Cass is sure that following her friend Nathan down a dark stone corridor at night is a bad idea that will lead to trouble. She doesn’t realise just how much trouble…
“This is incredibly disturbing to me,” Cass told him, glancing at the strange book he held under his arm.
“Relax, Cass.” Nathan nudged her with his elbow. “Stick close to me and you’ll be fine.”
“I never trust you when you say that,” she said flatly. “Every time you try to reassure me with that line, we always end up in some sort of trouble.”
He rolled his eyes at her. “You’re exaggerating.”
Cass sighed. “I wish I was.” She eyed the thick, leather-bound book. He was trying to be casual about carrying it, which made her even more suspicious. Coupled with the fact that they were currently sneaking down a dark, stone corridor in the dead of night, she was pretty sure they were headed for trouble, but he refused to tell her anything.
“We’re here.” Nathan stopped, holding the lantern high to illuminate the area.
Cass yelped in shock as two granite gargoyles appeared out of the gloom, standing either side of a blank stone wall. Heart racing, she punched Nathan’s arm. “Warn me next time!”
He chuckled. “Hold the light for me.” Passing her the lantern, he flicked to a page in the mysterious book that was filled with looping script, and began reading the words.
Cass stared as a red glow began to seep through the cracks in the stone wall. It was as if a fierce blaze was burning behind the wall and getting brighter. One by one, the stone bricks began to crumble away until there was only a swirling red portal where the wall had once been.
Nathan snapped the book shut. “Perfect.” He placed a hand on her shoulder. “Oh, consider this your warning. Not even I know what’s on the other side…” With a hard shove, he forced her into the portal.
Cass didn’t even have time to cry out before she was enveloped in darkness and falling at what felt like an alarming speed. She was sure she was going to hit the ground at any moment and not knowing when that moment would be was terrifying.
But the falling didn’t stop. She kept falling through the darkness with nothing to give her any clue as to where she was. After another few minutes, she realised that the sensation was lessening. It was almost like she was softly floating down now, rather than plummeting to her death. Only a minute or so later, it felt like she had stopped moving altogether, but with all the darkness, she wasn’t sure if she had stopped, or if she was simply floating down slower than she could sense.
She cursed Nathan as she hung there. What the heck had he done? Where was this place? Why had he pushed her in?
“Hellooooo!”
Startled, she shrieked.
A familiar chuckle floated out of the darkness above her. “It’s only me, calm down!”
“Nathan?! Where the heck are we?” She still couldn’t see anything.
“I have no idea,” he said, his voice drawing slowly closer. “As far as I could translate, the inscriptions in the book said that particular spell would send us to a faraway land. Where that land is or what it’s called, I don’t know.”
“I knew following you was a bad idea,” she muttered.
Prompt was from Cracked Flash! 🙂
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