2. BAMPH!

The monster loomed even closer, our noses almost touching. “Hey. Time’s tickin’ and I ain’t got patience for stupid. You understand the words I’m sayin’, kid?”

When the Gem awakens to call a Hero, the world is ill prepared...and its fate is placed in the hands of a 17 year old boy, named Wendell. 

Some will say this is nothing but a tale of fiction.
Let them think as they may. 

After all...I can't fix stupid.

Previously: Wendell and Evan make plans for a date night, and Wendell insists on being the ‘hero’ of the night. He just didn’t know the Universe was listening…

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Chapter 2

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BAMPH!

My life changed with that sound.

Loud and sudden, an unseen force hit me square in the back, knocking me off my feet. I sailed over the Matthew’s patio table and into their lounge chairs like a bowling ball. Stacked five high against the house, my arms went up, shielding my head at impact. Water from the pool, leaves, and grass clippings followed me, blanketing the patio deck in a wide-arc spray. My long legs, one of my personal curses…flipped up and over the chairs. I moaned as my body slowly came to a stop.

“Ow.”

I blinked painfully a few times, dust and dirt in my eyes. It hurt to breathe. I’d hit the chairs and side of the house, hard. My face burned too, but that’s what you get when you land on cement cheek-first. The awkward position made it difficult to inhale. Hips over my shoulders, a foot and arms tangled in chairs. Pretzels are great, sure, doesn’t mean I wanted to be one.

Without warning, the stacked chairs tilted slowly to one side…and in a crumpled mess, fell on top of me. 

Double ow.

“Did I make it?” Deep with a hint of gravel, I heard heavy gasps somewhere out of my view. “Fingers? Toes! Uhhh...tenders?” There was a pause, and then, “Mahan’s Pink Panties, I actually made it! WooHOO!“ A loud burp followed. “You owe me BIG TIME, old man!”

“Evan?” I said, trying to turn my head. Every effort I made ground the skin of my face harder into the cement. Ow, ow, ow. Reaching towards my hips with a hand, I tugged at the rubber strands of the chair to pull a knee free.

“Good grief. Here.”

Strong hands pulled and untangled the chairs from my limbs. I sat upright and took a deep breath. “SO much better! Thanks, I appre — HOLY COW?!?” My heart leapt, pulling my body with it, back against the pile of furniture. Before I could utter another word, a massive, green, calloused hand clamped down over my mouth.

“Woah there, kid.” Giant bulbous eyes fixated on me as an avalanche of eyebrows tumbled forward into view. “Don’t be shoutin’ and making’ a ruckus. That would be bad…for you.” Thick lids narrowed to slits.

I gulped.

My eyes twitched and watered. I blinked the tears away, but they just wouldn’t stop. I couldn’t help it. Oh, I was scared, sure, but it didn’t bring me to tears. The thing pinning me down was a sickly, putrid green color…and it smelled. Oh, my goodness, did it reek. Have you ever smelled something so bad, you just couldn’t get rid of it? I’m talking skunks as the baseline for yuck. This putrid scent crawled onto my face and forced itself up into each nostril. Rotting fish and old tobacco ash trays. The fumes caused me to cough, forcing bubbles of air to escape through the clenched fingers on my face.

It sounded like mice farting from my cheeks.

The creature stared at me, its head slowly leaning to one side.

Roughly three feet tall, its head was a third of its body size and wider than its shoulders. Its hands and feet were almost as big, each with only four digits. Muscular arms and shoulders attached to a small chest littered with curly black hair. A pot belly jiggled and bounced with each movement. If it had legs at all, I couldn’t see them. Not past the purple polka-dotted boxer shorts it wore as its only stitch of clothing.

To complete the weird ensemble was a shimmering banded stone of onyx purple and blue, wrapped in silver strands of metal. The stone dangled from around its neck, attached to a bright silver chain, standing out against its dark skin.

“Now let’s you an’ me come to an understanding.” The hand clamped firmer against my mouth. “I ain’t gonna hurt ya, unless you make meeEEEE. Ow. Hot. HOT!!”

Even in the sunlight, I could see sparks of light popping across the gem’s surface of the necklace. Smoke rolled up from the monster’s chest. My nose crinkled at the added smell of burning flesh. Without letting go of my face, the monster twisted and bobbed, trying desperately to yank the chain from around its neck. Problem was, its head was too big. Switching tactics, it pulled against the chain and it snapped,…immediately slipping from its grasp.

“No, no, no,” it gasped, reaching for the end of the chain with desperate fingers. Refusing to move the hand firmly against my face, the necklace arched up and out of reach, bouncing along the wood porch and into the grooves of the wooden planks. The water from the pool provided a perfect film to ride along until it slipped over the edge of the porch.

Down the mountainside, into the forest below.

The monster froze. “That’s…not good,” it gulped. For long moments, it just started at where the gem had vanished. “Right,” it said softly. Scratching its bald dome of a head, “You got here. That was the hard part, Dax. You know where you live. You can still get home. This’ll still work. No need to panic.”

So it had a name. Dax.

Those massive eyes locked back onto me. My breathing quickened, pushing and pulling air through my nostrils. I could have sworn those black pupils looked bigger than semi-tires. I think a whimper escaped from somewhere on my face.

“I’m gonna lift my hand and let you up. If you stay calm, I’ll do my thing and leave, okay?”

I blinked.

The monster loomed even closer, our noses almost touching. “Hey. Time’s tickin’ and I ain’t got patience for stupid. You understand the words I’m sayin’, kid?” Those massive eyes searched my face for some recognition.

Slowly, I nodded.

It nodded back. “Good.” Its hand slowly lifted from my mouth and it moved back a pace. “Let’s get this over with. I wanna go home. Let’s start with your name.”

“It’s W-Wendell. P-please don’t eat me, M-Mr Dax, sir,” I stammered. I poured as much fear and trembling into those words as I could. It needed to sound real. Genuine. To an untrained eye, my body shook uncontrollably with panic. In reality, I coiled myself and prepared to push up from the chairs and sprint for the back door. Evan had a gift for violence. If I could get to the house, he could deal with this. He could save me from the monster. Fortunately, I was trembling with fear. Unfortunately, the monster was standing in my direct path. Dax could easily reach out and grab me before I could take a step.

“Hey, how did you —” he snarled. But the wary anger shifted to a sly grin. “Ah. Talking to myself. Huh. You pay attention, that’s good. That’ll help.”

“Help?” I said, “Help with wh—”

“…and don’t be disgusting, kid. I don’t eat people. Just cause I look like a vallen, don’t mean I’ve adopted their dietary retardation. Where I come from, cannibalism is illegal.” His whole body shivered. “Thank goodness. If you saw some folks walking through the market,” he shivered again, “Eww.”

“T-thank you, Mr. Dax,” I said, still pushing against the chairs. Manners didn’t excuse the fact that I had a monster in front of me right now, with unknown intentions.

“Just Dax, W-Wendell,” he snorted. “Drop the ‘Mr’. Do I look like a family man to you?” But then he frowned, his eyes looking up and to the side, as if trying to catch a thought. His tone lowered to a near mumble. “Then again, some of those little kids look pretty plump and tender. Hmm. Scrub ‘em clean,…marinade ‘em in some Blackseed Rum, throw on a little pepper and a bay leaf? Could have a decent BBQ.” Those bulbous eyes sauntered to settle on me. Caterpillar eyebrows bobbed up and down. A thick tongue rolled over large, pointed canine teeth.

I tried to merge back into the fallen chairs, but they wouldn’t let me.

Dax snorted again through a wide grin. Thick fingers reached into the lip of his boxer shorts and produced a stubby cigar. “Cows,” he said casually.

“What?” I said.

His other hand produced a match. In one swipe, he lit the match across the stubble of his chiseled face. “You said ‘Holy Cow’. Back home, cows ain’t holy. We eat ‘em. We call it ‘meat’. Burgers, roasts, pies, ice cream. Tastes good.” Dax grinned at me as he puffed the cigar to life. “Oh, and don’t try dashing for the back door, kid. You can’t outrun me.”

“Okay,” I squeaked faintly. So he’s an English speaking, mind-reading monster. Every fiber of my being in that moment told me that if I couldn’t run to safety, I should scream. Scream for my life. Scream for Evan, scream for…anybody, but my lungs failed me. My throat seized up tight and dry. My mouth clamped shut. ‘Doubt’ shouted louder in my head, countering my impulses in a matter-of-fact tone. ‘Don’t make it angry,’ he said. ‘It’ll eat you, Wendell, with or without a bay leaf!’

But that was the thing. A tiny scratching at the back of my mind kept whispering something even ‘Doubt’ failed to acknowledge.

Monsters weren’t real.

Sure, there were bad people in the world. Everyone knew that. We call them ‘monsters’, because they do bad things. Evil things. They hurt others. Leave scars. Sometimes those scars are so deep, they last for a lifetime. This was different.

I was staring at a creature you’d find in a horror movie or fantasy fiction. A creature dreamed up by writers and makeup artists. Storytellers crafted such things to evoke emotions, especially fear…or to get their own emotions out. If you looked in the newspapers, magazines, or even the internet, I doubt you’d find a single, legitimate monster in existence. There was no Bigfoot. No Loch Ness monster. No Boogyman.

There’s no way Dax was real.

…and if Dax wasn’t real, the only logical solution was that he had to be the creation of my imagination.

Trust me, this’ll make sense.

Someone had beaten me up, thrown me down a ravine, and left me unconscious. My best friend then retrieved me and dragged me back home. The exhaustion had caught up to me. It made perfect sense. Evan had treated my wounds, and I’d fallen asleep in the warm sun.

That’s it.

This was just a bad dream, my mind and body trying to deal with the trauma of the day. The monster before me was a manifestation of my stress and anxiety as my brain tried to cope and compartmentalize my experiences. 

Say that five times fast.

That,…or he was a tiny actor, in some kind of costume, sent to play a sick prank.

Huh. I hadn’t considered that possibility.

What if it was both?

That posed a new set of challenges I had to consider. If this was from my mind, my creation, then I’d bet it was Jeffrey who sent Dax. ‘Imagination Jeffery’ knew I wanted to date Christie. He’d been dating Christie, but she dumped him. He knew I’ve always liked her. He wouldn’t want me anywhere near the prettiest girl in town — the girl he’d lost by his own actions — and would do almost anything to stop me from spending time with her.

Even sending a monster.

There. That was it. Problem solved. This was all a figment of my own mental creation and there was nothing to be afraid of. Dax was absolutely no threat to me. I conjured him from the cavernous recesses of my mind, and no creation was greater than its creator.

“Right,” I said. “Who sent you?”

Dax looked confused. I had to admit, my imagination was impressive. It was doing a brilliant job in the monster-creation department. So lifelike. So real. Adapting perfectly to the personal interaction. The muscles in that huge, chiseled jaw flexed and relaxed with a ripple of flesh. Amazing.

“What?” he said.

“Who sent you?” I said. Well, I believed it was Jeffery, sure — but I am a creative genius — maybe I’d surprise myself. Pushing to my feet, I brushed the leaves and dirt from my clothes. “Because I have to say, and I mean this with the greatest admiration, you look…amazing. The hairy green flesh, piercing eyes and yellow teeth.” I leaned in closer to the little guy and gave him a wink. “Your voice, by the way, is epic.” 

Crystal blue eyes stared back at me, eyebrows climbing. Smoke billowed from the angular mouth and nose as it stoked the cigar tip to a cinder red. With a flick of his fingers, the used match flipped up and over Dax’s shoulder, landing with a hiss into the pool. “Thanks,…I think.”

Now that I knew what was going on, I found myself fascinated with this interaction. How real it felt. With every move he made, Dax’s muscles shifted perfectly. Even the impatient tapping of that giant foot looked like actual flesh with cracked, yellowing toenails. Wow! “Sorry to break the mood,” I said, “but I have to ask. Is this like a day job thing? Do you get to do this all the time for work?”

Dax stood there and said…nothing.

Maybe it was the wrong question. I’d played rpg’s, also known as role-playing games, most of my life. It would make sense for my brain to pull from my experiences. “Are you from another planet…or another dimension? I mean, I’m so curious where Jeffrey found you?”

Dax slowly inhaled and wiggled an index finger in my direction. “Ohh yeahhh, Jeffery! That’s right,” the thick skin perfectly crinkling around his eyes as he smiled. “This? Oh, hell no. I agreed to a one-shot gig. I’m getting paid a lot ‘o coin, and settling a personal favor. John said…”

“You mean Jeffrey,” I corrected him.

Dax hesitated. “Right, yeah…no, John told me that Jeffrey was calling in that favor I owed him. Said he wanted me to pay you a visit, to…”

“Get me to stay away from Christie,” I said.

“Sure. Of course he does. I think. And so I…”

Folding my arms, I staring back as brave as I knew how. “You were sent to ‘rough me up’ if I didn’t agree to back off. Which makes this a total joke,” I said, this time a little louder. It kinda felt good to throw a little sass back at my antagonist. I’m usually on the receiving end, so this felt good. He was short, but the way he swayed on those wide feet, it reminded me of a predator cat. It was intimidating. For the longest time, he refused to blink. Those huge saucer-eyes locked on me. His shocked expression told me my boldness was working. Someone had sent this monster to bully me, but now the tables were turning. It felt amazing to play my part.

Dax then drew closer, scooting up to my leg, and shot a wary glance over his shoulder. “Kid,” he said in a cautionary tone, “there’s nothing funny about this. I got many people who say you’re the end-all be-all tough guy. Where I come from, you’re famous. People’ve been talking about you for what…a couple hundred years? That’s why they sent me.” He tapped my leg with the back of a hand, then repeated the gesture against his chest. “Fellow tough guy.” But there was something close to panic in his eyes. He looked over his other shoulder. “Between you and me, kid, this is the last place I want to be right now.”

Me? A tough-guy? This dream just got infinitely better! I grinned so hard my cheeks hurt. Dax feared me? The monster, sent to rough me up and keep me from seeing Christie…feared sprinting-across-high-school-campus-in-my-underwear-to-avoid-a-bully-beating me?

A snort escaped me.

“You okay?” Dax asked.

I nodded. “Sure. Why?”

“You ain’t exactly reacting like I thought you would.”

“How should I react?” I said.

His frown deepened. “Dunno. Fewer smiles, maybe. More screaming. Lots of runnin’ away. That’s what folks usually do when I show up.” He shrugged, “The smart ones, at least.”

“Oh, sorry. It’s not every day you get this kind of attention,” I said. “I’ve never been famous…for anything. Makes me curious.”

“Well yer impressing me,” he said.

I wondered if my brain was reacting to my deepest secret? Something I’d been holding close to my chest for far too long. I was ready for a change. An enormous change. It’s something I hadn’t talked about, even with Evan. I’d been dreaming of walking away. Specifically, from the pain and frustration of my life. I mean, get real…no one needed me here. High school would be over in a few months, and then what? Where do I go? What would I do? Real life was about to jump me, and I’d have a chance to start over.

Start over and become someone else. That’s what I wanted. That had been my plan since mom died. Go where no one knew me and carefully build a completely new reputation as someone other than…me. When you’re perceived as something much less than what you’re striving to be, why would you stick around?

“I knew my life was about to change,” I said. The words hurt my chest.

Dax erupted in a deep, grumbly laugh. “Oh, you are so right, kid.”

“Wendell,” I said. “Just…Wendell.”

“Sure,… ‘just Wendell.’” Dax shook his head.

“What?” I asked. “Is this the point where you rough me up?”

He snorted. “You just hold on to that thought, okay?” Pulling out a dainty set of bifocals, again from the rim of the boxers, he fixed them atop his tiny nose. “Work with what you're given,” he said out loud. More to himself than to me. “That’s what the old man always tells me. We’re behind schedule, Wendell, so let’s go over the list.”

“List?” I said. “You have a list?”

Wiggling his fingers like some street magician, a stubby pencil and a rough-cut piece of parchment suddenly appeared in either hand.

I gasped. “You do magic?”

Dax looked at me over the glasses, puzzled. “Barely. Not like what you do.”

“I don’t do magic,” I said.

Dax looked at me like I was stupid. “Course ya do.”

“Uh, I’d know if I did magic, and I’m telling you, it’s never happened.”

Dax’s brows dropped forward so low, they almost pushed the bifocals from his nose. “Never? As in…nothing at all?”

I shook my head.

“Huh,” he said, pushing the glasses back up the bridge of his nose. “I was told you’re the best mägo there ever was.”

“I never been the best at…mägo? What’s a mägo?”

“Users of magic,” he said. “Wizards, magicians, sorcerers, seers, and an entire list of names I can’t pronounce OR spell.”

I just about choked on his words. People thought I could do magic? Better yet, I’m supposed to be the best at it? My creative mind was taking this to a whole new level! I usually dreamt of being an ancient warrior lord, olympian bodybuilder, or reclusive billionaire trying to manage his supermodel girlfriends around the globe.

Shut up…it could happen.

There was something in those eyes and the way he stared at me that caused me to hesitate. ‘You’re missing something, stupid,’ Doubt chimed in. ‘You’re going to hate yourself when you get it.’

Dax’s expression softened, if only a bit, and he gave me a grin. “I’m told by the big shots that you’ll likely be the best of us.” He looked me up and down and shrugged. “But…that’s up to you.”

“What about Jeffrey and staying away from Christie?” I said.

Dax never looked up from the parchment. “Who?”

Magic was exciting, sure, but the biggest event in my life right now, real or not, was my date with Christie. This might even be the deciding factor on if I left home after high school. Girls change everything. Ask any guy. 

‘I would pay attention,’ Doubt whispered.

Time passed differently in dreams. I’d lived most of a lifetime with my mom in a dream not long after she’d passed. Spent years as a pig wrangler in Wyoming, too. Never understood why I dreamt of that. Who dreams about Wyoming? There’s nothing there but sage brush and karate-chopped mountain tops. Probably a rancher, somewhere, wishing he’d moved to Idaho for a social life. Or potatoes.

Maybe a social life with potatoes?

How long did I have left to get ready for the date? It was probably time to wake up.

Dax’s eyes flashed from the parchment to me, then back again. “Milk, butter, Blackseed Rum,’ he began, then frowned. He flipped the parchment over. “Ah. There we go. Use star gem to navigate portal.” Looking down, hesitated, then looked to the spot where the gem had committed suicide. He made a mark on the parchment. “Check.” Looking up at the afternoon sun, he squinted, then looked at the pool. “Arrive while the sun is lowering to late afternoon. The globe sinks to the west. Target location is next to a pool of collected water, hides occupants from view. Check.”

Dax looked back at me and grinned so wide I could see his full set of oversized canines. “He will be outside the dwelling.” His tone dropped an octave. “Alone.”

I gulped.

‘Now ya got it,’ said Doubt. There was a deep, internal sigh at the very back of my brain. ‘You should have screamed. Idiot.’

Dax’s toothy grin widened as he crumpled the parchment and dropped it to the ground. “Check.”

Double gulp. “W-what did you w-want again?”

Dax never blinked. “The only reason I’m here is for you.”

That’s when Dax yawned.

Okay, makeup is one thing. I’ve even seen some amazing CGI and animatronics in my lifetime. Things to shock an onlooker, but this? The mouth on this guy reached across his entire face, and I’m talking from ear to ear. A good twelve inches or more, at least. Fine, okay, makeup and wiring could have stretched that, but this thing actually did a wide-open, full-on yawn. You could have fit a small child in there and had room to spare. What made it worse was the wall-to-wall teeth that made lions and tigers at the zoo look like they were teething. It was all teeth, gums, and a massive tongue at the center.

There wasn’t anyone inside, because this wasn’t a costume.

Dax the monster was real.

I’m pretty sure I felt myself pee.

…just a little.

Shuffling back a foot or two closer to the side of the house, I looked desperately for a clear path to the back door. “WOAH,” I choked, “WHY do you want me? For what??”

Rolling his head back, Dax sighed. “And there’s the reaction.” He shook his head. “No. I was not paid to explain things. I would have charged triple for this crap.” Training his attention back to me, “I’m your ride. Time to go.”

“Wait,” I said. 

“No,” he repeated with an irritated puff of smoke.

“What about Jeffrey?”

“Who?”

“Jeffrey,” I said. “The one who sent you to get me to leave Christie alone?”

“I ate him,” he snapped.

“You WHAT!?” I squeaked. “You said that was illegal where you come from! You said you weren’t some v-vacum, vallnum,…”

“Vallen,” he said.

“Exactly!” I said.

Steel fingers grabbed my pant leg. “Look, kid, we gotta go, okay? Now. But if we’re being honest here, you should know that I ate Jeffrey because he talked too much.”

“WHAT?” The fallen lounge chairs were on either side of me, the monster at my center. There was no logical line to the back door and safety. Wiggling an index finger at Dax, I clenched my other hand into a fist. “I’ll scream,” I said.

“You’ll…scream?” Dax snorted, thick smoke shooting forcefully from both nostrils. Leaning in, he kicked my feet out from under me at lightning speed. I landed hard against the chairs. In an instant, Dax was in my face. Poking a finger into one of my facial cuts, I flinched at his touch. “I don’t get it,” he mumbled. “You look more like a punching bag than a hero.”

I slapped his hand from my face. “These scars are from defending a kid from…,” but I hesitated. I wanted to throw some intimidation back at this bully. That’s all Dax turned out to be. Another green skinned, violent, dominating bully. “A mob,” I blurted out.

“Mob, huh? How many?”

“T-twelve,” I said, though not confidently.

“Twelve, my hairy butt,” Dax snickered. “If they were babes in diapers, abandoned by their mommies for you to bottle-feed, maybe.”

I scowled. What caused me to tell a lie? Why was I trying so hard to impress another bully? Why add being a liar to my problems? “It was three,” I corrected myself. The words tasted bad in my mouth. “Just three guys. They were older kids from school. I…,” my voice dropped off as the weight of my lie rested fully on my conscious. “I didn’t fight anyone. I got my butt kicked. Is that what you wanted to hear? They were jerks picking on a smaller kid. A kid who did nothing wrong.” My head lowered in shame. “All I did was step in so they could pound on me instead. I’m used to it.”

For a long moment, Dax just stared.

“So you’re bad at lying,” he said. I thought I caught a hint of a smile from my peripheral vision. “That’s good. Take responsibility for your words and actions and you’ll always be able to look at yourself in the mirror.” He reached out, grabbed my chin, and turned my face from side to side. It wasn’t forceful or mean. He just inspected my wounds. Satisfied, he let go. “Willing to stand up to bullies?” Dax grunted. “Even better.” He nudged my shoulder with his fist. “Don’t feel bad. We’ll give ya a bigger stick and teach you how to use it properly.”

When I looked up again, he was…smirking. Not creepy or anything, but I wondered what he was seeing. Dax made his little street magic motions again, and a small glowing vial of blue liquid appeared in his hand. With a flick of his thumb, the cork popped off, and he downed the contents in a single gulp.

“Woo,” he coughed, “that’s nasty. It’ll get us home, though. Ready?”

“No,” I said. “I’m staying here.”

“That wasn’t a choice, kid. More like a warning to prepare yourself.”

“I have a date with a girl that I’ve…”

Dax cut me off. “There are plenty of females where we’re going.”

“No,” I snapped, finding some courage. “I’m not going anywhere. You can go back to where you came from. My butt is staying here.”

“Nope.”

“You don’t get to choose for me!”

Again, the smirk. “Defiance? I’m starting ta like you, Wendell.” He sniffed. “Not much, but starting.” 

A heavy foot planted squarely on my sneaker as I scooted backwards.

“I’ll scream,” I said again.

Dax sighed. “Really? You’re a one-trick wonder, kid. Fine. Go ahead. Knock yourself out. Paper says no one will hear you, anyway.”

“Then why did you cover my face when you first got here?”

Dax opened his mouth…then shut it. He scowled. “You really do pay attention. How annoying.”

“And I can scream loud,” I grinned.

Before I knew what was happening, those steel hands wrenched my arm and flipped me onto my stomach. With another twist, my arm folded against my back. An inhuman amount of weight then settled on me. The angle plus the weight made it near impossible for me to take a breath. Any attempt to yell or scream…or make ANY sound came out as a pathetic squeak.

“And you don’t know how hard it is for me to be kind.” Dax took a long draw of the cigar and blew smoke into my face. “So let’s be perfectly clear about what’s going to happen.” Leaning down into view, he glared at me. A single finger poked my nose with each word. “Each scream costs you a finger.” A sinister grin crawled across his angular face. “I’m pretty sure they can use magic to grow ‘em back. Painful process, I hear, but doable. So if you’re done acting like Jeffrey, I want to get home. NOW.” He snapped his sharp yellow teeth together with a ‘snap’, then grinned. “Okay bumpkin?”

I bit down on my lip, nodding.

“Good.” Dax nodded and then tossed the empty vial into the pool. Drawing some strange symbols with his hand in the air, a crackling sound erupted right over my head. It sounded like a swarm of mosquitoes flying into a bug zapper in rapid succession. I cranked my head to see a jagged black line, deep purple and red flecks of light swirling, ripping a hole in the air. Like a giant zipper, it opened vertically. The crackling noise grew louder, revealing…nothing. 

I know that sounds odd, but there were no lights, no reflections of anything. Hovering in the space above my head was a hole, blacker than the blackest night, gapping, sucking in the surrounding air. Leaves and blades of recently cut grass flew past me and into that nothing to vanish from sight.

“This’ll be interesting,” said Dax. “Don’t have the gem to get us back, so it’s prep time.” He lifted his foot to let me sit up, his hand still gripping my arm.

“We’re going…in there?” I said, my voice a few octaves too high.

“Yup. Perfectly safe.”

“Compared to WHAT?” I said.

“Okay, safe-ish.” He lifted me to my feet. “Just don’t touch the sides.”

“What sides — there’s nothing in there!” I shrieked.

Dax stared at the hole, then cocked his head to the side. “Good point.”

“What happens if I DO touch the sides?” I said.

“Ah.” Dax considered, his head bouncing slightly from side to side. “Probably get sucked out of the magical stream that’s connecting here and there. You’ll get ripped apart and cease to exist. Yeah. I think that’s right…but that’s all.”

“That’s all? That’s HUGE!” I said.

Dax flipped me about, facing him. “Look, just keep yourself centered in the tunnel and you’ll be fine, okay?”

“How do I center myself in the tunnel?” I said.

Dax hesitated. “That’s…another good question.” He shrugged. “Been doing this for so long, I’ve never really thought about how I do it.” He gave me a slap on the back, accompanied by a devilish grin. “As long as there’s enough of you left on the other end, we’ll figure out how to put you back together. Promise.”

“NO!” I screamed.

“Too late,” he said.

Before I could finally scream, those impossibly powerful hands threw me into the blackness.

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