By Muxing Zhao
Muxing Zhao is a freshman at Brighton High School. He wrote this story at the age of eleven and made his first professional sale to Mike Resnick’s Galaxy’s Edge in February of 2013.
All too often, we overlook familiar landmarks in our neighborhoods. Yet these landmarks help define a sense of place, no matter how much the surrounding landscape and culture change. In Muxing’s “Thousand Worlds Gate,” we’re treated to an incredible, vivid adventure that stretches Rochester’s sense of place across time and space … and it all starts at a familiar Brighton landmark.
—
Jack walked along with the crowd of students rushing from the main entrance of Twelve Corners Middle School. Buses were pulling into the bus loop to pick up kids. With his heavy backpack on his shoulders, Jack separated himself from the crowd to walk home. He had moved to Rochester a few months before and already loved it here.
He headed to Twelve Corners. As Jack waited for the crossing guard’s signal to proceed, he saw a newspaper on the ground. The paper was two days old, from the 20th of March. A headline caught his eye: Three Kids, Three Unsolved Mysteries. Below were the names and pictures of the three kids. They were from his school, but Jack didn’t recognize any of them.
After crossing Elmwood Avenue, Jack arrived at a small, triangular island bordered by the three roads that formed Twelve Corners. In the center of the island stood a gazebo which Jack felt oddly drawn toward. There was just something about it … something about how it seemed so different from the surrounding buildings, almost relaxing even. He went inside. A dark triangle of parquet flooring covered the ground at the center of the gazebo.
Jack went to the center and set his backpack down. An unexpected buzz came from beneath the pack. Jack jumped in surprise and whacked his head against one of the gazebo’s white pillars. He slung the bag back onto his shoulders and saw a small, triangular object on the floor. It was covered with a network of lines that pulsed with blue light. In the center of the triangle, the lights began spinning into a circle. When it was complete, the circle extended from the triangle and became a glowing, red button. Jack picked up the blue triangle … which was promptly whacked out of his hands.
“Hey there, wimp. Whatcha doin’?” asked Mr. Bozo, the school bully. Of course, Jack never called the boy that to his zit-filled face, particularly when, as now, Mr. Bozo was with his small gang of goons. “‘Oh, I’m playin’ with a toy I got from Babies R’ Us! It’s a stupid triangle you idiot,’” the bully continued in a high, raspy voice, swiping the triangle out of his hands. Mr. Bozo’s gang actually laughed at his stupid joke.
“Whoa there. Watch your mouth,” Jack said, not believing he was hearing himself speak the words. He knew this wasn’t a good idea, but he hated Mr. Bozo, and this time, he was absolutely ticked. “You should at least be able to know that you’re too thickheaded to—”
Mr. Bozo punched Jack, causing him to fall backwards and land on his backpack. A trickle of blood dripped from Jack’s nose.
“What did you just say? You tell that to my face one more time,” he demanded.
“I-I take that back,” Jack said quietly. “You’re too stupid to know anything.”
With that, Mr. Bozo grabbed Jack by his shirt collar and threw him backwards. Jack crashed into the pillar behind him and collapsed to the floor. The blue triangle pulsed slowly next to him as Jack’s hand hit the red-glowing button. A blue beam of light shot out of the triangle and struck the center of the gazebo. Thunder shook the ground and the world swirled into darkness. One last thought wandered through Jack’s mind before he lost consciousness: What was I thinking?
Jack lifted his face off the floor and spat sand out of his mouth. Wait. Sand? He looked at his surroundings. The gazebo now seemed to be made out of clay. Small adobe buildings lined streets of sand.
“Where am I?” Jack wondered out loud. “Is this … Rochester? No, I’m dreaming. This can’t be real.” Jack pinched himself, closed his eyes, and waited, expecting to appear back in his bedroom. He opened his eyes, and a bit of sand blew into his face. He spit it out. Maybe … this is real.
People stared at him. Most of them wore turbans and light-colored clothes, and they had dark skin. One whispered loudly to another, “Haz nokmet ies doimah ero Rroëxtrei?”
Rroëxtrei. Somehow, Jack sensed that this word was the name of this place. Jack found the blue triangle, placed it into his pocket, and got up. Adjusting the backpack he still wore, he started to walk, stopping occasionally to ask questions of some of the people. It was useless. None of them understood what he said. All Jack got back was, “Wolait?”
He walked down what was supposed to be Monroe Avenue, though this road led to the Genesee River, and watched as a group of kids practiced throwing boomerangs at targets. By the time he reached the bank of the river, Jack had learned nothing more than what he had observed since arriving here in … Rroëxtrei. With a sigh, he sat down squarely on the sandy earth.
“What is this place?” Jack again wondered aloud. He stared at the blue triangle for a moment, then slid it back into his pocket, moving his gaze to the river.
“You speak English?” a voice asked.
“Who’s that?” Jack jumped up and looked from side to side but saw no one.
“Behind you.”
Jack turned to find a girl about his age staring at him. She wore familiar Rochester clothes, not the clothes Jack had seen on the people of Rroëxtrei.
“Who are you?” Jack asked.
“I’m Amanda. And you?”
“Jack. I’m from Rochester.”
“Rochester! How did you get here? One of these?” Amanda asked, raising a blue triangle just like Jack’s.
“Yes!” Jack replied, pulling his triangle from his pocket and showing it to the girl.
A gust of wind blew sand against the triangle, followed by another gust that pelted the children with still more sand. They turned their heads into the wind and saw a huge cloud of sand heading straight for them.
“Sandstorm!” Amanda shouted, pulling her shirt collar over her nose. “We need shelter, now!”
The wind howled in their ears, driving sand everywhere. Jack spotted a building nearby and pointed to it. Amanda nodded and followed Jack toward the building. They covered their heads against the stinging grains.
Jack tried the door and shook his head. “It’s locked!” he yelled, then spat out sand that had blown into his mouth. Now he understood why Amanda had covered her mouth with her shirt, and he did the same. Jack couldn’t believe how loud the wind had become.
“Let’s just get behind the building!” the girl replied. “It’ll block most of the sand!”
Jack nodded, and the pair made their way to the lee side of the building. There was still so much sand and wind that Jack and Amanda had to hunker against the structure, sitting on the ground as close to the clay wall as they could. Jack was relieved to have as much shelter as they did.
“I wish these sandstorms would stop coming so often!” Amanda shouted, trying to keep sand out of her eyes.
“This isn’t the first time?” asked Jack, surprised.
“Of course not! This place is a desert,” she replied.
“That’s not what I meant,” Jack said. “How long have you been here?”
Before Amanda could answer, a heavy gust blew a jet of sand into a vortex nearby. The sand rose, and coalesced into a shady human figure. The sand figure turned its blank face toward the kids, then began walking toward them.
“What the—!” Jack exclaimed, springing to his feet. “I-is this, uh, normal?”
“No,” Amanda answered. Her eyes were wide with fear as the sand creature advanced.
“Come on!” Jack yelled, pulling Amanda away from their shelter. The sand creature followed, rapidly gaining on them. Jack spotted a small boomerang lying in their path. He scooped it up, turned toward the creature and, with a yell, hurled the weapon at it. The boomerang struck the creature, then, to Jack’s horror, went straight through the creature causing it no obvious harm. The boomerang spun back to Jack, who fumbled and dropped it. He was too panicked to care and spun on his heel to continue running along Monroe Avenue.
The sand creature slowed and fell behind as the children ran. Jack wondered whether the boomerang had hurt it after all. When he thought they were far enough ahead of the monster, Jack stopped and took out his blue triangle, gesturing to Amanda to do the same. They pressed the buttons on their triangles. Nothing happened.
“The gazebo,” Jack said. Amanda nodded and followed as Jack ran toward Twelve Corners. Jack saw no one as they approached the crossroads; he figured everyone had gone home to get cover from the storm. At last, Jack and Amanda reached the gazebo and moved to the center of the structure. Panting, Jack sat down on the sandstone floor. As he did so, something grabbed him.
“The sand monster!” Amanda screamed.
“Press the button!” Jack yelled, frantically hoping the triangles would take them elsewhere, just like they had before. The creature had a firm grip around Jack’s chest and dragged the boy toward the gazebo’s exit. Jack struggled and managed to press the button on his blue triangle as he saw Amanda press hers. The creature screeched in surprise as bolts of lightning shot out of each blue triangle, one blue and one orange. The bolts collided in the center of the gazebo with a flash of white light, followed by an ear-splitting crack of thunder. Darkness consumed Jack’s world.
When Jack woke, black lines outlined every object he saw, including himself and Amanda. At first he thought he was imagining things. Then, Amanda spoke.
“Are those people?” Amanda pointed at walking, two-dimensional stick figures. A speech bubble had appeared over her head and showed the words she had spoken.
“It’s like something drew everything,” said Jack, his own speech bubble popping up over his head.
To Jack, every stick person looked exactly the same as every other. Jack and Amanda were the only ones who looked like regular three-dimensional people, though both of them had black outlines and speech bubbles. One of the stick people looked at them, and a question mark popped up in its speech bubble.
“Weird,” Amanda said. She looked down at her own outlined hands. Then she added, “It looks like somebody’s been using a 3-D art program. Poorly.”
Jack walked over to one of the stick people and said, “Hello.”
The stick figure’s speech bubble grew to read, “Who are you? You look weird, like that guy the other day. Are you new here? How are you talking like that?”
Jack finished reading the bubble and answered, “My name is Jack, and, yes, I am new around here. I’m talking like this because, well, because my people talk like this.” Jack paused as the rest of the stick person’s words got through, and he asked, “Wait. You saw someone like us?”
The stick person’s bubble changed, again, this time reading, “Yeah. I saw someone for, like, a second. Maybe it was yesterday. The person went into that building, over there.” The stick person pointed at a small white building with a sign reading:
INFORMATION $1
“Thanks.” Jack gave the stick person a smile, then motioned for Amanda, who still stood in the gazebo, to follow him.
Jack led Amanda through the door of the information building. Inside, a line of stick people stood in front of several counters. Jack and Amanda got into separate lines to see which would move faster. After a short wait, Amanda’s line brought her to the desk. Jack went to her and took a dollar bill out of his backpack. He handed it to the stick person behind the counter, who seemed skeptical, but accepted it. The bill transformed into a white, outlined version of itself in the stick person’s hand. Distracted by the dollar’s transformation, Jack forgot to zip the pack closed as he slung it back onto his shoulders.
Amanda asked the person behind the desk, “Excuse me. Have you seen someone who looks somewhat like us?”
For a short moment, the thought bubble read, “…” Then the stick person snapped out of its blank thought, and it said, “Oh, yes, I did. It looked like a male. He asked where he was, and I told him he was in Rocher, of course.”
“Do you know where he went?”
“He said something about being in a dream, that he needed to lie down. Maybe he went to the hotel close by? Make a right when you head out. You’ll see a big sign that reads TCH.”
Amanda thanked the information stick person as Jack led her out of the building, taking a right as they had been told. In front of them was a huge sign with the letters TCH written on it. The building looked very much like Twelve Corners Middle School. No, it was their school!
“They turned our school into a hotel?” Amanda exclaimed, apparently coming to the same conclusion. “What is wrong with these people?”
A few stick people gave them dirty looks. One even had fumes coming from its head.
Jack turned to Amanda. “Don’t say that so loudly!” he cautioned.
The pair entered the hotel and walked to the check-in counter. A stick person stood behind the counter, deeply engrossed in a book.
“Ahem,” Jack said, hoping to get the stick person’s attention.
The stick person looked up at them, saying “Oh, sorry.” The stick person closed the book and placed it under the counter. “May I be o’ service to de two o’ you today, sir and madam?” the speech bubble read.
“Yeah! Why’d you turn our school into a—,” Amanda started but got cut off when Jack elbowed her. “Ow! Jerk.”
Ignoring her comment, Jack turned to the stick person and said, “Sorry. By any chance, have you seen someone who looks similar to us?”
“Hmm. Yes. I think, yes. ’Twas a young gentleman, I mos’ think. He left to de Erie Canal,” the stick person said, moving his hand as if he was stroking an invisible beard.
“Great. Thanks!”
“Glad to be o’ service. Did you come ’ere to check in as well?”
“No way!” Amanda shouted. “Why would we—” Jack elbowed her again.
“We’ll be okay without a room for now,” Jack said.
With that, they were back on Monroe, headed toward the Erie Canal. As they ran down the sidewalk, Jack stepped on his shoelace and fell. Everything spilled out of his backpack as he hit the ground, a pencil bouncing into the air. The pencil scratched a line in the air as it fell back to earth.
“Whoa!” Jack said, surprised.
“What?” asked Amanda, who then saw the line in the air and said, “Holy crap!”
Jack quickly tied his shoe and grabbed the pencil. He stood and moved the tip of the pencil to draw another line in the air.
“Hah!” Jack exclaimed as the tip of his pencil left a black line in its wake. He then drew more lines to form a cube and pulled the pencil away. The cube became solid and dropped onto the ground. Jack, overly excited now, searched the ground and found his eraser. He moved the eraser over the cube’s lines, and the cube disappeared.
“Wow! We can use this!” Amanda said. “Can you draw something like a motorcycle? It’ll make things go a lot faster around here.”
“I have some experience with 3-D drawing on computers, but not on paper, and certainly not in air,” Jack said. After a moment’s consideration, Jack continued, “Maybe if I …” and raised his pencil.
Jack used hand motions he thought might represent 3-D drawing tools. He held his pencil and a finger of his other hand together, then dragged them away from each other. To his delight, the gesture created a circle. Jack then made a pulling motion with one hand. The flat, 2-D circle became a short, fat cylinder, which Jack meant to be a wheel. Jack grabbed the wheel with one hand, then swept his other hand over the wheel to pull out a copy. Encouraged, Jack worked swiftly to create a complete motorcycle. Jack copied the motorcycle so Amanda could have one. Then, he gathered his belongings from the sidewalk and returned them to his backpack, along with the pencil and the eraser.
“Good job, Jack,” Amanda said, as Jack swung the pack onto his back. “That was really amazing.”
“Thanks,” Jack said, slightly embarrassed since he knew he could have done better given time. “Now, to the Erie Canal!” He jumped onto his bike and tried to start it. Nothing happened.
“Hmm. In this world, stuff is drawn and not in 3-D like these bikes,” mused Amanda. “Maybe 3-D things don’t just work the way they should here. Maybe … hey, try writing each part’s job on the part. You know, so it knows what to do.”
“It’s worth a shot,” said Jack, shrugging, and he began writing on his motorcycle. The words faded into the motorcycle parts as soon as he finished writing them. When Jack had labeled his entire bike, he mounted it and tried starting it, again. This time, the engine snarled to life. Jack grinned at Amanda and said, “Now yours.”
As Jack finished writing on the last part of Amanda’s motorcycle, he saw that Amanda was biting her lip, looking nervous. “What?” Jack asked.
“I’ve never ridden a motorcycle,” Amanda replied, blushing but not looking away.
“Then why did you …?” Jack started, then sighed. “I’ve ridden a few times with my dad. I know enough about how to drive it,” he said, and he gave a short demonstration. After a few spills, Amanda was able to guide her motorcycle somewhat shakily, at least at low speed, and they decided to move on. When they set off, however, the motorcycles abruptly lifted off the ground. Jack saw Amanda lose her balance, flew to her, and caught her before she fell off her bike. “Sorry, I forgot to mention the flying part. That’s an extra feature I plugged in,” Jack said. “Kicks in at 15 miles an hour.”
As they flew toward the Erie Canal, a colossal white creature materialized below them. It ran with them, crushing houses and stick people beneath its feet. In the creature’s giant hand, a small figure yelled, desperately trying to escape.
“Hey, that kid’s actually yelling!” said Jack. “He must be the one we’re looking for!”
“I bet you’re right,” said Amanda. “Let him go, you idiot!” Amanda yelled at the white creature. She gasped as the creature pointed a finger of its empty hand at her and a line shot out of the tip. With some difficulty, she dodged the attack.
“Jack! Quick, make something to stop it!” Amanda shouted.
Jack hurriedly added an autopilot button to his bike with his pencil, then drew a simple gun to shoot erasing powder. He pointed the gun at the monster and pulled the trigger. A long line of white powder shot out of the gun. It hit the white creature on the forehead and slowly, its head began to disappear. The creature let out a bloodcurdling cry and was silenced when its mouth was erased. A missing head didn’t seem to stop the monster at all. In fact, all it seemed to do was make the monster furious. Now it was charging at full speed, taking running jumps at them. Jack fired again, this time at the hand holding the struggling figure. The hand disappeared, and the boy plummeted toward the ground, his shrill scream piercing the air.
Jack swerved around in a sharp U-turn and dove toward the falling boy. Grabbing the boy’s arm, Jack returned with the boy to a safe altitude.
“Amanda!” Jack cried. “Take him!”
Amanda flew to Jack, who swung the boy to the seat behind her. Jack deftly made a copy of his motorcycle for the boy, moved it next to Amanda’s bike, and gave a brief demonstration of how the motorcycle worked. The boy climbed carefully onto his bike and tried some maneuvers as the ground below sped by like a blur. He took to the flying with ease and joined Jack and Amanda. Jack made copies of the erasing gun for Amanda and the boy. Together, the trio shot the creature until there was nothing left of it. The stick people on the ground below cheered in their awkward, silent way, speech bubbles obscuring them and the ground from view with “Hooray!” and “Woooo!” and “Yeah!”
“Good job!” Amanda said to the boy.
“Thanks,” said the boy, his voice loud and confident. He now seemed not the slightest bit affected by the monster or his fall.
“What’s your name?” asked Amanda.
“Aaron,” he answered, “Thanks for saving me. I probably would have been dead if you guys hadn’t come.”
“You’re welcome,” Jack and Amanda replied at the same time.
“I’m Jack, and this is Amanda,” Jack continued. “We were looking for you, Aaron. You’re from Rochester, right?”
“Yeah,” replied Aaron. “How did you know?”
“Do you happen to have a blue triangle with you?” Jack asked.
“Oh, yeah. It’s what got me into all of this,” Aaron said, pulling a triangle out of his pocket. He held the triangle up so Jack and Amanda could see it.
“Yeah. It’s what got us all into this,” Jack agreed. A wave of sadness swept over him. He thought of how much he wanted to return to his family, how much he missed the comfort of his home—despite being gone for not even a day. He looked at a cluster of rubble below. A stick person sat in the middle of the ruin, crying over a dead body. That wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t discovered that triangle, he thought to himself. I wish this never started.
As if reading Jack’s mind, Amanda spoke, “Don’t worry. We’ll get back to Rochester no matter what.”
“But to get there, we need to go back to the gazebo,” said Jack. “The triangles only work there.”
With that, Jack turned his motorcycle toward Twelve Corners and flew on. Amanda and Aaron followed. The stick people continued cheering all along their route. Speech bubbles were everywhere, congratulating them. The bubble din petered out when they reached the gazebo and parked their bikes in its center.
Jack and Amanda took out their triangles. The surrounding stick figures looked curiously at the blue shapes. Amanda told Aaron to take out his triangle and press the center button. When all of the buttons were pressed, three bolts of colored lightning shot out from the triangles. They collided in the center of the gazebo, flashed bright, then disappeared in a crash of rolling thunder, leaving a pitch-black world of darkness.
Jack blinked. Were they finally home? Everything looked exactly as it had been at home in Rochester. There was nothing out of the ordinary. No sand, no lines, just Rochester as it should be. Their motorcycles had disappeared along with the lines. Cars drove by on the streets, and people walked on the sidewalks. This must be Rochester.
“I think we’re home!” Aaron shouted. They were all awake now.
Amanda looked around. She shouted, “We are! I hope.”
Jack was deep in thought. Something didn’t feel right. “Before this started, I remember reading the headline of an article about three missing kids. I’m pretty sure it meant you guys.” He imagined it now reading Four Lost Kids, Four Unsolved Mysteries.
“There are three of us here,” Aaron pointed out.
“Yeah, but when I read it, I wasn’t missing yet. There should be four of us, not three,” Jack explained.
“Uh-oh,” said Amanda.
“We’re not home yet,” said Aaron.
Amanda ran over to a woman walking along a nearby sidewalk. After a brief exchange, the woman pointed at TCMS, then went on her way. Amanda ran back to the gazebo and said “I have some bad news. This place is called Rindemekor, and someone knows we’re here. She said someone would be meeting us at our school.”
“How does that someone know we’re here? We don’t even live in this world!” Jack said. Has somebody been following us?
“We should go to the school,” Aaron suggested.
“Why?” Amanda asked.
“How can we be sure the person doesn’t want to kill us?” Jack said.
“Well, he probably has the fourth one of us, like the monster had me,” said Aaron. “We have to go try to save the fourth kid.” With his tone of voice, it was obvious that Aaron’s decision was firm.
After arguing for a while, the group decided—they would go. They crossed Elmwood Avenue to reach TCMS. It was cloaked by a murky aura. Cautiously, they passed through the school’s main entrance. Not a single light was on. Eerie silence filled the school.
“Meet me in the gym,” a voice boomed over the speakers. Amanda jumped at the sound of the voice.
“Who is it?” Aaron shouted into the darkness. He got no reply. “I said, who is it?” he repeated. Still getting no reply, he headed toward the gym door. “Prepare yourselves, just in case.” He opened the door and walked through, then disappeared.
“Aaron!” Jack cried. He dove at the gym entrance, landing flat on his stomach and sliding partway through the door. Looking down, Jack saw nothing but darkness. Enough light shone behind him that Jack could see Aaron floating below, but no walls, no ceiling, and no floor. He called out to Aaron, “How are you doing that?”
“I have no clue!” Suddenly, he rocketed upwards to the door. “Whoa! I think ‘up’ and I go up!”
Jack got up, set down his backpack, and walked into the empty black space in front of him. He, too, began to float. Staring down into the abyss, Amanda followed Jack and entered the space. The three of them floated around in the empty room, trying the fly-by-think method Aaron had discovered. Without warning, the door slammed shut behind them. Amanda shrieked as they were enveloped by complete darkness. Jack hovered over to where he thought the door was, but he found nothing—not even a wall. The dark interfered with his sense of direction, and Jack thought he probably had looked in the wrong place.
A loud, heartless laugh sounded.
Jack thought it was a male voice, but it wasn’t quite right. Beneath them, a bright platform appeared. Slowly, it began to rise. The light formed intricate patterns along the length of the platform. Finally, after what seemed to be eons, the platform stopped near their feet.
“You are so gullible. Why were you so keen on coming in, children? You knew that something evil lurked here, and you knew that the darkness inside was unusual. Why didn’t you listen to your smart friend Jack? He was correct, I do have the intent to kill,” the voice said. The voice echoed around the empty space.
“Who are you? What do you want? And how do you know my name?” Jack shouted.
The voice chuckled, “I know all of you. I’ve been watching. My name will not be revealed, but I can tell you this: you have something that I need.”
“What?” Jack demanded.
“You know what it is. Quit fooling around, you worthless humans! In my 738 years of life, I have conquered hundreds of worlds. Now it’s your world, and this time it shall be no different. Hand over those triangles now, or you will suffer.”
From above, a figure fell onto the platform. An X-shaped symbol adorned the skin of his right arm, and he wore a black hooded cape. He stood up, and Jack could see his eyes. They glowed a dark violet from the shadows of the man’s hood. “You ask who I am, but I think you may already know the answer to that question,” he said, staring straight at Jack. The man’s eyes turned black, yet still Jack could still see them, the darkness somehow glowing.
A sudden, stabbing fear overcame Jack. He collapsed onto his hands and knees. The man’s blackened eyes seemed to pierce deep into his soul.
“N-no. I don’t know who you are, or what you are, but you’re not anyone I know!” Jack shouted. He struggled to stand up.
The man smirked. “Pathetic. Stop trying to struggle against me.” He clenched his hand into a fist and pulled.
Jack yelled out with pain. An unseen force ripped at his heart, trying to tear it out of him. “Stop!” he yelled in agony.
“Jack!” Aaron yelled. In an instant, he was at Jack’s side.
The man laughed. “I’ll save killing you for later. I have a feeling it will be a most enjoyable moment.” His figure dissipated into a shifting mist and converged into someone else, someone Jack knew painfully well.
“You! Mr. Bozo!” Jack yelled in surprise. His breathing was heavy, and his heart was pounding from the pain he had just been through.
“Hey kid, don’t you call me that stupid name you and your stupid friends made up. It’s Xem,” he said with a smirk. Xem changed back to his original being. “I’ve been behind part of this little ‘adventure’ you’ve traveled through. Remember the monsters? I hope you enjoyed fighting them, or rather, running away from them.”
“Why did you do this to us? You ripped us away from our families!” Amanda screamed at him. Her face was getting redder and redder.
“That wasn’t my doing,” Xem spat, giving Amanda an angry stare. He quickly changed the subject. “I see that you are missing the fourth, hmm?” He gestured with his hand to the space behind him, where a floating glass cylinder appeared. An unconscious girl hovered inside, her hair streaming around every which way. “Get through me first,” he said, suddenly serious. Then he disappeared, along with the tube.
Spikes of stone suddenly came crashing down, plunging into the platform.
“Watch out!” Aaron yelled, frantically trying to dodge the projectiles.
The spikes soon stopped raining down on them. Luckily, none of the children had been hurt. Hundreds of spikes littered the platform. Jack pulled one out of the surface. “Weapons,” he told the others. Amanda and Aaron took their own spikes.
Without warning, every single spike in the platform shot out a bolt of electricity directed at the kids. For a split second, everything was white, and then the electricity shocked them. It felt like thousands of pins and needles. Someone screamed. The shock wasn’t strong enough to leave a mark or render the children unconscious, and it was definitely not strong enough to kill them, but it was enough to leave Jack dazed. He’s toying with us, Jack thought. Jack had no control over where he went, and from what Jack could see, neither did Amanda or Aaron. A black shape flashed by Aaron, and a large gash opened up on his left arm. Blood spilled from his injury, and he cried out in pain.
“Aaron!” Jack shouted with worry in his voice. But Jack looked away from the wounded boy, horrified by the sight of blood floating around Aaron, spreading.
“I’ll be all right,” Aaron said through clenched teeth. Aaron tore off a section of his shirt with haste and wrapped the makeshift bandage around his arm.
“Where are you?” Amanda shouted into the darkness. “Why are you doing this to us? We could just give you the triangles, you know!”
All she got as an answer was laughter, seeming to come from nowhere. Then the inhuman voice spoke, “Please do so quickly, before I destroy you one by one.”
Aaron looked over at her. “Why would you do that? He’s evil! He’ll use them to hurt people!”
The invisible man said, “Don’t listen to him. Give me the triangles or die.”
“I’ll give them to you,” she said in a confused tone. She continued. “Besides, they’re useless to us.”
“Amanda! We need them to get home!” Aaron shouted at her angrily.
She scowled, but quickly winked. Jack took notice and realized she was planning something, and he hoped Aaron did, too. “What about staying here? Everything seems the same as our Rochester,” Amanda countered.
“You’re lying. I can tell,” the man said.
“No, I’m not!” Amanda yelled at him. She would have been a great actress, Jack thought, since it sounded to him as if she actually believed she was telling the truth.
“If you’re telling the truth, then give me your triangle,” the man said.
“I can’t, you’re not even visible.” Jack saw Amanda’s fingers tighten on her spike as she took out her blue triangle. Amanda was startled to see that in the place of the button, there was a hole. Through it, she saw the gym’s interior.
A woman suddenly appeared in front of Amanda.
“Mom?” Amanda asked in bewilderment.
The woman looked around, her eyes wide with surprise. “What the—? Where am I?”
“Mom!” Amanda shouted. She floated toward her mom and hugged her.
Jack shifted. “Something’s wrong.”
Amanda’s mom smiled and hugged her back. She looked up at the others and smiled at them, too. This smile wasn’t kind. It was murderous.
Jack’s eyes widened. “Amanda, get away from her! That’s not your mom! That’s an impostor!”
Amanda pulled away from her mom and turned to face Jack. “No, she’s not! She’s my mom!”
The impostor’s hand unsheathed a knife and raised it.
“Watch out!” Jack yelled at Amanda, pointing behind her.
She turned back to her not-mom and screamed, rocketing backwards, desperately trying to dodge the woman’s knife. The blade missed Amanda by inches. In her hurry, Amanda lost her hold on her triangle. Aaron moved behind the impostor and ran her through with his spike. The thing screamed as her shape flickered horridly, but then smiled and pulled the spike the rest of the way through her body. The wound quickly healed, leaving not even the slightest trace of a mark. Laughing, the thing disappeared, her laugh distorted and haunting.
Breathing heavily, Amanda searched for her blue triangle. It was floating slowly away from her, but was still in reach. Amanda grabbed the triangle and looked through the hole.
“Look through your triangles,” Amanda said. “You can see the gym.” She angled her triangle toward the ceiling and gasped. “He’s floating up there!”
Jack looked through his triangle and understood. “All this empty space—it’s just an illusion!” He found the door they had used and saw a huge hole in the floor in front of it. “Where’d that come from?” he thought aloud, heading toward the door. Then Jack realized that the hole had been there all along: that was how Aaron had appeared to fall below the floor when he entered the gym.
By this time, Xem had seen them looking through the triangles. “Ha! That will do you no good! My attacks are still entirely real, and there’s nothing you can do about it!” With that, he raised his arms and thrust them down. Fire rained down on the kids, engulfing the floor and the door in intense orange flames. Jack fell backwards in surprise, covering himself from the blast of heat. But almost as soon as it had started, the fire burned out, leaving scorch marks throughout the room.
Amanda’s shirtsleeve had caught fire during the attack. Shrieking, she dropped her rock spike and beat at the flames, trying to extinguish them. She only succeeded in burning her hand and spreading the fire. In her thrashing panic, Amanda floated toward one of the room’s walls. Suddenly, she disappeared, only to reappear on the exact opposite side of the gym. Jack shook his head to clear it, not believing what he’d seen. Yet there she was, the fire now out, leaving part of her sleeve burned away and singed skin beneath.
Taking Aaron’s idea, she ripped off part of her shirt, wincing as she did so, and covered the burn. Jack knew that proper first aid wasn’t the same for burns as it was for cuts, and Amanda’s pained expression suggested the rough bandage didn’t help much.
Meanwhile, Aaron had apparently been inspired by Amanda’s teleportation from wall to wall. Using his triangle, Aaron had moved to the spot directly beneath their enemy and pointed his spike toward the floor. With a blood-curdling cry, Aaron dove toward the platform below. Jack saw Aaron brace for impact, but it never came. Aaron disappeared through the platform, appearing right above Xem. When Aaron’s spike was just inches away from the man’s head, Xem moved out of the way. Aaron flew right past him. The man turned to face Aaron, a sword materializing in his hand.
He laughed at Aaron. “You will die first today. I hope you have some good last words.”
“I don’t have any last words because I won’t die!” Aaron yelled at him.
Xem laughed again, then stared at Aaron. “Kill me, then. I’d like to see you try.”
“Fencing lessons come in handy in situations like this,” Aaron muttered as he raised his spike to hold it in ready position.
Aaron parried Xem’s initial cut and riposted, only to stab air where the man had been. Xem grinned as he pressed another attack, Aaron parrying and holding his ground. As their duel raged on, Jack dove into the hole by the door. He headed down, toward a faint light at the bottom. Along his side was a ladder. At the bottom of the hole, there was a room. He couldn’t see the whole room, though; a large network of laser beams obscured at least half of it. Jack thought it would be impossible to pass on foot because of the laser beams. The only way Jack saw to navigate through the lasers without being burned was to float. He figured that, with this much security, there must be something very important at the end of the network of laser light. Carefully, Jack maneuvered his way through the web of laser beams.
After grueling minutes of stretching, twisting, and turning, he finally reached the other side. In the middle Jack found the cylinder he had glimpsed in the gym. The girl still floated inside, unconscious.
Tapping on the glass side of the cylinder, he called to the girl, “Hello?” There was no answer. “If I could somehow break the glass …” He trailed off as his eyes scanned the room. Jack spotted a small control panel positioned against a wall. He went to the panel and looked over its buttons. Jack saw one button in the center labeled UNLOCK. His hand poised over the button, Jack thought. Why would it be so out in the open? It’s as if he wants me to press it. If it really was the unlock button, it would probably have been hidden and hard to find.
Again, Jack looked around the room, unsure of what to do. His eyes fell on the green laser beams that he had just navigated. He traced one beam, trying to find its source, but found only metal wall. Jack walked to the beam and saw that where it hit the wall, there was a small hole about a half inch deep and slowly getting deeper. On the opposite wall, Jack found the laser emitter: a small, pen-like object. Carefully, Jack pulled the emitter out of the wall. He saw a small button on the laser emitter and pressed it. The laser turned off. It turned back on when he pressed the button again. “Perfect! Now please let it be strong enough to melt glass,” Jack said to himself, and he shut off the laser.
He walked over to the glass tube and aimed it at the bottom portion of the glass cylinder. At a press of the button, a green laser beam struck the glass, which began to melt. Holding the laser steady, Jack made one continuous cut around the cylinder. When he completed the circle, the bottom half separated from the rest of the cylinder. “Yes!” Jack shouted. He moved the separated part of the cylinder aside. The coldest air Jack had ever felt rushed from the open cylinder. He almost thought that he had been frozen in a block of ice. Then the cold air suddenly disappeared, and Jack warmed again.
“Where … am I?” the girl asked. She moved slowly as she awoke. She rubbed her eyes.
Jack gave a sigh of relief. “Phew! You’re okay.”
Startled, the girl turned her head to peer at him. “Who are you?” she demanded.
“My name’s Jack. You were being held captive by a man with a black cape.”
The girl floated out from the broken cylinder. “Him. I hate him. Absolutely hate him! He kidnapped me the second I got here!” she raged. “He is so cruel! He threw me into that tube and nearly suffocated me! He was laughing, actually laughing as he drained the oxygen, can you believe it? He’s not normal, and he has to be stopped, right now!” Jack had a hard time keeping up with her rapid speech.
“Calm down. We have him under control, I hope,” Jack said, looking nervously to the entrance behind the lasers. “What’s your name?”
“Crystal,” she said. “And thanks for getting me out of there.” She smiled, but then looked out into the distance. “What’s happening to us?”
“We’ll put an end to it,” Jack said. “I promise. We’ll stop that man. Listen, Crystal. Right now we have to get out of here.”
She smirked. “Piece of cake.” With that, she ran over to the network of lasers and expertly worked her way through it, finishing in half the time Jack had taken to get through. He was amazed at how fast she was.
“It takes skill and flexibility to be that fast, in case you were wondering,” she said from the opposite side of the lasers.
Jack turned off the laser he held and put it into his pocket. He slowly got himself to the other side of the laser web. He and Crystal left the hole and returned to the platform.
Above, Jack saw that Aaron still clashed spike-to-sword with the man. Amanda floated weakly, and the floor was littered with ice. As Jack watched, something distracted Aaron and caused him to make a mistake. Aaron hurtled himself backwards, narrowly escaping a stab to the heart.
Jack felt his triangle vibrate in his pocket. Amanda clapped a hand to her pocket. She and Jack took out their triangles, but, to their surprise, the triangles left their hands and floated toward the center of the gym. Crystal’s and Aaron’s had also moved to the gym’s center, and the four triangles merged to form a tetrahedron. It began to spin faster and faster and soon became a blur. A crack of thunder sounded, and a small void of swirling darkness appeared where the spinning tetrahedron had been. Jack hollered for everyone to get into the hole in front of the door.
The void continued to expand. “Why is this happening? Why isn’t the Gate opening?” Xem yelled into the black void. “No! I don’t understand, all four of them are together!” Slowly, the man was dragged closer and closer to the mouth of the circle of swirling darkness. He tried to wrest himself away from the void’s gravitational pull with increasing desperation. The void continued to pull, however, and all his strength could not overcome the void’s inexorable force. An otherworldly cry came out of Xem’s mouth … and he was gone.
There was an eerie silence in the hole beneath the ground. Jack was relieved to feel his weight again but could see little in the gloom. He finally mustered the will to climb the ladder to see what happened. Jack found only the gym, with no more illusions, and a small, blue, four-sided pyramid in the center. The void was gone and the man with it.
“Come on up, guys. It’s safe,” Jack said, walking toward the pyramid. It was about the size of a Rubik’s Cube and emitted a low hum. There was something at its top that looked like a button or a catch. Jack touched the top and snapped his hand back; he thought he had heard Xem scream from within the tetrahedron. Jack touched it again; no scream. He shook his head, picked up the pyramid, and turned back around. The hole was gone, and the other kids stood where the hole had been.
“It disappeared after everyone climbed out,” Crystal explained. “Is he gone?” she asked, peering cautiously over to the pyramid Jack now held.
“He’s gone,” Jack replied. “But … when I touched the pyramid the first time, I thought I heard Xem scream. I think … I think he might be trapped in there.”
“The void must have pulled him in,” Aaron said. “Packaged him into that thing.” He laughed, but quickly shut his mouth, looking embarrassed. “Sorry. I don’t … So, what do we do with the pyramid? And who’s she?” He gestured toward Crystal.
“Her name’s Crystal,” Jack said. “She’s the fourth of us. Xem had her in the hole. I freed her before the rest of you jumped in.”
“Hi, I’m Aaron,” Aaron said, pointing to himself, “and she’s Amanda.” He pointed at Amanda.
“I think we should destroy the pyramid, even if the man is inside!” Amanda declared. “He tricked me into thinking that that was my mom!”
“I think we should get back to our own Rochester first,” Jack suggested. He began walking toward the door.
Outside, the world had transformed into a dark place. Rindemekor was in ruins, and nothing seemed alive. The only thing that hadn’t decayed was the white, untouched gazebo.
“What happened here?” Amanda asked.
Jack had an idea. “When Xem came here, he must have laid waste to the city. Then, when he knew we were coming, he covered the destruction with an illusion. I think that since the man is gone, his illusions have gone too, so now we see how he really left Rindemekor.”
The foursome went to the gazebo and gathered in a circle around the dark triangle formed in the floor. The pyramid left Jack’s hands and floated to the center of the gazebo. For a moment, the dark triangle in the floor was bathed in blue light from the pyramid; then it returned to its regular color as the light faded. The ground began to shake, and deep cracks split through it.
Piece by piece, the roof shook free from the gazebo. Instead of falling to the ground, the roof pieces lifted into the air, forming a slanted ring around the gazebo. Jack blinked. Instead of looking like wood and tiles, the roof pieces now seemed to be made of silver.
A streak of blue light came down from the heavens, reflecting off the roof pieces, which focused the light on the pyramid. The pyramid glowed brighter and brighter, then opened. Jack and the others braced themselves for another void to form. Instead, a cloud formed over the open pyramid, and a large, vertical disc grew from the center of the cloud. The disc shimmered and rippled like water, reminding Jack of wormhole portals from his favorite movies.
You have done well, young ones, a voice spoke in Jack’s head. Judging by the puzzled expressions on the others’ faces, they heard it too. We thank you for returning the Thousand Worlds Gate to its proper home. For this, we can reward you by returning you to your own world. The gate lies open before you. Simply pass through to go home. Again, we thank you …
“Who was that?” Amanda asked after a stunned silence.
“Who knows?” Jack said. “I’m just glad I wasn’t the only one who heard the voice.”
“Finally, we’re going home,” Aaron announced, cheerfully. He charged toward the shimmering gate, jumped into it, and disappeared. The girls followed close behind. Jack paused to marvel at the gate and what must be its power source. Then he, too, jumped through the portal.
Jack passed through a white tunnel. Colored lightning filled the tunnel with all the colors of the rainbow. Thunder boomed and echoed throughout, overwhelming Jack so that he lost consciousness.
At the sound of police sirens, Jack jerked his hands to his head, meaning to cover his ears. His hands struck something on the way, though. Something that felt like … arms. And it felt like hands were holding up his head. Cautiously, Jack opened his eyes. His mother’s relieved face peered at him from above. Tears streamed down her cheeks. Jack turned his head to see that his dad was next to his mom. His dad’s face brightened when he saw that Jack had opened his eyes.
“Mom! Dad!” Jack tried to shout, though it came out as a hoarse whisper. Even so, a smile spread across his face as he hugged his parents. I’m home. I’m finally back home! It almost didn’t seem possible after all that had happened to him.
“Where have you been? Who are these other kids?” Jack’s dad asked.
“Don’t ask him questions now. He’s tired,” his mom said, running her hand through Jack’s hair. Her voice was filled with worry.
“It’s okay, Mom,” Jack said, getting to his feet. Looking around, he saw that they were in the gazebo. He looked up and saw its ordinary roof in place. “I’m not so tired, but it’s a long story, and you probably won’t believe it. I’d better wait and tell you later.”
Jack saw the other kids lying on the floor nearby, still unconscious, surrounded by their families. Police officers and reporters milled around the gazebo. Some of the police blocked reporters, while some checked the other kids’ vital signs. Just then, Jack’s three new friends awoke to happy cries and hugs from their families.
The sound of a helicopter approaching drew Jack’s attention. The sound grew louder as it neared, until it roared above Twelve Corners. Fierce downwash blew leaves and papers about as the chopper landed on Monroe Avenue, causing several cars to veer sharply off the road and some to crash into other cars.
Several people dressed in black leapt from the helicopter. Large black hoods covered their heads so that they shouldn’t have been able to see, yet they navigated as if nothing blocked their view. The figures in black barged though the crowd and forced their way past the police, heading straight toward the gazebo. Jack spotted something white on their black clothes and gasped. Every one of their suits bore a familiar X-shaped symbol. Jack and the others couldn’t rest, yet, after all.
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