Chapter 4

Alice was sitting in an armchair in the front room of her and Phoebe's house, as if she were expecting someone. When the front door opened, she rose from her seat and smiled as Phoebe entered, followed by Andy who was being carried by Jake and Sam wit Felix, Ellen and Eden tagging along behind them.

Alice greeted her sister. "I see you got them here safely. Job well done, Phoebe."

While Sam and Jake sat Andy down on the sofa, Phoebe introduced Eden to Alice. Felix was about to tell Alice about the elemental attack when Jake interrupted. "Before we get into all the supernatural nonsense, can we please do something about Andy? He's twisted his ankle."

"Leave it to me" Alice said smiling and left the room. After a while, she returned, carrying a glass filled with some strangely coloured liquid. "Here" she said, handing the glass to Andy. "This may taste unpleasant but it'll help the pain."

Andy hesitated, staring at the drink as if it might be poisonous. He sniffed it sceptically. He couldn't smell any chemicals. Slowly, Andy shut his eyes, raised the cup to his lips and gulped the contents down all in one go. When he was finally finished, he coughed and spluttered violently, clutching his throat with both hands. "What the hell was in that?!" he choked.

"You don't want to know" Alice replied quickly. "Now, try walking."

Cautiously, Andy stood up and took a few steps forward. To his amazement, the pain had gone. He looked at Alice and smiled. "Thanks."

Alice smiled back. "Glad I could help. Now," she said, turning to the others, "tell me exactly what happened when the demon attacked you."

Everyone looked at Felix. "Well, basically," he said, "the demon possessed a bunch of people at the skate park, plus a flock of crows and a load of bees, and made them chase us. But Eden has a talisman exactly like mine and, with twice the power, we were able to ward them off."

Narrowing her eyes, Alice gazed at Eden. "I thought this might happen."

This sent shiver down Eden's spine. She was more than a little unnerved. "W-what do you mean?"

"The demon is responsible for restoring order to the universe. If it's made an appearance, that means there's something, or some-ONE, that shouldn't be here." As Alice said this, she kept her eyes fixed on Eden, never looking away from her, not even for a second.

Everyone now turned to face Eden, frowning at her suspiciously.

"Eden," Felix said slowly, "is there something you're not telling us?"

Eden nodded. "I'm just not sure how to tell you. It's kind of complicated."

"Physics is complicated" Andy said.

That is a good point, Eden thought. She sighed. "Ok, If I tell you something, will you promise to at least try to believe me.

"We promise" everyone replied.

Eden took a deep breath. "Well, the truth is...I'm...from another world." She paused and examined the faces of her companions. They all seemed quite surprised and a little confused but they remained silent. Eden continued. "I come from a world very much like this one. Except, in my world, all of you guys are pretty well-known. You see, there's this TV show called Nowhere Boys and it's all about what happened to you when you got lost in the alternate universe. I've seen it for myself."

"Then...you know all about us?" Sam said.

"Yeah" Eden whispered.

"Ok," said Ellen, "if that's not creepy, I don't know what is!"

Felix stared at Eden in utter astonishment. That explained how she had known about the Restoring Demon and probably the other talisman as well. But that didn't explain how she had ended up in their world and he told her so.

"To be honest, I don't really know myself" Eden told him. "All I know is that when I brought this talisman home, it began acting strange. It started glowing and I heard a voice in my head saying some kind of spell. Then something pulled me into the mirror in the hall and, next thing I knew, I was in a forest. Then I met you guys and now here I am."

As soon as Eden finished speaking, she waited anxiously for the reactions of the others. Finally Felix spoke up. "Well, I've heard weirder stories than that."

"When were you planning on telling us this?" Jake asked.

Eden frowned. "Give me a break! I've only just met you!"

Andy looked at Alice and Phoebe. "Does this mean we're going to have to help her get home?"

"Of course we will" Alice replied. Then she looked at Eden. "Unless you want to stay here."

"With all due respect," Eden said, "if I'm going to have a demon chasing after me, I'd rather get out of here ASAP."

The boys all nodded in agreement. They knew how it felt to be stuck in a world where a demon was out to get you and felt inclined to help her in any way they could.

"So how do we get her home?" asked Sam.

"The best way to do that would be to destroy the thing that brought her here" said Alice. "Namely, the talisman."

"Well, what are we waiting for?!" Jake cried. "Someone fetch me a hammer and I'll get Eden home in no time!"

Phoebe face palmed, shaking her head, while Alice explained that it would take more than a hammer to destroy the talisman. "Only a very magical weapon can destroy something so powerful" she said. "There is a special kind of dagger called Divinity that's hidden somewhere outside of Bremin. It might just be powerful enough to destroy the talisman and I have a map somewhere that will lead us to it."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! What do you mean us?" Jake asked suspiciously.

"It takes all 4 elements to destroy the talisman" Alice explained. "And, since you boys all have elemental powers, you must give the dagger the combined power of your elements."

"So let me get this straight" said Sam. "You expect us all to leave home and travel to some unknown location, that could literally be anywhere, and get ourselves involved in some kind of hocus pocus?"

Alice nodded. "Yeah, pretty much."

"What about our families?" said Jake. "They'll freak out if we go missing again."

"Well, how do you think Eden's family feels, having her gone?" Ellen pointed out.

"And anyway, I can take care of them" Alice added.

Jake shook his head. "I'm just not sure about this."

Andy, however, seemed quite enthusiastic. "Come on guys, this could be fun. It'll be like a great adventure. Like in Lord Of The Rings, when Frodo had to leave the Shire to take the One Ring to Mordor."

"If you recall, he didn't exactly have a good time of it" Felix reminded him.

"Yeah, I mean, look at all the stuff he went through" Jake chipped in. "He was chased from his home, attacked by a giant spider, stalked by a creepy little man, assaulted by a mutant octopus and he nearly died from a knife wound to the shoulder."

Eden stared at them, her eyebrows raised so high they almost disappeared under her hairline. She'd had no idea they were all Lord Of The Rings fans, or what it had to do with current situation. "How is this like Lord Of The Rings anyway?" she asked.

"Apart from the absence of elves, dwarves, talking trees, orcs and many other things, how is it not?" replied Andy.

"Enough with the Lord Of The Rings crap!" snapped Alice. "Are you kids up for it or not?" She and Phoebe looked at the others inquiringly, waiting for somebody to speak.

"Well, I definitely am" Eden finally said.

"So am I" said Ellen.

"You can count me in" said Felix.

"Me too" said Andy.

"And me" said Sam.

They all then turned to Jake, awaiting his answer. He nodded. "Yes."

Alice smiled once again and nodded her approval. "It is decided."