In an Instant

I find it extremely dark in the cellar, so dark that I can't get my eyes to adjust to the darkness no matter how hard I try to focus. I feel around on the walls for a light switch or something that will help illuminate the room and allow me to find what I am looking for.

I have no such luck but I hear a light thumping on the stairs and a tap on my shoulder, I tense up in surprise.

"Relax, it's just me." I hear Travis say as I turn around, trying to calm myself down from the shock he had just given me.

"Are you okay?" He asks with concern in his voice.

"Yeah, what happened with my dad and his friend?" I ask him cautiously glancing up the stairs to try and make out any possible movement.

"The witch poofed them away!" He says matter of factually. He reaches behind me and finds a light switch, I glance at him dumbfounded that it didn't take him long to locate it.

"What do you mean by 'poofed'?" I ask him.

"Literally just that, she was arguing with them then snapped her fingers then next thing I know all three of them were gone!" He answers dramatically, making gestures with his hands as he talks.

"Well, we have to find that portal before they magically appear back here!" I start looking around and realize this was no ordinary basement we stood in.

It was a morgue.

"What a lovely place for a portal." Travis remarks as we both wander around, trying to find what we needed to find.

I don't say anything as I enter another room, it is almost empty except for a metal table in the middle of the room with equipment on it.

"This must be where they embalm the dead bodies for funerals." Travis remarks softly picking up and playing around with the equipment.

"Ew, don't touch that!" I say slapping it away from his hands.

"Sorry mother!" He dramatically salutes me.

I roll my eyes and continue my search for the portal. After a few moments I hear a slight buzzing sound being released from the wall in front of me. I step towards it and see a slight glow coming out from behind it.

"Travis!" I call out and I hear him step behind me.

"Is this the portal?" He asks.

"Must be, help me lift the board off from the wall."

He nods and we both attempt to pry the board away from the wall, with much effort the board is finally released and we are face to face with a hole in the wall that is glowing a bright blue.

"Now what?" Travis asks.

"Uhm..." I stare at the portal for a moment, its glowing blue aura increasing the curious feeling overwhelming me. I start to put my hand inside of it, and find my hand disappearing the more it collides with the strange orb.

What I want is to venture in further, to see what lies beyond the portal. As I try to go on with my decision, I glance around my shoulder and notice Travis is watching me with a worry filling in his eyes. And with that I back up and stop.

"That was weird." I conclude, shaking off the weird sensation that my hand felt after its collision with the portal.

"Please tell me you weren't going to go into that strange thing?" Travis asks curiosity beginning to overwhelm him as well.

"I won't lie, it did cross my mind. But we have to close the portal and stop my father and his friend, not go to where ever this goes!" I tell him backing up away from it but still watching it with a painful curiosity overwhelming me.

"Sorry guys, I had to take care of something. But it seems like you didn't need my help finding the portal after all, good work!" The witch steps in front of us, a hand out in front of her concentrating on the portal. But to no avail as it still won't close.

"What happens if we go into the portal?" I ask, still filled with curiosity with wanting to know where it goes.

"That's a dangerous idea, as you are in the brink and going into the portal from the brink will collide with the other side." She explains.

"Well it's a good thing you didn't continue going into it..." Travis says and I punch him on the arm and he winces jokingly.

"So how do we close it?" I ask stepping a bit closer to it.

"Hold on, just got to concentrate a little more..." And with that the portal is closed, and we are surrounded in a blanket of darkness as closing the portal shut the lights off with it.

"Now they can't escape?" I asked her as Travis and I follow her up the staircase cautiously.

"As long as the portal isn't re opened once again then we will be okay." She tells us.

***

Later on, after everything is said and done I find myself sitting behind a staircase by myself. I feel scared, just knowing my father was trapped here in the brink with me. With the portal being shut he was unable to escape, from what the witch told us it will give us an advantage but I can't help but feel a worry inside me just thinking of the possibilities that gives him when it comes to attacking us.

I lean my head on the side of the railing and glance out the window, it's daytime now and there is a hustle and bustle of people going about their daily lives. While I sit trapped here in a strange world I never even knew existed, I just want this to be over so I can go about my life.

I walk towards my room after some time and stand at the doorway, I am still fast asleep and the machines are still doing the breathing for me. Nothing has appeared to have changed. My mother is sitting next to me but Stephan and Sierra are not there, they must be in school I think to myself. They have their own lives to get back to, they can't just sit here with me all the time waiting for me to wake up. I slump to the floor, still watching the shell of my body breathing with the assistance of the machines. A doctor walks right through me as he enters the room, a clipboard in his hand and approaches my mother.

"I'm afraid she might not have much longer." He states, and my mother looks up at him in shock trying to decide whether what he was saying was true or not.

"She's lost a lot of blood within the past few days and the brain damage has developed, going to parts of the brain that provide the ability to walk and move. Its time you start making decisions whether or not to keep her on the life support, if she wakes we fear she will just be a vegetable."

My mother begins wailing in sorrow upon hearing that news, I can't feel anything inside of me. I want to wake, but if I don't then I guess that's that.

"Don't accept that news so quickly." I hear Travis walking up next to me and sitting down, I look at him and don't say a word but find myself leaning my head down on his shoulder. I don't cry, or say anything. I just lay there.

After about a moment of silence, I decide to stop pitying myself and get up and run as fast as I can out of the room. Travis gets up and follows behind me, unsure about the sense of urgency my mission had but follows anyway.

"Where are you going?" He asks upon getting closer and panting as he is out of breath once he catches up.

I don't say anything and just throw the doors of the hospital open with great strength and step outside to the cold winter day.

"I don't think we should go far..." He says as I step onto the sidewalk grabbing my hand and trying to hold me back from venturing any further.

"Trust me on this." I turn around and say to him with confidence.