The next two weeks of school passed, very similar to the first day. I gradually grew more comfortable around Trey and his group of friends, but as I studied them, I noticed that, at times, they carried a certain amount of fakeness about themselves. It seemed almost like they were acting. All the time.
Acting at living? It confused me so much that, consequently, I began to spend more time with Nick and Evan. Evan was the only one of the group that didn’t look like he was acting. Both he and Nick seemed normal, and were perfectly happy, funny, and all-around nice to me, all the time.
And yet something was troubling me.
Maybe it started when I noticed that Nick was always edgy when he was around Trey. The colorguard didn’t seem to bother him as much, and he and Evan were always talking and laughing together, so it was obvious he was fine around him.
As I began to get to know all of them better, and spend more time around them, the little details that I’d missed the first week or so became more pronounced. I noticed several things: that the colorguard always moved around in a group; I never saw one of them alone; that Liam’s smile was beginning to become more like a leer; that Nick and Evan tried to spend as much time with me as possible; and that Evan seemed like he was watching Trey’s group. Just watching. He didn’t talk much around them, he observed.
After the first month of school, I was getting downright paranoid, and it bothered me that I couldn’t figure out why.
I would soon find out.
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On September first (school started on August first. I know, it’s ridiculous), Nick asked if I would meet him at the library at 4:30, to help him with some homework. He had someplace to be right after school, but that he was free at 4:30. I agreed, because, in truth, I was really struggling with the algebra assignment we’d been given the day before.
At 4:30, I drove to the library, and found a comfy chair to sit in. Nick wasn’t there yet, so I began to unpack my backpack. However, Nick walked into the door just then.
I looked up to smile at him, but my face fell when I saw that he was frowning, and he looked extremely tense. He walked quickly over to me and said, in a low voice, “Listen; forget the homework. I need to tell you something. Come on.” He motioned for me to follow him. By this point, I was nervous, as I had absolutely no idea what was going on.
I followed him outside, across the street, and onto the little sidewalk area between the Children’s Museum and the old middle school. He stopped suddenly, and I almost ran into him. He turned around and stood still for a moment, looking at the ground. His expression was a mask of tension, stress, and nervousness. He started pacing, muttering to himself. I caught, “glass….unknown….portal….Evan…”
“What about Evan?” I asked. Nick stopped his frantic pacing and looked at me. He took a deep breath, then said, “Lena, I’m going to tell you something that is the last thing in the world you are ever going to want to hear.” He stopped, took another breath, and launched into the story that changed my life forever.
“Lena, please let me finish before you comment.” He took another deep breath.
“About three months ago, I was walking home from a basketball game when I saw a green light. I followed it, and I saw that it was in the shape of a ball about a foot wide, and it was floating in midair over an empty railroad crossing. As I came closer, it grew bigger and bigger, until I was standing in front of it and it was as tall as me.
“I reached out to touch it, and it pulled me through it, like somebody had just grabbed my hand and yanked me through it. The light was blinding; it was so bright, but then I was through it, and I found myself standing between two high cliff faces. It was clear that I wasn’t in Brookings anymore. I wasn’t even sure if I was in South Dakota at all, because I saw, about a hundred yards away, a series of bluffs with trees on them. Beyond that, it was hills, mixed here and there with trees.
“All of a sudden, the sky grew dark; it had been broad daylight before, and I saw two dark figures coming towards me. They looked like humans, but they were dressed in all dark clothes, cloaks hiding their faces. I got really scared when I saw that they were carrying black swords.
“I turned around, hoping to go back through the green light, but it had vanished. At that point, I was in a state of pure panic. I looked back and saw that the figures were getting closer, moving way more quickly than regular humans. I tried to run, but felt like I was frozen in place.
“Suddenly, I heard somebody yell from behind me. In the next instant, arrows shot out over my head. When they hit the black figures, they vanished in a puff of smoke.
“I turned around and saw about a dozen people who looked a lot more human than the black people. They called themselves the Foresters, and they needed my help.
“They told me that I was in the Land of the Unknown, which was currently held in power by an evil king and queen. They Land of the Unknown was in a different dimension than Earth, and that certain beings could travel between them via portals, which was the green light I had come through. The king and queen lived in a castle in the center of the Land. To put it simply, they had used dark forces to gain control of the Land, and now were expanding their darkness to cover everything. The beings in black were called shadowmen, and they did the rulers’ bidding.
“Once, a very wise person had said that one day, someone would come from another world, and help destroy the darkness. The Foresters, who could pass as humans with bright green eyes, searched for one who had a ‘light’ in him. I don’t know yet how exactly they knew that somebody had this ‘light’, but they said I had it, and brought me through to the Land. However, the shadowmen sensed that I was coming, and wanted to prevent it. But they failed,” Nick smiled, “Luckily.”
He continued, “When I asked them how they knew for sure that I was the one who could help them, a golden yellow light formed in front of me. It grew so bright that I had to cover my eyes. When I looked again, I saw a necklace spinning in front of me.” Nick reached for his collar and pulled a necklace out of his shirt to show me. A clear glass ball, about the size of a quarter hung from the end of a piece of black leather. It was perfectly clear, and as the sunlight reflected on it, rainbows seemed to dance across its surface.
As I stared at it, Nick finished his story. “It’s called a Glass Pearl. When I touched it, I understood everything that they were trying to tell me, and I knew it was also true. I also, instinctively, knew that, when I was back in my world, I would recognize who had this ‘light’, and would be able to help me, and the Foresters.”
I just stood there, with my mouth hanging open, gaping at him. Slowly, I looked up to meet his eyes, and mouthed, “Me?” I was still in a state of shock and couldn’t force any air out to form the word. I wasn’t sure how he could understand me, but he nodded.
I blinked, closing my mouth. Trying to organize my jumbled thoughts that were defying any sense of reality I’d ever known, I asked, “And….and Evan?”
“You catch on fast,” Nick sounded impressed. “Yes, Evan has the ‘light’, too.”
Groaning, I put my face in my hands. This was too much to take in. Then a new thought occurred to me. “Wait, why couldn’t you have just brought me to this….this Land of the Unknown and showed me?”
Nick took a breath and let it out slowly, “Because….” He spoke slowly, choosing his words carefully, “Ugh, how do I put this?” He ran a hand through his hair, looking very frustrated with himself. After a few seconds, he said, “Okay, maybe I should start with this: I went to the Land of the Unknown in June, and Evan went through in July.”
Nick paused again. “Towards the end of July, we thought we were able to attempt to destroy the king and queen.”
“Did you succeed?” I asked, then realized that I already knew the answer. Nick’s eyes clouded over.
“No. After we snuck into the castle, a Special Forester somehow got a message that said there was one person, and only one person who could destroy the king and queen. When one of the Foresters tried to sneak in and tell us to get out of there, he got captured. We barely escaped with our lives, and now the king and queen know which person can destroy them.”
“Who is it?” My voice was wobbly, and I had a guess as to who it was already.
“You.”
At this point, my legs decided to give out on me, and I sat heavily on the ground. I covered my face with the hands. I sensed that Nick had crouched down next to me.
“Is this too much, or can you handle a bit more?”
It took several minutes of deep breaths before I was able to convince myself that this wasn’t so dissimilar to the fantasy books on dragons, and such. With all the different books concerning that genre, chances were that there was bound to be some sort of magic living in this world.
Except that it wasn’t in this world, and I wasn’t expecting it to all happen to me.
Trying to push away this thought, I concentrated on the previous one, and was finally able to look up at Nick and say, “Go on.”
“Okay,” Nick gave me a small smile. “You’re handling this better than I would’ve if I’d been told something like this.”
I was able to give him a tiny smile in return. “I guess I should take that as a compliment, so thanks.”
Nick’s smile grew bigger, “You’re welcome.” Then he grew serious again. “Ready for the next bit?” I nodded.
“Trey is the leader of the shadowmen.”
My mouth dropped open slightly. I sat, staring dumbly at Nick. He waited for some sort of reaction. After a minute, his forehead creased, and he said, “Lena, breathe.”
I let my breath out in a huff, realizing how much I needed the air. “Well,” I whispered, “that was unexpected.”
Nick suddenly stood up and started pacing again. “Lena, I’m sorry. I never should have told you this all at once, especially not the part about Trey, if I didn’t think I had any other choice.” His words spilled out as he spoke very rapidly. “I was so stupid to drag you into this. I never should’ve gotten mixed up in this in the first place-“
I let Nick ramble on until a question formed in my head. “Nick,” he stopped pacing and looked at me, “are Liam and all the colorguard….human,” I forced the word out, “or….” I trailed off.
Nick took another calculating breath, as if to decide whether or not to tell me this. “Yes, they are shadowmen. The female fighters are just as good as the men, if not better, because of their increased flexibility.”
“Then why is Evan always around them? Isn’t it dangerous for him?”
Nick shook his head. “The shadowmen are slightly less powerful here, and it’s not like they can carry swords around all the time, right?” He paused, “Of course, their magic is powerful enough, anyway to harm somebody in either world.”
“Oh my gosh,” I put my head in my hands. “I have been putting him in danger.”
“No, you don’t get it.” Nick kneeled back down. I lifted my head to look at him. “We’re on equal footing here. The two of us could take down that entire group, except Trey.” His mouth formed a grim line. “Since he’s the leader, his magic is immensely stronger than the others’. It’d take both of us to match him. That’s why it made me nervous when you spent so much time with them. Evan is just keeping an eye on them, making sure they don’t-“ He stopped.
“Don’t what?” I asked.
“Don’t kill you.”
This was too much. My hands fell limply from my face into my lap. I stared at them. Every muscle in my body froze up. My brain was jumbled, with all my thoughts racing around. Nothing made any sense.
I don’t know how long I sat like that. Long enough for my muscles to ache when they finally unfrozen when Nick tentatively put a hand on my shoulder. “Lena.” My head jerked up, and I stared at him with empty eyes.
He shook my shoulder, “Lena.” I blinked. He shook harder, with both hands, his voice becoming more urgent. “Lena.”
I blinked again, whispering, “What?”
“Come on, we have to go.” Nick tugged at my hand and I stiffly stood up.
“Why?”
Nick pulled at my arm, sending me stumbling after him. “They know.”
“Who?”
“The shadowmen. They’re coming.”
