IT WAS STILL THE same day as when I left. The sun hung high above my head. But everything had changed.

In the other world, I had barely even thought about the problems I had left behind. Out there, things were simpler, even if they were harder. I didn’t mind physical difficulties and danger, but I couldn’t stand the idea of tiptoeing around feelings. My damn therapist would've agreed.

I smiled to myself as I parked the car next to the evil corporation's store. Being able to buy everything in one spot saved me at least a couple of days in the other world. Since I wasn’t sure how it all worked and still had a lot I could bring from home, I went light.

The shoe department had a good selection of work boots for men. Size ten in women’s should be about eight in men’s. I got a pair of non-slip shoes made specifically for walking on wet restaurant floors. The castle might be a good place to defend, but it was a giant health hazard. Which reminded me to add two of their largest buckets of masonry paint to my shopping cart. I had a few rollers lying around in the garage.

A couple of aisles down, I found the small LED lights that worked on batteries. Until someone decided to run the wires into the castle, these would be the only way to light the room, and with Nasilain’s love for reading all night long, she would appreciate it. On the way back to the registers, I grabbed a large bag of assorted chocolate candy and a pack of lemonade. It wouldn’t be the healthiest food, but that kid needed something sweet in his life.

With the first part of the trip over, I drove to the store on the other side of the city. When it came to buying weapons, especially the stranger varieties, this was always my go-to spot.

I walked in as casually as I could and smiled at the man who had served in the Marines before I was old enough to even wear diapers.

“Bill, old man, who do I have to kill to get a decent flamethrower around here?” No one else lingered in the store, so I didn’t feel the need to keep my voice down.

“Got some pesky weeds or getting ready for the snow season?” Bill waved for me to follow him to the back.

“You know how it is with poison ivy.”

As we got to the storage room, Bill showed me two portable sets. Both looked like they could use almost any fuel I wanted to hook up to them.

“I personally like this one best. It can shoot about a hundred feet and has a pretty easy to control flame. It works best if you use napalm fluid thickener.”

“I’ll take a couple. Got the thickener and the oxygen?”

Bill didn’t even raise an eyebrow when I took twenty cans of everything. Flamethrowers had plenty of civilian uses, but I didn’t have a giant farm and didn’t fight forest fires.

“Do you have Geiger counters?”

Bill showed me to a small dusty box. “Radioactive poison ivy?”

“You know it. Grows way faster than the regular type.”

I paid for everything and hauled my ass back home across Harrisburg. With the time difference between worlds, this half an hour drive seemed like an eternity.

I parked the car in the garage and left everything inside for now. I had no idea if we’d need to go back to the barn or if we could teleport from here, so unpacking was a waste of time. I opened the door and found Nasilain curled up in a bean bag chair with her tablet and phone glowing bright as she downloaded book after book. She looked up and greeted me with the smile I had missed.

“Your bag is packed. I didn’t know how to open the safe, though, so you’ll have to get the guns. Oh, and I took your coffee.”

“You can have all the coffee you want.” I bent down to give her a kiss. “What do we have to do to transport all of this to your world?”

“I haven’t been able to figure out all the specifics yet, but you have to touch whatever you’re taking with your bare skin. If you’re holding it up, then about twenty percent of the surface has to be covered. Otherwise, it won’t come. The objects resting on the floor need a larger area covered, but I don’t know exactly how much.”

Nasilain left her devices on, but shoved them into her purse, then gave one last longing look at the bean bag.

“You can take it with you, if you want.” The stupid old thing must be at least marginally more comfortable than the inflatable chair she had back home.

“Can I?”

“Yes, beautiful, you can have this and anything else you want from this house.” I wouldn’t be spending much time here anyway, and if it made her happy, no reason she couldn’t take it. “Do we have to go back to the barn, or can we teleport from here?”

“We can leave from here.” She pulled out two pieces of wood, a lot like the one she used to bring me into her world the first time.

I inspected it, not seeing anything special except for the number three written with a black marker. This would take us to the landing bay three that was now inside the castle walls.

“Let’s do it in the garage then. I got everything still in the car.” Including the extra canisters with diesel.

Now that we were gearing up to teleport, I understood why they kept doing it in their underwear. My military backpack clung to my back, filled with all my clothes and the extra ammo I had in the safe. Nasilain had the bean bag tied to her, and we still managed to hug all the bags and boxes in front of us as we snapped the wooden amulets in half.