Royden landed in dead grass. The sharp lifeless grass poked and prodded his already scratched and injured body. He turned over and stared up, groaning loudly. The sky was a light mocha color with clouds a dark brown. The portal he came through was nowhere to be seen. He sat up with great effort and looked around.
He sat on the edge of what looked like an abandoned amusement park. A ticket window stood nearby with broken glass and plants growing all around it. Rides sat in disrepair all over the place. A small wooden rollercoaster looked to be half demolished in the center of the park. Everything in sight was varying shades of tan and brown. No one appeared to be around.
A noise caught his attention. He turned and saw the ocean behind him, also in brown. The water dashed up the sand and then retreated back.
This place started to take shape. Buildings appeared out of the brown haze in both directions on a little grassy hill at the edge of the sand. They were houses. All of them had a porch facing the water. They all had the appearance of really old hotels, the bed and breakfast type.
The Doble’s once stayed at a place like that a long time ago. Royden remembered that it was very old, just like the people who owned it. There weren’t too many around anymore.
Royden caught sight of an old woman sweeping in the doorway of one of the houses. He went up to her.
“Excuse me, ma’am, but do you know where I am?”
The woman ignored him and kept sweeping.
“Excuse me, can you hear me?”
No response.
He tried to catch her eyes by waving. She didn’t look up.
“Hello!” He said loudly.
She didn’t appear to notice him in the least.
Royden started over to the abandoned amusement park. He stood at the fence looking into it. It sure looked bad. It must have been abandoned years before. He turned and faced the ocean, shaking his head.
“What in the world?” He said to himself.
A sign in front of the house the old woman was sweeping caught his eye. Discovery Bed and Breakfast. It couldn’t be, could it? Could that really be the predecessor to the Discovery Apartments? Mr. Bringum told him that his family owned a bed and breakfast a long time ago. Was he in the past again? The last time he was in the past nothing looked brown. This had to be something else, but what?
A portal appeared nearby. Royden scurried around the corner of the fence and got down, expecting Badchi to come out. He glanced around the fence and saw a man wipe the portal away. It definitely wasn’t Badchi.
The man turned around, it was Millie. He nodded approvingly.
“Millie?” Royden said.
Millie looked over. “Royden, what are you doing here?”
“I jumped into a strange portal to avoid the mysterious powers of a demon run interdimensional suit of certain death.”
Millie nodded. “I’ve had a few days like that. Tell me all about it.”
Royden explained everything he learned since last seeing Millie. He told him about going back in time to fight Badchi, almost getting stuck in a dimension where time ran too fast, and about everything he heard Mr. Tezera say.
“Wow.” Millie said when Royden finished. “You’ve gotten way more done on this case than I have.”
“How did you get here?” Royden inquired.
“Well my dimension crystal just got back from the shop and I powered it up to help me find that unstable dimension I’ve been looking for. And here I am.”
“Are there two? This isn’t the same one as last time.” Royden said, remembering the strange starry dimension with the sleeping bodies he saw last time he was with Millie.
Millie shook his head. “This is the same one. It’s unstable, it always changes.”
“I wonder why it looks like this.” Royden wondered aloud.
“I think I may know where we are.” Millie said. “I used to be obsessed with pictures of my home town from the past. And this looks just like one. The little hotels are the same, the water’s right here, and here’s the old amusement park my grandparents told me about. Of course this isn’t exactly like it. I don’t think that park ever got to looking like this. But the rest of this looks like it came right out of an old picture. In fact it looks like we’re in the old picture. It’ll change again before too long. Almost anything can send a place like this haywire.”
“Mr. Tezera said that my parents were in here. I think he meant everyone was.” Royden said.
“He’s probably right. Do you remember those bodies we found that time? I think that’s what he was referring to. They must be around here somewhere. Let’s see if we can find them. They might give us a clue as to what he’s planning.”
“He said he was going to get his people out. I think he wanted to get his people to Earth for some reason.”
“Hmm, that’s interesting.” Millie said. “Remember, Royden, this dimension is dying. It could collapse completely at any time.”
“Have any idea how he might do it?”
“Royden let me tell you something. There are literally endless planets in the multiverse, and quite a lot of them have beings that have all sorts of abilities. This dimension, being so small, has never been studied closely enough. This Tezera guy could have literally any ability.”
“So what do we do?”
“We follow the clues and see if we can get out. The crystal can get me here, but it won’t necessarily get us out.”
Millie went up to the house with the old woman sweeping. He tried to talk to her with no luck.
Millie stroked his chin. “She can’t seem to hear us. I wonder if she’s even real.” He ran out a bit and looked around the area. “I don’t know.” He called back to Royden. “I can’t figure out why he sent the people in here.”
Another portal, this one square, opened and Badchi stepped out. It closed behind him.
Millie ran back over and stood by Royden. “So, did you happen to find out some way to defeat this thing?”
“No.” Royden confessed. “Hofrora said that the ring was indestructible. He said that if he even tried to destroy it he would feel endless pain.”
Millie shook his head as Badchi scanned the area with its horrid red eyes. “Tell me again where the ring came from.” He said, taking Royden by the shoulder and backing up toward the water.
“Ms. Carol’s mother had it. She used it as protection because her job made her go through dangerous dimensions.”
“A ring like that can’t cause endless pain. I don’t care what you do to it.”
“Do you think he lied?” The boy asked.
“I think this Tezera guy used Mr. Hofrora’s fears against him. If I’m not mistaken he’s the one that was buried for a long time. If you were trapped underground for thousands of years wouldn’t you be afraid of endless pain?”
“I think everyone’s afraid of endless pain.” Royden pointed out.
The brown haze returned in the distance. It looked like a deep brown sandstorm coming their way. Within seconds it covered the whole area. Tiny brown particles whipped and churned just like a real sandstorm, only they didn’t hurt or make any noise.
Badchi’s eyes glowed bright in the brown mess. He came closer at a leisurely pace. Its eyes darted this way and that through the storm. It looked to be having trouble tracking them.
“It’s changing again.” Millie said.
The brown particles turned gray. The sandstorm changed to a dirty blizzard. Millie quickened his pace backwards. He didn’t dare turn his back on the demon.
The particles began to settle. The storm lessened and the swirling died down. The gray particles came to rest and formed shapes. A floor took form. Walls and a ceiling followed. Royden knew where they were. He squirmed away from Millie’s hold. He wanted to get away, he didn’t want to relieve this place.
Broken furniture littered the floor. Scratches etched themselve
s all over, on the walls, on the ceiling.
“I’ve been here.” Royden said through short, faltering breaths.
“Where are we?” Millie asked.
Badchi stopped coming toward them. Its eyes blinked repeatedly as if suddenly being exposed to bright light. The red narrowed to suspicious points. It took in the room as if it recognized it, but didn’t know where from.
Royden watched the demon’s hands squeeze and relax multiple times. It looked confused about something. And then its red eyes closed completely and it began to shake. A mechanized whimpering came from the suit. It began to cry, unable to form tears.
“What is it doing?” Millie whispered, his voice etched with just a hint of sympathy.
“Don’t fall for it.” Said Royden angrily. “It’s a trick. It cries so its enemies drop their guards.”
The demon’s whimpering grew louder. Another sound mixed in. Singing. It started to sing. It was robotic and garbled.
“I’ve never seen anything like it.” Millie said, taking a step forward.
“Don’t.” Royden insisted. “We need to get out of here.”
“It misses its home.” Millie took another step toward it. “It doesn’t want to be an evil black suit obeying someone else.”
Royden couldn’t believe his ears. “What are you talking about? I’ve seen its work first hand. It murders people and keeps their kids hostage.”
“Demons have notoriously weak souls.” Millie explained. “They feed off the positive energy of the young until they’re full of it and the young are shells of fear. It does it to survive.”
“I don’t care, let’s go.”
Millie shivered. “You’re right. Wow, that thing is strong.”
“Is there any way to get away from here?”
Millie tore his eyes away from the black suit. “I wonder . . .” He picked up a piece of a chair. It disintegrated into gray dust. “This is the last stage. The reality of the dimension is faltering badly. It won’t survive much longer. If we’re here when it dies for good we will cease to exist along with it.
“So let’s get out of here.”
“We have to tread lightly.” He pulled his dimension crystal out of his pocket and tried to draw a portal. Gray dust appeared where he drew and fell to the floor. “Dimensions die all the time. Most don’t have anybody in them. This one’s been dying for a while. But where are the locals? Surely they must be around here somewhere.”
Badchi suddenly stopped crying. Its red eyes opened again. It focused in on Royden.
“Ba—d—chil—dren?” It said, almost inquisitively.
A small portal appeared and Mrs. Tezera stuck her head into the gray room. “What’s taking so long, demon? We told you to get rid of him.” She saw Millie. “And take care of his friend too. We don’t have much time now.” Her head vanished and the portal along with it.
Badchi’s eyes narrowed. Ba—d—chil—dren!” It shrieked, springing toward them.
Millie pushed Royden out of the way. The two collided. Millie got an arm around the suit’s neck and pulled it to the ground. He dropped the dimension crystal. Badchi’s hands glowed and grabbed Millie’s forehead. He let out a soft moan. His arms fell limply to the floor. Royden used the confusion to grab the crystal and push himself back across the floor.
The demon stood up, hands still glowing, and came at the boy. Royden ran through the couch, which turned to dust, and into the kitchen. He drew a circle in the air. A red string appeared and fell away.
“Come on!” He yelled.
He wished he was someplace where he could run. And then he remembered. He took off through the wall. It collapsed. He ran through gray nothingness, Badchi close behind. The dust like particles swirled and churned again. The world was changing. Royden turned. Badchi’s eyes scanned the storm fruitlessly.
Royden drew circle after circle with the crystal. All manner of ring shaped objects appeared, but none a portal.
“I thought this thing was powered up.” He grumbled to himself. He held the crystal tight and drew a circle far bigger than the rest, wishing so hard that it might actually work. And to his utter amazement it did. He jumped in without a second thought.
The boy took off running. He didn’t bother looking around or even letting the place sink into his mind. He had to get away from the demon.
The mind is curious all on its own. He couldn’t help but look down. He suddenly stopped. He stood at the edge of a great precipice. Nothing could be seen below it. It was so deep that it appeared to not have a bottom, which for all he knew, it might not.
Footsteps came swiftly up to him. Royden turned and lost his balance. His feet slipped off the edge.
He didn’t fall. The demon grabbed onto his hand at the last moment. Royden dangled off the edge of the cliff. He tried to pull his hand away. He would rather fall for eternity then be put into a coma by the demon he loathed so much.
Badchi pulled him up and set him on the edge. The suit pointed up with its left hand. Royden glanced quickly, nothing was up there. The demon shook its head. Its glowing red eyes widened innocently. It pointed to its index finger with its other hand. It pointed at the ring.
Royden didn’t understand. He had no intention of being killed by the demon or being a part of the Tezera plan, whatever that was. He jumped backwards off the cliff.