Mystery Unknown

THE JOURNEY 2

     Jasmine was woken by a splash of water. She gets up and looks around looking for Austin. "Austin?" she calls to him but got no response. "Austin, if this is one of your jokes, I don't find it funny", still no response. She reaches the sloppy ground, she notices a body floating on the lake below. "Austin!" she shouted going down the ground and into the river dragging his body out with her.

     She lays him on the ground, places two fingers beneath his ear to check for a pulse, but doesn't find any. She pushes the hair that got stuck on her forehead because of the sweat to get a better view of what she was doing.

     "Come on, Austin, you can't die", she says as she gives him CPR, but nothing changes. She leans towards his face and places her ear to his mouth to hear if he was breathing, but still nothing.

     She continues with the CPR, "Come on, Austin, please don't die, you can't die. At least not here", she starts crying thinking she has lost him forever. She beats his chest in frustration when nothing happens. "Please, I can't lose you too", she raises her hand and hits him in the chest one final time.

     Austin sits up suddenly as he gasps for air and coughs out water almost immediately. Jasmine sighs in relief as she bends her head. "I thought I lost you too", she admits finally after a while.

     "Well you didn't", he replied smiling at her. "We better get going, the noise could have attracted the giant", he suggested as he tries to pull himself up. Jasmine assists him and they continue on their journey.

     They walk for what seemed like hours until Austin stops. "What's wrong?" Jasmine asks noticing Austin's uneasiness.

     "Something's not right", he said looking around.

     "What's not right?"

     "Everything. It's too quiet". With that, a shadow passes them. "Did you see that?"

     "Yeah", it passes again. Jasmine turns around searching. "Hmm... I think you need to see this", she said looking at what looks like a giant's footprint.

     "It's onto us". Austin concluded.

      A shadow engulfs them, getting bigger as it draws near. They both look up and see the giant descending on them. They jump out of the way as the giant lands with a smash, cracking the earth. "RUN!!" Austin shouts as he gets up and runs with Jasmine by his side, as the giant continues to pursue them.

      They didn't slow down as they continued running for their dare lives and then Austin stops. "Get to the portal! I'm behind you!" he shouted then brings out a dagger and keeps his stance as he prepares himself for the giant to approach. When the giant got to him, it swings its hand towards Austin, sending him out of its way.

      Jasmine looks back and sees that the giant was now on her tail. She increases her speed as she approaches the tree. She bends, still running, to pick up a stone and aims at the tree. "Please let this work, please let his work", she says a little prayer to herself as she aims and throws the stone. It hits the secret button and the portal starts to open.

      "Come on", she mutters as she increases her speed and jumps into the portal. The giant tries to jump in with her but was stopped by a sharp pain in its ankle. It looks down and sees Austin as he drives the dagger deeper into its leg.

      Austin turns around the giant, making his way to the portal. The giant pulls out the dagger and blood gushes out with it and pursues Austin. "Austin, come on!" Jasmine shouts through the portal. Austin jumps into the portal as it closes and so does the giant.

       Austin barely crosses, as the giant's fingernail tears through Austin's cloth and into his side as the giant drags from his shoulder to his waist level. "Aaarrghh!!" Austin shouted in pain as he finally makes it through the portal.

      The giant's hand makes it through the portal as it searches around the room for its prey. The portal becomes unstable, opening, and closing. The giant finally redraws its hand and the portal closes shut. They both sigh and get up to go.

      They go out of the basement and to notice it's already dark, they head for the school gate and go out of the school, with Austin in front. "Oh my God, Austin, you are bleeding", Jasmine notices when he passes under the street light.

      "It's no big deal", he tries to convince her.

      "At least let me help you. I'm the one that got you into this in the first place", she pleaded.

      "Okay. But I'm not going to the hospital", Austin tells her.

      "I was not placing on taking you there", she concluded.

******** ******** ********

      Jasmine drops her key on the tray by the entrance as she heads into her house and goes to the kitchen, with Austin behind her, as he admires the pictures that hung on the wall. "You and your mum seem very close", he comments still looking at the pictures.

      "Yeah", was the only thing she said as she brings out the mini first aid box. "In here", she called to him. Austin enters the kitchen and sits on a stool by the dining table. "Huh... your shirt", she said trying not to show interest.

      "Sorry, almost forgot", he said as he pulls off his shirt. His appearance was stunning. Jasmine cleaned and stitched up his injury as he moaned with every stab.

      When she was done, she starts packing and cleaning the area used. "Nobody must know about this", she whispers under her breath.

      "What?" he asks to be sure he heard well.

       "I said no one should know about this", she says clearly this time.

       "Why? What's wrong with people knowing about our adventures?" he asks getting up.

       "I don't know, and I don't care. I just don't want anyone to know", she said almost angry.

       "No problem", he raises his hands up, "It's not as if they will believe us anyway", he concludes as he joins in the cleaning.

       Days, weeks, and months passed and Jasmine, as well as Austin never talked about what happened that day to themselves or to anyone else.

       Meanwhile in the other world....

       A giant is passing the tree when the portal opens, it looks at the portal, and then it disappears again. The giant goes to tell the giant that chased Jasmine and Austin. "It looks like the portal is unstable", the giant says while getting up from where it sat.

       "You", he points to a giant among the crowd, "Get the army ready", it picks up its staff and stamps it on the ground, cracking the earth. "It's time for war!!!" he shouted and the crowd of giants chorused alongside him with excitement. "War! War!! War!!!"