Another Chunk, Including an Otherworldly Bathroom (8)

Samantha thought she heard Lapis’ voice bouncing softly off the cave walls behind her. His voice and that of another. Maybe the imps came back already, she thought.

The light at the back of the cave was as bright as daylight. The blue light came from veins of another substance within the rocks. She was nearing the end of the cave and she slowed to search for the shaft Lapis told her would be there. Just as he said, on the left was a small shaft. There were no veins within the walls of the shaft, and after a few feet, Samantha could see nothing. She knelt down and felt into the hole. Its sides were smooth like glass, and icy to the touch.

She looked around one last time. Lapis was nowhere to be seen, not that she expected him to be. “Lapis, is this the right way,” she called out. The only sound she heard was her own hollow echo coming back at her. It was now or never. She sat at the edge of the shaft, her legs going off into darkness. She had never liked this part.

She pushed off and was sliding quickly down the shaft. She shivered as the icy walls chilled her to the core. After what felt like a very long time, time seemed to crawl in the icy hole; the shaft began to level off. Her descent slowed, and the icy feeling crept deeper into her bones. Finally she stopped. With some finagling she was able to get onto her hands and knees. Once in that position she conjured a light to guide her. She moved forward slowly, trying to find purchase on the slippery slope. Suddenly, she could go no further. She had come to a door.
9/11/04 7:13pm-7:43pm
Pushing up against the door, it yielded somewhat. Not your normal garden variety door, this one was slimy. It was a thin membrane lined over an open, no doorknob to turn, nor doorbell to ring. Samantha would have to push her way through it.

“I’d forgotten about this part. How many circles can there be?” She paused in thought as her left hand disappeared into the door. Pulling it out, the hand rebounded back at her with a large POP! Her hand was dry, though, she could not help thinking of what sick joke Clyde would make of that sound. This is the only way. With that resolved, first her hands went in, then her head, finally nothing was left on this side.

“Do you think he’ll wake up?”

“How should I know, Rufus?” Clyde tossed more debris around in frustration.

“Well, what about…”

“Ya know, Rufus, quiet would be good right about…well, now!”

Rufus sank bank on his laurels and continued cleaning Bill. He had a bucket of cold water that Tanya had fetched from the Chinese restaurant next door. It was hard, blood was everywhere. “Why’d ya go get that damn dog to chomp down like that? Wishin’ to be killed are ya?” He grumbled, but deep down he knew that Bill had had no choice, it was the way it was meant to be. He knew it that the dog was not just some random twenty foot dog, but a wolf and a powerful one at that. Clyde moved over to Rufus and clasped him on the shoulder.

“I’m sorry Rufus,” he said. “This whole thing…has become some kind of disaster. It has been one misstep after another.” He came around them and squatted on the other side of Bill. “He’ll be alright. He took enough of a charge in there to recover, I hope.” He pointed back to a door frame that was cracked and half caved in. But, a white light still shone through, piercing all eyes like the sun’s corona. Like a fine white mist, the source leaked out the doorway and into reality. If not stopped soon, then the source would infect normal people’s lives. With a neutral charge, the luck it imbued would not have a handle to direct its course. Weird things could occur, like the plague back in the fourteenth century, it increased the chances, changed fate, and the dice it rolled was all bad.

“But that wasn’t just one location, that was an entire continent leaking and overloading. It infected everything.”

“What?”

“Nothing,” Clyde said as he snapped out of his nightmare. “I’m afraid to do anything right now. Make a decision, I have not been very crystal on anything so far.”

“Clyde?”

The voice came from the front. Standing up, Clyde saw Luke come through the door. He wore a bandage that covered his right arm and he had bruises all over from parts of the ceiling falling on him. He remembered very little of his attempt to slow Fenris down. He and his sister, Tanya, had not expected that. “The car is fine, we can go anytime now.”

Upon Fenris being cast back into Asgard, the two agents had been detained by Clyde. They refused to talk. Within a minute of the interrogation, which Clyde was hoping to find the whereabouts of Samantha, they disintegrated into black dust like bits of burning coal and spread forth from a strong western breeze that turned up all coats, billowed all dresses, and knocked all small kids to the ground. It was unnatural, or so Clyde thought. Upon the wind, just before going back in, he thought he heard, “It has begun.”

“Good, I was afraid they would have done…something to it,” he muttered.

“It looks like you just drove it off the lot.”

“Where’s your sister?”

“Resting in the back of your car, she still has blood eyes and a deep purple bruise stretching across her face. She’ll be fine, she’s working on it. Scared those Orientals shitless, getting that water.” He chuckled as he picked his way over rubble to get closer to Clyde. “What’s the next move?”

“My sentiments exactly,” Rufus added as he coughed up some phlegm and spit into what had been his work. “I have to relocate, but first we must care for the gate.”

“Listen, Rufus, I’m sorry I got you into this. You know that if I had known that we were still in trouble I would not have come here. This place is made and will be spent shortly without a door to protect the source. I wish I knew how to close it down.”

“Don’t you worry about that, that’s my business, but I’ll have you know that nothing is more important than the gate. Nothing!” Rufus stood up and walked to Clyde. His hands were covered in blood, his shirt was also covered, however, it looked like pasta sauce mixed within all the other stains. “We have little to fear, think about it. Two newly charged guardians, and you…whatever Bill did to you was more than anything a guardian has ever received. You stopped two spawn in their tracks like you was catching flies in a web…”

“A lot that did…”

“Sure they disappeared. But, they was scared.” Rufus rubbed his hands nervously together. “We need to make sure everything happens right, I mean right as right should. We have a gate that I think we opened, but it could not have been a mistake, Fenris the bringer of the end of the world showed up. Only a god or a gate could stop that. Only a god could stop that for good, I know nothing of a gate’s influence.”

“So, this has not all been a massive fuck up. Is that what you’re telling me?” Rufus nodded in agreement. “I wish I could believe that. I let the only chance I may have at finding Samantha blow away in the wind. I couldn’t do anything, I tried, but I need time to figure out this.” He looked down at Bill.

“There’s nothing you could of done, listen to me.”

“Don’t forget I have jeopardized the only gate left living in the Midwest. You’re trying to tell me that Billy laying there in his blood with his hand missing is the way it is suppose to be?”

“Yes.” Rufus clutched at Clyde’s shoulders. “You’re thinking too damn much. Just stop! Do something, we’re ready.” Rufus looked over at Luke, who nodded in agreement.

But am I ready, thought Clyde? I have not done such a bang up job so far.
9/14/04 4:38pm-5:12pm
Lucas helped Clyde get Billy into the front seat of his car. They leaned him back and strapped him in. He began to moan. Lucas got in the back and put Tanya’s head in his lap. She stirred a little, but slept soundly. Clyde took one last look in the shop. Rufus was fitting the pieces of his broken desk over the hole to the recharge room. In his hand was a roll of duct tape.

“Don’t worry about this place,” Rufus said, a sad grin on his face, “I’ll have it all fixed up in no time.”

Rufus turned back to the hole and started going over the patches with the tape. Clyde bowed his head and turned away. Perhaps this neighborhood would be ok. He could feel the out-pouring luck dampening with Rufus’ patchwork.

Clyde turned back to the car and got in. He looked back at Lucas and Tanya. Lucas had a worried yet hopeful look on his face. Billy was moaning less, but his eyes were moving rapidly beneath the lids.

“Samantha…” he mumbled, “…wake up…they’re coming for you.”

Clyde looked over, concerned. “Who’s coming? What’s happening to Sam?”

He shook Billy, harder than he had intended. Billy moaned, and his head rolled to the other side. Clyde tried one more time, but Bill would not respond. Lucas put his hand on Clyde’s shoulder.

“I’m sure she’s ok. We have to go, Clyde, they could be sending more after us.”

“I know Lucas. And we need to speak to Annie.”

Clyde started the engine, and Lucas sat back. The car rumbled to life. Clyde looked around suspiciously, and, when he pulled out, he watched the rear view closely to make sure they weren’t being followed.

* * *
Samantha came out of the gateway into a cramped bathroom stall. She nearly landed with her hands in the bowl. At the last moment she created a cushion of air. She stood and straightened herself. She was alive with power and felt acutely aware of everything around her. Two stalls down a woman sobbed softly. She could smell burning onions from beyond the bathroom door. She looked back and could see the membrane of the portal fading.

She turned from the portal and stepped out of the stall into the rest of the bathroom. The walls were lime green with pale blue floor tiles. She looked into the mirror.

“I look like hell,” she said.

The energy surged within her responding to her unconscious desire. She blinked, and the bruises and burn marks on her face disappeared. Her hair grew out full and thick, blond streaks now ran through it. She blinked again and her tattered rags turned into jeans and a t-shirt that said Lucky.

“That’s better.”
9/18/04 2:51pm-3:43pm
As Samantha removed the last bit of dirt and grime from her face, she noticed the feet under the stall where the crying originated from. They were huge, and the crying was beginning to come to a sniffling conclusion. That is when the pounding on the door began. Samantha gripped the counter where was she. Looking intently at the bathroom, Samantha could see archaic designs strewn across the ceilings, counters, and floors. She just figured she was stuck in a bathroom in Chicago, or…

“Where else could I be?” She attempted to locate where she was, but it was hard without her glasses. It seemed that she had been flying blind for ever so long. Oh why did I run after Billy and leave the glasses at the table. I remembered his wallet damn it! She could sense some power emanating all around her. She wondered if there was another portal, if that was it. She could just leave, but she did not like the feeling she got from the exit.

“Gerda! Gerda! Come forth, you have been plagued for nigh an eternity, you must consent. It is time to stop running, for time is running and we are out of it!”

The stall rumbled, a hand, feminine and large punched through the door. A voice yelled out, “I was tricked! Tricked! My husband no longer needs leave of me! This spell his servant…Skirnir.” The rest of the stall shook alarmingly at the howling mention of the name.

“The borealis was a great time. Gerda, come open the door. Your husband awaits your consent in this matter. Everything hinges on you, you must agree.”

“Or what? The spell will be cast. Do not fear Father, I have a husband, I do not fear that terrible spell.” The door bent and exploded out into shards.

“Please, I am out for so short of a time. Let me in, to talk, or you come out.” The voice was pleading and scratches at the door fell into time with it. Clawing noises, those upon marble or stone erupted in the distance. “Too late dear daughter, hell has come for me.”

“Father!” A head peeked over the stall walls. Samantha crouched to stay out of sight. Snarling came from the other side and the one called Father let out a ghastly scream like a distant echo down a long vaulted hall.

Footsteps retreated, chains scrapped the floor, and all noise turned to silence; Samantha was alone again with her sobbing companion. What happened next confirmed all Samantha’s fears. The pieces of plastic and metal that littered the floor moved or disappeared. The door became whole piece by piece.

“I am in another dimension.” Looking around she scanned for another portal. There has got to be one somewhere. She knew that nothing could stay broken or changed if done here. It would have to be done in the real world. It was a time line thing. She experienced another reality that existed within the one that bustled with humanity. In this one, the old world still existed, trapped to live in world that is not their own.

As she crept back to another stall door, the girl’s door burst forth again and a giant came out. Red as flame, her nostrils flared, but she was still beautiful. Her long red braided hair ran down her curved, exposed shoulders and along her back. Her blue dress was exquisitely stitched with golden threaded creatures romping around the hem. Red, bright slippers lighted about the floor as she turned on a cowering Samantha.

I am not suppose to be here, was all Samantha could think of, then, she’s gorgeous. She stared up at seven foot plus woman, dumbfounded and exposed.

“You,” snapped Gerda as she continued to have tears run courses down her cheeks, “you do not belong here. You cannot be here.”

“I am sorry, I know. I need to find a portal out of here. I have…”

“Quiet! What is this?” Gerda moved closer to Samantha and rubbed her eyes with her free hand to look. She touched her being, not with hands but with her mind. She knew then what Samantha was. “A guardian here, where’s your charge? Never mind, it does not matter. What matters is that you need to leave, at once. Should my husband find you then you would…no matter. Where’s your portal?”

“I don’t know. Lapis told me to come down this tunnel and…”

”Ha, Lapis, that little conjurer has been up to some tricks lately. Double dealing
that one. There will be no portal here for you.” Gerda walked away. Out from a pocket in her dress, she pulled a handkerchief, wiped her eyes, and blew her nose.

“What happened to your Father?” The giantess shot a glance that could have knocked a titan down. “I mean, if you want to talk. You don’t…”

“He was taken back to hell.”

“Why?”

“Well, I suppose because he is dead.” Gerda sat on the counter that was lined with sinks. Marble cracked and fixed itself, then cracked again. “So cheap this material.” She pounded a hole in it.

Samantha moved across from her, near the stall where she had originated from. “How come your Father was here? He seemed to need something from you.”

“Oh yes, my Father needed something alright. He needed to find himself a way out of hell. My husband made a pact with my Father to convince me to unleash the powers of family. To join in some feud on the outside, like I could be so foolish. My husband manipulated me once, no more.” The counter reconstructed itself, but now Gerda had smashed the lights and mirrors around her. Destruction brought brief glimpses of smiles between sniffles.

“Why would your husband do that? Aren’t they supposed to be knights in shining armor?” Samantha tried to laugh as she said that to lighten the mood. Some of the debris from the counter had skipped across. Giants’ anger was well known, they feared little and had no regrets on things happening that needed to happen in their opinion.

“You forget your origins, guardian. My future was decided, but not by me. My husband deeming that I was his, asked his most faithful servant, Skirnir, to offer me a marriage proposal. When I refused, he threatened to lay a terrible spell upon me.”

“How awful! What spell?” If I can play my cards right, I may get out of this yet. I hope Clyde is having an easier time than this Maybe she can help me find a way out.

“A spell that would break my future, it would have broken my fate. The spell would have made me the ugliest woman in world and no man would ever come near me again. For that, I married him, for if I did not, then my son would never have been born. And, my son was my fate. He is to change everything.”

Samantha leaned back on the stall door and that is when it banged open against her, knocking her to the floor. She smacked her head against the linoleum floor.

“That had to hurt,” remarked Gerda. “These humans, no respect for those of us living in their shadows. How can you be around them?”
9/22/04 12:20pm-12:40pm 9/23/04 1:20am-1:41am