the streetlights were lit up – in fact, no lights were on anywhere – making the journey even more surreal and nerve-wracking. He kept expecting a Stormcloud to jump out at them from around every corner or bush, and it was only the sight of Kelviana’s glowing sword and the memory of how easily she had dispatched the creature that had attacked him earlier that gave him the courage to keep going. All the landmarks he expected were there, but many of them were not quite right. The advertising signs at the burger joint on the corner were non-existent, the gas station next to it also had empty windows and the company logo looked strange and unfocused. Another company had bought them out the year before and as they drew closer Johnathan realized that the two logos were interposed over each other, the older logo was nearly completely faded away, while the newer one was more clear but still fuzzy around the edges. The paint on the building and the gas pumps were similarly blended. Now that he had noticed the strange phenomenon, he began to see similar occurrences on other buildings. It was very strange and hurt Johnathan’s eyes to look at. He blinked hard and shook his head to clear it, absently rubbing at his wrist where the smoke monster had grabbed him. He drew in a sharp breath and winced at the stinging reminder of its burning grasp. Did Zoe have similar burns on her skin as well?
“You’re hurt,” Kelviana said, startling him from his thoughts. He looked up and saw that she had stopped her flight and was watching him curiously.
“Yeah,” he said. “The Stormcloud burned my wrist when it grabbed me. I had kinda forgotten about it until now.”
“Let me see,” she said, reaching out her hand. Jonathan hesitantly offered up his own hand. He was reluctant to touch Kelviana, even though it had been her suggestion. She was a creature of magic and legend, one that until only a short while ago he had never even thought could exist in reality. Was it right to touch such a being? Kelviana made that decision for him when she reached out and grabbed his arm with a huff. Her grip was surprisingly strong. “I won’t bite you, kid. I just want to patch you up, ok?”
“You can do that?” asked Tyler, who was watching with interest.
“Fey are the stuff of creation. My ancestors made this world. What kind of Fey would I be if I couldn’t do something as simple as healing a little burn?”
“You made this world?” asked Tyler.
“I told you it was mine, didn’t I? Now hush, my magic is stronger here than in your world, but it still takes some concentration.” She narrowed her eyes and focused on Johnathan’s wrist. A bit of the blue dust drifted away from her and swirled about the red welt. The stinging immediately subsided and a few moments later the redness began to fade until nothing but healthy skin remained. “There. All better,” she said. Her voice took on an almost motherly quality, and there was a hint of satisfaction to it that Johnathan hadn’t heard from her before. She let go of Johnathan’s hand as the bit of dust that had swirled about it returned to her.
“Thanks,” he said, rubbing at the freshly healed spot. There was no indication that it had ever been injured. “It feels great.”
“I knew the Stormcloud had touched you,” Kelviana said, the satisfaction fading from her face and getting replaced with something that may have been regret. “I didn’t realize it had caused an injury. Their touch doesn't hurt Fey like that. I’m sorry.”
“It’s ok,” said Johnathan. “You don’t deal with humans much. There’s bound to be some differences between us.”
“Besides the wings,” muttered Tyler. “You said you guys are the stuff of creation. Can anything hurt you?”
“Besides stupid questions?” she asked, the familiar glare returning. “Yes. Now let’s go. We’re almost there.” She turned and flew off a bit faster than she had before.
“What's that all about?” Tyler grumbled. “She was nice to you.” He bumped Johnathan’s shoulder as he pushed past and followed after the Fey. Jonathan sighed and began walking as well. Tyler had almost been acting like a decent human being for a little while.
The bike park looked almost like their own. The parking lot was empty, but since it was the middle of the night that would have been expected even back on Earth. None of the posters advertising upcoming events or the deal of the month were hanging on the walls, since those changed too often for them to appear in the Fey realm, and the lights were off. But aside from all that, it was the same old bike park that Johnathan was used to visiting.
They walked up to the sliding doors which, of course, didn’t open. “How do we get in?” asked Tyler.
Johnathan looked around. “We could climb the fence,” he said, pointing to the side of the building where a tall chain-link fence surrounded the rest of the property. “That’s probably what Zoe did if she’s here.”
Blue dust drifted away from Kelviana and hit the glass doors, which instantly slid open. She flew through them without a word or even a glance in their direction. “Or we can just do that,” said Tyler with a shrug.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
They stepped through the open doors and looked around the dark lobby. Johnathan could make out the faint outline of the front counter where they paid their admission fees, but nothing else. “Stay close,” said Kelviana, tensing up and gazing about cautiously. “You were right to choose this place. I can sense something here, but I don’t think it’s your sister or even a Stormcloud.”
“What is it?” asked Tyler, sounding scared.
“If I knew, I would have said,” replied Kelviana with irritation. “I’d tell you to stay outside, but I think you’ll be safer with me.” She waved them forward. “Let’s go. I don’t want to be inside when we meet this thing. Whatever it is, its magic is as strong as mine. That means it most likely knows I’m here too.”
Kelviana flew onward into the dark. Tyler fell into step beside Johnathan. “What kind of crazy mess did your sister get us into?” he hissed.
“You didn’t have to come,” whispered Johnathan, straining his eyes against the dark, hoping to see whatever it was that Kelviana sensed before it pounced on them. His heart was pounding so hard he could hear it in his ears. If Zoe was here with this… thing, she was in serious trouble. There was no way any of them could face something as strong as Kelviana. Even Stormclouds were too much for them. This was a world populated with magical creatures, and if his games had taught him anything, it was that you needed to fight magic with magic; something he, Zoe, and Tyler did not possess. What sort of mess had she dragged them all into?
They followed Kelviana around the front counter – actually, she just flew over the counter while they were forced to walk around – and they stopped in front of the corridor that led out to the bike park. It was wide enough for several people and their bikes to walk down at the same time, just as he and Zoe had done countless times themselves. Right now, however, it felt dark and creepy, like one of the horror movies he and Zoe would watch when their parents weren’t home. Each of the doors on either side of the corridor – the bathrooms, offices, and storage closets – seemed like a trap ready to spring open at any moment. It made him dizzy, staring into the darkness and the glass doors that waited at the far end.
"Is that the way out?" Kelviana asked, gesturing down the corridor with her sword, the halo of light it made did little to pierce the darkness beyond.
"Yeah," Jonathan said, his voice cracking slightly.
Kelviana frowned. "Good place for an ambush," she muttered, and Jonathan found himself nodding in agreement.
“Wouldn’t it just be better to go back out and climb the fence?” Tyler asked, his voice also cracking slightly. Neither of them was thrilled with the idea of walking down that corridor and becoming horror movie bait, it seemed.
“Maybe when we had first arrived,” Kelviana said. “If we tried that now whatever this is will just be waiting for us there too. Here, we might be enclosed, but our enemy will be too. Our best bet is to just run for it.” Tyler nodded and licked his lips nervously. Johnathan set his feet and leaned forward, getting ready to run. He suddenly found it rather odd that he and Tyler — two boys who were both in pretty decent shape — were relying on a girl who was much smaller and younger looking than themselves for protection. The Fey’s blue dust drifted past Johnathan and down the hall, moving quicker than floating dust really should have. It hit the doors and they slid open just like before. Johnathan half-expected some sort of nightmare creature to come barreling through the doorway as soon as it was open, but nothing happened. A flash of light from behind made him jump and he felt a pulse of… something rush past him. “Go!” Kelviana said. He and Tyler ran.
As they ran, Johnathan was certain that whatever was waiting for them would jump out of the shadows and grab them, wrapping fiery hot smoky tendrils around him and Tyler and dragging them off to meet Acrimony. Nothing grabbed them, though, and his heart was pounding and his lungs were burning by the time he and Tyler reached the doors with Kelviana right behind them. She, of course, did not seem winded in the slightest. Johnathan and Tyler both slowed and let Kelviana pass through the open door first. Johnathan felt a small twinge of guilt at allowing her to go into a dangerous situation first until he remembered her glowing sword. He wondered if he would be able to get himself one of those before this was all over.
Kelviana stopped a few feet out and hovered in the air as she surveyed the area. She turned back to them and started to say something before her face hardened. “Boys,” she said slowly. “Don’t panic, but come out here, nice and slow.”
Something in her voice sent chills down Johnathan’s back and despite his better judgment, he turned around to see what Kelviana was looking at. At the far end of the corridor, where he should have been able to see the ticket counter and the open door beyond, was nothing but an impossibly dark shadow with two large, glowing, red eyes watching them. It was like a Stormcloud, only several times larger than any he had seen yet. Tyler whimpered, and Johnathan’s legs felt like wet noodles.
“They can stay there if they prefer,” said a voice similar to Kelviana’s but deeper and less musical. “It’ll make things easier for my Hurricane.”
He slowly twisted back around, torn between turning his back on the nightmare behind them and his desire to see who was speaking. His legs threatened to give out beneath him at any moment. He settled for a half-turn, so he could keep an eye on both. The speaker was another Fey, hovering before them at about roof height, looking down on them. She looked as young as Kelviana, which he was learning enough about Fey to know meant almost nothing. She was darker than Kelviana, both in her attire — which was a dark-colored shirt and a pleated skirt with leggings — and her wings, which were jet-black. Her hair was also black and hung loose around her shoulders. She held a sword like Kelviana’s except it did not glow but instead seemed to suck in all the light around it, kind of like a black hole. Johnathan didn’t think she had any magic dust surrounding her either until he realized that was just because it was so black that he couldn’t see it easily against the dark of the night.
“Who are you?” asked Kelviana with a low growl, as she spun around and lifted her sword, her dust swirling quickly. “And what is a Fey doing consorting with Acrimony’s spawn?”
The dark Fey drifted down a few feet. “They called me Chrysanthemum of the Goldmeadow clan once, but you can call me Vendetta.”
“The Goldmeadows?” Kelviana said, lowering her sword just a hair. “They were wiped out twenty years ago.”
“Yes, they were, weren’t they?” Vendetta said, placing a finger on her lips. “I wonder whose fault that was?”
“It was Acrimony’s,” said Kelviana, raising her sword and motioning for Johnathan and Tyler to get behind her, which they did eagerly. Johnathan had the distinct feeling they were about to get caught up in some sort of grudge match between the two Fey. No one gave themselves a name like Vendetta if they were happy with the status quo.
“Acrimony’s army may have swung the sword,” said Vendetta, her voice turning icy. “But they never would have succeeded had the Darkwoods honored their word.”
“We were fighting our own battle,” said Kelviana. “We destroyed the last portal and brought an end to centuries of war.”
“Really?” Vendetta asked with mock surprise. “You destroyed the portal? Then why do my Stormclouds tell me there’s one just like it sitting in this boy’s garage right now?” She pointed at Johnathan with her sword and Kelviana’s face paled. Vendetta laughed. It reminded Johnathan of the way the mean girls in the teen dramas on tv laughed. “Did you truly think you could keep it hidden? The Fey may rarely journey to the wastes, but others call these lands home. It didn’t take long for word to reach Lord Acrimony that a portal had been found. Imagine my surprise when I learned it was the exact same portal that was deemed more important than the lives of my own people. Not only that but there was a human already here, just waiting to be picked up. What did they say her name was?”
“What have you done with Zoe!” Johnathan cried, pushing around Kelviana. A wall of dust formed in front of him, and he threw himself against it, trying to get at the dark Fey who threatened his sister, but it held fast.
“Hush, fool!” Kelviana hissed at him. She glared down at Johnathan and he shrunk back, certain he had somehow just made a huge mistake. A half-remembered fragment of information came to his mind. Something about never giving fairies your true name. Was there truth in that bit of lore?
“Lord Acrimony will be glad to hear that little tidbit,” said Vendetta with a wicked smile. “Imagine all the fun I can have with her name. Thanks, little boy.”
“You dare call him ‘Lord’?” said Kelviana through gritted teeth.
“Why wouldn’t I?” Vendetta asked. “He’s the only one who ever showed an ounce of interest in me.”
“Traitor,” growled Kelviana, her dust suddenly glowing so brightly it nearly turned white. “You disgust me.”
“The feeling’s mutual,” said Vendetta. Her dust did not glow but instead seemed to grow darker, though how such a thing was possible Johnathan did not know.
The sensation of something rushing past hit Johnathan again. It seemed to flow out of Kelviana like a bubble and the force struck Vendetta hard an instant later. She braced herself against it as if fighting against a tornado. Her dust pulsed with darkness, there was a sound of crashing like broken glass and suddenly the wind was gone. Her dust pulsed again and Kelviana swiped out with her sword, slashing against some unseen force. The glass doors behind Johnathan shattered. He and Tyler ducked and covered their heads.
“This is insane!” Tyler cried. “If we get out of here alive, I’m gonna kill Zoe!”
Kelviana flew towards Vendetta with a blur of speed that Johnathan could barely follow. Some of her blue dust stayed behind, surrounding him and Tyler like a dome. She crashed into Vendetta and their swords clashed with a shower of light and dark sparks. The two Fey began spinning about each other, blocking and parrying faster than Johnathan’s eyes could see. Their black and blue dust mixed together, creating an odd glow of its own and nearly obscuring the two from view. The dust seemed to move as if it was alive and fighting a battle of its own.
A cloud of black smoke crashed down on top of the dome surrounding Johnathan and Tyler, making them both jump. Johnathan whirled about and saw Vendetta’s Hurricane had come down the corridor and grabbed at them with its smoky tendrils. Only Kelviana’s blue dust had protected them from its grasp. The Hurricane loomed over them now, its red eyes flashing in anger and Johnathan saw that one of its tendrils was shorter than the others — most likely the one it had tried to grab them with. A massive hole opened beneath its eyes and it let out a scream that Johnathan had only ever heard before in his worst nightmares. Hot wind that smelled of brimstone and charcoal blew into his face and his legs failed him once more. He fell to the ground, looking up into what was sure to be his doom. The Hurricane reached up with a new tendril, ready to strike another blow against Kelviana’s shield. It was already glowing weaker than it had before and Johnathan figured it only had strength for one more blow before it failed. The Hurricane smashed down on the dome and Johnathan’s fears were realized. The shield broke with a crash and the dust dissipated even as the dark tendril that had destroyed it dissolved into the air. The Hurricane staggered back and screamed again, clearly not having escaped unscathed. But still, the damage was done. Their protection was gone. Tyler shouted something at Johnathan and grabbed him under the shoulders, tugging at him. A cluster of blue dust flew in from the side and struck the Hurricane square between the eyes, but it only staggered back some more and screamed in rage, whipping out at Kelviana with a long tendril. She slashed it in two, but the action allowed Vendetta to get a blow in with her own sword, and Kelviana reeled back, a bloody gash on her shoulder. The two Fey re-engaged in their own heated battle.
“Run!” screamed Tyler, tugging on him harder. Johnathan shook his head and snapped out of his daze. Kelviana got hurt fighting for them and he was just sitting there like a coward, waiting to get dragged off to who-knows-what kind of fate at the hands of Acromony. For all he knew, Zoe was in the burning grips one of these smoke creatures and on her way there now. He couldn’t let that happen to her, and he would never be able to help her if he got himself captured too. He jumped up and did exactly what Tyler had said. He turned and ran.
The world went black and searing pain enveloped him. Acrid smoke filled his nose and when he tried to scream it got into his mouth and burned his throat. He heard Tyler cry out beside him, sounding distant and muffled. It got us, he thought in despair. It’s all over. Then the world flashed with brilliant light and the smoke that bound him disappeared. In the corner of his vision he saw Tyler frantically trying to break free from his own bonds even as the smoky tendrils that had wrapped themselves around him dissolved away. Then Zoe was standing before him, her hands stretched out before her and glowing green while little bits of shining green dust flowed back into them. Tyler stopped his struggle and stared at her, slack-jawed. Johnathan felt weak again and his world was growing dark. “Zoe?” he managed to croak out. His throat burned so badly…
“Yeah, John,” she said with a half-smile. Her eyes were still mud-smeared where she had wiped away her tears of anger earlier that afternoon. New, different tears were forming in her eyes now. “It’s me. You came.”
“Of course I did. Who else was going to save you?” he choked out, coughing. His legs buckled and he dropped. He felt Zoe catch him as his world went black.
END OF PART THREE