The End
Excerpt from A Cyclist Thrown into Another World by a Female Magician
The day started normally enough. Robert Gerard got up, ate and then got onto his bicycle. The cycling team he belonged to in Northeast Florida were practicing hard and there was a lot of competition to be on the team. In fact the competition was so tough that just lately Robert had begun to take steroids and that would be his undoing. Just before he left Robert popped his usual morning pill. Steroids will make a lot of changes to your body if you are foolish enough to take them. Apart from ugly side effects like a male looking face if you are female and enlarged nipples if you are male the main problem with steroids is what is commonly referred to as "roid rage" and Robert had that. Just lately he had taken to kicking the cars of motorists who got in his way. This was an ugly habit and Robert knew that if he didn't stop it then sooner or later it would get him into trouble. The problem was the rage came with the steroids, he wished it didn't happen but everyone else on the team was taking steroids apart from one guy so if he didn't take them he wouldn't be on the team,
Unfortunately for Robert it was already too late. Trouble was coming at him fast and it was coming at him in the form of a small woman in a hot car who was not what she seemed. Robert was already doing over 30 miles an hour when he shot off the pavement and crossed the street in front of a car at a stop sign. He had thought he had enough time, he miscalculated and as he was going past her the woman began to move. He swerved quickly to one side, she slammed her brakes on and they just missed each other by literally a fraction of a second. Had Robert sat back and thought properly he would have realized that he was only intact due to the woman's extremely fast reactions. He had made a mistake, a bad mistake and what he should have done was just waved and then rode off.
Instead he did what he always did. He yelled "Hey asshole, what do you think you're doing."
Even at that point there was still time to save the situation. The woman's driver window was already open and she heard every word he said. Had she just sworn at him and driven off then he would have given chase, tried to catch her and she would have taken a side street, accelerated and he would have chased her some more and then given up. In some versions of reality this was his future until in six months time he kicked the side panel of an unmarked car belonging to a Jacksonville cop and ended up with two bullets in the chest and two in the brain.
It was Robert Gerard's extremely bad luck that the woman looked horrified, stopped and began to apologize. It was no coincidence that most of the cars kicked by Robert Gerard belonged to women, especially to teenage girls. Robert was a bully, disliked women to a certain extent and liked to hear the sound of his voice raised.
The woman opened her window some more and began to say how sorry she was. In an instant Robert was off his bike and kicking the side panel of her car. He had time to realize that the car was very expensive and then the woman was out of the car and running at him. This was the point where he usually shouted at the girl if it was a young girl until she was in tears and then rode off. Something was screaming at him to ride off but the woman was short so he didn't. Seconds later his wrist was grabbed by an arm that was incredibly strong and then he was slapped hard in the face. He was so shocked he fell over. And then he kicked at the woman and caught her on the back of the leg as she was walking back to her car.
Robert knew as soon as he had kicked the woman that he had made a mistake because he had never seen rage like the rage the woman showed on her face. She bent down, picked him up by the ankle and then threw him, only this wasn't an ordinary throw. Robert looked down and saw trees underneath him. He sailed over two trees and then he began to turn over in the air. Suddenly he was dizzy. His mind was racing, he knew there was no way a woman could have thrown him the way this one did. He continued to spin and then he was falling. He hit the ground hard, bounced a couple of times and then rolled into a thorn bush. A few seconds later his bicycle landed with a crash in the same thorn bush. This annoyed him even more than the fact that the woman had thrown him. If his precious bike was damaged...
He stood up and looked around. The phrase from the Wizard of Oz about not being in Kansas anymore came right into his head. Instead of the asphalt road there was a dirt track. Instead of the neat Florida subdivision there was a row of wooden houses. And there was something looking at him that was definitely not human. Robert picked up his bike, jumped on it and began to ride. Whatever had been watching him was now chasing him. It was covered in dark hair, looked vaguely humanoid and it could speak after a fashion. He rode and then he watched as other creatures looking a lot like the first one came out of the houses. Some of the houses had humans in and some of them had the creatures in and it looked as though they lived together.
"Are you catching us a nice meal Raggart?" one of the humans yelled and Robert realized they were not going to help him.
"Look at him ride," another one yelled. This one was a woman and was quite beautiful. Robert was still looking at her as one of the creatures jumped across the trail in front of him. It opened its mouth as it sailed past him and Robert saw long teeth, red hair and eyes that had rudimentary intelligence. He had time to realize that it had jumped from the top window of a house and then it was up and chasing after him. He emerged from the village with five of the creatures chasing him and as he passed the last house a woman stepped out onto the porch and threw a rock at his head. It hit his skull, hurt like hell and the shock of it almost made him fall off his bike. He hit a thorn bush, managed to stay in the saddle, swerved to avoid another of the creatures that jumped at him and then he was riding uphill out of the village. He was halfway up the hill when he realized that he was not going to make it. The creatures were baying behind him and he knew that sound. That was the sound that wolves made when they knew they had their prey cornered.
"Leave him alone," a voice yelled and the creatures stopped suddenly.
He looked back and they were standing there all five of them. One of them had a knife in its hand. The knife was serrated and looked like it was made for killing. Robert looked at the knife and his blood ran cold.
"Can we have him Mary," one of the creatures said. "He would make good eating."
"Leave him be," the woman said.
Robert looked at her and realized that she bore a resemblance to the woman in the car he had just kicked. "What's going on?" he said. "Where am I?"
The woman looked at him and she seemed to be appraising him. "I see that you met my sister," she said. "Annoyed her I see you have."
"Speak English please," Robert said.
For a moment something dark crossed the woman's face and then it was gone as fast it had come. "I'm sorry," she said. "I know your way of speaking but it has been sometime since I was in your world."
"What do you mean in my world," Robert said.
"I mean exactly what I said. It should be plain to you that this is not your world."
The roid rage Robert had been feeling when he bumped into this woman's sister was completely gone now and an ice cold fear had formed inside him instead. He was good at kicking women's cars but a situation like this was a little unnerving. However, Robert was not dumb, he was just an asshole and to be honest he shouldn't have been calling other people assholes when he was such a major one himself. That thought passed through his mind. That had been said to him by a young woman with a baby when he had kicked her car. Afterward he had felt bad about that but not bad enough to go back and apologize or pay for the damage he had done to her car.
He looked at the woman. "How do I get back to my world?" he asked putting on his best smile. Robert could actually be quite charming when he wanted to and he looked sincere.
"Don't give me that," she said. "My sister would not have thrown you out of your world unless you had been unpleasant to her."
Robert had the odd feeling that the woman in front of him knew exactly what he had done to her sister but there was no way that coul
d be. The thought was fleeting and he dismissed it immediately. He gave a jovial laugh. "Help me get back to my world and I will apologize to your sister if I have offended her." He gave the woman another smile.
"If you smile at me like that again you will be the worse for it," the woman said. "Walk with me a while and we'll talk, I would like to know more about you."
Robert looked around. The creatures with the red hair began to walk behind them. They were looking at him threateningly but at the woman nervously. She stopped and looked back.
"My Lady Mary, may we follow," one of the creatures said. The creature showed a huge amount of teeth but somehow managed to convey a feeling of polite respect for the woman beside him.
"Why do you wish to follow?" the woman said.
Another of the creatures spoke up. "My lady if you tire of the creature we would like to eat him."
This was too much for Robert. "You damn asshole," he yelled at the creature who had spoken.
Instantly the woman's hand was on his arm. The grip she had on his wrist was so tight that it was cutting off the blood flow. He had not realized her hands were so big, they looked too small to circle his wrist. For an instant there was fire in her eyes and then it was gone. "Please remember that you are a guest in this world, you will treat the villagers with respect."
Villagers, good God. Robert was about to say something when he remembered that the creatures with the red hair had been going to eat him before the woman intervened. It would not do to upset her. He looked at her. "How should I address you?" he said. "I have noticed that the creatures are calling you my Lady Mary." He caught himself quickly when he saw the look in her eye. She had called them villagers. "I'm sorry my Lady," he said. "I meant to call our friends villagers."
"They are not your friends if they want to eat you," she said. "You may call me Mary but I would ask that you treat with me respect for I am all that stands between you and them."
"Who are the villagers?" Robert asked.
"They are my servants," she said "This was their world before humans came."
"How long have humans been here?" Robert said.
"About fifteen thousand years," she said. "We had to flee our world. This one did not flood like ours did."
"Your world flooded?" Robert said.
"Yours did too," she said. "Your ancestors were there, mine left. We have been on this world ever since."
"Why don't the creatures attack you," Robert said.
"They don't dare," Mary said and left it at that.
Robert looked back. The creatures were following at a respectful distance. This was profoundly disturbing. "I would just like to go back to my world," he said.
"I don't think that's possible," Mary said. "You wouldn't be here if my sister hadn't wanted you to be here. There are others like you. The man who looks after my horses came from your world sixty years ago."
"He must be very old now if he came here sixty years ago."
"He is 32years old. He is very good with my horses so I keep him that way. He needs his strength. Some of the horses are very strong but he can handle them."
"How do you do that?" Robert said.
"I am kind to my servants, actually he is not technically my servant because I gave him his freedom but that was a long time ago. As soon as I gave him his freedom I asked him if he would like to stay and look after my horses and he agreed to do that. He is a fine horseman. If you become one of my servants you will meet him."
"I could never be anyone's servant," Robert said harshly. Instantly the creatures with the red hair were standing right next to him, literally an arm's length away. They had covered the distance between them in just a fraction of a second. Robert was visibly shocked.
The leader looked at the woman beside him. "My lady?" he said questioningly."
"It is not time yet," she said. "He may not be so quick to refuse when I ask him again."
Robert didn't know where he found the courage from but he did. "I will not be anyone's servant," he said.
"Do not speak to me like that again or I will let them take you," the Lady Mary said. She was looking at him as she said that and it was as though he was nothing to her. It was at that point that Robert realized that he was in deep, deep trouble. The woman appeared to want him to be her servant. He was about to say something and then he realized that he should wait for her to speak.
"Walk with me," she said and smiled. She looked back at the creatures with the red hair. "You may follow us."
Robert could not get it out of his head that he was being played with. Realization came into his head that if he had not kicked the woman's car he would not be in this situation. "I'm sorry if I have offended you or your sister," he said.
"You already know that you have offended my sister," the woman said. "You have not offended me. Yet. If I were you I would try to make sure it stays that way. Now we will walk."
She held her arm out and Robert took it. In another situation this would have been quite pleasant. She was dressed in the kind of clothes they wore in the Victorian era and Robert was dressed in his bike shorts and a t shirt. She smiled at him. "Let's talk," she said. "I would like to know more about this man my sister has sent me."
"What would you like to know?" Robert said.
"I would like to know what drove you to kick the car of a woman you didn't know and a small one at that."
"How do you know I kicked your sister's car?" Robert asked.
"That is not your business nor would you understand if I told you."
"Try me," Robert said.
"Mind your manners of I will let them take a finger,' the Lady Mary said. She smiled and her face was pleasant. Robert realized he was actually a little attracted to her. Then it occurred to him that it was probably up to her whether he lived or died in this world and he put that thought out of his mind. However, she would look real good in a bikini or on second thoughts just the bottom half of a bikini European style. For a second she looked at him and there was a slight smile on her face and he could have sworn she knew what he was thinking. His stomach turned to ice. If he thought a bad thought and she picked it up...
She looked at him again. "Be careful what you wish for," she said. That was said in a California accent.
"Have you been to my world?" Robert said.
"Dozens of times," the Lady Mary said.
"Do you like it?"
"It is always good for a day or two and then I have had enough. The endless adverts on the television and on billboards as you drive always begin to irritate me after a while. And the food, your food is so tasteless compared to ours."
Robert had just paid $170 for dinner a couple of nights before, another reason why he was a dumb asshole. "Our food is not that bad," he said.
"Wait until you taste ours," she said.
Robert interrupted. "What did you like about our world?" he said.
"I like the wide open spaces, I like doing 200 miles an hour down the freeways. My sister always drives fast cars and she is an excellent driver."
"Don't you get arrested doing that?" Robert said.
"The police on your freeways are not always able to see us," she said. "They only see us when my sister lets them."
"Has your sister even been arrested?" Robert said.
"She was arrested once in Serbia when she was sightseeing during the Bosnian War. The policeman who arrested her was corrupt. He is still in a glass cage in her basement."
This woman and her sister were a couple of nut jobs. Robert wondered when he would get out of this situation. "I see that you don't believe me," the Lady Mary said. "I would be happy to install you in a glass cage in the stables if you like. Of course you would die, the glass cages we use for this purpose are only ten inches tall so I would have to shrink you first. There is no going back from that I'm afraid."
Okay she wasn't just a nut case, she was a double nut case.
"Keep your thoughts as pure as the
water or by God I'll let the villagers have you," the Lady Mary said.
Robert was visibly shocked. "I am sorry my Lady," he said.
"Be careful or you will not be offered the chance to be my servant," she said. "If that happens you will get a one hundred yard head start and it will be good sport with blood flying."
Robert choked off the thought that came as fast as he could. He was shocked and also a little scared by this woman. Did she have any real power or was it all just bluff. Could she really read minds? "Can we have a conversation where you are not reading my mind," Robert said. "It is making me nervous."
The Lady Mary thought for a second and then he saw her thumb touch the inside of her wrist. It was an odd gesture and it made Robert wonder. He wondered if she had just switched something off. Was there some kind of advanced technology here, he wondered.
"How do you and your sister communicate?" he asked.
"We have ways of communication that are way beyond your perception," the Lady Mary said.
"Do you use a tight beam radio transmission?" Robert said. He was testing her.
"Don't be a dolt. The wavelength of radio waves would be completely the wrong length for transmission between worlds. Surely you would know that. Studied physics have you or are you stupid?"
Robert pushed but gently. I am interested to know," he said.
"We use magic," the Lady Mary said. That is something you seem to have forgotten in your world along with everything else that makes life easy for humanity."
Robert was immediately struck by Arthur C. Clarke's statement that once science became advanced enough it would be indistinguishable from magic. Was that what was happening here? She said her ancestors had left earth 15,000 years ago. What if they had had the science to move between worlds?
She laughed. "I see that you are wondering whether my magic is advanced science. I assure you it is not. Magic is real, especially when everyone in the world believes it exists."
"I would like to learn your magic," he said.
"You cannot," the Lady Mary said. "You have to start at age six, the pathways in the brain close by age 12, and if you have not studied by then you will never learn."
"Show me a spell," he said. Right after he said that his left hand fell off and landed on the ground. Robert looked down in horror and then looked at the stump of his arm. He was about to start screaming when she bent down, picked up the hand and then put it back on.
"We can't leave it off for too long or the nerves will have trouble reconnecting," she said. Robert looked at his hand. It looked normal but his entire hand was numb and he couldn't move it.
"Wait until your tendons reconnect and then you'll be able to move it," the Lady Mary said. "And don't ask me to do a parlor trick like that again or I'll make your head fall off next time."
Robert was stunned. It had felt like his hand had really fallen off. He wondered if it was some kind of illusion or if his hand really had fallen off. Either way it was profoundly disturbing. He looked at her with a kind of awe.
"Are you ready to be my servant yet?" she said.
Good God no. He wasn't but she was scaring him. She had too much power this woman and she had him because he had kicked her sister's car. Robert began to realize that there were things going on in his world that he and many other people had absolutely no comprehension of. "Are there many of you in our world?" he said.
End of excerpt from A Cyclist Thrown into Another World by a Female Magician by Mike Ward – if you enjoyed this excerpt you can download the book from your favorite ebook retailer