The emergency lights shined weakly down from the corners where the walls met the ceiling. Royden stood under one and inspected himself. Scratch marks littered his shirt with only a few on his pants. Taddy kept the gremlins away by laying on him; attempting to cut off the air from his lungs. The scratches weren’t that bad. None were very deep.
“Two down.” Royden said emotionlessly. “Where to now?”
The silence pushed in on all sides. His ears attempted to pick up anything, any sound no matter how quiet or far away. Someone else must be in the building. He could feel it. But where? Royden put the phone back in his pocket and felt the key to the penthouse. He went back to the stairs. He didn’t really want to go all the way up in the dark, but what choice did he have? He couldn’t get help from anywhere. At least not that he could think of.
The dark stairwell scared him more now than before. He made so much noise in there just a minute before. Surely anyone in the building would have heard that. Someone could be waiting silently for him in the dark. He started up anyway having his father’s phone light the way.
He stopped on every floor from the ninth to the seventeenth to see if any of the remaining Tezera’s could be found. None were found and all of the rooms were locked.
Royden used the key to get access to the penthouse. The plush red carpet felt familiar and safe under him. It reminded him that despite all the chaos he was still on Earth. This was his world. He knew the rules. He had the advantage over any alien or dimension hopper.
The Time Room was locked. In fact all the doors were locked. The boy sighed and shook his head. There weren’t many other places he could check without the keys to every room. He wondered if the unconscious guard downstairs had a master key. He decided to go down the other staircase just in case he found a clue there.
Upon entering this other, much less used stairwell, a breeze blew from above. The hatch to the roof was open. Royden should have thought to check there first. He nervously climbed the ladder to the roof.
The roof looked the same as the last time he had been there with Bill the alien. It was still covered with gravel and had those strange contraptions, probably water tanks or something, positioned around.
Two people stood near the edge of the roof facing a doorway of light. It wasn’t a portal created by a dimension crystal. This was the portal that Goren and Farn used to get back to their dimension. It was projected between the two metal objects he found in their closet a week before. Something told him this portal didn’t go to the dimension he visited that day.
Royden took a step, crunching the gravel beneath his feet. He froze. The two people turned around. Mr. and Mrs. Tezera gazed at him. A look of shock was quickly replaced by anger.
“The human?” Mrs. Tezera said scathingly.
“I thought for sure he was dead.” Mr. Tezera said disappointedly.
“Jessa probably took him to that dimension she likes so much—must have thought he wouldn’t make it back.” Mrs. Tezera sighed.
“Well obviously he has.” Mr. Tezera pointed toward Royden. “Now what?”
Royden didn’t know what to do. He thought about saying something but it looked like the Tezera’s were having a fine conversation about him without his input.
“I suppose we should send in the demon.” Mrs. Tezera suggested.
“Not yet. I want to find out how he does it all.” He took a few steps toward Royden. “Excuse me!” He said very loudly as though Royden couldn’t possibly understand him. “How are you alive?”
Royden shrugged. “Um . . .”
“See,” Mrs. Tezera said, “the thing can’t understand a word that’s said to it.”
Mr. Tezera cleared his throat. “I’ll try his language.” He went into a full blown language full of clicks and whistles.
“I understood you the first time.” Royden called over to them.
“He says he understood us the first time.” Mr. Tezera told Mrs. Tezera as if he translated what Royden said himself. “Are we speaking his language?”
“I can never tell anymore. We know so many.” Mrs. Tezera lamented.
“Hey there.” Royden said loudly. “What are you doing up here with that portal?”
“What is that?” Mr. Tezera said, squinting over at Royden. “Is that English? Well I do believe he is cultured in Earth languages. That sure is something from a humble boy.”
“I think they speak English in this part of the world.” Mrs. Tezera pointed out.
“Are you sure?” Her husband said. He took a few more steps toward Royden. “Ne me comprenez-vous, petite humain?”
“I’m telling you he speaks English.” Mrs. Tezera assured.
“Do you indeed speak English?”
“Yes.” Royden said dully. “Now what are you doing up here with that thing?”
“Ah, finally we can understand each other.” Mr. Tezera said proudly. “Tell me, young human, what powers do you possess?”
Royden scrunched up his face. “Well I found out recently that I can run pretty fast, though not for that long. I got a real bad stitch down the trash chute.”
The Tezera’s looked awfully confused.
Mr. Tezera pressed on. “I mean what sort of mystical power allows you to survive far past the limits of normal humans?”
“I don’t—how am I supposed to know? I get lucky a lot. I also get bailed out a lot by my friends. Now tell me what you are doing here?”
Mr. Tezera laughed. “There is so much you don’t know about the worlds.”
“Yeah, I get that a lot. Now tell me. What are you doing with that portal? Why are you making people disappear? Are they in there? What do you want with them?”
“You figured out so much.” Mr. Tezera said, his eyes gleaming. “I expect little else from the boy able to defeat the gremlins and Pooly. The same boy who befriended ghosts and sealed the demon away. I know all about you. I’ve done my homework. We’ve watched you since you came up here last week. We knew there was something special in you. Something that made us wonder if you of all people could stop us. If some little human could unhinge our plan. You’re hiding something and I want to know what it is. Do you have a powerful amulet of some kind? Are you not really human? That’s it isn’t it? You aren’t a real human. No human can do what you’ve done.”
“I don’t know what I am, really.” Royden said. Truth be told he wondered that himself on occasion. “All I know is that I have to stop you. Where are my parents? Where is everybody?”
“In there.” Mr. Tezera said simply, gesturing back to the portal. “We couldn’t have them all running around while we got everything ready.”
“What ready? Would you please just explain everything to me?”
“This is not your world anymore Royden Doble. It’s mine. I’ve longed for so long to get my people out—but that doesn’t matter to you. Demon!” He suddenly shouted.
The black suit appeared out of nowhere next to Mr. Tezera. Its glowing red eyes scanned the area, steadying on Royden.
“Now wait a minute.” Royden cried. There was no place to go up there. He glanced at the hatch leading back inside.
The demon in the black suit sped to the hatch and shut it. It stood right over it.
Royden looked for any way out. There was only one.
“Thank you for the demon.” Mr. Tezera said. “Ms. Carol told me all about how some nice boy named Royden Doble saved her so many years ago. After I stole the ring I found that the poor thing was so weak. It had been trapped in that ring for almost fifty years unable to escape. I was able to power the suit up. Unfortunately it still needs a body inside to get it working to its full potential. The demon can take control of whoever is inside. It’s a wonderfully strong creature.”
“Unlike Taddy and Jessa.” Royden grumbled.
Mr. Tezera looked concerned for a second, but it passed. “Did you d
efeat them? I want so badly to know your secrets. I see the blood on you. You must have fought hard.”
“Why don’t we trade secrets?” Royden said, thinking hard to come up with a plan.
“I’ve told you enough.” Mr. Tezera went back over to Mrs. Tezera and looked into the portal. “Do what you want with him, demon.” He said over his shoulder.
Badchi ran at Royden. The boy started toward the portal. The black suit caught up in a fraction of a second. It raised him high into the air and threw him across the roof.
Royden landed hard on the gravel near the edge. He got up slowly and took off toward the portal. Again Badchi caught him and lifted him into the air. It took several steps and looked about to throw Royden right off the roof.
“Badchi!” Royden screamed in desperation.
The black suit stopped, dropping Royden to the ground. Its glowing red eyes narrowed. “Ba—d—chil—dren?” It said in a computerized voice.
“Yeah, remember me?” Royden said, crawling away from the edge.
Badchi stared at the boy through those evil red eyes. It tilted its head back and forth. It looked confused.
“What’s going on back there?” Mr. Tezera yelled, not looking back. “I’ve changed my mind. Here—demon—bring him over here.”
Badchi caught Royden again and threw him over his shoulder. It deposited him at the feet of the Tezera’s.
“Good, here, do your stuff to him. He’s far too strong to let him keep his mind.”
Badchi’s hands began to glow. Royden had a feeling it was about to make him disappear. He launched himself back and disappeared into the portal.