after: the end
The portal hovered overhead, a round navy-purple shade that glowed and stretched and stood in stark contrast to the sunny, cloudless blue sky behind it. I found myself standing in an alleyway dotted in forgotten bags of trash and old trashcans. There was a cat on the rooftop that startled at the sound of the portal and scampered fast. I looked around, wondering if I had landed somewhere further than Five and the others. I wandered forward a few steps, toward the mouth of the alleyway where cars passed; vintage cars, I noted, as if a fair was rolling through town. I walked out onto a pavement lined in neat swaying trees and polished benches, with colourful advertisements pinned to red brick walls.
Women walked by in puffed, swishing skirts. Men crossed the street, tipping their fedora hats at passing drivers. I heard the smack of gum and turned my head, staring at a kid who walked toward me, blowing a bubble from his lips. In his other hand, he tossed a gumball. Then, he strode through me, totally unaware of me. I looked down at myself. Horror curled up through my spine and took hold.
I stumbled back into the alleyway, looking up at that portal as if I could claw my way back through it to the other side, choking on panic and fear and calling out desperately for Five and Diego and anybody that could possibly hear me because the jump had gone wrong, so wrong that I stood there without feeling sunlight, without knowing that there was a breeze until it rustled the trash and dragged stubborn scraps of newspaper through the alleyway. I could not feel any of it. I stood like a ghost, a phantom floating in this foreign world.
The portal warped and sealed itself shut.
My body had been left behind.
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