Katya kicked the apartment door open. The gunshot she’d heard from inside was the only one during the last couple minutes. After having dodged through the black fog in the streets she’d made her way past the unconscious college kid on the building’s stoop and raced up the stairs to put a stop to this. She’d stood outside for several minutes listening to what sounded like a fight within the apartment. She hesitated for five more minutes, hearing only some muffled talk and movement. After deciding she couldn’t wait for more backup, she’d kicked the door open and ran down the entry hall.
She stopped, cold.
The Norwegian woman was there, holding a dirty kitchen towel to her blood-stained blouse while a satyr—a creature right out of mythology—dragged the other college kid spoken to earlier through a door into a wintry woodland. The kid was half-conscious and bleeding from a wound in his gut. Rising to its feet in the living room was the monstrous creature who’d torn through her fellow officers, scaled the building, and vanished into the floor, above. He looking violently chewed-up and unsteady but glowered with a menacing scowl. Anna and the Red Hoods were down.
“Take him through, Mr. Callerbach. I shall be along momentarily.”
“I don’t think so,” Katya said. She pointed her gun in the direction of the satyr and Norwegian woman but kept her aim low. “None of you are going anywhere.”
The tourist shook her head. “Continue, Wiste,” she said and stepped to interpose her body between Katya’s gun and intended target. The satyr nodded, looking nervous. “Constable, these people are under my protection. I am taking them into my world to heal them. If you would like to know more, I suppose you could follow. But I will not endanger my people’s lives any further by waiting for you to decide whether or not you trust us.”
The wounded monster grunted and shambled towards the tiny door. He picked up two of the fallen Hoods. Katya turned her gun on him but didn’t fire. Allasande turned to go. Katya swore and reached out to grab her by the sleeve.
“You don’t step through that door until I have some answers,” she said.
The injured monster whipped around, death in his eyes. She snapped her gun in his direction. “Don’t, ugly. I’m warning you.”
The monster stopped but not at the sign of the gun. Rather, Allasande raised a delicate hand. He nodded in assent and then withdrew to the other side of the door with the satyr. Katya noticed something odd. Both the monster and the landscape beyond the door looked sped-up as if a recording moving in fast-forward. The satyr dragged the kid over the threshold.
“Castori is only trying to protect me,” the woman said. “Point your gun at me, if you will.”
Katya scowled. “I think I’ll keep my aim on your goon if it’s alright with you.”
Allasande sighed, shaking her head. “If you wish. But you should know that your weapon will only anger him.”
Katya had already noted his bullet holes but kept her face even. She wasn’t one to back down from a confrontation, especially when witnesses were trying to escape.
“What is that … place?” she asked, gesturing to the pantry door portal. “Who are you people?”
“I am Queen Allasande of the Alabaster Throne,” the woman replied. “My acting bodyguard is also my master huntsman, Castori. The satyr,” she gestured over her shoulder, “is Wiste; a guide and friend to the throne of Kellen. I came to your world to experience it for myself and see if it truly is the home of my ancestors.” Her face fell into a dark frown. “If ever it was, it is more brutal than even the deepest, most goblin-infested warrens of Sallast.”
Katya snorted. “Lady, I’ve seen ‘Lord of the Rings’; I don’t know if you’ve seen it one too many times or just have a screw loose from the blood loss. You’re telling me you’re an alien?”
“Alien to your lands, yes,” Allasande said. “But if my seers and the sages are correct, my ancestors were not. All royal blood, in fact all who appear human in my land, are thought to have come from here.”
The story, such as it was, was crazy. But what was crazier? Claiming to be from another world or actually standing in front of a door that opened into a frozen, riverside forest? She noticed the monstrous brute dropping the gang members he carried to be treated by the satyr.
“Ok, say I believe you; I’m not letting you take those people. We have laws: I’m not letting you walk off with them.”
Allasande shook her head sadly. “They were lost to you the moment they raised arms against a sovereign of another nation. Whether knowingly or not, don’t you have similar laws protecting ambassadors from other lands?”
“Maybe,” Katya said, despite knowing that they did. “But you’re not from any land I ever heard of. All I’ve got is your story. Even if you are some sort of dignitary from ‘Middle Earth’ I’ve yet to see your diplomatic papers or any proof that you’re not going to just kill those kids.”
The queen turned.
“Middle Earth? Our Champion, Tony, often spoke of those stories when he was a child,” she said. “I used to love hearing about them.” She indicated Anna, nearest to the door. “These people must stand trial in our courts for their attacks upon the personage of the Alabaster Throne. There can be no negotiating this. But I believe I hear a different concern in your voice. These ‘kids’ do not act like any children I have ever met. They are brutal, violent, and as bloody as a troll. Yet you still call them by a protective nickname. I perceive that you are motivated not so much by jurisdiction but by a desire to save them; to protect them.”
Katya blinked.
“And?” she said. “That still doesn’t mean I’m going to let you go and take them off to NeverNever Land.”
Allasande laughed lightly.
“I think you would like Kellen, constable,” the queen said. “Perhaps you would like to come and see for yourself that these ‘kids’ will not be harmed.” Allasande turned and walked towards the door. “You have my word that they will be under my protection. But in the end they must face justice for their crimes. They have charted a grim course and are only now seeing just how stormy their seas have become.”
Katya did not fire. She kept her gun trained on the portal but now fixed the sights squarely on Allasande’s back.
“I’m warning you,” she said.
“I know,” Allasande replied without stopping her slow walk. Her foot touched the portal. “And I thank you for your honesty. I hope you can appreciate the honesty which I have, in turn, shared with you.” With no fanfare or preamble, she crossed the border between Earth and NeverEarth. The hulking, injured brute lumbered back through and began dragging the last wounded and unconscious gang member through to the other side. He left Anna’s corpse where it lay. Katya did nothing.
The queen faced the Lieutenant across the gulf of worlds. The college kid they’d dragged through the portal stood, miraculously healed, and moved to Allasande’s side. Together, they looked at Katya and waited.
Swearing under her breath but not holstering her gun, Lieutenant Zolastroya walked forward and through the pantry door.