Three days later, Jack woke to the hiss and burble of the ocean surf. For a long time, he didn't move and just stared blankly at the tent ceiling. This was the day his life would change forever. He wasn’t sure how to process it. It was easier to just lie there and keep his mind clear for a few more moments.

Not to mention that sleeping on sand isn’t nearly as comfortable as it might look. Jack wasn’t looking forward to discovering all new sore spots to go with the ones he’d already developed over the last few nights.

He might have laid there forever, but the sun was leaking through the tent flap and Jack had never really enjoyed sleeping in.

He pushed himself onto his knees, groaning over his aching muscles, and began to roll up his sleeping bag.

Jack had waited on the bus after leaving his mother, his stomach churning, until they stopped just outside of town to pick up some new passengers. He’d hopped out, asking for his bag and ignoring the annoyed harrumph of the driver.

Jack had hitched back into town, getting himself dropped off as close as possible to the coordinates he’d sent to the Alchemist, then walked the rest of the way.

He had spent the next few days completely alone. Solitude wasn’t easy for Jack and knowing what was to come made it exponentially worse.

Jack hoped it was worth it in the end.

He stumbled out of the tent and padded down the dark sand to splash cold seawater on his face.

He and his friends had spent endless summers on this black sand beach, swimming, building castles and bonfires, constructing naked sand people or just throwing a ball around. The beach was cupped between two sheer cliff-faces with a steep strip of forest between them. There were only two ways to reach it. You could access it by boat or hike for half an hour and then scramble downhill. It was so tiny and secluded, few people bothered to come back to it if they ever discovered it in the first place.

For a pack of teenage boys, it had been a private paradise.

Jack was happy to see it again before he left. As he dismantled his tent, beginning his third day on his own, a year was beginning to look like a lifetime. The only break in the monotony had been the carefully-timed phone call he’d placed to his mother when he “arrived in South Africa”. He’d used a VPN for authenticity.

Neither of them had exactly cried, but they came close.

Jack had to keep telling himself, firmly, that this was for his mother’s own good. One day she would thank him. She would be happy and healthy and waist-deep in a swimming pool of money and she would be overjoyed that her son had lied to her.

She would not be happy about how often in the last few days he'd got sand in his eyes but, after all, she'd never know about that. He would never tell her.

His old piece-of-crap cell phone had died almost immediately after he called her and there was no wireless signal this far out for his laptop, so he didn't even know if his friends were coming to say goodbye. They knew the coordinates. They knew the time frame.

So far, no one had shown up.

As much as Jack tried to convince himself that they wouldn’t come and that they didn’t care, his heart leaped at every rustle in the trees, and every shadow that crossed his face. He kept thinking of new arguments he could have used to convince them, and even muttered them aloud, fighting his friends in his imagination, and winning them over again and again. It was somewhat satisfying for a few moments until he remembered it was all pretend. There were no more arguments to make. All he could do was wait.

*

Jack spent the morning reading his pocket survival handbook and practicing survival skills with all the enthusiasm he could muster.

He tried to light a fire in a stack of dead leaves and chocolate wrappers using a magnifying glass (it was so windy, his little pile kept blowing away).

He dug a hole in the sand at the top of the beach, in an attempt to find fresh water (his water bottles were almost empty by now). That tip didn’t seem to work, as the water in his hole was still quite brackish. Luckily there was a stream emptying out into the sea on one side of the beach, and it was a few minutes work to purify the water and refill his bottles.

Finally, he began to scout the small chunk of forest that cradled the beach. There didn't seem to be anything that he recognized as edible. His survival guide was American and didn’t have any native New Zealand plants listed, so it was hard to tell for sure. It made him wonder if the other world would have strange plants and animals, or if it would be basically the same as Earth. He wondered what the practical exam was going to be like. Defeating a monster? Getting past a Sphinx? Solving a maze?

Whatever it was, Jack hoped he was ready.

He had folded up the legs of his hiking pants and was about to try digging under the surf for shellfish when his pack beeped. It was his watch alarm, sounding faintly over the noise of the trees in the wind. The time was 11.35am.

Jack sat down and ate another chocolate muesli bar, forcing himself to swallow it even though his throat was tight. He stared at the faint strokes of color where the blue-green sea met the blue-white sky. Would the sky in the other world be blue? Would there be an ocean? Clouds? Breathable air? Surely, there had to be.

Windblown sand stung his legs as he shoved the empty chocolate wrapper into his pack with the others. Everything was ready. There was nothing left to do but wait. All by himself.

Jack jumped back onto his feet, a few pieces of chocolate still clutched, unfinished, in his hand. He couldn’t just sit there. Maybe he still had time to dig up a few shellfish...

“Jack!”

Jack spun around so quickly he almost fell. His heart inflated so quickly he thought it might burst with joy.

Zac was standing at the head of the beach, a hiking pack leaning against his leg, and his hair whipping in the wind.

Daiki was just emerging from the forest behind him, hauling a wheeled suitcase across the skinny tree roots. The wind barely made a ripple in his spiky hair.

“You... you guys...” Jack ran up the beach and threw his arms around Zac.

“Yeah, yeah.” Zac’s tone was brisk but he clung to Jack for several moments before pushing him away. “Give us some of that chocolate, will you?”

“Zac, your parents… They let you come?”

At the look on Zac’s face, Jack shut up and gave him the chocolate.

Zac made short work of the candy and Jack fished another couple of bars from his pocket, giving one to Zac, and keeping the other for Daiki, who was still struggling with his suitcase.

“I thought after I got straight A's in my first year they would finally let me take a few music classes.”

Zac’s voice was much louder than usual, and Jack suspected it was not just because of the wind.

“But, well- when they didn't like that idea I started telling them about this great opportunity I'd been offered in South Africa.”

“And they let you go? Just like that?”

“Of course they did.” Zac wolfed down the chocolate.

Jack studied his friend. Really, he thought. Just like that.

Zac stared steadily back, and Jack decided not to push it.

“I'm just so happy to have you guys here!” He wanted to laugh. And puke, just a little. There was definitely no time to do that, though.

“Yeah well, they said I could defer my scholarship,” Daiki said. “So, you know, it's no skin off my nose.”

He had finally dragged his suitcase onto the sand and was panting as though it was weighed down with rocks. A huge camera was slung around his neck. “Might get a few good shots or something.”

“Thanks for coming, Daiki.”

Jack said it with complete sincerity and trotted over to help his friend.

“God, what did you pack in here?”

“Grown up stuff, Squirt. You wouldn't understand.”

Jack rolled his eyes and kept his mouth shut. Daiki could call him anything he wanted, now that he was here.

“Yeah right, Daiki.” Zac seemed positively giddy. “Your big, throbbing virginity would barely fit in that bag.”

“Oh shut it, gaijin.” Daiki screwed up his face at his friend. He sat on his suitcase.

“Ten minutes to go,” Jack said and dragged his own bag over to the others. The shellfish got to live another day.

“The GPS coordinates are accurate to about four or five meters, so I don't know exactly where the portal will appear.”

Zac peered nervously at the air around him. “How about you make an educated guess? I don't want that thing to just burst out of my chest or something.”

“Oh, it should be over there,” Jack waved vaguely down the other end of the beach. Zac took a few steps in the opposite direction.

“Seven minutes to go.” Jack's stomach was churning. He was regretting that last chocolate bar.

How much of the sick feeling was excitement and how much was regret? It was wonderful that Daiki and Zac were here. More than wonderful. But Jack couldn’t help but wish that Steve had at least come to say goodbye.

“Jack are you sure this is safe? I mean... I- I know it's not safe, but is it safe?”

“Yes, absolutely,” Jack said, just as Daiki answered, “of course it isn't.”

Zac bit his lips like he wished he was somewhere else. Jack noticed for the first time that his usually immaculate friend was wearing odd socks. One was blue and one was brown.

Even stranger, the buttons on his shirt had been done up wrong. It was almost as though he'd dressed in the dark.

Before Jack could say anything to Zac, the strange-familiar hum of the opening portal reached his ears.

At the exact same moment, Steve burst out of the forest.

Jack’s first emotion was relief. He hadn’t realized how much it meant to him that Steve be there, to say a proper goodbye.

Then his heart began to race as the sight of his large friend truly sank in. Steve was wearing a backpack. A big one.

Before Jack could start towards his friend, Zoe pushed through the trees to stand beside Steve. The brown-haired girl was wearing a hiking pack that seemed overlarge on her short frame. Even from a distance, Jack could see they were both sweaty and flushed from running.

“Oh, thank god,” Steve said when he spotted his friends. His voice was barely audible over the wind. He strode down the beach, Zoe tight on his heels. “I didn't think we were going to make it for a minute there.”

The hum was growing louder, but more slowly this time. It sounded like a bluebottle fly, buzzing from across a small room. The sound was barely discernible over the wind and the waves.

Jack wondered, in a small corner of his mind, if the speed of sound increase was related to the size of the final portal. The rest of his mind was too excited to concentrate on such a trivial thing.

“Steve, I'm so glad you made it.”

Jack hugged his best friend, his arms not quite reaching around the pack. He didn’t even care when Steve ruffled his hair.

As Steve turned to greet Zac, Jack had to clench his fists hard to keep from doing a victory dance. He bit his lip and tasted salt. All of them. He had done it. They were going into this adventure together.

“I didn’t want to let you go alone, Jack,” Steve started to explain after he finished hugging everyone. “And I was so torn up about it, Zoe couldn't help but notice. She got the whole story out of me.”

“And what did she think of this story?”

Daiki had stood up from his suitcase and was glaring at Zoe. She frowned back at him, her forehead furrowed with confusion. Jack hoped Steve hadn’t noticed.

“Well... she thought she would come and see for herself. As far as anyone knows we're doing volunteer work in the Amazon.”

Steve exchanged an amused look with his girlfriend, who smiled at him, her eyes crinkling. “We both left our jobs. And I left Gracie with my sister. She’ll be fine, I think.”

“She can't come,” Daiki said firmly.

Steve threw Daiki a look of surprise. “I just said I left her with my sister…”

“Ha ha Daiki, this, ah... this isn't exactly a clubhouse,” Jack said. He knew exactly who Daiki meant to exclude, and it wasn’t the dog. “Girls don't have cooties you know.”

By now, the bluebottle was sitting on the edge of his ear. Jack could have kicked Daiki. Steve still had time to change his mind. Now was not the time to argue with him.

“Jack, didn't you read your own letter?” Daiki raised his voice until he was almost shouting. “It said only three members of your family are allowed. Three. Not three and the squeeze of the week.”

Steve went rigid. “Don't be an arse, Daiki. Zoe is my girlfriend. I'm not leaving her behind.”

“It's for her own safety, you idiot!” Daiki was just plain yelling now, gesturing with his hands as swirls of black sand flew past his feet. “What if the portal won't accept five? What if it implodes and traps us in limbo? Or just plain kills us?”

“It won't,” said Steve, but he drew his brows together. “Will it?”

“I'm willing to take that chance,” Zoe said.

At least that's what Jack thought she said.

“Guys we don't have time for this!” Jack wasn't sure if they could hear him, but all their faces pointed in his direction. “When the portal is big enough we have to jump in right away.”

He put his hands to his mouth and yelled as loudly as he could. The hum had become a hissing siren, filling the air and leaving no room for any other sound. “Otherwise we could go deaf, or worse… miss the portal!”

The light had finally appeared, a spot of bright green only a few meters away from them. After such a lengthy build-up of sound, Jack was grateful to see the actual portal grow quickly. In seconds it was the size of his head, and still growing

He struggled into his pack, then turned to check on his friends. Jack was just in time to see the tail-end of a furious argument, conducted entirely in gestures, between Daiki, Steve, and Zoe.

Finally, Daiki gave them both the finger and turned his back on them, hauling his suitcase over to stand beside Jack and Zac.

Daiki looked absolutely disgusted, but still obviously willing to chance it. Jack didn’t have to worry about him.

Jack glanced at Zac and realized he was shaking. All his giddy courage had drained away, leaving him ashen, but with a determined look on his face. He would come through, Jack was sure.

Steve and Zoe continued arguing without making a sound. They both seemed worried. Jack bit his lip as he watched them. It was so close… Surely they wouldn’t back out now?

Steve wanted Zoe to go into the portal before himself, Jack realized, probably because he thought that would be the safest for her. From her gestures, Zoe had obviously decided that Steve should go first, probably for the same reason.

Finally, she grabbed his hand and mimed jumping in together, and that seemed to satisfy them both. They joined the little group, packs still securely on their backs.

By now, the portal was twice the size it had been in Jack’s room, and still growing fast, like a huge yawning mouth, the lips painted in green fire. It was almost big enough.

Jack had to shield his eyes whenever he faced it directly. Although that meant taking his hands off his ears, which wasn’t a lot of fun either. He wished he had thought to keep his sunglasses handy.

He glanced back at the washed out faces of his friends one last time and tried to fix them in his mind. The sick feeling had returned and was crawling around his stomach.

Jack noticed Zoe was crying, her tears sparkling green on her face. Concerned, Jack put an inquisitive hand on her arm. Was she that bothered by Daiki?

She smiled at him in response, her tears running down her cheeks. She mouthed the word “Magic.”

Jack grinned at her and turned back to the portal. Zoe understood. She understood why he could never have said no to this.

Jack took a deep breath and stepped into the portal.