Shadowmen.
That thought roused me a bit, and I was able to keep up a brisk pace behind Nick as he pulled out his phone. “Who are you calling?” I asked, as he hit the speed dial.
“Evan. I didn’t want to have to do this so soon, but I don’t think we have any other choice.”
“Do what?”
He looked at me. “We’re taking you through to the Land of the Unknown.”
“But, wait, I’m confused. How do you know the portal thingie’s going to be open?” Nick started to answer, but then held up a finger. “Evan,” he said urgently, “we need-yes,” he nodded, “I told her. So, we-“ he stopped again, “Yes, I known that, too. So, we need to take her through, now.” There was a longer pause as Evan replied. “Okay, I’ll meet you there.” Nick snapped his phone shut. “Sorry, what?” He looked at me again.
“How do you know the portal’s going to be open?”
Nick kept walking, but spoke in a sing-songey voice, and if reciting something,
“On the first of nine,
you will find,
that you will leave
your world behind.”
He looked at me. “That’s something that person in the Land said, but we didn’t know what it meant until now. The first of nine must mean the first day of the ninth month, which is today. I’m guessing that this bit is referring to you.”
By this time, we’d reached Nick’s car. I got in the passenger side, and Nick started it. Suddenly, the sky overhead grew dark, and thunder rumbled around us. Nick looked up.
“Oh, crud.”
“What?” I asked, freezing mid-buckle. Nick suddenly threw the car into reverse, peeling out of the parking spot. I quickly finished buckling. As he hit the gas, I realized there wasn’t a single person around us. All the cars were gone, too. It was very eerie.
“Shadowmen,” Nick spat, “They’re closer than I thought.”
I gripped the edges of the seat, panicking. “How far away is the portal?”
Nick spun around a corner, grimacing. “Halfway across town, where the railroad tracks meet that Orchard intersection. Yet another mistake that I made. I should’ve guessed something like this would happen. I should’ve known….” He continued mumbling as I continued panicking.
About a minute later, Nick spoke again. “Okay, Lena, when we get near Orchard, here’s what you need to do. AS we get closer to the railroad crossing, we should see the portal. Remember, a green light. You need to get out of the car; Evan’s going to be waiting near there; follow him straight through. I’ll be following right behind. Got it?”
I nodded, scared stiff. This was the last thing I had expected to happen. Actually, this didn’t even make the list. I didn’t ever wake up thinking, Okay, I’m going to have creepy creatures from another dimension trying to kill me today. No. Nobody thinks that. Anyway, these things don’t happen in real life.
Except, it was.
It was at this point that Nick turned the final corner, and I had a clear view of the railroad crossing and a dull green glow.
My mouth dropped open. It looked exactly like Nick had described it earlier, except there were dark storm clouds hovering overhead, and-
Nick swore, and slammed on the breaks. I jerked against the seat belt and then fell back. Through the windshield, I could see several dark shapes flying closer. AS I watched, they began to swoop down lower, and lightning began to flicker across the sky.
“Lena!” Nick’s voice started me out of my reverie. I dropped back to Earth. “Go!” Suddenly, I remembered what he’d told me to do. It seemed like the stupidest thing to do at the moment, and I looked at him, hesitating. His face was a mask of tension and fear.
Real fear. This wasn’t fake. I threw open the door and stepped outside. It was freezing cold; the temperature must’ve dropped about thirty degrees in the short time that we’d been in the car. Even though it was only about five o’clock in September, it was as dark out as if it had been ten o’clock. All of the street lamps were out, too; the only light came from the green orb that hung a few feet above the track. It was also very windy. South Dakota is known for having strong winds, up to forty miles per hour, but this wind chilled me right through.
I was standing, transfixed by the sight in front of me, so I nearly screamed when Evan came up behind me and grabbed my shoulder.
“Come on!” he shouted above the wind. It was at this point that the black shadows reached the ground and morphed into the relatively humanoid-looking creatures that Nick had told me about.
Shadowmen.
I heard a car door slam and Evan muttered something under his breath. The shadowmen had landed between us and the green light. We were about fifty feet apart, and I could see the black swords in their hands. The light directly behind them made it difficult to see their faces, but as one of them looked at me, I gasped. The black scaley face vaguely resembled the face of Holly. Her face twisted into a passable smile.
I realized that Nick had come to stand to the left of me, and he and Evan were slightly in front of me, with swords of their own clutched in their hands.
The tallest shadowman stepped forward and said, “Let us take Eleni, and we will let you go elsewhere.” His voice was slippery, alluring, and it made my skin crawl all over. It felt like invisible spiders.
“Hardly,” Nick said in a voice that was almost a snarl. I noticed that both his and Evan’s Glass Pearls’ were glowing with a bright blue light. The shadowmen noticed it, too, and I saw a few fidget slightly.
The shadowman leaned forward and I saw his mouth begin to move. Evan’s voice whispered in my ear, “When I say go….” The shadowmen straightened up, and, with a shock, I realized who it was.
Trey.
Except that there was only the slightest resemblance between the Trey I’d first met, and the one in front of me. There was no trace of any of his kindness left. It had all been replaced by a cold, dark hatred, and was scaring me more than the rest of the shadowmen put together.
“GO!” Evan’s voice made me jump, but then he and Nick charged forward, and I was forced to follow close behind. The shadowmen surged towards us. AS we neared them, I saw that the green light began to grow bigger and brighter. Then I heard wild shrieking. Whipping my head around, I was suddenly knocked to the ground. My breath was driven out of my chest, and I dizzily saw one of the shadowmen, Lauren, above me. I glimpsed her black blade glint above me, but in the next instant, she dissolved into a cloud of black smoke.
That revealed Evan standing behind her. He held out a hand and quickly got me back on my feet. I looked around and saw that there was only one shadowmen left, Trey. The rest had already been reduced to nothing more than black smoke. The green orb was nearly as tall as I was, and we were only standing about ten feet from it.
Suddenly, the air took on an even more winter-like feel. Looking back at Evan, I saw his mouth drop open slightly, and his eyes go wide. I followed his gaze and saw first Trey battling Nick. They had given up on swords, and were using magic. Nick’s Glass Pearl and hands were glowing with a dark blue light. Trey was surrounded by a black light, and large flashes kept erupting between them. Then, I saw more dark shadows begin to appear in the sky. There were at least a hundred, probably more. As they kept coming, though, it looked more like two hundred.
“Lena, come on.” Evan’s voice was deadly serious. He took my arm and started to pull me towards the portal.
“What about Nick?” The words had no sooner left my mouth than I heard a yell. My eyes snapped back over to Nick, and saw that he was almost completely surrounded by black. As I watched, it seemed like things were moving in slow motion. He became completely obscured, and then there was a sharp crack, and the black light vanished; Nick was nowhere to be seen.
“Nick!’ I cried and started to run towards the spot where he’d vanished. I don’t know what I was going to do, but confusion and fear wafted through me, and I had to do something.
Evan grabbed my arm to prevent me, though. “Forget it, Lena. You can’t help him. Come on!” He jerked me again towards the portal.
“No, wait, what about-“ Trey turned and looked at me. His eyes were dark and cold, and my breath caught in my throat; I felt petrified. It was as if my feet had grown roots into the ground.
Trey suddenly leaped straight up into the air, and revealed a pair of black wings. They unfurled from his body, and looked very similar to a bat’s wings. He let out a wild scream that was around the same register as a cat screeching.
I cringed backwards, and stumbled. Evan took this opportunity to pull me towards the portal. He started to run and I followed. The light was no longer sphere-shaped; it was a large oval, and as we drew closer, the bottom connected with the ground to form a tunnel shape. Then the light flared and Evan was through. I was one step behind him, but I turned around slightly as I touched it. My final glimpse was of a hundred shadowmen streaking towards me, and Trey about six feet away from me, an evil smile on his face.
Then my hand came in contact with the portal, and it did feel as if somebody had yanked me through it. My feet left the ground, and for a split second, my eyes were filled with a bright green light. Then, I was through, and staring out from between two cliff faces at a forest over a stretch of grass.
Land of the Unknown.
