The Portal - Pain Is The Password

Chapter Eleven - The Quest

The wolf snuggles closer to Audrey as she makes her way into the house. Closely followed by her two friends; she listens out for anything strange and her eyes are searching for the unfamiliar. Of course, everything in this house could be considered strange and unfamiliar but at the same odd time, it can be considered normal. Unwelcome flashbacks of the house she entered earlier swarm into her mind. The smell of a smoked pipe wafts into her nose and memories of her late grandfather join them. She wonders why she's thinking of the old man, she's only seen him twice.

All three of them are safely inside the house, and all three of them have different nostalgia-filled memories and fantasies travelling through their minds. Fate allows her hand to travel along the vibrantly red sofa and Sias gazes longly after her. 

"Ahh, I'd better turn that off." The three teenagers are still lost inside their imagination, the sound of a light switch clicking becomes apparent, the trio snaps back into reality, "that one definitely works." The man from the window says from above them, leaning over the edge of a railing, he jumps onto the railing and down onto the first floor. His older exterior clearly not bothering him at all, he's springy, all the way from the bottom to the top.

"What did you just do to us?" Audrey takes the lead because Fate's too busy staring in wonder at the old man and Sias is too busy staring at her.

"Just a little experiment I've been needing to try on something, I'm the modern Timit Graw," he tells Fate as he can see Sias is pre-occupied, "or in Miss Smith's case, the modern Albert Einstien." Audrey's mouth drops open in surprise at the mention of someone from her world. She's about to ask more about it when he bounces away, leaving the trio in shocked silence.

"Whose Timit Graw?" Audrey asks and Fate mutters something about him being the smartest man alive, Audrey nods and Fate asks the same question, to which she replies with the same answer.

"He did an experiment on us." Audrey says to no one in particular, she stares at the ground and tries to make sense of it, "what experiment did he do?" She asks no one in particular once more but this time she gets an answer.

"Ah, you see I have been working on a set of inventions that I've had for a while," he struts into the room with a feather boa flung over his neck and he pulls a book up off of the coffee table," this specific one is a mind manipulator, helpful in cases of revenge and war, maybe a small prank but I didn't make it for that reason." He licks his finger and flicks the page, his eyebrows raising in horror as he drinks in the information.

"What was the reason?" Asks Sias, he has seemed to come out of his Fate-involved-fantasy. 

"DooooDeeeDooDaaaaa." He sings into the book and then he looks up at Sias and shakes his cheeks rather quickly, "well I live alone in this village, what do I make my inventions for, when I can't pass them down to a friend or a child because I have none." He jumps up and clasps his hands together, not sitting still for long.

"I make them for the thrill of things, I just needed some people to try them out on." He twists and turns until he finally stands still. "But you're not here to make friends, no? Shame no one ever is." He says Audrey decides she likes this man. 

"No, we are not here to make friends, as much we wish we were." Audrey twiddles her thumbs.

"We want to hear the prophecy," Sias tells the old man, "I also want your name." His eyes have glazed over and he's put his body in between the girls and the man. Audrey comes to a realisation that this is another experiment. 

"Off." She tells him.

"What."The man feigns innocence but he doesn't fool Audrey.

"Your experiment, turn it off." Audrey feels as though she's scolding a toddler. The man groans and shuffles back over to his book, opening it and shutting it again, Sias comes back to reality.