Beyond the portal

Michael fell to the ground, the surroundings unfamiliar. He stood up quickly and looked around. He was in the dead end of a cave, but the ground seemed developed like a professionally designed sidewalk.

Steps echoed down the hall. The feet making them moved slowly.

Michael removed the magazine from his gun. The last round had chambered, the mag was empty. He dropped it and grabbed a fresh magazine. Last mag, he realized as he patted the side of his vest, you’re fuckin shitting me.

From around the corner, a blonde haired woman with a torn blue dress, heavily breasted and smiling appeared. As she got closer, she began to look much more familiar to Michael. “Hey there,” she said sweetly, “It’s been a very long time for you.”

Michael tightened his grip on his gun. That voice was too familiar, but he still wasn’t ready to accept it.

“It’s me, Sarah,” she said as she reached out to touch his arm.

Michael’s feet slid back and took a stance for a fight as he aimed his weapon at her head.

“You don’t remember me,” she said with sadness in her voice, “I was there when you walked away from the government.”

“I was there when you were murdered,” Michael said through gritted teeth, “You were killed for some fucks convenience!”

“And you avenged me,” she said calmly, still taking a step toward him, reaching to touch him in an effort to calm him, “I’m not an illusion, it’s me.”

Michael stepped back, keeping his gun pointed at her. “Why are you here?”

“This is one of the realms between the destinations of death,” she said as she stepped to the side. “I’ve been brought here to show you that…” she paused as she turned her head to the side and saw the black haired pale girl.

“I’ve been following you,” the slender woman said flatly, “I’ve observed you for a very long time.” She stood next to Sarah. “I brought her here because familiar things normally invoke sensations of safety and acceptance.”

Sarah turned to her. “He thinks I’m an illusion,” she said with sorrow in her voice, “that we’re trying to deceive him.”

“I’ll find a way to kill you,” Michael said through his teeth as he went back and forth between aiming at the two women, taking gradual steps back. Without warning, it became harder for Michael to breathe. He did everything he could to stay on his feet and keep the gun aimed at them both.

The slender black haired girl stepped toward him and grabbed his wrists, pointing the gun up at the ceiling of the cave. Her movement took seemingly no effort, like overpowering a child. “You saw my power in your world,” she said in her flat but firm tone, “It’s much worse here. I could decide for your heart to explode, I can shut your lungs off, I can blind you.”

“Please stop!” Sarah cried out, a tear running down her face. “I don’t want this, please stop hurting him!”

The girl held Michael in place but allowed him to breathe. “Something I can’t do no matter how hard I try,” the girl said through her flat tone, “is feeling your mortal feelings.” She placed her hand softly on the side of his head. “What I am cursed with instead is the ability to read yours, and hers. And there’s only one person who has more feelings than Sarah.”

“Shut the fuck up,” Michael said through more tightly clenched teeth, “or tell me why I’m here.”

The black haired girl rubbed the back of his bald head, in sort of a scrubbing way. “You should relax,” she droned out in her expressionless tone, “your hate is kinda loud.”

Sarah moved in and placed her hand on the girl's arm. “Please, you’re doing that wrong,” she said as she placed her other hand on Michael’s shoulder. As the black haired girl pulled her hands back, Sarah wrapped her arms around Michael and held tightly. “She wants you to fight someone who’s been trying to summon her father.”

“I have to finish tending to Lani,” the black haired woman stated bluntly. “Apparently talking to her didn’t work, but she’s unharmed.” The girl turned around and took two steps, vanishing into a portal that closed behind her.

In real life

Lani woke up in the back seat of the suburban. Her arms were crossed, a hand wrapped around them. An arm was wrapped around her, holding her elbows close to herself, preventing her from having any range of movement. As she opened her eyes, she saw the face of that black haired girl, her chin an inch from her shoulder. “Let go of me,” she calmly said before turning and screaming out, “you fucking bitch!”

“If you keep trying to fight me,” the black haired girl said quietly, “I’ll start breaking bones that I don’t know how to put back together.”

“Give him back you bitch!” Lani said loudly into the girls face. “Break my arms cunt fuck, I’ve stabbed people with bones before, I don’t care if they’re mine!”

“Michael has a serious battle he’s about to get into,” the girl said as Lani drew breath to scream more hate and rage at her, “I need you to help me on the outside of the realm.”

“You burned a hospital with patients down,” Lani shouted at her, “you murdered a ton of people you stupid fucking bitch!”

“I destroyed an evacuated row of rooms,” the girl retorted back, “and the most harm I did to anyone was choking you harder than I meant to.”

“The fuck are you talking about?” Lani questioned furiously with confusion.

“I could read their terror before I moved you into this truck,” the girl said softly with her flat tone, “they were scared, but my part didn’t kill anyone but that guy you came back for, who I got all his secrets from.”

Lani paused for a few moments, catching her breath. “Okay,” she said with much more calm than she had before, “I guess you’re useful. Who was giving him orders?”

“A cult,” the girl said to her. “I can read that you are feeling violated, if I let go of you will you continue to be rational with me?”

“Okay,” Lani said softly, “I can’t really hurt you if I wanted to, and Michael loves this suburban more than anything.”

“No,” the girl said firmly, “There is something he loves much more than this suburban or any of his possessions in it.” She let go of her arms and elbow, and whispered in her ear, “He loves you.”

“I may not be able to shoot, stab or beat you,” Lani said through gritted teeth, “but if you start playing games with me I’ll go back to screaming and ignoring you.”

“It’s my favorite kind of love to read in people, it’s so rare,” the girl said like Lani hadn’t said to drop it, “it’s not the love one has for a lover or something they ‘fuck’ as you put it, but it’s stronger than a normal brother and sister bond.” She paused for a brief moment and waited for the screaming to resume. Lani didn't say anything. “Even before he found out who or what you were, as you spent time together he bonded with you. He was scared that you’d run away if you knew what he was doing on his trips. But he didn’t know that you were intuitive about his activities, or that you had been told about him in a vague sense.”

“He’s my sole reason to exist,” Lani said to the girl, halting her rambling monologue. “My life in that orphanage was hell, being kicked and beat on by bullies and treated like an inconvenience by the headmasters.” she continued as a tear escaped her eye, “when you’re 17 in an orphanage you were put in at two, it makes you wonder if it’s okay to live.”

The girl sat silent. She stared blankly at Lani, who was just now figuring out that she really couldn’t feel or express most emotions.

“You said you needed me to do something?” Lani said as she wiped the tears from her face, “I need you to do something.” She turned around in the seat and reached into the back and opened a box. She grabbed an AKM and fed a drum into it. “First I need you to tell me what you think I need to do,” she said as she grabbed a fist full of pistol magazines for the pistol she knew he had. “Then when I go to do that, you need to give Michael this bag I’m gonna pack for him.”

As Lani packed the bag with the AKM, the pistol magazines and some more AK magazines, the girl looked over her shoulder at the bag. “Do you have any swords? Axes? Shields?”

Lani looked at her with a really bitch look on her face. She grabbed a Katana from under a seat and set it on the bag and handed it to her. “What do I need to do?”

“Go outside and kill everyone in the house,” the girl said in a matter-of-fact manner.

Lani glared at her. “Who are these people?” she waited for a moment to give a chance for a response. “I don’t murder indescriminately,” she said sternly, “that’s the kind of thing our enemies do.”

“They’re the head of the cult,” the girl said in a low yet still flat tone, “they’re trying to summon my father. They’re getting close to succeeding.”

“Where the fuck are we even at?” Lani said with agitation in her voice. “And why can’t you just waste them as easily as you took us on?”

“I have to be at the other side of the door,” she said flatly. “Is your bag ready for him?”

Lani nodded. She handed the bag to her, which the girl stepped out with quickly and stepped into a portal. The portal vanished for a few seconds before reappearing. The bag was thrown back through. Lani picked up the bag and looked inside it. There were AR10 magazines. He really is okay, she sighed with deeply felt relief.

Meanwhile

Michael finished shoving magazines into his pouches, racking his weapon and slinging it. He affixed the katana to his belt, smiling. He finished preparing before looking up and walking down the cave length. There were no straight lines long enough to be considered a great distance, but it did feel like it was designed sort of like a strange bunker network.

Sarah followed behind him with a sense of calm. Though Michael didn’t want her there, he didn’t really have much say in the matter.

The girl stood at the cave beginning for a moment, still and motionless. She felt through the cave the dangers that would come. Not that she bothered to mention any of it, but she knew that Michael would momentarily face the cave dwellers before walking through crystals that would read him and bombard him with the people whose lives he had taken. What she also knew was that he had taken quite a lot of lives.

Sarah grabbed Michaels shoulder. “Wait,” she said panicked, “there’s something she isn’t telling you.”

Michael turned and looked at her. “So she’s a secret keeper,” he asked in response.

“Not quite,” Sarah said, “She probably thinks it doesn’t matter, or that you don’t care.”

Michael shook his head. “I’d rather people let me decide what doesn’t matter or what I don’t care about,” he said in a low grumble, “but chances are, it won’t make a difference.”

“There’s a portion of this tunnel that’s meant to punish those who try to go through it.” Sarah stood motionless as she pushed the words out.

“Punish for what?” he asked in response.

“I dunno,” she said nervously, “I just know that it’s called the walk of punishment.”

Michael turned forward again and drew his katana. “Don’t follow me,” he said calmly. “I can’t have you dragged into whatever this walk decides I did wrong.” He began walking forward, his rifle pushed all the way to his back. Clutching his weapon, he knew that in no capacity or interpretation of any writing or doctrine would he be seen as innocent, and he walked ready to face the potential suffering.

Sarah watched him walk forward, her hand over her stomach. She turned her head a little to see the girl standing there.

“You didn’t tell him,” the girl said softly, “did you?”

“That you didn’t explain what he was walking into,” Sarah asked, “or about my murder?”

The girl stepped in front of Sarah, glancing down at her stomach, then back up at her face. “You were both murdered,” the girl said painly, “so he doesn’t know.”