Short Stories Collection (dhampirzgal)

Portal

Portal

All four of us waved at the retreating alien figure that we had just collaborated with and stared down at the floor where a huge mass of luminous blue glob lay. A portal the alien figure had left behind as an appreciation for our help in the matter.

No one knew how the portal worked. Everyone just crowded around the huge mass of glob in the middle of the room, unsure of what to do. The bright luminous glob stayed on the floor, wobbling at the occasional touch from the shoe of our leader, Rain.

“What is it for again?” Joanne mumbled into the silence.

“The portal, Jo. I don’t know how it is supposed to teleport us anywhere but it just is...somehow.” Rain responded instantaneously.

I stood aside in utter silence, staring at the glob’s one of its many eyes. “Don’t do that Raena, you might scare it,” Drake whispered into my ear. He was standing right next to me so quietly that I had almost forgotten he was there. Or did forget, for that matter. “No, look at that eye, Dre, it’s trying to tell me something.” I replied, using my old nickname for him while using my right index finger to point at the specific eye I was talking about, not once breaking my gaze that was locked onto that one eye.

He stared at me incredulously, like I was crazy, which by then, I wouldn’t be surprised if I actually was. I heard Rain telling us to just leave it as it was and leave the room, but I was staring so intently at the eye my mind did not process whatever Rain had said afterwards.

Drake tugged at the hem of my sleeve when I started to move forward, my hand lifting up from its place at my side to right in front of me, in a grabbing position. Drake’s hold on my sleeve became tighter as I went closer to the eye. “Rain said to leave it alone, Rae. Leave it. Let’s go.” I pulled away from his grip and walked towards it, entranced by the weird pendulum motion the pupil made whenever I took a step forward. “No, just give me a second.”

Instinct had me thinking of a place I wanted to go before I roughly pulled a glob of two eyes out of the blue mass on the floor with my right hand. I stood there, repeating the name of the place in my head three times. When nothing happened, I just stood there in blankness, wondering how I got myself to believe that this piece of glob was able to teleport me anywhere else but here.

Sighing, Drake closed the distance between us in two long strides, pulling me into a back hug. “It’s okay, Raena. You-” His words were cut off as the two of us were suddenly thrown through the nearest wall. It was made of brick, the kind that was at least a meter thick, but it didn’t hurt a bit. The rush of air knocked my breath out of me, leaving me panting for air when we were thrown onto a patch of grass right outside our destination.

And by we, I meant me plus a Drake hanging onto my back.

“You can let go now, Dre,” I muttered as I stood up from the soft luscious grass, scanning our surroundings in awe with expert eyes. I felt Drake tug on my hand and I instinctively pulled him up into a standing position beside me. Turning to face him, I saw tiny speckles of excitement dancing in his eyes as he looked back at me.

“This is so cool!” he all but shouted into my ear.

“Shhhhhh!” I complained, pressing my left ear with my finger. I let out a tiny laugh at the glob of two eyes that was still lying squashed in my right palm. The original black colour of the eyes, however, had suddenly changed into a soft white glow, the pupils out of focus. The luminous glow shifted steadily into one of a dull blue, which made the glob to be easily mistaken as chewed up gum. I scratched my head, my natural habit whenever I was put into a situation that required me to make decisions. “So what now?” The voice in my head was as clear as the reality that was pouring down on me just seconds after it spoke.