The Lightning Mage

43 | The Portal

CW: this chapter contains gore. Please read on with caution! 

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Sin-Ni had always loved roller coasters. The sense of free-falling, the loud rush of wind against every part of her body, the adrenaline surging into her head—they were exhilarating.

But free-falling into an empty void—without a safety restraint, without an end in sight—was a completely different feeling. It was pure terror, and no fun at all. Her body froze, her heart flew to her throat, and she fell without making a sound.

Her voice finally worked when she landed with a loud thud.

"Argh!" she yelped. Her head was no longer throbbing and her ears were no longer ringing, but the ache in her limbs shot up her spine and saturated her senses once again.

When the initial shock subsided, the first thing Sin-Ni noticed was the smell. Pungent, metallic, revolting.

Her vision sharpened and a sea of red hit her so hard that it almost blinded her yet again. Beyond her loud gasps, the eerie sounds of dripping liquid filled the silent hall.

She pushed herself up to a crawl, suppressing the urge to vomit all over her hands.

Her hands.

They were drenched in blood, along with the purse she was clutching.

What the hell?

"What the hell?" groaned a familiar voice.

Sin-Ni almost let out another cry at that. Zhao Zi-Han was next to her. Whatever happened before this was not a dream. She had merely escaped a nightmare into yet another nightmare.

Squelching footsteps approached her, and she lifted her head.

A tall burly man was walking towards her, his biceps pressing against his bulging chest muscles. The entirety of his head was wrapped with a black mask, leaving just enough of an opening to reveal skin as tanned as Imran's, as well as a pair of golden-brown eyes. He was staring intensely at her as if trying to memorize her befuddled face.

"W- Where..." she croaked, but a loud cackle interrupted her question.

Sin-Ni turned her head to see an old man in a long, almost theatrical robe. With his frizzy white hair, the old man resembled the wizards she had seen in those medieval fantasy movies. But that was not the craziest part of the man; it was his contorted smile and crazy eyes that made her think he could cut her up and eat her alive.

He bent down and pulled Zi-Han up, who was also doused in blood, and looking as frazzled as she was.

"I did it! I finally did it!" the old man exclaimed between his erratic fits of laughter.

"Congratulations, Gazini." The masked man's voice, deep and calm, echoed throughout the grand hall. "You finally got a subject."

"Yes, yes, yes! I will teach him magic, you will train him up, he will be unstoppable!" Gazini patted the bewildered Zi-Han in excitement. "He will push the limits of magic as we know it! He will be the start of our conquest!"

"I can't wait," said the masked man, although his disinterested tone seemed to imply otherwise.

Gazini chortled again, his wild eyes never leaving the boy in front of him. "Follow me, boy! Let me show you the wonders of this world."

Without even a glance at Sin-Ni, the white-haired man led Zi-Han out of the blood-bathed room.

The blood-bathed room.

Sin-Ni felt like vomiting again. The room was familiar to her; she had seen the stone pillars and the stained glass windows in her visions. But where were the people? Where were the hundreds of people that were tied up on the floor? Why were they replaced by a pool of blood...

Why...

Sin-Ni whimpered. "W- Where am I?"

The masked man's golden eyes were still glued onto her. "If you want a place to rest, come with me," he said, turning around and marching in the opposite direction of where Gazini and Zi-Han went.

The only rest she wanted was to collapse on the floor and let her tears dilute the bright red all around her. But the burly man was already walking out of the door. Not wanting to be left alone in this godforsaken place, she heaved herself up and followed him.

Outside, the hallway was sandwiched by tall brick walls that stretched even higher than her school's building. Stained glass windows lined the top of the walls, while the dazzling moonlight pierced through the glass and illuminated the dim corridor. Sin-Ni could see various tall pointed roofs outside the window. They reminded her of the castles she would see in Disneyland, nothing like she had ever seen in Singapore.

The masked man sauntered in front of her, never once looking back. Sin-Ni kept her head down as she trudged along, her trembling feet following the trail of blood that the masked man left behind. After what seemed like forever, she was brought to another room.

It was more of a storage unit than a room, with shelves of random items covering the walls, but it was spacious and about three times bigger than her own bedroom. In the middle of the room, the masked man inflated an air mattress with a simple tap of his hand.

"You can stay here. Right across this room is a place you can shower. Gazini probably kept your friend near his own quarters, so you should be far away from them here." He glanced at her. "Unless you want to be with him?"

Sin-Ni shook her head vigorously. "Can- Can you tell me where I am?"

The question was ignored yet again. "I'll be asking someone to bring you food every day. They're werewolves, so don't provoke them. Not that I think you would, but I still gotta warn you. I also suggest you stay in this general vicinity unless you want to meet your friend."

Werewolves? What? Was this a movie set?

"Please tell me, please," she asked, her voice a quivering, coarse whisper. "Where am I? Why did you bring me here?"

The golden eyes, who had been so interested in her before, were now avoiding her. "You brought yourself here. We created a portal for you, and then you latched onto it yourself."

Portal?

The memories of her visions flooded her brain. The people, the hundreds of people, shaking, crying, pulling at their shackles. They were gone. Where were they? They were so frightened, so helpless.

Where were they?

She tightened her palm around her purse, while her other hand reached out and grabbed the masked man's sleeve.

"Can I please go home?" The tears blurred her eyes; she could hardly see the annoyed frown on his face. "Please, I want to go home."

"You're asking the wrong person, kid. I don't know how to get you back." The masked man shrugged her off. Without another word, he strode out of the room, leaving her completely alone.

Sin-Ni's knees buckled, and she fell on her knees. Slowly, she took out her phone from her purse. The sight of her happy face on the homescreen made her stomach churn. The battery was at eighty percent, and there was no signal. It was 12:25 am, supposedly. There was one unread message that she did not get a chance to read. She clicked on it.

It was from Imran.

"Stay safe baby. Miss you!"

The phone slipped out of her palms and crashed onto the ground. Then, she buried her head into her hands and cried all the way into the night.

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A/N: Ah, Cydney, our isekai-portal-traveling main character :') Poor girl. Once again, if you want to skip all of her flashbacks, feel free to, but I'd love it if you could stay and see what happens.