Destination Unknown

This Moment is Critical

We walk back to the room where we left Alastair. The padlock is placed on the outside of the door again, so we must have beat him back. It is really odd that he's not back yet, he assured us that he would be waiting for us when we got back. I knock on the door.

"Alastair? Are you in there? It's Sam and the girls." I knock a couple more times and then gently set my ear against the door. I shake my head. I look back at Katherine and Mara.

"There's no noise coming from inside, I don't think they're inside." Katherine's eyes fill with worry and she reaches for my hand. She quickly retracts her hand when she remembers that Mara is standing there with us. "We should call a servant. They would be able to tell us where he is." But as soon as I say this, I see someone moving out of the corner of my eye. There is one of Alastair's assistants jogging down the hall towards us.

"Master Sam, you better come with me. Bring your daughters too." He quickly turns and starts jogging back down the hall. I look to each of the girls and see the extreme worry growing on their faces. I take off running behind the servant, staying close behind him. He leads us down three different hallways, and finally stops a a door that I don't think I've ever seen before.

"Go through here, I'm not allowed to go further." I nod and lay a hand on the assistant's shoulder.

"You did good. Now go back to your post before someone else sees you." He nods and takes off running back in the direction that we came. I place my hand on the knob and find that it's locked. Weird. I take my hand off the knob and take a step back.

"Take a step behind me girls." They move back a step as I raise my leg and kick to door in. The door slams against the wall and the only thing we can see is darkness.

"Dad what is this?" Katherine puts a hand on my shoulder, and gently turns me to look at her.

"Something went wrong when Alastair tried to move her. If I am right, this must be Freya's entrance to this realm. Alastair is her advisor so she always has a direct connection to get to him. She always has a portal ready, or with her. If something went wrong, he could get her in the link between, but not through the door. We should go in, but I need both of you to stay behind me." I look in each of their eyes, knowing they will listen to me no matter what. They both nod and I turn back to the door. I open my palm and summon a ball of light. The orb glows bright in my hand, throwing light to ever corner of the room. I feel Katherine's hand brush against mine and I grab it and give it a squeeze. The room is empty and leads to another door opposite from the one we came in. I let go of Katherine's hand and place mine on the door knob, and find that this one is open. I twist the knob and push the door open. This room has a dull glow emitting from somewhere, but when I look around, I realize that the glow is coming from someone.

"Cassie?", "Mom?", and "Freya" all spill out of our mouths at the same time. Cassie is standing in the middle of the room, with Alastair behind her, hands steadying her. I want to run to her, and make sure that she is okay, but Alastair's face stops me in my tracks.

"Alastair, what's going on?" A panicked look sets on his face, but is quickly replaced by a stony mask, which means he's trying not to scare someone. Cassie looks up, and it feels like the breath has been sucked out of my lungs. Her eyes are completely pitch black with tiny stars dancing around. Cassie begins to panic, her breath coming in short gasps.

"Sam, is it you?" Her arms reach out and she searches for me. I slowly take steps towards her, unsure of what to do. I gently touch her hand and her skin feels cold and sharp, almost like there is an electric current running through her blood. Her lips tremble and she grabs on to my arms with a tight grip. "Why can't I see? What's happening to me?" My mouth opens and closes. Tears fall from her eyes, trails of black left behind. Her fingers dig into my arms, trying to keep her balance.