Chapter 13- Walking
Time/ 9:00 am EST
Location/ Somewhere in the middle of the
woods not far from Checkers
After a brief farewell, Tait had literally vanished from in front of their eyes, leaving nothing to show he had even existed. Nicole had returned to her normal form as a human teenager and had told Ryou to wait while she 'prepared a few things'. Half an hour later she and Nessert had returned from their basement-bedroom, a backpack bulging with unknown items on the former's back. They left their home and once again found Laura, who again tackled Ryou to the ground, and Andro, who had been waiting on the edge of the block with an even larger bag tucked under his arm. Together they had headed east, into the woods. Once they were out of sight of any human settlements Nicole and Andro had removed some interesting thing from their bags, Andro a sword bigger then should have been possible to keep in the bag, and Nicole a string of paper talismans, inscribed with symbols and hieroglyphs, which she tied around her back and shoulders. They continued walking for half an hour until they reached another set of houses on the edge of the forest. Nicole walked up to one of them, a small, two story house painted in shades of brown, and knocked softly on the door. A peep-hole opened up halfway up the door and a pair of steel-gray eyes eyed the group suspiciously. A grating female voice called out.
"We don't want any!"
From inside the house came another voice, similar to the first, though softer.
"Who is it, B?"
"People."
"…what KIND of people?"
"I think you know them."
"Then let them in!"
"They're your friends, you do it."
"…..THIRD SPELL OF BINDING!"
"ACK!"
The pair of eyes disappeared and with a click and the sound of locks coming undone, the door opened to reveal a small-statured girl with blood-red hair and steel-gray eyes. She wore dark red cloths with a shirt that read 'I have issues, deal with 'em'. At her feet was a near mirror-image of her, only with spikier hair. And she was smoldering slightly.
"KONNICHIWA! I take it we have fresh blood on our hands?"
Andro laughed, nodding vigorously.
"Yes! This is Ryou! Tait's chosen him! He's Nikki's step-brother!"
Ryou waved meekly. The girl blinked.
"My name is Heather and this-" She pointed at the twitching, burning lump at her feet. –Is B! Your hair is neat!"
Andro cleared his throat.
"We're here because we need a quick jump to the Gates of Hell! May we see your basement?"
"Sure! Come on in!"
Ryou's eyes widened.
"The Gates of Hell?"
Laura waves a hand dismissively.
"They aren't really the Gates of Hell, people just call 'em that. They're really portals that separate realities, but freakish stuff DOES come out of them sometimes…"
"Making them the perfect place for initiation! You sure you got enough shields, Nikki?"
The teen gestured to the strings of talismans.
"I brought about twenty more then we needed last time, just in case."
"Good!"
They made their way through cluttered halls until they came to the door to the basement.
"Are these the gates of Hell?"
Ryou stayed a few feet farther away from the door then anyone else.
"Nah, the basement is just where we've set up some transports. They're damn useful!"
Ryou, slightly less terrified, followed them down the stairs.
The basement was walled in stone and was about 30 feet square. In the center was a circle, drawn in white paint, with rings of runes around it. Heather pulled a piece of chalk out of a pocket and knelt in front of the circle, writing something in a space devoid of paint.
"I hereby open the portal."
The circle and runes suddenly burst into light, the center a solid cylinder of white. Heather gestured to Ryou.
"You go first."
Ryou hesitated before walking into the light.