See previous disclaimers!
The door opened onto nothing. Just…nothing. Jenny watched a narrow curl of mist weave its way into the shop, but beyond the door there was nothing but whiteness and fog. Dee stepped forward.
"Don't!" Summer cried out, almost involuntarily, but Dee grinned from within the doorway.
"I'm okay! Step one – stay alive to enter the shadow world."
"I'll work on that," muttered Jenny as she followed. The ground – if that was what it was – under her feet was spongy, giving a little as the others pattered through the door.
"The door's gone now," said Zach casually, as though commenting on the weather. "Just so you know."
And looking back, the sliver of light cast by the entrance to the More Games Store had vanished.
The group had been walking for over an hour by the time they saw light again. It was an eerie reddish glow, cast by God-knew-what. Jenny didn't want to think about it.
The others saw it as well – judging by Summer's tension and Michael's quick breaths – but no one could tell what it was, and no one really wanted to. Still, Jenny found herself stepping forward until the edge of the light brushed over her face.
She started to smile.
"Jenny?" Asked Audrey nervously. "Jenny? Are you all right?"
She smiled more. Wherever the light was leading…she needed to follow it. It would give her her heart's desire … Julian! It would give her Julian. She needed to go.
YES JENNY said the light, mind to mind. COME JENNY, YES. COME JENNY
Without a word, she turned and started to walk.
Something was pulling on her arm. She shook it off. Voices were calling her name. She ignored all of them but the one that she needed. The one that would take her where she needed to go.
A hand collided with her face. She blinked vaguely and continued, ignoring the throbbing pain. THEY ARE NOT IMPORTANT, JENNY
And they weren't. Until a feeling of cold metal bit into her palm. She felt blood well up, but it was only when the smell of salt registered that she cried out and fell to the ground.
The light was gone, and in its place was Dee. "Jenny! Thank God! I'm so sorry!" She realized that Dee was holding the Swiss Army knife, and her hand was still bleeding. Dee was tying a strip of cloth around the cut.
"You wouldn't wake up," said Michael nervously. "You were in some kind of trance. I don't know where we are now…we chased after you for so long…"
Jenny gasped, only then beginning to make the connection.
"We have to go! We have to go back NOW! That wasn't the way, it was…"
She was interrupted by a melodious voice.
"Can we take you? We can carry you."