Saturday, April 2, 2022 Boise, Idaho, United States

“William, you heading over to the Mrs. Cárdenas’ house?”

“Yeah mom.”

“Have fun at your sleepover.”

“Alright mom!”

Billy was out the door and on his bike riding up the block with strong pumps of his legs to get up the hill.

When he got to the house he knocked on the door and Mrs. Cárdenas opened the door and let him in.

“Javier is upstairs. Let me know if you want a snack or something.”

“We are probably going to go play in the backyard.” Billy had his fingers crossed behind him and sounded nervous. A transparent lie, but Mrs. Cárdenas had already turned away and didn’t catch him.

He raced up the stairs and into Javier’s room. Grabbed a controller and joined in on killing aliens. After a while, Javier used a break in the game to talk…

“Billy, you ready?” he asked.

“Yeah. I brought the stuff in my backpack.”

“Cool. This is going to be awesome. Let’s stick to the plan.”

They played a little longer and then went down for the pizza Mrs. Cárdenas had ordered in.

That night they both lay in the bed waiting for the clock to change. Javier fell asleep and Billy had to wake him up.

“Come on! It’s time.”

They suited up. Billy put his track pants, he had taken a sharpie to the three lines on the side to black them out. Javier had on black sweats.

“Okay, got our flashlights, our phones, and snacks.”

“Stupid Boobie Bobby, she said we would never have the guts to do it. But she’ll see.”

They crept down the stairs and out the front door, the door squealed a bit on the hinges which made them freeze, but Mr and Mrs Cardeñas did not wake up.

Once they were outside, they made their way to the Robert’s house. The Robert’s, an old couple, had disappeared about a year ago and the house was known to be haunted. Everyone at Hillside Junior High knew it was haunted.

But Billy and Javier were going to be legends, the first to spend the night there.

It was dark except for a street light or two. The clouds in the sky and gentle rain weren’t too bad either. They walked by the crick to the house.

The stairs up to the front porch were solid, painted about right before the couple had disappeared, a bit slick with the moisture, but not a big deal with their sneakers and soon they were at the front door.

Javier tried the front door, but it was locked. A small piece of yellow tape from when the police had come to investigate the disappearance a year ago dangled from the side of the door.

Then they checked the windows and found one on the side of the house slightly ajar. Javier was able to work his skinny arm in to the window handle and rotate it enough to get it open.

And then they were in.

“Let’s insta it,” whispered Javier. The house was still and dark. A fine layer of dust over everything. Billy took out his phone and took a shot with Javier and posted it adding a bunch of hashtags.

“Do me!” Billy asked eagerly, still whispering.

“Cool. Now we can take one as we explore. Bobby won’t say shit after she sees these.” Javier said.

They looked around the room they were in. A formal dining room, the table could seat eight and the high-backed dark wood chairs and tablecloth had spiderwebs attaching them to one another and to the chandelier above.

“Come on!” said Billy heading to the front room for the front door. He went and unlocked it and tested it, smiling triumphantly, no need to climb through windows on their way out.

They looked around and took some more shots and posted them. Someone liked ones of their posts.

“Hah, it’s Val, she’ll totally be calling Bobbie now.” Javier felt triumphant.

They wandered around the first floor.

“Damn, it is dusty in here. Let’s go see the basement.”

When they opened the door and saw the dark maw that even their flashlights didn’t seem to penetrate. Billy tried the light switch but it didn’t work, no power. They both looked at one another.

“Let’s check our upstairs first,” suggested Javier. An easy agreement the downstairs basement had given both of them chills.

They went back to the entry room to the staircase on the side. Carpeted stairs with a wood banister heading to a landing and then cutting to the right.

They put their flashlights up the stairs, it all looked normal. But Billy’s first step up creaked like every haunted movie they had ever seen, and they almost lost their nerve.

But they needed this. Bobbie and Val and the rest of that group had never done anything like this and Billy and Javier were going to show them.

So Billy squared his shoulders and started heading up. And vanished right before the landing. Javier stumbled right after him, unable to stop in time.

What they saw was a lush jungle, the sun was hot and the air was humid. But the plants, they were like nothing either of them had ever seen. The sound of insects was like a roar,

They were paralyzed in fright.

“What is going on?” Javier whispered, and then had to repeat himself loudly.

Billy looked around, “I don’t know!” He squealed in terror.

They looked behind them and saw just more of the jungle. Javier and Billy held hands, gripping tightly and stepped back.

Nothing happened.

They took another step. And still nothing.

In the stories they read, kids got transported to strange worlds and became kings and adventurers. But these two children, sixth graders who came to a house on a dare from a seventh grade girl they both had a bit of a crush on, lost it. They sat down in the middle of the jungle and started wailing.

Then one of them heard a loud noise, something was coming towards them.

“Quick hide.”

Billy tried to pull them to behind some purple flowered bushes but Javier pointed to a fallen tree and they crawled underneath it to peak out. The humidit had gotten worse and they were covered in mud and dirt and branches but they didn’t hesitate as they worked their way to somewhere they could watch.

The sounds got closer and closer and they saw something emerge, a creature that looked like an alligator but had long scaled legs like a giraffe or horse. It looked awkward and strange and had eyes on stalks, one facing forward and one facing upward at a diagonal.

Billy leaned over to Javier and cupped his hands over Javier’s ear, “What is that?”

But Javier had no idea.

The creature stopped and smelled the air. Did it smell them?

But it saw the flowered bush and made a squeal and started walking towards it. It opened its mouth in what looked like excitement, they could see its teeth, rows of flat teeth, the kind a vegetarian would have.

It got close to the bush and then suddenly dozens of flowers from the bush shot forwards and attached to the beast. The animal squealed again in distress, almost like a pig. The flowers began to pulse and change color, becoming darker and then that dark color began to travel up the stalks of the plants. The animal squealed and tried to wrench itself free but couldn’t. Eventually it’s motions slowed and then stopped as it fell over, the flower buds continuing to drink.

The plant itself had taken on a rich, dark hue.

Javier had taken out his phone to get a picture.

“What are you doing? I almost led us right into it!” Billy was sobbing and hysterical.

“Nobody is going to believe this. Damn, my phone isn’t working. It won’t turn on. Check yours.”

Billy fumbled for his phone but it would not turn either.

The flower buds detached themselves from the drained animal and slithered back.

Suddenly something grabbed their feet and started pulling them, they screamed.

The creature that had grabbed them was reptilian as well, but humanoid in shape. It looked like a woman, but the scales were striped in black and white patterns and her eyes were slitted.

It opened its mouth and Billy noted the sharp fangs but didn’t notice the urine setting its pants.

It hissed and rasped something. And then again. And a third time. A mix of pungent odors came at them which had them both feel nauseous.

Javier said, “I’m sorry. I don’t understand. ¿No puedo comprendarse?”

The animal closed it’s mouth and it’s eyes looked back and forth between them. They were both dangling upside down, the creature was monstrously strong.

Billy felt dizzy and emotionally drained. He pointed at the ground, “Can you put us down? I’m going to be sick!”

The creature seemed to understand the pointing and placed them down gently. Billy leaned over and vomited noisily. The creature wrinkled its nose slightly at the smell.

It then pointed at them and the bush and made an X with its arms.

At least I can understand that thought Billy

“Yeah. We are not going there for sure.” Javier said. He pointed at himself and the bush and made the same X. That reassured the creature. It pointed itself and them. And then behind itself. And took a step in that direction.

“Should we? I don’t know.” Billy said tentatively.

“It seems worried. And what else are we going to do? Get eaten by something like that vampire bush?”

The creature looked at them expectantly. Took another step and looked back.

They followed the creature. She took them at a quick stride over and under the brush. Once hiding as another creature flew overhead which they appreciated.

“She looks like a Kingsnake,” Billy said. His mother was terrified by snakes which had only increased his interest in them.

“Let’s call her Queenie for now. I don’t think we can pronounce what she says.”

After longer than they had walked ever before, through jungles and humidity they reached a set of trees where the brush had been cleared and as they followed them up, they could see concealed tree houses and rope bridges between them. One of the central trees had wood slats nailed into them with spikes and Queenie started to climb up it, it made a clicking noise before it motioned then to follow.

They shrugged and looked around. And Billy saw others, like Queenie, in the same black and whites but with an occasional outlier in color and pattern.

They had bows trained on the boys. But it looked like more out of caution.

They reached the top and there were two other of these lizards there. The first lizard began making the same sort of hissing, rasping noises and the others did as well. The smells became stronger and more varied.

Then the first one motioned and the three of them set off over a narrow rope bridge. Both Javier and Billy were more afraid of being left alone than the heights and scrambled after them.

They went from platform to platform, higher and higher into the trees until they reached a particularly large one. And there was another lizard, this one with wings, but the same black and white coloring. A fire burned behind him, but it burned slow and strangely.

The same hissing and the number of lizards made both the cacophony of the lizards’ speech and the smells almost unbearable for the two young boys.

The winged one motioned and they all fell silent. It turned and spoke to the air.

And another being formed out of nothing. Glowing slightly, it was a female, with four or six or more breasts running down her chest, deep blue-black skin and slotted orange eyes. No nose, but two slits.

It spoke in the same hisses and odors as the lizards and then looked at them. When it moved, it trailed afterimages

“Two human children,” it mused, “Are the walls so thin?”

It’s voice was so warm and comforting that both children, suddenly shocked to hear English, stumbled over one another talking, asking and begging.

The creature waited patiently. “I bred, long before my Ascension. I guess young ones are the same for all. Children, you are not in another world. You are in part of your world that has been ripped apart, separated from yours. But that separation thins. Not gone yet, but soon.” And there was a sense of satisfaction in that statement.

The children didn’t care.

“Excuse me miss,” Javier said. He was the younger but always had been the more mature between the two. “We just want to go home.”

“I’ll take you home. I wouldn’t let children come to harm. I am no monster. Now hush, I must tell the King here you are lost and not to worry yet. He thought you were wingless fae.”

“What’s a fae?”

But the glowing creature had turned to the lizard King and started speaking to them in their own language. The boys had latched onto the creatures promise of homecoming.

“Well, let’s go.” The creature seemed positively cheerful.

And on the way, she shared stories of this place they had found themselves in. The King that had met, who was to become perhaps the first united leader of their people, regarded as a philosopher king. The world that they found themselves in was massive, and numerous cities Shada risen and fallen, but the lizard king had purposefully rejected the cities, called for enlightenment of purpose rather than materiality and show.

“For the rules that hold here are quite different than those of your home. You saw the fire by the King?”

“Yes,” they said in unison.

“Combustion… fire barely works here. It takes much to keep one going. Pure theater, but he knows the value of a show of power.”

“He seems wise,” said Billy.

“Oh he is. Intelligent and strong. I am his patron after all.”

“Excuse me miss,” Billy was trying to copy Javier’s formality, “but who… what are you?”

The woman made a sound max something that was strange and somewhat gruff, “I. I was an orc. Now? Well that is still close enough. My name is Kelik. Now hush. We are almost there.”

“Nobody will ever believe this,” whispered Billy.

But Kelik heard them anyway, “No, they will not. Until the walls fall.”

“You keep saying walls falling? What walls?”

“This world and thousands of others, were ripped out of yours a long, long time ago… in a desperate act of hubris. But they have started to reconnect to your world. And sometime soon, that connection will be strong enough to open all the time. And all these worlds will be changed.”

“But… nobody will believe you, as you said. The few of us that have been able to travel between these worlds know your home well. They will call it imagination and if you insist, dreams. And if you push more, then they will think you insane.”

Ah, here we are.

They could see it was the spot they had arrived in. The dead alligator beast was still there. The purple flowered bush was quiescent.

“Here, hold my claws. You can see it.”

They tentatively reached out and grabbed her claws. One on each side. Javier had expected the creatures skin to be cold, but it was warm, reassuring.

And then Billy looked away and gasped. Javier looked up and let go in surprise. What he had seen was a small glowing seam floating in the air. It had a patchwork of openings, thin, strained and the edges were ragged. But it had vanished when he had let go.

He reached up again and grabbed Keliks claw and it came into his vision again.

“It is opening and closing. Each time just a fraction more stays open. When it opens next, step through.”

They waited for a moment and it pulled in the air. And then it opened, the ends separating with strands that almost seemed like, like string cheese thought Billy connecting the two.

“Now, go. Do not tell anyone. But your world and ours will both change soon. Be steady and be strong.”

They would have hesitated. But Kelik gave them both strong shoves and they stumbled through.

And promptly fell down the stairs and crashed into one another.

“Oooww.”

They looked at one another and then up the stairs. They could not see anything. For one moment, Billy resisted the urge to go back, to see this new world.

But Javier said, “We should go. Let’s take another picture and pretend we were just in the house tonight. But… never forget.”

“Never forget.”

Their phones both worked. It was six am and they posted pics on instagram and left.

To arrive home and find Mr. and Mrs. Cardeñas and Billy’s mother waiting for them.

“We saw your pictures. That is the only reason we did not come and get you. But you are both still grounded.” Mr. Cardeñas winked at them.

They went to their homes and their own bedrooms, and inside each of their dressers, in the drawer that held their underwear, they found a small coin that glowed just slightly. They never said a word until much later, once everything had changed.

It was still worth it on Monday when the school was abuzz with what they had done. Bobby, for once, didn’t have anything mean to say.